Hello from Central Florida
 

Hi All,

Thought I'd pop in here and introduce myself. I don't have any huge adventure rides to post about, but, given my constraints (young children at home and, um, financial challenges), I get out when I can for short and long rides.
I've loved bikes since I was a kid but didn't own one until 2004 or so, when I found a 1968 Honda CB350 under a pile of junk and shipping blankets in the back of my father-in-law's shop. I got it running, barely, just in time for Hurricane Charley to hit us and tear a huge part of our roof off, drop a tree on our garage, and maxed out our home insurance. It took until 2009 to get back to the old CB, but I got it running properly and started my riding career.

A couple years ago I added a 2011 Triumph Bonneville T100 to the stable and started racking up miles on it, too. Both the Honda and the Triumph had about 3,400 miles on them when I started riding them and now both have well over 30,000 miles each.

Some of the longer trips I've taken are: I've ridden the Honda from central Florida to Michigan back on one cold April, ridden it twice to the start (In Maggie Valley, NC) and in the Motorcycle Kickstart Classic Ride, once to Barber Vintage Festival and the other time to Denton, NC. I've also taken the CB350 on another jaunt to Barber Vintage Festival and back and forth to the Blue Ridges a couple times. The Bonnie has done a similar Florida to Michigan trip, a Barber trip, multiple rides to the Blue Ridge, and to the Ozarks. Of course, I've been all over most of Florida. The Bonnie is currently being "ADV"ed in anticipation of a possible ride to Alaska next summer (fingers crossed).

I am on the Board of Directors of the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club NA and am Editor of Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Magazine, the official publication of the VJMC. I own two publishing imprints; one is Lost Classics Book Company (the breadwinner of the two and specializing in republishing children's educational books form the late 1800s and early 1900s) and Road Dog Publications (a new imprint dedicated to publishing books about riding motorcycles and, specifically, about how the experience changes people). You may be familiar with the newest book, Bonneville Go or Bust.
I hope to learn a lot from everyone here and find ways to stretch my riding horizons.

I might mention, too, that back before I rode motorcycles, I mean a long way back, I traveled from Indiana to Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. I was more or less as non-student tag-long for five weeks with a group from a college I had gone to that were doing a "J Term" Tropical Biology/PreColumbian Archaelogy trip. This was in 1979 and we rarely were in large cities, but generally tent camped in the wild places in those countries. I love those places and am intrigued to find our what conditions are like now for traveling there. A redo by bike would be a magical experience, I think.

Cheers,

Mike

Welcome Mike!

Hope to see you at an HU Meeting one day telling us about your new travel experiences! :)

Thanks Grant! I noticed you will be having a event in North Carolina in September. It is within the realm of possibility I could make that one. By September I ought to be in a better financial position to do stuff, but it is also close to Barber where I have a bunch of PR stuff going on with the new book. If at all possible, though, I might make NC.

I have a quick question. I looked around a bit but didn't see anything obvious. Is there an section here (like the ADVRider Tent Space list) where you can offer free camping space and other help for travelers passing through? I am listed at ADV but would be glad to put up travelers from HU also.

Thanks,

Mike