I would be highly surprised if any tour company would bring a motorcycle over to allow one to ride around. Possibly a mountain bicycle.

The Antarctic Treaty forbids any despoiling of the continent. In theory, and general practice, one does not spit, pee, or lose engine fluids anywhere on the Ice. If there is an infraction or accident, the response is to shovel it and the surrounding snow into a containment bag, and ship it off continent.

So, when a worst case scenario is a tour company dealing with an oil or coolant spill on continent, cleaning up after a customer, I would think that unless the reward was very high, the risk wouldn't be worth it. In my mind, I might bring my own motorcycle, but I would never haul one for Joe Customer.

Best of luck with the plan, though. It is always worth a try.

Well I don't know if the rules have changed or were ignored, but as mentioned earlier, it's been done before.

Shinji Kazama had his motorbike flown to Patriot Hills from where he rode to the south pole in 24 days, arriving in January 1992.

Apparently he rode to the north pole in 1987.

If riding a motorbike in Antarctica breaches the treaty, then surely driving any motor vehicle or landing any aircraft there or going ashore in a powered vessel would also be a breach.

This calls for more research, not that I'm planning such a trip myself.

Hey guys/gals and GSARiderOne. A little bit of googling and the Antarctic Treaty can be found.

The Articles are listed as well. The long and short of it is no hostile action, military testing and abuse of lanscape it allowed. Several states claim territory on the Antartic Continent and the treaty stops new claims from being made. It seems that these divisions are space allowed for scientific research and not states themselves.

Try contacting your particular countries base out there and see if they can sign a permit to let you ride in some sort of 'research' capacity, otherwise realise that Antartica is esentially a scientific research area which as it has no natural population (other then pingu and his mates) you may find it hard to ride there.

Best of luck.

The simple answer is no, and why would you want to anyway? It's not a country so you can't tick it off any list. I went on one of the small tour boats last year and learned that even the fuel they use is a special volatile mixture that minimises pollution in the event of a spillage. There are quite rightly very strict rules about what you can and can't do, and riding your moto would certainly be prohibited, even if you could get it there. Riding to the sign at the end of Ruta Tres is as far as you can go.

The Oz couple mentioned above are Peter and Kay Forwood and their Hog has only been that far south as well. Of course, if you're as big a poseur as me, you could always do a boat trip and decorate your bike like this..

Regards, Mick

Attached Images

 

I'm inclined to agree with some of the others.

Leave the bike on the South American continent. Go to Antarctica, see what most of the world will never see and enjoy the moment.

So you won't stand out in the crowd or have the kudos value of saying you've ridden a bike there.... compared to what leaving the bike behind would help protect, I think it's a small price to pay.

You might get approval, you might be able to ride a mile or so and the likelihhood is nothing would go wrong...but what if it did? What a shame that would be....

Go on your tod (alone), take some breathtaking pics and post them here: they'll be plenty of jealous readers, me amongst them.

Just my 2p

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Just an update for those of you whom may be interested. IF I can take the bike, it will be put on a plane in Central Illinois and flown to Antarctica. This is a military plane. The only stops would be for refueling. I would only be there during the period of time it takes to offload supplies and such, so I must take that into consideration as far as what "supplies" I want to travel with. Certain ones may take more time to offload.

There are a lot of things to be worked out. As I said before, the cool thing is I can go for free. But can the bike? As others have posted above, there has been several instances of people taking motorbikes to Antarctica. So I am no longer concerned with the Treaty. Now it is up to military officials to decide. Stay tuned.

So, others have done their despoiling, which makes it OK for you?

Regards, Mick

I've essentially said this already, and I get the impression that it is not a priority, but I'll say it again in plain English.

Just because you can go, doesn't mean you should go.

It will not make the things you see in Antarctic any more interesting to do so from the saddle of a motorbike.....

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Interesting concept, but somewhat concerning.....I recognize the urge to 'go where no one has gone before' but wilderness is extremely valuable - simply because it's not populated with humans.

And, I know that Antarctica is far from pristine with all the previous whaling and other motorcycle trips, not to mention the research stations and now tourism ships.

However, I'm wondering why we seem to have a urge to despoil (and even trying to tread lightly causes problems) that which we value and know is vulnerable, threatened and impossible to recreate. For personal 'glory' and a good story to tell down the pub?

Perhaps our generation doesn't need to do everything...maybe we can leave some parts of the planet 'undiscovered' and 'undeveloped' so that future generations can have opportunity to experience joy that goes with knowing there are places where no one's been.

Don't get me wrong, I like travel, and I have travelled to a number of places that I continue to feel very priviledged to have had a chance to experience. However, I'm with the other folks here who support leaving the continent as alone as possible and urge you to give some really serious thought to keeping Antartica as motorcycle free as possible.

Next thing you know, Willie Davidson will be renting the space shuttle to take a bike for a space ride. Heavens...

Stephen

I agree with Mick O'malley, Warthog and STG06, However I would go a lot further and give the view - There are precious few places left where man has still not managed to destroy the complete environment - To go there to collect the t shirt - to tick it off as done is both a reckless and selfish act. Its not necessary it achieves nothing other than boosting your own ego leave it well alone and spend the vast sum of money it would cost you on some worthy cause.
(Oh bye the way yes I have been there many years ago working alongside the British Antarctic survey team - hopefully doing some good for a reason and yes it was wonderful - mainly because so few people had been there - now even tourist boats go down there - nothing is sacred to the parasites that we have become)
There that's off me chest now.

[quote=GSARiderOne;259670]Yes, the Treaty. That is one of my questions. Am I allowed to even take the bike? I may not because of the Treaty. [/quotI should imagine the standards of the hotels not to be up to much. Are there many 'Shell' garages down there?

Thank you all for your comments. I do agree with you in that Antarctica is a special place and maybe I should consider not taking the bike, even if I am allowed to. You all bring some very good points. So maybe I will consider going without the bike, knowing I will not have to worry about causing any damage. The offer to go for free is still a fantastic offer. And as said above, there are really no roads to speak of, and the scenery will not change if I view it without the bike. Thanks again for your comments, and I will be sure to do a "ride report" even if I'm not on the bike.

Jim...appreciate your thoughtful reply to the cautions expressed.

Maybe you could take a model motorcycle and then set up the type of shot on the ice (e.g. bike in foreground, you in back) that makes the bike look regular size.

Only us funbusters on the HUBB would ever know...

Stephen

We travelled to Antarctica in 2007.
I tried to get my bike on our ship but had no luck.
The expedition leader on the ship had taken his bike to Esperanza, the Argentinian base, a few years before, and had ridden around the 100 meters or so of the horrible gravel roads there.
After being in Antarctica I was glad that I had not gotten the bike there.
It truly is a special place.
I do understand how cool it would be to have ridden on all seven continents, but anyone who has been to Antarctica would wonder why you had gone to all the effort to get your bike there.
Go without it and enjoy the trip. Get a sticker for your bike. That is still pretty cool.
Suerte

I've had many different recommendations regarding the trip to Antarctica. They range anywhere from take an electric bike to take your bike sans gas and oil. Just push it off the plane and take some pics. Push it back on and head back home. I believe it was also recommended to me by someone on this site to take a picture of my bike and leave the bike at home.

All interesting ideas and thoughts. The last recommendation I received had to do with the Discovery Channel going along. But I am not making a big deal about the trip and I don't see where it would even remotely be anything Discovery Channel would be interested in.

At this time, I am still waiting to hear if I can take the bike if I want to. But I am more inclined to not bother as I do not want to risk having any issues with potential spoilage of the land. Antarctica is a the one special place in our little world where we are at least trying to protect the land. I had not given that any thought before. And most people around me are all for my taking the bike. But here on the Hubb, most of the members have offered solid reasoning against taking it.

I am relatively new to the Hubb and to adventure touring. And I value the opinions of the members here on the Hubb. Many of you are world travelers and view the world in a different way that do those who only see the world thru the pictures on TV, movies, or magazines. Because of that, I put more weight on your collective opinions.

So while I will not rule out completely taking the bike, rest assured that if it goes, it will not be able to "spoil" Antarctica. Still pictures are just that, still. The bike does not have to run to look good in the pictures. And for those who may think that is a lot of work to do just to say your bike went to Antarctica - remember all I'm doing is putting it on a plane, taking it off the plane, and putting it back on for the ride home. I'm going myself regardless. And an R1200GSA does not weigh that much. The worst part of the trip is the long cold ride in the C130.