Wise Words From Austin Vince.

[Selous]

This post could get very deep indeed, but it'd be no bad thing to hear everyone else's reasoning.

It's far too easy to keep on the treadmill, I'm so guilty of wanting to jump ship and head off into the unknown but worried how my wife and I would cope with no money in older (like 10 years) age.

We must talk about it every week and know we'll do something in the future but how to pack up and go now? Having your own business has bonuses but comes at a price, trips are limited to short time-scales and big dreams put on the back-burner.

My biggest worry though is playing against time, just how much do you have left?

Mate my only advice to you is just like when you started your business have a plan & try to keep to it plan for say 10 years for business growth profit etc & savings & sell up, go travel.

[Redmurty]

Me and Mark are living the dream right this moment - currently in USA. Austin Vince started all this for me some years ago when I saw Mondo Enduro on Channel 4 - It has got to be done, and if you think that getting your friends to understand what it's all about you should try relaying it to most Americans - they simply do not understand the concept of arriving in the States and then riding all the way home to the UK via Russia - for most of them their lives are contained within their own state !

Lots of them never leave thier own state, that's why they think they are qualified to run the world, "Rant over"

Yes you are "living the dream" and good for you for doing it. Keep us up dated and I think I speak for mall on the forum "you have our best wishes" ya jammy barstools . cheers Spud PS think of all the stories you will have to bore the kids/grandkids :whistle:

[MarkE]

Lots of them never leave thier own state, that's why they think they are qualified to run the world, "Rant over"

I'm not so sure about that. Very few of the US citizens I know feel in any way qualified to run the world, anymore than the citizens of any other country. US politicians on the other hand are exactly the same as the politicians of every other country (and I include the Obamassiah here); they do believe they should be in charge, and they are the last people who should be in charge of anything.

By definition, most of the US citizens I have met have left the states (otherwise I wouldn't have met many of them), but I have worked via telephone, email etc with many who have travelled only in the states. A lot of Europeans get sniffy about this, but I remember a conversation with a German about this; he had never travelled to a country outside the EU. In terms of population, culture and area how was he different from a US citizen who had never left the states?

Back on thread. I am only just restarting my travels, having taken time out to raise a family. I hope I have raised my children to share my taste for travel (among many other things), but also that I have equipped them to live the life they choose in the world they must face, not the one I would like them to have. That has meant giving them stability and education. Don't knock those of us who have allowed travel to take second place to another priority at times. FWIW I may have succeeded as the youngest is currently travelling, and she is in a part of the world I have yet to visit.

[flyinwalrus]

I've worked as a paramedic for 15yrs and know too well how cruel life can be even to the not so old, and it definately makes you have a mind set that if want to do & see things then you should just get out & do it! no point aiming regardless for a retirement you're "hoping" to get too!! A friend had recently started riding bikes after me bleating at him for years about freeedom etc etc etc.... hes gutted...........that he didint start 20 yrs ago!!!!

[Wandering Star]

We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.

[BaldBaBoon]

I think I managed to explain this once.

It was one of the very rare times that I had to use a train as I had to leave my crane on site. ( next week travelling to and from the site on my bike ) The whole train was full of office workers coming home except for a young lady with her two children across from me.

Got chattering to her and one of her boys asked her " what is deja vu mummy? " in relation to some school work.

Do you mind if I explain that? I said.

Not exactly as Vince said...but the same mindset.

" Deja Vue is like waking up in the morning and putting on a suit, getting on a train and sitting reading papers for an hour....then sitting behind your computer at work all day. At the end of the day, you sit on a train for an hour reading papers to get home. "

" After a few years of this you have a constant sense of deja vu in that you are sure you have done the same thing before...or the yanks call it groundhog day "

I did say it loud enough to wind up a considerable amount of the fellow passengers.

[prooney377]

This is probably the best thread I have read on here. The eternal question of WHY we do it, ride our bikes. For me, I ride for many reasons, some of which go like this:

After a 300 mile ride, i get home and don't want to be home, I want to carry on riding

When I stop at the services or a cafe car park, people come over to chat; it doesn't happen in the car

The nod to the guy/gal on the bike travelling in the opposite direction

When I was in Oz and stuck for a place to stay a biker came to my rescue. I'll be returning the favour when he comes to the UK in June

I could go on and on but won't. The only thing I have to say is that after nearly 20 years of riding the thrill and pleasure I get from riding doesn't diminish but gets greater every time I swing a leg over

[strimstrum]

Not exactly as Vince said...but the same mindset.

" Deja Vue is like waking up in the morning and putting on a suit, getting on a train and sitting reading papers for an hour....then sitting behind your computer at work all day. At the end of the day, you sit on a train for an hour reading papers to get home. "

" After a few years of this you have a constant sense of deja vu in that you are sure you have done the same thing before...or the yanks call it groundhog day "

Point taken BaldBaBoon but it is unwise to put all the suits together and box them up as the same package. Some suits are bikers and some of those suited bikers are adventureous - take a look at my blog http://strimstrum.blogspot.com to see what this suit is up to or have a look at our website www.ridersoftheworld.co.uk to see what this suit has done in the past.

This isn't a dig by the way because I also subscribe to the idea that a lot of office workers don't understand the world out there but some do. For some the most important thing is to have a bigger chair or their name on the door ( I know this because I was that person once upon a long time ago but thankfully salvation came in the shape of two wheels)

[Redmurty]

This is probably the best thread I have read on here. The eternal question of WHY we do it, ride our bikes. For me, I ride for many reasons, some of which go like this:

After a 300 mile ride, i get home and don't want to be home, I want to carry on riding

When I stop at the services or a cafe car park, people come over to chat; it doesn't happen in the car

The nod to the guy/gal on the bike travelling in the opposite direction

When I was in Oz and stuck for a place to stay a biker came to my rescue. I'll be returning the favour when he comes to the UK in June

I could go on and on but won't. The only thing I have to say is that after nearly 20 years of riding the thrill and pleasure I get from riding doesn't diminish but gets greater every time I swing a leg over

I had a similar day yesterday 320 miles around Wales including Brecon and Pembroke national parks, the only two people who "diss" me as my kids would say were a couple on a Harley who where at the side of the road, they heard the engine looked up I flashed the lights and waved for them to ignore me and even turn their backs WTF ? Hardly stopped at all, could of taken loads of photo's but just want saddle time, except when I nearly missed a bend on the coast road watching a red Kite soaring above my head. I literally had to strip off at the side of the road as I got that hot. I was just revelling in the day and being alive. What a gift yesterday was. cheers Spud

[Francis Begbie]

Is that Mondo Enduro worth a watch then? Never seen it, might invest in the dvd.