That must be wild. I can almost smell the adrenaline!

Care to share the details of the bike and the destination?

My Central European jaunt is still on track for now. Fingers-crossed....

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

I'm in a similar boat, not actually going RTW but UK to Magadan on the Trans-Siberian and back via the Pamirs and Silk Road. A trip in the planning since 2016, many decisions made, one of which was to wait until the first 790 Adventure hit the shops. Wanted a light bike for the dirty stuff but also one capable of effortless road use, and not old because with the best will in the world and attention, old bikes do break things - and to me that's not an adventure, it's a PITA. Yes, the KTM is more money than I wanted to spend and has more electronics than I'd like, but you can't have everything.

Last year I did a little trip round southern Europe to try out the bike and my travel kit (and test myself), learned a few lessons and ready for the big one (or so I thought). Got as far as applying for visas before cancelling in March when it became obvious what was happening (and people on here were saying "just go").

The "developed world" may well have beaten the virus with a vaccine by mid 2021 but globally, I can't see borders being freely open and travellers welcomed until at least 2022. I can tour near home but it's a long and frustrating wait until I can do the one I really want to do, and by the time I go that'll be 6 years after I first started planning.

Oh yes, it's certainly (g)rave culture on a Tuesday morning round here!
I tend to stay well away from the market - the out of control mobility scooter drivers are far more dangerous than the roads.


The bike is an old 250 Yamaha two stroke - just like this one in fact:



That picture was taken in Morocco in 1970 and what I wanted to do was redo that trip on the same (model) bike 50yrs later and write a book about how things have moved on - or not, whether 50yrs has given me any more insight into how the world works, that kind of thing. I made a start on the book last year but the virus has affected every aspect of the original idea to the point where even if the bike was running and it was possible to actually ride the route, it wouldn't be the same. So far just about the only thing that seems to be directly comparable seems to be the length of my hair. Then it was out of hippy ideals choice, now it's because all the barbers are shut. So the trip, like everything else, is postponed to next year.

Part one of the book in its work in progress form:



A year back I did work through a 'risk assessment' of what could possibly go wrong with this idea. A global plague decimating, if not populations, certainly economies, and closing down borders that had taken the last 50yrs to open was not even on the long list. I think nuclear war came higher up.

We're only half way through 2020...

Either way, great idea, albeit mad! I hope to get to read a copy once written!

(And keep the hair! It'll give the Tuesday market crowd something to grumble about)

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

With regard to the sentiment of "Fear Of Missing Out" - ie, that a trip in 2022 or later will be somehow worse - I'm actually now a bit relieved that my big intercontinental trip is going to probably be 2023 if all goes well, because as an American I feel like it's gonna be a few years before I'm properly welcome internationally again. Gives me more time to save and farkle up in the meantime!

My bike, a CRF250L, will do up to 85 surprisingly handily with me weighing in at 174 lbs/79 kg. It's the one I'm hoping to do major USA overland trips like the TAT with, as well as internationally.

It's a shame that to feel that way. Can't comment on how valid a concern it is, but it's a shame that one doesn't feel welcome somewhere.

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

One thing I've noticed on long trips, including international, is that once you get going, it doesn't matter a whole lot what motorcycle you are riding. Don't sweat your motorcycle choice too much. Focus on your "places to see & experience". Study a new language. Those are the important things.

Are you traveling to ride your motorcycle around the world, or are you traveling to experience the people of the world?

So long as you can confidently ride it where you want to go, it's not too heavy, you can pick it up with confidence, it's reliable, and it can get repaired locally. Remember, there will be slimy, muddy, steep detours somewhere - you will "want to go" there in order to get past the obstacle. You want to be free to get off the main road to meet and experience where the locals live. That may result in unintended challenges, what later are retold as adventures. You may terminally rip a tire or blow a shock absorber and need to figure out what to do. Don't let your moto choice limit those decisions. Often those decisions are a highlight of the trip. Often the unintended challenges include extensive interaction with the local population.

It's freeing to travel on a simple and inexpensive moto - in many ways.

If you're planning to come down under it could be quite a wait.

The head of Australia's biggest airline, QANTAS, has stated that he thinks it will be 2030 before international travel in and out of Oz returns to what it was prior to March this year.

There aren't going to be too many Aussies leaving the country for quite some while, in the meantime Aussies returning home need to stump up $3k to pay for 2 weeks quarantine on arrival.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

I was lucky, I set off on my last trip in January and was able to spend six glorious weeks in warm climes before dashing home mid March.

I was daydreaming yesterday about how long this all might last, then I thought of someone in summer 1939 who might have been planning a bicycle tour of Europe. So things could be worse, and hopefully we will get a vaccine some time in the next nine months.

Good advice in the above post, I set off for Africa in the 1970s on a TriBSA cafe racer (Triumph engine in BSA frame) with clip ons, rear sets and a close ratio racing gearbox. It was the only bike I had, so that's what I went on.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Hmmm, good point...

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

My first bike in Africa was a Matchless 500 single (ex-police). Heavy, and not much clearance. Travelled around what is now Zimbabwe and Botswana, including way out in the Kalahari, with no problem...

Interesting question. "Are you traveling to ride your motorcycle around the world, or are you traveling to experience the people of the world? "

The answer of course is both....I love to ride. Been on a bike since I was 12 years old....But the best answer to why I want to do a trip like this: Life Squared.....I am a musician. Being on stage playing music is a unique experience....Time flows very differently. And when the band is in sync....Life Squared takes place....that feeling of being fully present to the moment and bursting with life force.....riding a bike can create the same experience. I have been transported out of my body while riding...the bike becomes an extension of your mind...the road an endless adventure with nothing but new around every corner....and ya can't get that in a car...well at least not in the same way....

I am bringing music with me.....no details here, but I will be working with indigenous artists and performing and recording the entire time....not while riding of course, but I am turning my motorcycle into a musical instrument. This is where the people enter in a big way....So its not just a motorcycle, and its not just the people, and its not just the world - its Life Squared....

This is the second last chapter of my life, maybe the last. I refuse to sit around feeling old and useless.....and I have no fear. So its off on the road.

Here is how the motorcycle thing is going to go down. I am putting up $5000 in the fall for a bike. That's my budget. And I am going to buy the best bike I can for that much or under....I don't care too much what it is. But then all winter I will mod it to my specs and needs.....Learn every nut and bolt, custom build things I want, and get ready....There is a DIY shop in my city and I am going to go there and strip the engine down under a mechanics supervision...and put it back together - this will help me make my tool kit and know this bike literally inside and out. So the what bike question is answered kinda - it will cost under 5K - that's all I know at this point.

What a great bunch of posts from everybody....I have to section my life into chunks....band, work, study, caregiver, then trip - and I have been working a lot of hours lately....Got a chunk of time today to get caught up. Thanks everybody.

Australia would be close to the last country I visit.....maybe 7 years from when I leave...so 2030 works....but a vaccination that's tested and works may change things drastically...that's what I'm hoping for....

With the uncertainty of Covid etc is it worth travelling the world without locking into one bike, but buy and sell bikes as you go and also use other forms of transport where more appropriate?

You seem to be in no hurry which means you could spend a heap of time in one country getting to see it and using the mode of transport that best suits.

Just before Covid we were about to head OS with the family for an extended period using airbnb’s and buying cars when needed.

Covid stopped it but I couldn’t imagine the hassle if we were OS with camper and had to leave it to come home in a hurry.

At least when its just you that headache is out of the picture. Just a thought.



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I have considered this option, but no longer mainly due to technical issues. It would be too difficult to build what I'm building, then mod it for each use....I'm not just going on a motorcycle trip - nor am I just going around the world....I am filming, recording, creating VR - and all of this will be modded into the bike - and it will be a motorcycle cause there is NO other way to experience the world that interests me....Having said this, time will tell how much I am going to be forced to alter plans due to Covid....and that remains a fact for all of us.

Thanks for the thoughtful post.