20 years ago on this date I departed Ushuaia and vectored north after having been part of the #1 Ushuaia Traveller’s Meeting. A week earlier (December 1997) I had met Grant and Susan Johnson in Southern Argentina where we spent a cold “rest day” in a hotel restaurant discussing a proposed book and their Internet bulletin board. Grant’s book hasn’t made it to print, but the bulletin board blossomed into what we see as Horizons Unlimited today.


I completed that ride around the globe and eventually my riding gear and tired, oil leaking, broken frame 1981 R80 G/S (photo below) ended up being donated to Bob’s BMW Motorcycle Museum in Jessup, Maryland USA, where it is now resting with 240,000 miles in its bones.


I’ve visited Bob’s BMW Museum several times since that R80 G/S went into a hibernation mode. When I walk past it I can almost hear it saying, “Oh no! Not another ride around the world.”


Having recently completed my 6th ‘round the world ride The World Motorcycle Adventure Tour and Travel Rally I look back on all the motorcycles used over the last 20 years. This 1981 R80 G/S, monikered for the museum display as “Ugly Helga,” gave me the most fun, broke down the most often, and left the most oil and gas drippings around the world, but I believe it, and I, could make one more global loop.


“Thank you” to all in the HU community who have helped over the last 20 years. Maybe we’ll (me and Ugly Helga) see you again, on the road around the globe.


Dr. G, Chief of the World Adventure Affairs Desk, CITY BIKE Magazine

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