I had the opportunity to meet some of the world's great motorcycle adventurers recently, and the really interesting thing was just how much they are like everyone else. The difference is that whereas we all dream, they have acted on their dreams.
I was down in Amado, AZ, at the Overland Expo, which is a gathering intended to bring people who dream about adventure touring together with people who do it, and with vendors who make products geared specifically for this type of excursion. The place was packed.
Adventure touring, or overlanding as they call it, is said to be the fastest growing niche in motorcycling, with popular models being the Kawasaki KLR650, the Suzuki DR-Z400, the Yamaha WR450F, among others. Unlike road touring, big power is not the people doing these rides look for first. In fact, as a simple rule of thumb you can ponder this adage: If you can't pick it up by yourself it's not an adventure motorcycle.
To listen to some of these people tell their stories of their adventures is both inspiring and daunting. There was Ted Simon, who wrote Jupiter's Travels about his four-year ride around the world. Also Lois Pryce, whose ride from Alaska to the tip of South America is recounted in her book Lois on the Loose, and whose trip from England to Cape Town, South Africa, is told in Red Tape and White Knuckles. Both those rides were on 250cc Yamaha machines. And there were others.
It wasn't just the distances they covered, but also the seemingly insurmountable problems they somehow surmounted and incredible struggles their journeys at times required. Not to mention outright dangers, ranging from passing through countries at war to running out of gas in the middle of the Sahara Desert with nobody else around for miles to being jailed by local "authorities" intent on separating you from your cash. How many among us have the gumption to push a heavily laden motorcycle through miles of knee-deep mud or ride a road that rains have turned into a river through an area where anything off the road holds the potential of triggering land mines?
Fortunately, it isn't necessary to risk your life in order to go adventuring on your motorcycle. The people who write the books are the ones who have gone to extremes. For the rest of us who aren't as hard core, all it really takes is to take a week's vacation and go ride somewhere you've never been before. Sure it still takes preparation. If you've never ridden a that KLR 650 on goat trails you had best get some practice before setting off on a seven-day ride through the Rocky Mountains. You'd also better talk to some people who have done these things before about the right kind of tents, sleeping bags, and other gear you'll need.
But in the end it's all about challenging yourself. Challenging yourself to make the commitment to go, to do the necessary research and preparation, and then to actually ride the ride. Many people shake their heads and tell themselves they just can't do these kinds of things: They have jobs, families, commitments. They don't have the money for the bikes and gear or they can't take the time off.
These are valid concerns but one common theme cropped up again and again at the expo: If you really want to do this kind of adventuring you will organize your life to make it possible. Do you really need a 5,000-square-foot house when a 2,000-square-foot house would free up enough money to buy the bike and the gear and leave you with a much smaller mortgage that would then free up more money for more trips? In short, it's priorities. Do you have real dreams, or are they fantasies? Real dreams really can come true, but you are the one who has to make that happen.