RTW Routing not obvious!!!
 

I'm screwed. I've just returned from my first motorcycling experience. A 4500 mi trip to Newfoundland, and now I've got this INSANE knawing inside of me to ride around the world!!
Just from a very cursory glance at my globe, there dosen't appear to be any safe (or easy) routes. Southern= Afganistan, Iran, etc. Northern= Eastern bloc. And, alas, in the end, all true ATW routes converge in Siberia!!!
How the heck can one go from Europe, to Alaska, (the only way I see of making an ATW trip)? No roads, hostile governments, and no civilisation!!! Other than that (no) small detail, no further questions, at this time. :-/
Dave Cate
Knoxville, TN
Pilot with a life to fill on Long term leave of absence from a career of commercial aviation..Thanks

Congratulations on your trip to NFLD, its a keeper, as they say. You question is a little, well, big. If I may, all the folks that I have met on the road doing RTW's or other long trip are doing them partly because they are not easy or safe. Easy and safe is riding to the local national forest, maybe on a dirt road here or there. What I think may be knawing at your innards is being a days ride from a town, in a town where you don't speak the language, you are outta gas, and the sun set an hour ago. And you get out of it using your common sense and, upon reflection days later, it was the most spectacular time you have ever had. I would guess that being a commercial airline pilot there aren't that many times to say "...lets see what this baby'll do..." and throw caution to the wind. With your moto, you can.

My suggestion? Get a big pot of tea and read every post in this website. 99% of the info that you are after is here, simply use the search function. The trip has been done by rich people, poor people, people with new gear, people riding sh*te. The planning part can be one of the most fun parts of your trip, enjoy it.

Cheers,
Rene
www.renedian.com

------------------
Go slow, be well.

Dave, for me thats the whole point. You discover that CNNNN and Mr Murdoch dont always say it how it is! They just exagerate the preconceptions because it makes a good story. Siberia is great, Ok the Russian red tape can be somewhat confusing..but you should try Australia. We have signs telling us not to overtake unless safe! Flying back over what had taken me 7 months to ride in less than 15 hours was utterly depressing, as for many people that constitutes travelling.

My tip, Go West to East so the sun doesnt set in your eyes every day.

Whats Newfoundland like?..rumors are that they are called Newfies because......

alec

http://users.netlink.com.au/~asimpson

What I think may be knawing at your innards is being a days ride from a town, in a town where you don't speak the language, you are outta gas, and the sun set an hour ago. And you get out of it using your common sense and, upon reflection days later, it was the most spectacular time you have ever had. I would guess that being a commercial airline pilot there aren't that many times to say "...lets see what this baby'll do..." and throw caution to the wind. With your moto, you can.

My hat's off to anyone who would even attempt to reply to such an open-ended question (and in so doing, saying what I didn't). I've been glued to this computer, and web site, since my return trip from NF. Here's a whole society of people, like myself, and I never even knew (or cared) that you existed. Anyway...

"Buttoned-down and disciplined" best describes my actions up to this point in my life, and now, all of a sudden, I find it's not so easy to remain in my current "groove" (i.e..laying on the couch!). It seems I have to move on, to grow, to change. To again see what it is that I'm made of, what the world is made up of, and what my relationship to this world is gonna be. I've never been one to not want to test my limits...even whilst having a "yeller streak" down my back a mile wide! :-)

Anyway...Newfoundland...St. Johns...ferries...Natural Beauty the likes of which one can only experience, not describe. St. Johns is a jewel in the North. My most memorable impression of the city? So few tourist, and so much diversity. Newfoundland?...Good roads, no traffic, great human beings, the smell (chistmas tree smell everyday!) and the sky, ah yes, the color of the sky, day and night. You don't just look at it, you're a part of it. Best weather...mid-july through august. But if you want to see Iceburgs, go in May.

And thanks for the "Go East Young Man" advice. (But to be honest, I'm seriously considering South, South, and then heading South!

Be Good (to you),
Be safe and God Speed!
Dave Cate
Knoxville, TN

I would like to add one thing to all the (good) advice above...

I found that there are not many real unsafe country,s in the world (but I have not been to Africa yet)...

It,s all relative... More people die in there car on the way to work then on there bike around the world.... But I never met eny one who stayed in bed becourse of it...

Ofcourse this is my personal opinion.

Maarten

------------------
- www.maartensworld.com -
- Some photo's -

Dave, don't expect that insane knawing inside to go away anytime soon, perhaps not forever. I first developed it shortly after I began riding, in the 1960s, and it has never left me. Career, family, etc. prevented me from doing that RTW ride, but now I'm retired and at last have the time. So, I hope to finally do it in 2005.

Tentatively, I plan to stay in the northern hemisphere, riding to Alaska, flying to either Vladivostok or Japan (then taking the ferry to Vlad. if it's Japan), then across Siberia and Europe east to west. There is now an all-season maintained road across Siberia, although several hundred kilometers are unpaved.

If you have any interest in joining me on this ride drop me an email.

Mike
Idaho
liketoride2@juno.com

For me, a trip to California and back from the East
Coast began the start of scatching that itch you are talking about. It fulfilled a dream I had had since a similar trip was described by a high school teacher in 1959. Well, I did it and then realized it could ride anywhere anytime. I have since ridden to Costa Rica and back and have given up my car. I am now cageless.
My next ride will be RTW using the northern route throughRussia--not because it is easy--but because it is there.
Please do your ride. The world is a much better place than you have been lead to believe.
Bob

Er... now I know most of the threads deal with either bikes or 4WD, but I was thinking if the Horizons are indeed UNLIMITED on the Bulletin Board, then... So, here goes.

Ever thought of getting yourself a little plane and flying around the world? It's even been done in a microlight, so it is certainly possible. I don't know how you did your training, perhaps you started off on a twin engine, but ever tried a taildragger like a Piper Cub or something? (I'm not talking C152's and PA-28's here) It's in a different world to the usual commercial flying, keeping out of controlled airspace, flying in and out of fields (I don't neccesarily mean airfields) non-radio, if you like, with no Air Traffic Control to give you grief.

The reasons I ask are two-fold: you fly and you like bikes. Since bikes are a pretty rudimentary mode of travel (and here I exclude Gold Wings with jaccuzis and a billiard room) then if rudimentary appeals, then something like a Cub would be a barrel of laughs (and an even bigger barrel of laughs for the spectators if you haven't tried a taildragger with undamped bungee springing) In the UK you can get Luscombes, Aeroncas & Taylorcraft manufactured around the late 1940's for £15,000, and in the States they would be selling for the equivalent of, at a guess, £10,000, say $7,000. I had a 1946 Taylorcraft BC12-D a few years ago: nothing else I have ever owned has given me anything like as much joy. Where I live, Wales, suitable fields are a bit scarce and I kept it for a while on a friend's field which had a one-in-seven slope and a 50-yard flat bit on the top. You had to take off downhill and land uphill whatever way the wind blew, it concentrated the mind wonderfully. Mind, in Texas I expect you should be able to find something a lot bigger (and flatter!)

Have a chat with the EAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association, they'll tell you a lot more about it.

Best wishes

John


------------------
Johnefyn

Dave,

Check out this current thread on ADVrider.com. This guy is doing now what you wish to do, and just completed Russia. He also just released a book about a trip through the Americas that included 5 weeks of captivity in Columbia. Very good reading.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...9&goto=newpost

hi, guys,

like you, greenhorn, i just got back from a 4,200 mile trip (four weeks in europe turning around in romania) and i can't get the idea of a rtw out of my head. i actually think i can pull it off from a work and money point of view - perhaps next year - perhaps 2006. but it's really on my agenda.

i'd be interested to hear from any of you guys about any detasils of planning that might eb helpful - budgets, routes, whether you're bothered about meeting the 'criteria' for rtw (all continents, etc) and how long you're planning to take.

i have road bike (trophy 900) which i love but i'm wondering if i'd need a bike a little more off-roady in nature for the rtw.

i'm thinking of going london (which is where i am) east through russia crossing over to alaska and travelling down to saouth america, crossing to africa and back north to europe - sound feasible?

be good to hear from you.

zenbiker
(simon)