A Suzuki DRZ 400 nostalgia road trip VIDEO
 

I use my Suzuki DRZ for European road trips.

Here’s a Video of my most recent trip.

A nostalgia road trip from the UK, France, Spain and Portugal,

retracing an ill fated 1984 yacht voyage.

https://youtu.be/j2lBpM1wHSg

Vids
 

You don't do many vids, but always excellent, well done! Nice one.

Many thanks for you kind words Jim, much appreciated :)

Great minds think alike Ian. :rofl: I've been mining my previous trips as well in recent years, with a project last year where two of us redid a trip we originally did back in 1970 - my first long distance motorcycle trip. Back then we rode from London down to Tangiers two up on a 250 Yamaha two stroke. Last year, after nearly 4 yrs of build up (Covid delays mainly) and 52 yrs later we rode two identical 250 Yamaha two strokes (one each this time) along the same route to the same destination. It was certainly interesting to compare / contrast etc and I always intended that a book would come out of it looking at the nature of travel. Writing it has been a slow process though.

Pictures below are a couple from 1970, a couple from 2022, the project title page for the You Tube videos (1 out of 3 up there at the moment under the VJMC banner) and on from a magazine article I had published earlier this month about the trip.

Great video btw - enjoyed watching it :thumbup1:


https://i.postimg.cc/4y2KTtK2/1970.jpg

Me in Tangiers, 1970



https://i.postimg.cc/3R1d521B/1970-2a.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/j5Xv93pF/Maroc1.jpg

42C in Morocco


https://i.postimg.cc/C5x9tfWq/Burgos-hotel-arrival.jpg

Bikes in Burgos, Spain


https://i.postimg.cc/qvSvsLMN/DS6-intro1.jpg

YouTube logo



https://i.postimg.cc/d3zxWzbk/T2T.jpg

Magazine article

Hi Stuart
What an amazing story :)
That really is my kind of story,
I'm glad you did the 2022 trip on 2 bikes this time.
52 years after the original trip - amazing.
You didn't mention if the second tip was with the same friend,
I hope it was, it would have made the memories so much more special :)
I'll check out you "Take 2 Tours" Video
Best of luck Ian T-J

Yes it was with the same friend as 1970. We've known each other from school and did a lot of motorcycle travel together in that decade but he moved to the US in the 80's. When I mentioned I was thinking of buying a DS6 250 and revisiting the original 1970 trip he said he'd buy one as well, ship it over and we'd go on one each. The trip was originally scheduled for 2020 - the 50th 'anniversary' - but Covid meant a two year delay.

When it came to the book of the trip, I've written four travel books before but this one has proved to be a bit more tricky to get right. So to try and get it right I've ended up taking on an MA in the subject. Strange how these things work out. Picture below is my working title -

https://i.postimg.cc/yNWPBd6g/DoE2-2.jpg

A school friend, who now lives in the US, that make the story even better :)

Best of luck with the book, I'm most impressed :)

It is coming up to the 40th anniversary of my first ever trip abroad which was to northern France on my Triumph Bonneville, a most enjoyable trip which taught me that I loved motorcycle travel as much as I thought I would. I am thinking of reprising my trip this coming year although by bicycle which seems to be my preferred mode of transport these days, time will tell if it is a good idea but I suspect it will be.

Yes plan your northern France bicycle trip Mark :)

Myself and a set of friends did 4 consecutive years cycle camping in northern france.
As your aware, France is a great place to cycle the country roads are generally wide, free from traffic and the entire country is cycling friendly, perhaps due to The Tour De France and other cycle events :)

40yrs - congrats :thumbup1: What bits of northern France did you visit back then? For me it's been one of those areas I've never done justice to - just gone through as quickly as possible en route to more 'interesting' places. Nearest I've ever come was a slow exploration of the channel coast from Rouen back to Calais on my ancient 125 Suzuki some years back. It's much the same in Southern England; my Dover ferry port visits must be well into three figures by now but I've never been to eg Dover castle. I only know Canterbury because my daughter was at university there. We always ignore what's on our doorstep.

All I can really remember is Bayeux and some nice places along the way, to be honest it was all so foreign and exotic I got a buzz from everything particularly riding on the "wrong" side.

I'm not the same person I was 45 years ago and the world is very different too. I'd rather enjoy my memories of the stupid things I did back then than go on the same trips as a sensible old fart.

That, for me, was the whole point. I don't want to get all philosophical about this stuff but a bit of retrospection every now and again isn't such a bad thing. You don't have to sink into some kind of depressive regret (or self congratulatory exuberance if everything has worked out), but if you ever look at the photos you took back then what do you think of the version of you trapped in the images? Get enough years on the clock and the future becomes the past. You can't put any of this stuff into context without some use of a rear view mirror. If that's not your world, then fine, we're not all made the same.

You can't step in the same river twice, both you and the water have changed ... it can be interesting to see what those changes are, though!

I'm unable to retrace my earliest motorcycle adventures because bridleways are closed to motorised traffic and fields I snuck across as a teenager are now more thoroughly fenced in. In some areas the spread of industrialised agriculture has changed the landscape completely; rocks, boulders, and hedges have been removed in the name of maximising profits. But many landmarks and hidden joys remain, much as some of the fundamental parts of me are still in place since "growing up", without revisiting and trying to replay those exciting times I might not have been able to recognise what they are.

And how, in my case. My first solo 'long distance' motorcycle trip was from my parents home in Essex over to Stonehenge - about 250 miles there and back. Doesn't seem a lot these days but on my 150cc Lambretta scooter it seemed to take for ever. Little acorns though. Back then though (60's) Stonehenge was just a pile of rocks in a field. You could wander around as much as you wanted. No 'national heritage' branding, fencing, visitors centre, gift shop, cafe, coach park or any special status at all. Not much chance of repeating that trip even if I could face a 250 mile trip on a scooter. :scooter: