I just met with some rider and one more time I am surpised to see how cheap some of us are, when I mean cheap I don't mean that you stay in inexpensive hotel or eat in small dive, I mean that I am always surprise to see guys riding in the rainny season with tire which have no thread left , biker with almost no break pad or sproket looking like they are on diet, I am surprised to meet with guys riding Off road with no boots because they cost too much to thier opinion or guys not seeing anything at night because thier wind shield is too scratch, I am not for over spending but is all that been cheap or what.

Hendi:
I just had to reply to this, before you came to your senses and erased this post. I can relate, but I don't think I have that anger yet!

I need to know which was the final indignation, got you to write what you did? I mean, it can´t be the scratched windshield!

Just curious, and waiting to see where this one goes.

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

I am with Hendi on this one. I am a cheap bastard about some things for sure....but basic safety is where I draw the line. Without the gear or decent bike...I just won't ride.

I've seen some of the young guys at the HUBB meetings doing RTW rides running on some pretty questionable equipment. I totally understand they are on a tight budget....but hey, maybe they could reach out to other HUBB members here and ask for help!?? Worth a try, anyway.

Tires? Boots? Chain? Brake pads? Face shield? Many of us have a few spares in the garage (in the US at least) and could happily help out a RTW guy coming through our area. I know I would do what I could. In fact I've got probably one of each of the above items.

Riding off road without boots is simply insane.
In the two groups I ride with....one for 20 years...the other for about 7 years...anyone who shows up on either a sub standard, unsafe bike in serious need of work....or ridiculous riding gear...well, these guys are not asked back on our rides. We know better. We all have seen what can happen.

There used to be a guy that would show up for rides wearing Tennis shoes. We named him. Tennis Shoe Rob. Sadly, Rob took his own life about 7 years ago while on a Death Valley Ride. He purposely rode his Ninja ZX-12 off the road at over 160 mph.....at night...not wearing a helmet. Funny, he never hurt his foot on all the rides in Tennis Shoes.

I'm hoping boot-less riders will check out how expensive surgery is these days.
I broke my leg (compound fracture of Tibia/Fibula) in 1997. I hit an Armco barrier then flew over the Armco and free fell 200 ft into a creek bed. Besides the Tibia, I broke 4 ribs, ankle (other leg), concussion, and bruised my heart...which caused perio-carditis a year later(another operation). Things were much cheaper then...after six operations over two years (8 months of PT) total cost was right about $200,000 usd. Now it would be close to a million. Yep, ONE MILLION DOLLARS...this according to my hospital administrator friend....who should know. Intensive Care is the most outrageous cost. My ten days there was $10,000 in '97....nowadays it would be as much as $100,000. Robbery, plain and simple.

So anyone who thnks good boots are expensive should check out my little
report. Good boots are the cheapest insurance you could ever buy!

Patrick

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

Sorry to hear of your accident and the beating you were given over costs. You are welcome to come and live in the European Union where such uncivilised and brutal behaviour on medical bills does not happen.

Good roads!

Hi quastdog, I have no special indignation but I have been riding bikes for years and when I see people been cheap with thier bike or gear I feel bad for them , I am not even talking about the idiot riding sport bike on speedo with no helemet ( I live in Florida), I went down few time while riding and the right gear help you get up faster , regarding the bike a $90 tire or a $20 brake pad seems to be a great deal compare to repare on you or the bike.

I just want to get this off my chest while we're still venting here.

The reading list sucks in the book exchanges here in SA. I can't read one more trashy murder/mayhem/mystery, I'm tired of wading through stacks of romance nonsense. Thankfully it seems, the selfhelp folks are staying at home, or at least leaving their books at home.

I want more! I need something with some meat to it. I'm not talking Shakespear here.

I want more comedy. Especially the guys write about how nuts el presidente de los EE.UU. is. I want more history, literature, classics. Good contemporary authors (excluding John Grisham - read too many now) writing decent suspense.

Just think how many books we, er you, have at home. We'll either throw them out, or get pennies on the dollar if someone ever buys them back. Instead, you could be spreading stimulating reading material throughout the known world.

As to that cheap thing. Defining cheap - now that's the hard part. One man's cheap...another man's luxuries!

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

I do agree with making sure that certain lines are drawn, relative to safety, BUT cheap riders aren't bad guys...and I'm one of them.

I DON'T buy into the marketing hype that I need aluminum cans, waterproof bags from North Face(or some similar supplier), GS's etc. to be safely RTWing...

By the time you buy ALL the gear, you'll have no $$s for why you chose to do this trip.

Riding in North America/EU is completely different than riding in some of these less developed countries. Our assumptions and how we ride in those areas will be different. I am NOT conservative in riding in these areas because I may not get another chance again...

SO I take risks others may not take, because I didn't make a huge investment in my equipment, and can simply walk away...


Just another approach to riding...

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edde
93 BMW K75s
www.motoedde.com

Try English Books stores or English sections in public libraries. B.A. has a few. Popular hostals/hotels always a great source for books too.

Dozens of books outlining the last seven years of the Bush debacle. The great ones will be written when Bush, Cheney, Rove, and about 20 other key players (like Addington, Libby, Delay, Gonzales) are all behind bars, along with about 10 key Congress folk who are all complicit in the many crimes they have commited against the USA and the world.

Some very well informed commentators on the Bush legacy are on line.Not all directly about Bush....but many link the subject to our current admin. as the source/cause for all kinds of situations worldwide...and provide good documentation.

Guys like Seymour Hirsch (New Yorker), Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Skahill (book on Blackwater Security), and one of my favorites, Robert Fisk. Fisk is a Brit who has lived in Lebanon for 30 years and probably has more up close and personal knowledge about the middle east than 50 Fox News pundits and so called experts. Also has great insight into the Bush Admin. and its rise to power. There are dozens of others, just scratching the surface here.

In the meantime, go for re-reads of the classics....
Gabriel Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a great read...again.
I read it while in Colombia in 1975.

Likewise, a favorite from my youth....Henry Miller. Tropic of Cancer &
Capricorn, Lexus, Nexus, Plexus, were my favs. I worked on a film about Miller
when he was living, hung out with him when he was in his 80's and chasing his
20 something Japanese wife around the house naked. Miller is a crack up. Henry's son, Tony, and I went to school together, so I met Henry the first time in about 1965. Miller was an avid bicycle rider and could have been a motorcyclist if given the chance. He loved two wheels as much as sex!

Re-read Doris Lessing, she just one the 2007 Nobel Prize for lit. (about 40 years overdue). Lawernce Durrell (Alexandria Quartet), Jack Kerouac, Herman Hesse, Carson McCullers, and dozens of others I can't recall. (too many concussions). If you're near Bariloche still, plenty of sources there if you takl to the right people.

Cheers,

Patrick

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

yes, the combination of both is possible. we're of the school who believe that travelling with inexpensive gear saves you money which keeps you on the road longer. we rode for 44,000 kms. from Canada to Chile with hiking boots, soft panniers, no gps, cell phone or guidebook and were totally fine.
There's nothing worse than seeing some pompous rider with all the fanciest gadgets and gear with their head buried inside the pages of a lonely planet following the backpacker trail. this is why we travel without all that shit...to escape into the real pulse of the country and discover each place by surprise, with nobody making up our minds for us.
i understand the safety factor, and yes, tires and a poorly running bike should be taken care of, but i see no need to spend thousands of dollars in hard cases and kevlar gear.
go dirtbag and live the experience day by day!

and always keep 'yer knees in the breeze!
T&T

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T&T
Todd Lawson & Christina Tottle
Whistler, BC, Canada

http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/motosagainstmalaria
http://www.sunfirefoto.com

I think I may be one of the cheap ones. My bike gets what it needs when it absolutely needs it and never ever before, because I don't like spending money that I don't have to. And.....

Controversially - and I fully expect indignant backlash....I quite often ride in jeans and leather jacket, or combats and leather jacket, with combat boots and some leather gloves. I always wear an Arai, but I know the no leather jeans look can be controversial. If it helps people in preparing their anti jeans/me arguments, I am also young and irresponsible.

As for books - Miller is great - he conveys what it is like to be a wannabe writer as convincingly as anyone but Fante and Bukowski. Cancer and Capricorn are both massively inspiring.
I always used to claim I didn't like American lit, but after meeting an American girl in Essouira last year who gave me a Bukowski poetry book I haven't looked back. Fante, Miller, Bukowski, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Thompson - just can't get enough of those damn Yanks recently.

As a Brit, I would recommend Glen Duncan and Irvine Welsh as the foremost purveyors of what it is to be British.

As a controversialist, I would recommend Charlie Boorman for his insistently beautiful prose style. Which isn't at all whingey or repetitive.

Happy riding.

I think we all wear jeans once in a while , if we are prepared to admit it .
Heavy jeans would be better like Carhartt [heavy cotton] or Wrangler Rigg [thick nylon] .That's what I wear for short trips .
Gloves are a necessity , I don't ever want to have gravel picked out of the palms of my hands .
I used to wear very strong 9" work boots on the bike [ never found any bike boots that I liked ] ,but now I have a pair of Sidi Discoverys and they are the dog's gonads . Short hiking boots ? No thanks ,I wouldn't want to have a footrest impale my ankle and I would like my foot to be pointing the right way after an "off".
I would rather spend money on the bike than myself as it returns that most cherished of gifts - RELIABILITY !

Poetry for me is well poured pint of ale ,served after a long ride by a buxom lass with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye .
But I might buy a Charley Boorman book ,if you can absolutely guarantee he is not whining .

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Now you are reaching for the stars!

Pun, pun, pun!!

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Dave

''Poetry for me is well poured pint of ale ,served after a long ride by a buxom lass with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye .
But I might buy a Charley Boorman book ,if you can absolutely guarantee he is not whining .''

OK OK! I collapse under the pressure, I just can't give you that guarentee! It would take a braver/more foolhardy man than me.

I like the simile, but overall I've never been a poetry fan, I've been all about the prose. I just love Bukowski because his poetry is like a badly poured pint of ale, served after a cold, wet, miserable ride, and thrown at you by a sour faced witch titted lass behind a greasy, ring stained bar.

That's life.

On the boot front, I like Lowa Combat Highs, good protection against twisting and impaling, but also good for walking and not looking like something from Battlestar Gallactica.

Happy Riding.