Originally Posted by hamster

Thoughts from a wanna be.

I first thought about doing a motorbike trip when i was in Chile and i met an american chap that was doing Alaska to TDF. I thought that the trip he was on was amazing.

It was always going to be a long term project because I didn't know anything about bikes and i had never even sat on one. The thought about taking a long trip on a bike was much more intimidating than pottering around with a rucksack.

A couple of years ago i bought my bike and i have been riding every day (bar snow) since then.

In the time between having the idea and getting the bike LWR happened and it did spur me on - i hadn't heard of mondo then. LWR looked like a huge amount of fun and i wanted some of it.

Last year i went to Ripley - I thought that it was inspiring - the trips that people had been on were fantastic.

Since then I have taken my bike on a 2 week jaunt though europe. It was a huge adventure for me - i had never ridden abroad, never riden on a long journey with a loaded bike, never ridden in mountains, never done customs, etc - from my point of view an adventure is doing something outside of your comfort zone - my 2 weeks in europe with my bike was more of an adventure than 2 weeks in bolivia with my back pack.

I am going back to Ripley this year (booked) and hopefully the year after i won't be able to go because i will be somewhere in Mexico - according to my theory this will be a Huge adventure.

The point about LWD is that when i say to people about wanting to do a moto trip they say "wow, that will be amazing" rather than "don't do it" (except for my mum) and i don't think that is a bad thing.

Ripley from my point of view is partly about taking to the guys and gals that have done it - that have done the things that i want to do - that i am going to do - and it would be a shame if people didn't go because of people with "limited adventures".

It does upset me though when people say it was so much better in the old days - for one things change, new people get involved in and technologies move on but two and more importantly - I wasn't there in the old days, I am doing my adventure and i am doing it in my time - and it will still be an adventure because i am going into the unknown.

Just a few thoughts

Originally Posted by hamster

Thoughts from a wanna be.

I first thought about doing a motorbike trip when i was in Chile and i met an american chap that was doing Alaska to TDF. I thought that the trip he was on was amazing.


Since then I have taken my bike on a 2 week jaunt though europe. It was a huge adventure for me - i had never ridden abroad, never riden on a long journey with a loaded bike, never ridden in mountains, never done customs, etc - from my point of view an adventure is doing something outside of your comfort zone - my 2 weeks in europe with my bike was more of an adventure than 2 weeks in bolivia with my back pack.

Originally Posted by mj

Which, again, doesn't mean the 1200GSA is the wrong bike for the job. For some it's the perfect bike for doing extensive trips around Europe/Africa/America/Asia/Australia/the World. Others make sure to clean, wash, ans polish it every time they've taken it out of the garage and exposed it to sunlight and, god forbid, dirt or dust. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to defend anyone here. I'm just curious: where do you draw the line? Is it adventurous to do an extensive one or two month trip through Eastern Europe, two-up on an '89 Yamaha XT600Z Tenere with full camping gear? Certainly so. But is it also adventurous to do the same, two-up on a brand-new 1200GSA with full camping gear?

But maybe I'm just misunderstanding something here. Maybe this is a specifically British phenomenon because I can tell you one thing for sure: over here in Germany the wannabes stick to their city and the local strip, because god forbid they could get their brand-new motorcycle and equipment dirty or, even worse, noone would see them prancing around showing off what they can afford. I have yet to see a wannabe adventurer outside the city, on a campsite or wild camping somewhere off the beaten track. What I have seen are 1150GSAs, several years old with less than 10,000kms. However, I have also seen plently BMWs off the beaten track and, until recently, despised them myself when I still had my Tenere. Now that I have one myself I have learned to differentiate because there is a small portion of BMW riders who actually are not like all the others. I despise the ones that try to solve everything with money - I'm registered on a big BMW forum and whatever question I ask there, the solution is almost always "go to TT/Wunderlich/BMW and buy abcdefg, then have your mechanic do the job for you". There's way too many wannabes out there, I give you that. But there's also a solid core of those who have chosen the bike according to the purpose and not vice versa.

Again, maybe I'm just not getting this. Maybe it's a British phenomenon that outsiders cannot understand. Maybe it has to do with the fact that neither LWR nor LWD were shown in TV over here, and that adventure motorcycling is not the fad in certain circles. I think it's still SUVs right now, with mud in cans and pseudo offroad capabilities. Because you never know when the jungle might hit you. Downtown of course.

Originally Posted by tedmagnum

Like you say, not everyone on a 1200GS is a wannabe rich dude who has a can of "spray on mud" and a pocket book full of excuses. But..... Pretty much every idiot who has "All the gear and no idea" will have a 1200GS parked up in their central heated garage. It goes with the territory.

I guess it's just like the people who buy huge desert prepped landrovers to pick up their kids from school.

Originally Posted by Dazzerrtw

+1
when you get these wanttobe's taking the pi55 out of your bike because you have all sorts of home made usefull shit on it .

Originally Posted by baileyad

from The Press Association: Ewan to hit the road with his dog?

Ewan McGregor is in for a ruff ride - after gearing up his pet to ride in a motorbike sidecar.The keen biker, who was accompanied by pal Charley Boorman for his adventure series Long Way Round and Long Way Down, reckons his family dog could be his next sidekick for a lengthy ride.
Ewan, star of the Star Wars prequels and Trainspotting, has even bought the animal a set of "doggles" - goggles for dogs.
The Hollywood star said he is aiming to bike across South America next, and may opt to shun human company.
"I might go on my own. I got a dog, Sid. I've trained him to ride in my side car and I thought we could do a trip together," he said.
Ewan was speaking as he publicised his latest film The Ghost, which received its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival at the weekend.
The political thriller is based on the book by Robert Harris and has been directed by Roman Polanski, who is still under house arrest in Switzerland facing possible extradition to the US.
Ewan said: "He's not afraid of saying, 'It looks really stupid when you do that like that' but it's just his way and it's never any way of an attack or whatever.
"Maybe it's being British but we're used to politeness in a way that your ego's slightly dented at first with his brusqueness, but once I saw that's him I knew it was never a personal thing. And his direction is unbelievably good," he added.

Originally Posted by tommysmithfromleeds

@Alexlebrit

+1

I too got into biking becasue of LWR/LWD and race to dakar (or RTD). I too have yet to go more then 50 miles away from my home for longer then 3 days and I too wanted the Derbi Terra with Alu boxes becasue it looked like a GS 1200.

I like the shows because I thought heading round the world with your mate on motorbikes was cool.