How about using the term "Holiday" if you HAVE to call it something.

Personally I hate labels so as I am concerned you can call it anything you like ("Bob" perhaps)

I can follow the OP train of thought easily enough, there are plenty of mobile touratech adverts out there who seem to miss the point. I was waiting for a ferry when a pair turned up and spotted my Dragon/Elefant/finnish rally stickers. The first question was why did I put the stickers on the Bonneville when I'd need a GS or KTM to do those. These two had been on their trial run for their big trip to Brugge!

My intial thought was to label them as ******s. Then I thought, what the heck, if they enjoy themselves spending £20K for a week in Spain before they go back to playing power rangers on sunny Sundays who really cares. My only worry is that anyone interested in real travelling might be put off by their insistance that you need three GPS's between two and a yellow painted aluminium thingy to hold your butties. That I guess is where this site comes in.

I'm with the guys who suggest "Motorcycle Touring". "Extreme" anything (the possible exception of ironing) will just attract Bill and Ted lookalikes who''ll want to wear orange and ride in circles.

Andy

I agree, I have always considered all my trips away from home to be "touring". But then, that is because thats what they were

Did anyone else read that in the voice of Edmund Blackadder or was it just me ?

If you really are into extreme ironing.....
Extreme Ironing World Championships

I'll drink to that. Personally I don't give a monkey's ballbag what anyone else wants to define me as - assuming anyone could give a flying bugger in the first place.

But if I'm caught in some sort of moral or social dilemma, I do tend to use the maxim "well, I am on holiday" to decide the issue.

Cheers

__________________
Simon

London-Cape Town 2004-06
Buenos Aires-Vancouver 2008-10:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/fitzpatrick

I think you'll find that A/M started long, long before T/Simon and the brothers Vince, despite the excellence of their travels. But they wrote or filmed it better than many before them. You must check this out, and find a world of travel by bike you never dreamed of. There are accounts out there of what earlier riders did. If you've been at Ripley, then you won't have missed Paul Pratt, who travelled by bike in a way which is gone forever. He may not write as well as others, but he did in circumstances which would daunt some modern travellers. There's Elspeth Beard,and a few other women riders, there's the "One Man Caravan " bloke, and a number of others. And I don't refer to only RTW, for motorcycle adventure certainly doesnt depend on that. More can be better, but it's surely not necessary for a fulfilling trip. I've suggested before that if you scribe a 3000km circle from a place in Western Europe,say from Edinburgh or Swansea, you'll find a treasure of places to go which tick the box.

The definition given of A/M, however now corrupted, still stands, IMO. Those who pay someone to take them on a tour certainly have fun, but have no adventurous journey, rather like voyeurs in a peep show, who never get 'the full monty". Commercial tours in motorcycling (or mountaineering*) are the corrupting element.

*See John Krakeur's "Into Thin Air" to see how destructive commercialism can be.

I like to think of it as "going out for a bit of a ride". Call me cynical if you want, but isn't this just a way to make a difference between them and us. And in doing so to somehow make us feel more superior to them.

I'm sorry but as far as I'm concerned we're riders, and one person's piss about in the park is another person's adventure. Just because you don't find it challenging doesn't mean it won't be the biggest challenge of another's life.

Extreme is for ironing, and damn fun extreme ironing is too.

__________________

+1 to all of you .

It's been said. Period.

Now I'm buyin'...who's up for a

PS.: labelling or not, live what you want.

__________________
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love."
RIDE like your LIFE depends on it.
BMW R1150GS '02 crashed
BMW R1150GSA '04

Well there you are....sitting in Hampi as a half dozen guys on a Royal Oilfield tour roll in . They are sent into a restaurant, then 'given' 2 hours to look at Hampi, and then ordered back to their hotel in Hospet, a particularly crappy town. Their whole trip is like this.


Points against...

They dont meet any locals, for they speak only to each other.
They are told where and when to do things
They pay a lot of money
They have no independence whatsoever

Points for...

well you tell me, cos I havent found any yet

They don't lay awake a night thinking about what happens when the Bullet eats it's bottom end, the only car that stops to help contains four large blokes with machettes and a bale of opium and one of them obviously fancies you? When the bike throws it's toys out of the pram or the local mafia turns up, or the border is run by a bloke who hasn't had his leg over this century, the tour company earns it's money. It's a different sort of holiday, one that I've tried and would never reccomend unless people realise it's like going to Euro-Disneyland not Paris. Disneyland suits some people though, I think the only time I might have a problem is when some holiday maker thinks he's Ted Simon because he hired a Harley in Florida, but you get ****wits in any hobby.

One of my co-workers informed me on the last day at work before the holidays that I must have larger than average genitalia (or words to that effect) due to the fact I ride twelve miles a day through snow and ice. I wonder if I can now get a T-shirt proclaiming that I'm an "Extreme-Adventure-Commuter"

Andy

This is absolutely spot on. That's one for the plus list

"Nevva, in the field of motorcycling, have so many bottom ends been eaten by so many for so few kilometres."

You could be onto something there, "Extreme Commuting" could become the next big thing, and think of all the marketing opportunities.

__________________

I can see it now:

" Be it a CX500 or C90, CommuterTrek can supply all your Extreme-Adventure-Commuting needs. New for 2010 we have pre-dirtied semi-flourescent vests with a choice of Railway company logos. Our range of pre-filled ex-pizza delivery box carriers have now been extended to include ham and pineapple, calezone or even desicated rat......pre-scratched mirrors and engine bars.......spray on road filth.......live the dream, for a few hundred quid you too can be a dispatch rider or pizza guy lookalike twice a day every day (except weekends and bank holidays)!"

Andy

LOL
Love it!

__________________
Vitim Bridge Clubwww.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533442
www.sibirskyextreme.com

A quick online search for the definition of "Adventure" produces this:
ad·ven·ture (d-vnchr)n.

1. a. An undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.
1. b. An undertaking of a questionable nature
2. An unusual or exciting experience
3. Participation in hazardous or exciting experiences
4. A financial speculation or business venture.

v. ad·ven·tured, ad·ven·tur·ing, ad·ven·tures
v.tr.
1. To venture upon; undertake or try.
2. To expose to danger or risk; hazard.
v.intr.
1. To take a risk; dare.
2. To proceed despite risks.

So if what you are doing is hazardous, questionable, exciting and risky then it is an adventure!

For me riding to Taoz in Southern Morocco was an adventure, yet I had a book of routes to follow, GPS, a credit card and a mobile phone.

Perhaps if I'd done it without any of the modern gadgets it'd have been more adventurous, but then, I enjoy those things so would it have been as much fun for me?

Dunno. Each to their own. Personally, anything outside Europe or the States would count as an adventure to me.