Outdoors

One of the greatest of summer joys — hopping in the car and going for a ride — becomes complicated when temperatures drop and snow starts falling. Locks freeze, windshields ice up, batteries give up the ghost. Roadside emergencies that might, in better weather, be mildly embarrassing — getting stuck on a soft shoulder, say — can be more difficult to deal with and even dangerous. If you’re heading out on a winter road trip, take along these essentials and be prepared.

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Four years on the road through 21 countries, a single charge from the Weego 22 has given us a ‘get out jail free’ card four times. Once by resurrecting an extinguished cell battery on my F650GS off-road in mainland Mexico until the bike turned over and fired up consistently in minutes. And thrice stirring a new lease of life back to the stator on Jason’s F800GS—deep inside Death Valley National Park, an isolated sandy trail to the Mission San Borja on the Baja Peninsula and inside the wilds of Yosemite National Park.

Without the use of this nifty piece of kit in our possession, there’s no doubt in my mind that one of the bikes would have been stranded in pretty remote regions. As full-time moto-travellers on a frugal budget, neither of us can afford roadside assistance, and because we love exploring in far-flung places off the beaten track, who knows when a Good Samaritan furnished with cables would have jumped to the rescue.

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