I didn't vote but in my case it's been an interchanging between sailboats, cars and motorcycles as the tool for travelling.
A bit unfair since I've been born into a family of sailors and was educated as a merchant sailor.

I would claim that sailboats will bring you even closer to nature forces and closer to the roots, to the philosophical understanding of life compared to motorcycles.

Motorcycles come in second for me.
However, my wife and I are more contend travelling the bike due to the ease of acces to remote areas compared to sailing boats.

And then there's the fact that sailboats takes 10 times more gold to buy and run compared to motorcycles.

Cars are just a sorry replacement to bikes and boats for us, except for veteran / vintage / special selected sports cars as they create some feelings of care, love and familiarity that even most modern bikes miss just like a veteran / vintage / special selected motorcycle can.

Niklas

Why don't you start it?

Does the name "Biker" have to be associated with HD ? nope or MC Gangs ?nope Biker is a name for one who lives to ride and rides to live, one whom has no need for training wheels, two wheels work just fine no need for four.
I Voted biker because that is and always will be where I come from.In around 1962 a biker bratt was spawned into this world to a very large family 70 full patched and around about the same number of wannabes.Same old life as all of the rest of the world with the biggest exception being very few owned a vehicle with more than two wheels.I have raised my children the same and they also have very little need for anything other than a motorcycle.I am now traveling all over the world ona MC been living on the roads and hiways for almost a year with no plans of ever returning to the starting point,Does this make me a MC Traveller ? Hmmm... Nope,I'm the same person that was labeled "Biker".
I have to ask what is the differences between biker and MC Traveller. My clothes are the same as everyone else's but I do not ride a HD,I used to ride my BMWs to the coffee shop almost daily but so did everyone else.Now that I escaped the rat race I still find myself going to coffee shops if they can be found.
Did I mention how I dislike in a very strong way the (Name,Term,Label,Association with HD) "Biker"

While I enjoy both I think it would be easier for me to give up long distance travelling than riding my bike. I travel once in a while, but I ride my motorcycle darn near every day.

now I can do both at last.
 

Was a frustrated biker / traveller for a long time! Watched LWR and it reached boiling point ! Could not afford either until recent years due to family commitments, starting business blah blah blah. I know for sure there are many more "wanabe" guys & gals around. It's tough but sometimes you have to put other people / things first. I guess it is tough when you can't do that too ! :offtopic:

My luck changed. Kids older ( Don't do Mum & Dad Holidays) Work is okay.

I had to coerce my wife into the bike bit to start with, she will never ride herself but has loved every trip so far as pillion.

Just a shame life is 90% work 10% travel and not the other way.

I am with out a doubt a traveler with a passion for bikes.

For me bike overlanding is (to paraphrase Jack Sparrow -Pirates of the Caribbean 2003):

..."The entire wo'ld. Wherever we want to go, we'll go. That's what a BIKE is, you know. It's not just wheels and a seat and a engine and a couple of panniers, that's what a bike NEEDS but what a bike is... what the Anubis really is... is freedom."


For me it is simple.. I love travel and will do it anyway i can. I love bikes. so the combination of the two is simply perfect. But as other have said. If i could only travel by "other mean" I would still travel. I hope to never stop riding or traveling..

Nice one Jon933 Bloody hell 65 and I thought I was pushing it at 62!!!

All power to your carbs brother.

Remember "Its not the destination but the journey thats everything"
That was written by Socrates, Im not sure what bike he rode but he obviously got lost on the way.

Traveller, by whatever means fits best.
I guess I have this need to see around the next corner, what its like to be there.

My roadtrips have always been on 4wheels, (except western France on a pushbike,) just cos its been easier that way, but I can see how 2 could be more fun. The 4 wheels covers ground, carries food and provides a place to sleep but its the journey that I'm there for not the driving.

I like to travel on foot, I get to some beautiful places, sometimes I could be the first person ever to have stood there (or thats how it feels) and theres time to look around and really see..but not so practical for really big distances!
For work each summer I walk 1200km and around 120000m of vertical gain/descent, its amazing how much ground you can cover, with time..

On ski or snowshoes, better than foot in the snow, beautiful, enjoyable, something magic sometimes making your own track, frost crystals sparkling..you get to places you never could by machine, the world looks pristine, silent

I've done short trips by snowmobile and 4WD both also a lot of fun in their own way too.

I see the bike as another tool to enable me to travel when I get the chance. Each mode of transport has it's own set of pro's and cons.

With plane transport you can get there very quickly but see nothing of the way there. Also now days the rigmarole with airport security makes the whole experience very unpleasant unless you go by private plane.

Train transport you get to see a lot more of the route but you can not stop to look around you, it is much cheaper outside the UK especially in asia. It is also far more convenient. you can take more with you and that includes a bike for not much extra costs.

Boat transport is nice too but you are limited to water.......... How ever a river cruise can be fun. (more interesting scenery)

Car transport you come and go as you please, you try to choose an appropriate car but there are always compromises ;-) you do get to see a lot of what you travel through but you are a bit removed. You also have the benefit of weather protection and may be a/c too!

Bike transport you come and go as you please, you try to choose an appropriate bike but there are always compromises ;-) you get to see a even more of what you travel through, you are so close you can even smell it, feel it and get wet too!

But the bottom line line is you Travel, and if you are luck you get to meet wonderful people from different cultures, learn a little and become a bit more tolerant of other cultures too.

so me I am just happy exploring the world any way I can! but I do prefer the freedom that comes with my own transport.

Depends. I don't travel to go anywhere specific. Just for the ride, and move about every day. Just did a 1 week 3000 km trip with my son as pillion. we stayed in a different place every night. I guess that makes me a biker as its not about the travel, but the ride.

Then again, I don't fit the biker image. I don't belong to any MC clubs, detest group rides or making a spectacle of myself my bike groups, bike venues, or ridiculous clothing. I love bikes, but not the bike scene. The whole thing of clothing, tattoos, long hair etc seems ridiculous to me. what does it have to do with riding a bike? And why do I need marshals, road captains, colours, vests, rules and regs etc to go ride my bike? I avoid places such people go and I don't want to be associated with it.

I once met some chaps in Belgium who were the Freedom Riders Rebel Motorcycle Club or some such name. They had a road leader, back markers, printed sheet with the route, risk assessment and a treasurer with two assistants. They struck me as neither free nor rebels but had a *****y good time.

Possibly good in the right sized dose?

Andy

I love to ride motorcycles! I love the feel of acceleration as it slides me back on the seat. I love the feel of the tires gripping the pavement on a mountain road.

I also love to travel, backpacked through Europe, Middle East and South America. I bought my first bike in Cairo, Egypt in 1982 after reading Jupiter's Travels, hoping to follow in Ted's tire tracks. that ended badly but the passion remained.

So I throw my tent and some clothes on my big bike and follow the twisty roads wherever they take me. Last year that was around the USA and Mexico. Next South America. Riding fast on challenging roads, stopping in villages, towns and cities to experience life and culture. Sure, I may miss that rare flower on the side of the road, but, flowers don't interest me anyway.

I will never ride one of those buzzy little toys that some "travelers on bikes" use so i guess I'm a biker who travels.

I identify pretty much equally with a label "biker" & "traveller" although I always see my motorcycle as a tool to go where I want, it's a means not an end. :)

Is there much of a difference? Biker or traveller? What's a biker and what's a traveller? To most question, you have to understand the question to get a half decent answer.


I'm a summer rider. Ride six month's of the year. SORN for the winter month's. They sit in my garage with cover's over them. Come April re new the insurance, tax, and MOT. A MOT is something all UK vehicles have to have done each year. Once they are over three year's old. It's to make sure that they are fit for the road. When the MOT first came out 20/30 year's ago. It was a case of if nout fell off it passed. Now day's it's getting harder and harder to get a crap vehicle through, Must be a good thing. Any way I'm off on a tangent. When the weather is good I'll get the bike out and have a local day ride round. Then put it back. But then I plan twice a year to travel. Each time putting round 5k miles on the bike. So when I'm not traveling, I'm a rider.


John933

This topic does seem to have run and run. I had to look back at what I said a couple of years ago to check I'm not about to contradict myself :confused1: :rofl:

I have wondered many times over the years if I'd bother with bikes if it wasn't for the travel. I'm most definately not into pirate garb Harley cruising or power ranger fastest kids on the block or the hangin' out together tats n trikes "bikers".

I'm not even sure the fast appreciating old clunker scene holds much appeal these days since they changed from being engineering jigsaw puzzles to stalwarts of the fine art market along with Premier Cru wine and Chippendale furniture. As a rule of thumb it's time to move on when something's being sold at an auction with a printed catalogue and a description of its "provenance and patina" rather than a list of previous owners and which bits are too rusty to use.

So bikes are tied up almost inextricably with going somewhere for me. They're transport but they're more than that, they're an approach to travel. I would have used the word "adventure" had it not been completely debased over the last five or ten years by corporate marketing. In the old sense of the word going somewhere on a bike is adventurous. In the new sense of the word promising or selling "adventure" seems to be merely another method of separating the gullible from their money.

As the years have gone on though the margins have narrowed. Years ago I would just load the bike up and head off somewhere. I'd camp or just sleep at the side of the road because it was cheaper but tell myself that when I was older and richer (somehow the two always went together - now I know better doh ) I'd book into decent hotels. These days, (in my 60's) sleeping at the side of the road just makes me look like a vagrant so I'm forced into hotels whether I like it or not. I've even noticed some campsites giving me quizzical looks when I arrive on my own as if to say there's something not quite right if someone your age is staying here alone. Strangely I don't get that if I turn up in a classic car!

I tend to divide what I'm doing into one of three catagories - it'll either be:

Excursion - a day trip somewhere or maybe a weekend and probably within the UK to somewhere I either know or have some experience of. No real degree of preparation needed, particularly in the summer.

Exploration - A longer multi day or multi week trip. If it's in the UK it'll be to somewhere obscure that I don't now well or in Europe it'll be to what would have been (pre 89) Western Europe.

Expedition - Anywhere out of western Europe, where planning / paperwork is a significant part of the process and where bike choice and prep may mean I have to start from scratch. May include significant winter bike travel in Europe.

So I have a minimum requirement for owning a bike and I own what I do because it enables me to plan and execute those plans. In some respects my travel plans and my bike riding are opposite sides of the same coin. It's hard to have one without the other.