What is Adventure riding/driving?
 

Having spent many an hour looking a peoples ride reports and indeed writing my own I know there is a lot of Adventure to be had out there.
But out of curiosity what do you class as adventure riding?

Would you class riding in your own back yard an adventure? Be it in the UK, USA, Canada etc where things like the Currency, Culture, Food, Language, support for you and your vehicle and people (to name but a few) remain the same

or

Do you think that riding in a strange foreign country a true adventure where the Culture, Food, Language, people, traditions etc is totally alien to you? Do you prefer riding in strange countries because of this?

Does the feeling of not knowing what is going on around you, not being able to understand what is been said, tasting different foods give you that buzz

Is getting your vehicle to a foreign country or renting when you get there part of the adventure or do you prefer riding it out of your garage and riding off into the local wilderness?

I realise that there can be adventure anywhere and I know that places like the US, Canada and Australia have vast expanses of open areas to ride compared to the likes of the UK, Germany etc. But is that not just going out for a ride? Or is it adventure riding?

Please don't use this to be-little other people or give people grief as we all have our own perception of things in life but I am interested in what others think.

?c?

Wayne

I don't use the term "Adventure Riding", after all, it's just travelling on a bike.

I like Simon Gandolfi's answer when asked why he should want to do such a challenging and dangerous thing.

(I'm paraphrasing here)

"millions of people around the world use bikes as their daily transport. I just ride a little bit further and end up in a different place each day"

I think the "Adventure" part is anything that takes us way from our normal day to day life and perhaps a little(or lots) out of our comfort zone. For some this is a trip over the channel and a few days in France and for others it's a multi-week/month/year cross continent ride. Even a few days staying local can hit the spot, if for instance you load your bike with a tent and a map, and head of towards somewhere you've never been.

I regard it as any trip involving new experiences which could be a 16 year old strapping a tent to their moped and travelling 30 miles for their first camping trip right up to riding around the world, it is what it means to the person doing it.

Yep, good responses. For me, working my way across remote altiplano in Chile, Bolivia and Peru, wildcamping and generally going off into the unknown was an adventure, here in Ecuador I just use the bike to go from town to town on paved roads, there's a big difference, the former is very comfortable and the latter really evocative and soul stirring.

Why the need to classify?

Mostly it's an invention of marketing people. I'm going on an adventure so they need to sell me a touring bike with a beak, a set of tin box luggage etc. Because if I used anything else it would be touring.

There is nothing left to explore in the world in terms of the highest mountain, unknown rivers etc. We are therefore exploring a particular space at a particular time. It could be a wadi full of fossils, a rural village on market day or a pub hidden in a back street.

Andy

Good answers really !! :D
two examples
- Last week I ride from SW to W on a 4 days trip on a MV; on day with others . Nice places near the sea and so . ON the way back i had rain a lot . the last day I spent 2 hours helping an UK driver of an alfa romeo to find a local dealer ( matter of steering bar , got an invitation in Potugal ; at night my "ride by wire " system began to breakdown ; no more gas possible. I had to stop , wait , ride ten or 5 miles, start again and so .
No gear ( local ride you know and with these elec no way ) . doh
I reached home at 8 o'clock by night
then i brought the bike to the dealer who have the spares ( known on this very bike :rofl:)
- when I was 18 or so, we used to go down to the sea for week-end with 125, starting friday night, back saturnday as well, riding all nights at 40/50 mph, breaking down , sleeping anywhere ...

this for the bike,
same way , 44 years after ...
:scooter:

By no means i am wanting to classify anything. I am just interested in other thoughts on the matter while pondering on it myself
Great answers, thanks

Wayne

Sent from Tapatalk with a cold beer in the other hand

It's the word itself that grates with me, and in particular the way it's come to be used to imply a kind of better version of touring - "he rides to Starbucks, you go on a bike tour, I'm an adventure rider".

Partly it's because it's in the nature of adventure to be subjective. One man's "daring or risky activity" (the dictionary definition) is another's routine where familiarity has removed much of the unknown. Much of what's covered in the myriad of HUBB posts isn't so much "adventure" as "new experience" biking. Something that adds more to your cv than detracts from your life expectancy.

Of course if I had some kind of commercial interest in people riding motorcycles to far flung (for them) parts I'd be pushing the "adventure" aspect of things as much as I could.

It relates to a state of mind.
There is an exemplary case in the second post within this fairly recent thread.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...s-making-84134

But, the word adventure has been wildly overblown by all manner of PR merchants and other forms of commercial activity - much like Christmas come to think of it; as per other posts in here, it is a word that I avoid nowadays to the extent that I would not be inclined to own a bike that has the word in it's model name.

I have always thought of "Adventure" as, "to see what happens".

If you are crossing an ocean, which nobody you know of has crossed before, you would use the best ship you can get, stocked with whatever supplies you think you might need, and which might keep long enough, and with whatever crew you could assemble.
None of this would guarantee success, but you would have taken reasonable steps and not everybody would be saying you are completely reckless.

In 1975 I decided not to accept an invitation and ride my '56 600 single Norton to Switzerland as it was an old wreck, and even I thought it was highly unlikely to get there.
In '76 I made the trip on a brand new, just run in, 650 Cossack Dnpre MT9. I thought it was great, my first new bike, but a lot of people thought I was looney going on a bike of such dubious reputation. Nothing went wrong, or at least, nothing I couldn't fix.
In '77 I went to Switzerland again, on a 1938 350cc Ariel Red Hunter, despite appearances, this was no "old wreck" as it was carefully prepared for the trip, and it got me there, 650 miles including a 4 hr ferry crossing in 24 hours, all around the alpine passes and home again.

So, which was (or, including the Norton, would have been) the most adventurous trip?
Or, maybe some youngster on their 50, or 125, going 20 miles further than their friends would is more adventurous.
But I know that most of my trips since those times have been too carefully calculated to be real adventures.

I always thought you need an Adventure Bike to have an adventure? :biggrin:

For me part of adventure is when you are living / dealing with what the trip is throwing at you mostly unexpectedly. That might be in a good or bad way.

Riding the Black Forest and wildcamping I would still classify as touring. Now searching for ancient places of worship en route makes it an adventure IMO. Not to mention riding a 49cc scooter through the rougher neighbourhoods of Berlin. :mchappy:

So it might boil down to what you ride, which roads you ride, whom you meet and what you experience.

To me adventure just means being in a situation where there is a high chance that something unpredictable/unexpected may occur, and that you may have to alter your original plans..

According to Chris Scotts definition, adventure riding it is limited to riding in Africa, Asia and South America. Essentially beyond the safety net of conventional motorcycle touring closer to home. Adventure riding is associated with risk and uncertainty.

I would concur with that!

Cheers,
Noel

If you're looking for definitions, I can only give you my opinion.

Adventure biking is when you buy a 300 KG touring bike, put knobbly tyres on it and still avoid wet car parks on your Sunday ride out. You wear a lot of Klim and own a lot of gadgets but prefer the dream more than the reality.

Overlanding is when you're a traveller who has discovered that your own wheels are best way to do it. And if you find your way onto two wheels then you are in the top 1% lucky feckers in the world. :mchappy:

Just my understanding of how it is perceived by most.

It is a state of mind, most of the rest is simply semantics. No question the commercialization of the segment has changed it radically in the last 15 years or so. But what can we do? Ask Grant & Susan to close down HU and do nothing? Or somehow UNDO ADV Rider and the HUGE influence it's had worldwide?

What's happened is the inevitable evolution within our little motorcycle travel world in a capitalist system.

Like many, Ted Simon's writing sparked my interest to really get out there. But I'd already "done it" long before Ted's Jupiter Travels appeared. Back then we just called it "traveling" or "Dual Sport" riding. The "Adventure" part was invented by someone else.

Fact is, traveling by bike is a GREAT way to go ... and what's happened is that millions have discovered this and many now make a living "selling" Adventure. Oh Joy! :rofl:

By the way, if anyone has a lot of time on their hands (prison?) there are positively REAMS of threads over on ADV Rider on this subject with much heated debate back and forth ... all leading ... no where. :oops2:

:rofl: i like it

Nothing new there then, some of them can get into a heated debate about absolutely nothing :rofl:

Wayne

Call it what you will, commercial definition or personal... either way.. my opinion is that

1) every bike can be an "adventure" bike it is the rider and the ride that makes it thus.

and "Adventure"

2) (good or bad ) at the end of it, it made you SMILE! :mchappy:

Right
Fortunately in a way, there is space for all the "ways " of travelling , an, as it is -still- not so easy to do it , some may -still- find a difference between whose are called tourists vs travellers ( the difference sounds less in english :rofl:) : this matter is as old as de rochas' engine ( books about it in the thirties )

But anyone is always the "tourist" or the " traveller " of someone else !! :mchappy::smartass:

I heard this in

martial arts ( good old days of the pioneers now bla bla , but appear anew styles always like systema- love it )
paragliding about the travellers abroad ah ah
ski-ing : now it is too easy bla bla bla
.....

when is there not ? In a limit condition like a tsunami, a earthquake, any danger .... you are on your own , seen last time in 04' chap :palm::clap:

How much danger makes it an adventure????
 

Interesting that you allude to the 2004 Tsunami which is rapidly fading from memories.
A few years ago I worked alongside a German guy who was there on Christmas vacation, with his family.
The reason he survived along with his whole family was because they went on a boat trip that morning and were at sea when the earthquake struck.
Initially his family did not want to go on that boat trip and he had difficulty in persuading them to accompany him; if they had not done so then he was very clear in his own mind that they would not have lived beyond that day, 26th December 2004.

In his whole description to me of the event and its aftermath I don't recall him thinking of it as an "adventure".
On getting back to shore, he was involved in the clean up for at least a week; I think he sent his family home asap though - I don't quite recall that bit, and it's relevant because it addresses your immediate priorities when truly engaged in an ongoing, developing emergency situation.

His description of arrival back in home base in Germany was also interesting: the "locals" could not comprehend the dishelved state of those survivors, including their mental state.

In my eyes an adventure is the oposit of something that is very well planed and under your control. You cant plan an adventure and you cant buy it. In fact the less money you use the more adventures your trip will become. With no money, your adventure will allready start at the first petrolstation but with lots of money you can just call your mechanic or your rescue team any time you want to do things for you. Not adventures at all...

To quote Jawaharial Nehru (1889-1964) - "We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventure that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."

I have plenty of adventures on my bike - and I have yet to leave Europe!

I think adventure riding is anything different or a change, which makes it an adventure.

For those of us in the "West" it is an adventure to poop in a hole in a hut, wash our laundry in a stream and eat street food.

For my wife who came from SE Asia it was an Adventure to simply get to ride in a car, now getting her license! Doing laundry with the push of a button was amazing to her, and going into the wilderness where I grew up to let the Imagination of Bears, Lions and Bigfoot fill her mind? Amazing.

Whatever gives you that change, that makes your blood pump, go with it :)

Adventure is going beyond words and dreaming
 

When I left the academic it was because I wanted to go beyond words. I wanted adventure and as soon as I had free time to explore, I realized that adventure was all around and adventure just swallowed me up, just as xfiltrate gets swallowed up by his hammock. see video He has been in the hammock now for 37 hours and counting.

https://youtu.be/q_7AYQ6jXnc

From Mexico

rosa del desierto

I'll stick with the dictionary:

"a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome"

:thumbup1:

What's in a name
 

Such as travelling around the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, in the rush hour (it is rumoured that all motor insurance is void when doing that - internet-based hoary old tale or ?).

Risk:
It's been discussed in the HUBB previously - it is quite a concept when explored (there's another word (verb and noun) that is often interchanged with adventure) a little.
Triumph have a motorbike named "explorer" - perhaps that makes a change from the adventurer bikes.

The rule of 7 x Ps can reduce risk to a minimum, which rather goes along with some earlier views of "adventure".

Boldness be my friend:
Is an excellent book - probably out of print nowadays.

Hazard:
See risk above.
+ building a house on a flood plain probably constitutes an adventure under this dictionary definition.

My missus is more of planning an adventure :laugh:
She'll learn. :innocent:

How ironic.. So many people buying into 'Adventure' biking or 'Adventure' anything for that matter and totally missing the point.

They book all their hotels in advance, plan the route like a military operation, have international recovery on standby and even carry a spare GPS. There is no risk or uncertainty which means by definition, no adventure. .. And for me, no point.

Definition of Adventure
 

"Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

Now, I don't claim to be an A student
But I'm trying to be"
Sam Cooke 1960

"Adventure" is being stuck in a Hennessey hammock for almost two days due to a faulty zipper.
xfiltrate 2016

I think this thread well illustrates the challenge of determining a single definition of what is or what isn't an adventure. Even Chris seems to have "massaged" his original definition.

Your adventure is what you want it to be. Just enjoy it.

Good for him; that would show that the man in question has an open mind and is still learning from all manner of sources including his own experiences.

Maybe adventure really is all in the mind?

Remember when you didn't go on adventures. You just rode your bike to interesting places. But they couldn't market that. It was too many words..