Decisions decisions

[Jak*]

Somewhere I have a photo of my Triumph TSS loaded up for a trip to Scotland in 1987. It is outside my parents garage in East London. I had ridden there on the Friday afternoon from my barracks in South London. In about fifteen minutes I had chucked my camping gear for the weekend, a couple of cans of beer and a hip flask of whiskey, in an army back pack and bungeed it to the back seat. A cup of tea and I was off, my map was the back pages of a diary in my leather jacket. I had no waterproofs and no recovery cover. I did not actually know exactly where the rally I was going to was, which didn’t matter that much as I coasted to a halt about a mile south of the Scottish border having run out of fuel. I was not used to the idea of petrol garages that closed in the evening as we had plenty of late night ones in London. Anyway it all worked out okay, I met a bloke walking his dog who told me it would be okay to camp in the field as it was his mates. I camped up next to a stream, had my beer and whiskey, got up the next morning and pushed the bike to the nearest petrol station. It ended up being a great weekend.

About seven years later I set off on a 1978 ex plod BMW, with a similar lack of planning to see a couple of mates, one in Portugal and one in Brussels. This time I had booked a ferry, had got the insurance green card, that was required back then and had got a second hand map of Spain and Portugal off a mate. Typically the clutch exploded half way across London, but I managed to get it sorted and after phoning the ferry did the trip the opposite way round. It was a great trip with a lot of laughs and adventures.

Now I am thinking of going back to see my mate in Portugal and it all seems so complicated. In the intervening years most of my trips abroad have been with my family in the sidecar, this time I will be on my own on a solo. I am not sure whether the trouble now is that I can look so much stuff up on the internet, or whether it is a symptom of getting older. There seem a lot more choices, when I went to Scotland I wore my leather jacket, a pair of denim jeans, gloves and the only helmet I owned. Now I already have a number of choices of gear and bike, although I think I have decided on the Himalayan. I can go on google maps and plan routes, I am contemplating doing some of the TET but that would certainly requiring checking out the route first and possibly wearing different gear and fitting different tyres. I could probably afford not to camp if I chose. Ultimately I guess I could go somewhere entirely different. The only thing that is certain is the dates that I can go, as my holidays are fixed. It all seemed a lot simpler back in the day.

Is this a common phenomenon or is it just me?
Cheers Jak

[richeyroo]

In 1995 i wanted to ride from the uk to Cape Town. We wanted to go via Algeria. We asked the Algerian Embassy for a Visa and they said No. So we thought, "f@ck it, let's go anyway. " This was pre internet and pre GPS so we did virtually no research **, bought 2 Michelin maps and set off, arriving in Cape Town 12 months later. Jeans, walking boots, a Tshirt most of the time and an open face lid on an XTZ750. Happy days

** Edit. We knew of a bloke nearby who'd done a trip on an R80GS with a 43 litre tank. We went to his house and were awe struck by his knackered bike. Our hero said "f@ck it, just go"

Happy days indeed just making it up as you go along

[herman]

Modern vehicles bikes included are generally superbly reliable yet we cant go to Starbucks without full breakdown cover and a £17k dealer serviced two year old behemoth with gps tracking. The world is getting smaller so it seems to have a true adventure you have to go to extremes , bullshit but it sells stuff.

[PHILinFRANCE]

Go to see your mate , take a map and rely on instinct ........................its like riding a bike you'll love it , my first big trip after many years was to Maroc and half way through my buddy wanted his own time , i'd relied on him and his GPS so when we parted , all on good terms my GPS was 2ft square it turned out to be one of my best memeries

[byewayrider]

If you want a true adventure all you need is a compass, 2 dice and a trip meter..

Roll dice even is left odd is right the munber on dice equals miles riden.... Suprisingly simple and fun in the desert lol..

People plan too much and wory about things of no consequence... Your born you die what you do between is the best bit..

[Billy Bananahead]

Top stuff lads.
First time I went abroad or overseas on bike, packed me tent and sleeping bag and some spare clothes and went through the Tunnel and headed for Copenhagen. Before Satnav, no breakdown recovery , only a map and passport and some money in my wallet.
Go for it.

[OnHellas]

My first foreign trip was back in ‘94. I took the ferry to Spain and rode down to the bottom of Portugal.
No mobile phone, no satnav.....just a map torn out of a Sunday newspaper supplement magazine and plenty of naivety.

These days I have a mobile phone and a satnav....the page from the magazine is long gone but my box of naivety never seems to empty!!

In answer to the original question though, It’s you Jak. It’s all of us. As we get older, have a bit more money, more experience we start to see that there are more choices open to us.
This forum is full of ‘what tyres?’, ‘which farkle?’

Like when you were younger, if the motor runs and the tyres have got air in them keep going, if not then a new adventure begins.

As for riding some of the TET, if it gets a bit to tough for the bike you’re riding, turn around. Go back. Find another path.
That will be easy....with your mobile phone, satnav, etc

Oh, don’t forget to have fun!!

[garyboy]

yes .. things seem different now .. but also WE are different .. and indeed there ARE more choices, and more information .. more routes, more types of routes.

I think ..
. first choose the type of riding ..
road is going to be easier and best, as you know that method, and time is limited, not so much time for exploring and making mistakes .. do some easy trails at u mates
. so that will dictate choice of bike,

. make a preferred destination .. your mates place .. but allow for change of mind, or adventurous things
. make a drawn route on a map .. but take other tech stuff like gps, satnav .. but allow for deviations if it takes your fancy.
. plan to camp, but allow for hotels if wanted or needed.
. keep it simple .. back to basics.
. get used to your own company, but visit places and people
. make a date, book the ferry or wotever, get your money and gear together .. and GO

[daveuprite]

If you want a true adventure all you need is a compass, 2 dice and a trip meter..

Roll dice even is left odd is right the munber on dice equals miles riden.... Suprisingly simple and fun in the desert lol..

People plan too much and wory about things of no consequence... Your born you die what you do between is the best bit..

Wonder if you've ever read this?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man

A very good read, and an important piece of modern philosophy that really gets you thinking.

[Tonibe63]

Modern vehicles bikes included are generally superbly reliable yet we cant go to Starbucks without full breakdown cover and a £17k dealer serviced two year old behemoth with gps tracking. The world is getting smaller so it seems to have a true adventure you have to go to extremes , bullshit but it sells stuff.

Only if you choose to do it that way. Our modern lives can be overcomplicated by our prerequisites for comfort and control but we (my Wife and I) view our 'holidays' as a chance to escape that routine.
A 10 year old 50k+ home serviced bike, a 1 way tunnel crossing, 3 man tent + sleeping bags, no cooking gear, a Michelin map and fist full of dollars/euros/dirhams has given us some amazing experiences and encounters.
Our friends say we are nuts as they flick through their 'lovely hotel' photo's with Mickey, they look gone out when we recall nights in deserts/mountain refuges/wild camping on the beach etc and positively horrified about getting lost and trusting people of other cultures to help us out.
We tried an all inclusive package holiday earlier this year (1st time for 10 years) just to remind ourselves of the 'convenience' of getting away from it all ...... needless to say by day 3 we were off in the mountains.
Different strokes for different folks but next year ........