Intro to Horizons Unlimited

Are you new to motorcycle travelling? New to the Horizons Unlimited site? Confused? Too many options?

It's really very simple - just 4 easy steps! This is not the 'Impossible Dream', it's the 'Achievable Dream', and we're here to help you make it a reality.

Four (Easy) Steps to Motorcycle Travelling

1. Go to Horizons Unlimited!

2. Get inspired!

3. Get Ready!

4. Get on the Road!

Read on for the details, you'll be amazed what you can find!

1. Go to Horizons Unlimited!

A. Congratulations! You've already taken that important first step!

If you've only been on the HUBB Bulletin Board, you may be surprised to discover that there's actually a website attached to the bulletin board, and that there's lots of useful information on it!

First created in 1997, with the addition of the HUBB and E-zine in 1999 and 2000, the site has become a home and a focus for thousands of motorcycle travellers around the world.

As of Aug/08, the site now comprises over 6,000 pages of superb content and gorgeous photos, NOT including the HUBB, which has over 30,000 'threads' or topics and over 175,000 posts.

Recent stats - 900,000 user sessions per month!

1. Go to Horizons Unlimited!

B. But what do I do when I get there?

If you sometimes find yourself overwhelmed by it all, don't feel bad - so are we!

Remember, there is a SEARCH function on the top right of every page, and the HUBB has its own search function. See the Red Arrow on the picture to your right.

Also, there are left side menus on every page, so you can quickly get to another section of the site.

Finally, if all else fails, there is a link to the Site Map in the "About Us" section of the left side menu.

Keep reading, it will all be explained...

2. Get inspired!

A. The Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers' e-zine

• Tales of adventure, terror & joy from around the world
• Stories from travellers on the road right now
• Meet and contact other travellers
• Monthly (or as often as we get to it)
• Now in its 8th year of publication, with over 5,000 subscribers
• Free to your e-mail box!

2. Get inspired!

B. Travellers Tales

• Exciting, humorous and sometimes terrifying stories from intrepid motorcycle adventurers in Africa, South America, Asia, Australia and RTW
• Over 150 travellers, from first-timers to legends (sometimes only in their own minds ;-)
• Thousands of great stories and pics, from right next door to around the world
• Written on the road, from internet cafes in Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and all parts in between

2. Get inspired!

C. Our around the world story

Grant and Susan Johnson, your hosts for Horizons Unlimited, are also seasoned (some would say crazy) motorcycle travellers. You can read about our adventures around the world from north to south, two-up, on the same 1986 BMW R80GS. The bike is unique, and you can read its story here.

Our odyssey has spanned 14 years, 39 countries and every continent, over 100,000 km and produced 1000's of photos. And it's not over yet!

For those who don't want to read all the stories, we have now produced a photo album. Only 457 photos so far...

Our story has been written up in quite a few places: Rider Magazine, Canadian Biker, the Vancouver Province, the Telegraph, and more articles about Horizons Unlimited and motorcycle travel here.

And quite frankly, if we can do it, so can you!

3. Get Ready!

A. Trip Planning - How to do it yourself!

There's lots of information in the Trip Planning section, which will save you time. Please check it out before you post a question in the HUBB, it may already be covered in detail.

Topics covered in this section of the site include:

• Why go?
• Where and when to go
• Border crossings
• Bike stuff
• Paperwork (see below)
• Getting there by air or sea (see Shipping the Bike)
• Equipment
• Safety and health
• Living on the road
• Organised tours

3. Get Ready!

B. Trip Planning - Paperwork...

Just to highlight one important topic in Trip Planning. The paperwork section includes:

• Vehicle registration,
• Drivers license and international driving permit,
• Temporary imports,
• Motorcycle insurance, and
• Full details on the all important Carnet de Passage, otherwise known as the passport for your bike.

3. Get Ready!

C. Trip Planning - Shipping the bike

Need to get your bike over an ocean or a war zone? There is a fantastic resource in the Shipments Database. Here you can find details of over 450 shipments by motorcycle travellers, both air and sea. You can search the database by continent or by country.

For each shipment, the details include Shipping Date, Cost, Shipper Contact details and a Description of the experience, in some cases very detailed and extremely useful information about the requirements for crating or the paperwork involved at the destination location.

This information has been gleaned from various sources, and not all details are available for every route. If you are aware of any more up-to-date information, or you know of any shipping details for locations which aren't listed below, please let us know.

3. Get Ready!

D. Get on your HUBB

The Horizons Unlimited Bulletin Board, or HUBB for short, is a fact-based forum for overland travellers, whether by motorcycle or 4WD. Started in 1999, it now has over 10,000 active users from all over the world, and a fantastic bunch of people they are too!

You can read without registering, but you have to register to post a question, and you get more tools to enhance your reading when you register. We've rarely had to censor or delete a post, and the level of discussion is very high.

There are 23,000 threads on every subject you can imagine, grouped into 47 separate Forums, from Which Bike? and bike forums to Regional forums, Trip Paperwork, Trip Transport, 4WD Tech and Travel forums, and the very popular 'Travellers Seeking Travellers', which serves as a meeting up point for those starting off on long journeys, and has resulted in more than a few lasting friendships...

3. Get Ready!

E. Come to an HU Travellers Meeting

You are not alone! You can meet people who don't think you're crazy for wanting to ride your bike to South America or Africa or across Asia, or even around the world! Admit it, all your 'normal' friends and most of your family fears for your sanity! So, this is your opportunity to meet the people who will encourage you in that craziness, share their experiences and advice on how to do it, and maybe you'll meet them again in Mongolia or Timbuktu!

HU Meetings are not like your average biker rally. They are a combination of inspirational presentations on overland trips people have taken, hands-on 'how to' sessions to help with your planning, and lots of great folks to talk to about past and future travels.

Our aims for the meetings are to help people who want to do a long distance trip with ideas and info, inspire people to go a little further than they have before and reduce the fear of the unknown. The meetings also generate profit to support HU, but most importantly, they're a lot of fun!

In 2006, meetings in the UK, Canada, USA East and West, Mexico, Belgium, Portugal, Australia and Argentina attracted over 1,000 travellers and would-be travellers. In 2007, we have at least nine confirmed meetings. There's bound to be one near you!

3. Get Ready!

F. Buy the Horizons Unlimited Achievable Dream DVD

If you'd rather get your information by watching and listening than reading, this DVD's for you.

This is the definitive how-to, presented by Grant and Susan Johnson. This DVD is a tape of a live seminar at the 2005 Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers Meeting in the UK, the largest of many HU Meetings held around the world. This seminar covers just about everything you need to know about overland travel.

If you can't make it to a Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting, then you'll want to watch this DVD again and again, notepad in hand! But be warned, viewing this may be a life-changing experience!

Only US$29.99 includes FREE Airmail Shipping to anywhere in the world!

4. Get on the Road!

A. Horizons Unlimited Travellers Communities - 480+ in 90 countries

• Local assistance when you need it
• People who want to meet travellers
• Start or join your own when you get home

We're very proud of the Travellers Communities. Begun in Melbourne in 2000, we now have over 480 communities in 90 countries worldwide. Individuals join a community mailing list, and travellers visiting their area can write to that list for advice, assistance or just to meet and visit. The people in the community are anonymous to the traveller, and can choose to respond or not.

The community itself functions as a mailing list for like-minded folks to meet up and swap stories.

So if you're not on the road and want to meet travellers, you can Join an existing community (or start your own if there's none in your area), and if you're on the road, you can Contact a community for help or just a chat.

4. Get on the Road!

B. Start your own blog!

We want your motorcycle travel story, whether it's around the world or a once-in-a-lifetime trip to anywhere. At Horizons Unlimited, you'll get a lot more readers than in some obscure corner of the web. Plus, your readers won't be subjected to popup/under ads or turned away because you've exceeded their bandwidth limits. And yes, it's free and will remain so. Motorcycle travel stories only, please.

You can enter your story from any Internet cafe using only the browser. Scan pictures using the available scanner and software in the cafe, then upload them to your page. Readers can sign up for notifications when you post a new entry, and you can add your friends and family yourself, so they don't have to go to the site to check if there is an update.

If you don't want a blog or you have your own website, send us pics and short stories for the e-zine, to entertain and inspire other travellers.

5. Come home famous and happy but broke!

Present YOUR travel adventure at a Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting!

From Brian Coles, who presented at the HU UK 2005 meeting:

"... Since attending the 2003 meeting a month before I set out to 'do the Americas,' I feel that I have now come full circle by presenting a slide show of my trip at Derby. It was an incredible feeling to have achieved my first public presentation. The thanks I received afterwards made it extra special.

The HU meetings are unique in size and atmosphere. Everyone is friendly and more than willing to help, whatever the question. I felt that when I started the trip in 2003, and I felt that this weekend when I then presented it. I can recommend presenting your 'trip of a lifetime' to anyone that has been out there and done it. Thanks to you, Susan and all the organisers, Brian"