The May issue of American Motorcyclist is finally available online. Unfortunately, you do need to be an AMA member to be able to view it. Here‘s a direct link.

Continue reading AMA Online

One of the images I took in my cross-Europe ride in August is featured as the headlining photo in a MatadorNetwork photo gallery today about “What Have You Seen Outside Your Window While Traveling?”: http://matadornetwork.com/trips/photo-gallery-what-have-you-seen-outside-your-window-while-traveling. I had originally posted about it here.

When I saw a request for photos under this theme, this seemed like the only fitting one to me because it’s one that is forever in my mind. I recall the Hotel Colli owner ushering me into this delightful room, which seemed practically palatial after days on the road staying at hostels by night. He opened the balcony doors with a flourish and I gasped. I had been riding through the Dolomiti all day of course, but it still seemed like such a luxury to get a room with a gorgeous view like that. I think I took this picture the next morning after a well-earned night’s sleep when I stood outside and gazed at those magnificent mountains again, longing to stay there an extra day. Part of me wishes that I had, but looking back at how things turned out, it was probably a good thing that I headed to Ljubljana that day because I escaped the torrential rains and snowfall in the Slovenian Alps that followed just a day after I had ended my ride.

This is still my favorite place in the world though, one that I think of wistfully when things are going rough. I feel fortunate to have seen and experienced it. I know I will return there someday, maybe spend a couple of weeks in those mountains, riding a motorcycle, hiking WW2 trails, gazing at the craggy peaks that changed color with the changing light, eating casunziei and other local delicacies, and drinking wine and at one of the small cafes that line the main street, where all the locals know each other. I felt warmth, love and caring amongst the people here like I had rarely felt with strangers on the road for most of that trip. And the mountains – oh those mountains! – engulfed me and made me feel like I had finally come home.

…. and practically the centerfold too. :P

The good folks at the AMA contacted me a couple of months ago asking if I would write a 700 word piece for them about how to plan and execute a successful road trip. Since I know a couple of things about the topic, I agreed and sent in a write-up. The most difficult part was really trimming it down to the required word count seeing as I wanted to speak volumes about the subject. I think I managed to get it down to about 900 and they did the rest. I think they did a great job with the editing as they kept the essence of what I wanted to say, especially with respect to leaving your gadgets at home (sage advice that I’ve never actually taken) and having a good attitude while on the roadtrip (images of bawling my head off and coming to blows with my co-rider Sarah when stuck in the mud in Slana come to mind).

When they requested the article, they mentioned something about using some pictures from the photoshoot they had commissioned last year. I didn’t think much about it, until a friend pinged me on Friday saying something to the effect of – “Holy &^&@#^@, I came home from work and saw you on the cover of my AMA mag.” This being April 1st, I was going to reply with something to the tune of “Haha… yeah right, nice try.” until he sent me scanned images. Cue shock, delight, shock, surprise, shock, and then finally acceptance. Yes, there was a lot of shock involved and not a few thoughts of feeling like a complete tool and poseur seeing as I haven’t ridden a motorcycle in the past three months (it’s a hiatus!). Oh and the SV featured in it hasn’t run in 8 months since I got stranded on the US-Canada border. Looking at the magazine cover, I felt like I was looking at someone else that I knew way back, and not me! I know that I should just chill out and enjoy my 15 minutes of fame though. And maybe I will. I’m especially delighted with the inside photo accompanying the article, which was taken on a street close to where I live, with downtown Seattle in the background – my own beloved city! It’s a shame the Space Needle isn’t in it.

Yesterday evening, I finally got my own copy in the mail, along with a stack of free copies, same as they did last year, bless ‘em. It’s too bad that they are subscription only (even if they do have a distribution of 250,000 or so), so most of my friends won’t be able to buy a copy on the newsstands and have to settle for PDFs. I’ll be able to send one to my mum though, who after last year’s article finally figured out that I don’t really ride a scooter. :)

Oh and I cannot wait for outraged letters to the editor start pouring in, about how they could feature a squid sans motorcycle jacket, pants, helmet or gloves. What can I say – vanity won out over setting a good example for today’s youth. ;)

Here are screenshots of the images and article:

Cover: Link to hi-res PDF
Page 1 – Link to hi-res PDF
Page 2 – Link to hi-res PDF

(Major thanks to Gary Meyering for sending those to me!)

There are still mysteries in this world. A rider from work posted this a little while ago to the riders DL:

I met this gal in Baja out in the middle of nowhere. She was from Japan had been travelling the world for 5 years. This was her second bike, she wore out her first bike which I believe she said was a DR200. I have a DR200 and would definitely pick the xt225 over the DR for adventure riding. The DR is a 5speed and the 6th gear on the Yamaha would definitely make things a little less buzzy at 60. She picked this Yamaha up in Russia. She was just coming out of the salt flats on the west side of Baja which has some sanding spots. She was able to make that bike go where she needed and the bike appeared stock.

The email we copied down from her didn’t seem to work so we never were able to make contact.

A few months later, a picture of her showed up in a slideshow done by MotoQuest Tours about their tour in Peru which I attended in December. At least, I think it was her. There might be lots of Japanese women riding small dirt bikes down there. :)

This is her (I love her navigational system):

I was curious and dug a little on the internet and found this on page 13 of American Motorcylist:

I dashed off an email to Skip Mascorro to find out if it’s the same woman and if he knows anything else about her and he wrote back saying – “I know nothing of her background other than she humbled our group of macho riders. I believe I was wrapped up “working” at the time ofthat enounter so I didn’t have a lot of time to visit.”

And thanks to Bluepoof, I found a couple of entries on Horizons Unlimited about a woman named “Miki” who answers to the description:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/newsletter/2007-03.shtml
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/newsletter/2007-01.shtml

Outside of that, she remains a mystery. If anyone knows anything more about her, do let me know, would you? :)

I watched Mondo Enduro a couple of years ago and was of course immediately won over by that ragtag group of men who rode their motorcycles around the world back in 1995. So when I heard that both Lois Pryce and Austin Vince were going to speak at two separate locations in Seattle in the space of a week, I had the distinct sensation that Christmas had arrived early.

Austin’s talk was on a weekday, making that a slightly more difficult commitment, but I ended up going after all with Kris, my rider in crime. The talk was held at the Georgetown Stables, a little south of Seattle. I arrived there about 15 minutes before the talk began, thinking I’d just buy tickets at the venue. Kris informed me that they had a waitlist because the turnout was so huge. Who would have known? I guess Vince has quite a following in Seattle. We put our names on it and waited around until we got in.

The venue was tiny and crammed full, so we squeezed into some seats against the wall to the left of the podium area, which had a projector screen set up and the man himself in his trademark red jumpsuit.

Now it had been a while since I saw the movie and I had no recollection of him or what kind of a person he was. All I knew was that he was Lois Pryce’ husband and I secretly hoped that it wouldn’t be a stodgy, dull talk. I needn’t have worried though, because for the next three hours, I proceeded to laugh my head off. Austin’s talk was replete with witty stories interspersed with hilarious imagery and jokes that had me splitting my sides. It wasn’t a traditional slideshow with chronological images of a ride with commentary on the side. That would have been a bit dull seeing that I had already seen the movie. Instead he focused on the kinds of bikes they rode, the gear they carried, chance encounters on the road.

To my surprise and astonishment , and well… delight, his narrative was peppered with snarky references to what “adventure riding” has turned into today – buying a big, expensive motorcycle – preferably a GS or KTM “Adventure”, outfitting it with expensive Touratech accessories, and then riding forever on tarmac and rarely going on dirt. Okay, he said it a lot more crudely than I’ve put it, and I wonder how much of the audience cringed inwardly at those remarks. He flat out said that if your riding has been only within North America and West Europe, you shouldn’t dare to call yourself an adventure rider.

He especially seemed to have a big bone to pick with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman about Long Way Round. I could understand where he was coming from. Him and his Mondo Enduro friends – and riders like Lois Pryce and Ted Simon – have proved that it is possible to travel the world on cheap bikes, minimal gear and nothing more than your wits and an open mind. While I loved Long Way Round for a number of things, the things that bothered me about it were the same things that Vince vehemently spoke out against – the fact that they had ridiculously expensive, heavily overloaded bikes, a ton of gear they didn’t need, a team of people who managed all the trip logistics for them, a support crew, and an obvious attitude of suspicion and at times mockery of the foods and customs of the people they encountered during their journey. While the movie was inspiring to quite a few of us, it also seemed to have given the idea that you needed to have a lot of money and privilege to be able to go have an adventure. It is saddening that people like Lois and Vince do not get recognition and acclaim for their remarkable achievements outside of the niche of motorcyclists who recognize their names.

During the intermission, I bought a copy of the book Mondo Enduro and got it signed by Vince and got my picture taken with him.

He spent most of the rest of his talk speaking about the Zilov Gap in Siberia – the Russian equivalent of the Darien Gap in South America. This was a 400 mile section of road between Khabarovsk and Chita that they had attempted to ride and given up on, finally hopping the train, only to discover that the rest of the train journey paralleled a neat little dirt track which they could have been on, if only they had known. During Terra Circa, they made it their mission to find that road and ride the entire length of the gap without taking recourse to the train. He ended that story with a photograph of a dirt road leading to a river, with a bridge above it. He said that he had one thing in common with Ewan McGregor in that they had both been at that exact same location, except that he had ridden all the way to the end, and Ewan and Charlie had taken the train on that bridge.

From here, the talk went on to going towards North America and LA. By now it was well after 10PM though, and Kris and I decided to leave because we had to be up early the next day to get to work. I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing, especially the Q&A. Maybe next time. Although judging by how acutely uncomfortable he must have made Touratech his sponsors with his incessant lampooning of their products, I’d be surprised if he ever got a return invitation. ;)

In conclusion, I’m glad I attended the talk. Austin Vince is a funny, funny man who you wish was in your close knit circle of buddies because you know there would never be a dull moment with him around. I cannot wait to watch Terra Circa and read the Mondo Enduro book.

Two Saturdays ago, Shubbu, Mark and I drove down to Southsound BMW in Fife to go see Lois Pryce talk. The one and only Lois Pryce who rode her motorcycle across the Americas alone! I was super stoked and excited about it, but I managed to curb my enthusiasm enough to get us there in one piece. On the way, Shubbu couldn’t stop talking about how guilty she felt about not riding to the show. Me, not so much. It’s about 30 minutes on I-5 to get to Tacoma and I wasn’t particularly interested in riding the XT on a bunch of boring freeway miles going 65 on roads where the speed limit was 70.

I had brought with me my hardbound copy of her first book Lois on the Loose – the one that had started it all, where she rode solo from Anchorage, Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego down south in Argentina, an epic journey covering 20000 miles in 8 months on a Yamaha XT225 (no co-incidence that this was the dual sport bike I eventually bought as well). I planned on getting her second book at the talk if they were selling it, and get them both signed by her.

We arrived there about twenty minutes before the talk started, giving us enough time to purchase tickets and get food. Kudos to SouthSound for having really good food available! I’d never been to this dealership before. It was huge – almost three times the size of the BMW dealership in Seattle. In the center, there was now a projector screen with a graphic of Lois astride a bike. The seats looked like they were filling up quickly.

Lois – an unmistakable redhead – was actually sitting in one of the seats in the audience signing books. I went and stood next to her for a little bit, quite possibly with a dazed expression on my face. Then I snapped out of it when my friends went to go look for seats to actually sit down in. We found some seats and I bought a copy of her new book Red Tape and White Knuckles which recounted her solo ride through Africa.

Armed with both books, I went over to her and waiting for a couple more people to get their books signed before finally sitting down next to her and handing over my books. She asked me whether I had any big rides planned, and I told her that I was trying to decide between South America and Australia next. I told her that my friend Sarah and I had wanted to contribute to her video Ladies on the Loose, recounting female adventure riders in the world, but we hadn’t because we didn’t have any HD quality footage. She was strongly encouraging of the fact that us women riders must film ourselves more, because – “When you look at what’s out there, it’s all blokes!” Fair enough. I pondered out loud that this would be a toughie because it was all I could do to stop riding long enough to take pictures, never mind video. She empathized – “I know, you just want to keep riding, not stop!” But maybe this is something I need to think about for future rides. She’s right in that I see a lot of men filming clips of their rides. It’s just not a medium that I’m particularly fond of due to my ultra-short attention span, but the videos do serve to make you more visible, and that’s something that most of us women bikers could use a lot more of. I asked her what her next big ride would be, and she mentioned a possible upcoming trip through Iran, Pakistan and India. How cool! Shubbu and I told her that she had to take us with her when she went. I mean, she’d need guides who spoke the language, right? ;)

We chatted in that vein for a little bit more before I reluctantly got up and let other people have their turn.

At around 7PM, they made an announcement asking for people to take their seats because the talk would be starting shortly. I wished there was some sort of podium that she could have stood on because I had a difficult time seeing her from the middle row seats we had. I was a little surprised to see that her slideshow was about her first book, and not the second. I had assumed that she was on a book tour of the latest book. Since I’ve read the Lois on the Loose a couple of times, I was quite familiar with the story she recounted. The pictures were new though, and her narration was peppered with lots of little jokes that had me laughing.

I remember at one point when she was talking about how people were horrified that she picked a small 225cc bike for her journey, and she responded with yes, it’s pretty slow but it was totally fine for a cross-continent journey. Shubbu whispered to me – “You didn’t even want to ride it to Tacoma.” I choked back my laughter at that.

After the talk, there was Q&A where a bunch of people asked a bunch of daft questions, as is the nature of these things. One of them was – “You’re married to Austin Vince, right? Isn’t he too old for you?” (echoing my thoughts somewhat, I have to confess). She replied that they had 8 years between them but that he was a fantastic guy and they had a blast together.

I asked how many miles on average she rode during that trip and what her top speed was. Apparently she rode about 200 miles per day at a top speed of about 60mph. From my experience with the XT, this sounded about right, even downright excessive on dirt roads, but of course she’s a far better rider than I am.

Overall it was a great evening. Even though I had read the book, it was quite something to hear a firsthand account of her experiences and meet the woman herself. I loved how down-to-earth and charming she was. And yet, behind all the jokes and stories, there was no hiding the fact that she is also tough as nails. You’ve got to be, to have done the things she did and lived the life she leads.

If ever I needed encouragement for my next big ride, here it was! Now excuse me while I go recharge the battery of my XT, replace the starter cable, fill up gas and break this three month hiatus to go ride! :P

My friend Laura Seaver is on a motorcycle trip through South America and she has been posting some fantastic photos that make me feel restless all over again. Read all about her adventures on her blog.

I mean, *look* at this!

Have you seen a sadder sight? :(

Seattle was hit by a storm two days ago which brought loads of snow and heavy winds. The temperature dropped to well below freezing leading to ice on the roads (and pretty much everywhere). We don’t salt or sand our roads since this sort of weather is most unusual for us. This essentially means no riding of any kind. *sigh*