Photo courtesy of ADVRider.
We don’t know too many Gearheads who don’t love a road trip. Whether it’s for the day, the week, the month, or close to a decade (like our friends Simon and Lisa who have been touring the globe on their BMW motorcycles since 2004. Simon and Lisa’s story is a great one and we feel lucky to have met them fairly early in their careers as motorcycle vagabonds. The things they’d been through (some good, some bad) after just the first few years were incredible enough, but they just keep going, just like their faithful BMWs.
A good percentage of the miles Simon and Lisa have travelled have been on dirt roads (although using the word “road” as a descriptor may be a stretch). Asphalt is something you won’t see much of in Senegal, or La Paz, or Ulan Bator. Luckily their choice of machine can handle the rugged terrain and also allows them to carry enough gear to make sure that they have a roof over their heads at night, even if the roof is made of fabric. Both a BMW R1200GS and KTM 990 Adventure have graced the stable here at GearheadExchange in the past and for a cross state or cross country road trip we can’t imagine better two wheeled transportation. Both will chew up miles like twin cylinder PacMen, in relative comfort, with heated grips, and strong, secure places to mount luggage and travel bags. Even so, motorcyclists must learn to pack only the essentials on such journeys. There simply isn’t room to carry that extra pair of shoes, jacket, or that Mickey Mouse outfit you were hoping to bust out once you arrive at Disney World.
A few days ago fellow Gearhead and good friend Don Louv asked if we’d heard about a guy riding a Ducati 1199 Panigale coast to coast we thought he must surely be joking, but Don never jokes. Actually, he tells jokes all the time, but never about serious matters like motorcycles. When he told us we could read about the first person account, conveniently posted on ADVRider (one of our favorite motorcycle related sites in all the InnerTubes) for ourselves we grabbed our mouse and headed over to check it out ourselves.
We must admit that while we question the choice of machine, the spontaneous nature of this guy’s decision to point his big red Ducati eastward and twist the throttle is inspiring and unique. An 1199 is a fantastic motorcycle, the latest incarnation of now decades of Superbikes built by Ducati, which have dominated on twisty mountain roads and race tracks the world over. That said, it is a horrible machine to ride more than a couple hundred miles, and even then you’re happy to see your hotel room at the end of a day in the saddle. We’ve had enough experience on Ducati Superbikes to know that they might turn the fastest lap times on the track, but on the street the only race you’re likely to the hot tub.
Apparently none of this matters to our self-anointed “AntiHero” though, and he set out to prove that not only was a long term, long distance journey possible, but that it could be fun and have its own special rewards.
Here is his story. It’s a great one, one you’ll likely need some time to digest. While we are pretty sure that our desire for comfort, off-road utility, and at least some semblance of security preclude us from ever attempting such a thing, we raise our collective visors to this guy. He may be crazy, but there’s nothing anti about this hero.
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=808437
Stay on the throttle!
-tj
