Since the last time I reset the counter on 17 April, 2002, people with entirely too much time on their hands have read this page.
I wrote page as a tutorial for people new to motorcycle touring. Those who have a few miles under
their belt may or may not find anything useful here. I'm new to making web pages but I've tried to make it easy
to use without too many graphics. If you have any comments or suggestions please send me some email.
It may take me a while to reply because I don't have a lot of extra time for things like email. I have a real job
(to pay for the motorcycles) and during the riding season (late March to early November) I try to ride as much
as I can.
Everything here is my opinion and if you read this you'll quickly realize that I'm one opinionated SOB. Direct all flames to /dev/null.
This site is now in a semi-finished state. If you've been here before all the previous content is still here but rearranged a bit. There us also a lot of new content. All the links should work. If you find some dead links, let me know..
This site last updated 06 May, 2003.
Thinking about Touring
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Before You Go |
On the Road |
General Motorcycle Topics
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A lot of the information I cover on this web site could apply equally as well to traveling by car and some even to travel by train, bicycle, or on foot. I 'm talking about things like where to stay, where to eat, money, etc. A lot of my experience in these areas came as much from traveling by car as by motorcycle. I have since learned that many people, particularily those born since about 1965, have never traveled more than a day or two from home by car. If they want to go further, they fly. I used fly a lot as part of my job but I only travel by plane personal reasons if there's no reasonable alternative. It's hard to get to europe or asia without getting on an airplane. But in general I think that flying is a tiresome and dreary way to travel. My preference is to travel on a motorcycle.
Anyhow, back to my point -- I do have a point here. Since a lot of people have this strange desire to be hearded around airports like sheep and spend hours sealed in an airplane, a large number of people have no idea how to live on the road. I am still surprised by this. When I was a kid our family went on multi-week car vacations every year. Sometimes we stayed in motels, sometimes we hauled a tent-trailer and stayed in campgrounds but we always traveled by car. I didn't realize that there was any other way to travel until I was an adult. So, I will cover these rather mundane topics (like where to stay, where to eat, money, etc.) even though I think that any competent adult should already know these things.
I also have included a lot of general motorcycle information like safety, clothing, maintenance,and such. These are not specific to motorcycle touring but I'm covering it because a lot of people have asked me these questions via email.
If you're new to motorcycling you may be getting a lot of flack from some of your non-motorcycling acquaintances. These people are a bunch of ignorant louts. Here's something for them to think about.
- "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
- T. Roosevelt (Panama, 1906)
Found in the book;
Obsessions Die Hard - Motorcycling the Pan American Highway's Darien Gap
by Ed Culbertson
(~250p)
ISBN 0-937281-04-2
My name is Dale Borgeson. It seems that I've been riding motorcycles forever. Actually, it's been since the fall of 1972. I had returned to San Diego after a 10 Month deployment to the Vietnam aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. I had a fist full of money and was (barely) old enough to legally buy anything I wanted. I'd always considered myself a "car guy" or, more specifically, a "sports car guy." I already had a Austin Healey and was looking for something else on wheels with a motor. I had never thought much about motorcycles before but somehow decided that a motorcycle was just what I needed (Ten months at sea on an aircraft carrier will change your perspective on a lot of things). I went to the DMV and took the written test for a motorcycle learners permit and then went to San Diego Honda/Yamaha and bought a new 1972 Honda CB350 never having so much as sat on a motorcycle before in my life.
The salesman took me out in the residential area behind the dealer and said "Here's the clutch. That's the gear shift." and so on. I rode around the block once as a passenger and then he said "you try it." I made it around the block without crashing and the salesman said "have fun and be careful." That's what I've been doing ever since. Two weeks later I went back to the DMV and took the license test.
I took my first motorcycle trip one month after I got my license. I rode from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona. I had such a great time on that trip that for the next four years I rode a series of motorcycles all over southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. In 1976 I was handed my honorable discharge from the Navy and came back to Minnesota to get a degree in Electrial Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Since 1980 I have worked as a hardware design engineer specializing in systems architecture, and designing integrated circuits for communications systems. You need to know this because I take a very detailed and technicial approach to everything I do and that style is reflected in everything I put in this web site.
There have been times that I didn't have enough money to own a car. There were times when I lived on Graham Crackers and Macaroni and Cheese. There were even a couple months after I graduated from college when I had bill collectors making nasty phone calls (before the phone was disconnected), but there has never been a time since the fall of 1972 that I haven't owned a motorcycle. Since I bought that CB350 I've ridden many different bikes all over the USA and Canada to the tune of about 250k miles. Over those miles I think that I've made just about every stupid mistake that you can make on a motorcycle. This web site is a compliation of the lessons I've learned.
I'm starting with style because your touring style influences everything else; what bike you pick, what stuff you take, where you stay, and a bunch more. In turn, your style is influenced by the type of bike, what stuff you take, where you stay and so on. If you're just starting motorcycle touring you probably don't know your style yet. You may think you do but until you take a few trips you don't really know. It'll take a while before things start to come together.
Motorcycle touring is about compromise, just like the rest of your life (big surprise). You'll have to decide which compromises are best for you. In this web site I'll tell you what compromises I've made and why as well as what I've tried and abandoned because it didn't work. You can decide what to use and what to ignore.
Some people tour to go see the sights and play tourist, some to get someplace and then see specific people or things, some to explore. I know one guy who tours to visit historical markers -- he stops at every marker he sees and takes a picture for his collection. I think he's nuts but hey, whatever works, do it! My style of touring is to ride the motorcycle, period. I don't much care where I go or what I see as long as I'm riding. Sure, I try to go different places and see different things. I prefer good twisties and nice scenery just like everyone else but I'm there to ride and that takes first priority. I don't generally stop for anything but gas, food, or a cigarette. What's important is that I'm on the bike moving down the road. If I'm not doing that I'm wasting my time. For you newbies, this is not the way most people ride.
The second characteristic of my style is that I hate crowds. This means that I avoid large cities and tourist areas like the plague. This is also one of the reasons that I don't tour out east too much, too many people and towns. This is also why you won't find very much information on this web site about destinations. I don't know much about them, my destination is the road. It took me about ten years of touring to realize that this is really what I liked about touring (I'm a bit slow in the thinking department sometimes) but now that I know, it makes everything much easier.
People ask me all the time "Where are you going on your next trip?" The real answer is something like "West, but I'm not sure, maybe Newfoundland" (I live in Minneapolis). For reasons that I don't really understand this answer is unacceptable to most people. It seems perfectly sensible to me. They want to hear "Vancouver" or "New Mexico" or something like that so that's what I tell them. The real answer is still "West, maybe, I'll know for sure when I get back."
Occasionally in gas stations or restaurants along the way someone will ask me about my bike and then ask where I'm going. The answer is "That way (pointing in the proper direction) because I see a cool mountain over there and from the map it looks like there may be some nice twisties." This is the wrong answer! If you give this answer you'll confuse them at best and at worst they'll think you're insane and refuse further conversation. The right answer is "Billings" or "Yellowstone."
Keep all this in mind while reading what I have to say because your style will most certainly be different than mine. Take what you read here with a grain of salt.
