Category: General

Have you ever heard the saying that the adventure doesn’t begin until the first thing goes wrong? This one concept may be what separates an adventure rider from a city rider.

I ride a BMW motorcycle. A fairly eclectic breed of motorcycle, but I ride an F650 GS which may be considered by some the red haired step child of the BMW line. But even at the low end of the line, I suspect GS riders may be a different group from the average BMW rider — they more firmly adhere to the aforementioned idea of when the adventure begins.

An example of this is that if I have motorcycle problems I’m not a prima donna rider — I’m the strip off the gloves, pull off the fairing, and figure out what’s wrong kind of rider. And I’m a girl. I do not want  to be defeated, to be stopped by a mechanical problem. It’s simply a challenge that presents itself and needs to be solved. One of many challenges that present themselves along the road and need to be solved. But I temper this desire with the fact that I don’t have the skill or the strength to fix all problems. And there are simply some problems that require a part that I won’t have with me.

In the past I’ve been blessed with a riding buddy who is the skilled, knowledgeable, and inventive. He will not  be defeated by mechanical problems either. Actually I don’t know if the word defeat is even in his vocabulary. When we were camping in Guadalupe Mountain National Park with winds gusting to 60 MPH that afternoon (75 MPH that night) a wind gust blew over his fully loaded motorcycle breaking several things in the fall. It took him a while, but he calmly and patiently glued a crack in his windshield, ducted taped a broken turn signal, found a way to secure a broken side view mirror stem, and used JB Weld to repair a broken windshield bracket. On another trip I watched him use JB Weld to seal a crack in a valve cover well enough to get him home. Need I say he’s a great mentor for me to ride with?

I’ve been blessed with few problems on the road, but that may because I haven’t logged enough miles for it to happen yet. In December 2008 my battery gave up the ghost when I was on a ride to San Antonio by myself caused by too much electric heated clothing on a failing battery. I was stuck in a left turn lane in the middle of a Christmas Eve shopping frenzy with people blowing their horns and zooming around me. I realized the horns and zooming had stopped and turned around to find a pickup stopped behind me providing protection. Not long after a young cop pulled behind him to protect the pickup and both men helped me jump the motorcycle and get me on my way.

I had my second motorcycle failure last week when it hesitated and stopped completely on the way to Big Bend. I was somewhat dismayed that I was riding with someone who stood around and offered no assistance, but pleasantly surprised by four other men who stopped and did help. While not on their motorcycles at the moment, they were all riders and very nice people.

When the motorcycle first stopped I called the dealership where I bought the motorcycle and the only assistance they would offer was for me to have it towed to the nearest dealer. I resisted the desire to ask the service manager if he was smoking crack and politely hung up. They sell “adventure” motorcycles and this is the help they provide?

I’m currently researching a troubleshooting guide to print and take with me so I can do a better job of diagnosing problems. I’m going to buy a card size multireader to help with electrical problems on the road. And thank god for cells phones since I should be able to get hold of someone for help and suggestions wherever I am.

My fervent wish is that my motorcycle will never be on a trailer. I don’t know if I’ll be lucky enough to get my wish, but I’m going to do all I can to make it so. I feel like I have great guardian angels riding with me since I think my son and dad are with my every mile of the way. My dad is the one who taught me to fix things and who didn’t believe in the two words “I can’t”. If I ever slipped and used those works I was quickly corrected “You can do anything you want to. You decided you don’t want to.” Another great mentor…

I can’t imagine riding with anyone who I wouldn’t get off my motorcycle and help if they were having problems. Even if all I could do was to hand them tools — I would never stand by and do nothing. I guess  I would expect nothing less from anyone I ride with. Up until this weekend I thought everyone was this kind of rider, but I apparently I was mistaken. I wonder if this speaks to the adventure rider vs. city rider difference.

I am the first to admit that I’m sort of a baby adventure rider, but I guess the 12,000 mile ride to Canada last summer earned me the category even if I’m in the infancy of the stage. I’ll have to see how I do if I break down and there’s no one around. Or a break down and the people who are around aren’t nice people. Or if the problem is too severe for me to do anything about. I already know I don’t stand a chance of fixing a flat by myself since I have tubed tires and can’t just plug it. I carry the things to fix the tire, but know I can’t do it alone.

But I’m also a firm advocate of the quote by Sir Edmund Hillary (first man to summit Mount Everest) “If you’re going to start out on an adventure, and you’re absolutely convinced you are going to be successful, why start?”

While reading this you should bear in mind that I am a small female rider who didn’t start riding until fairly late in life so that colors what I value in a riding buddy.

I like riding with guys. Why guys? Less drama, better riders who I can learn from, in the long run I think they’re more fun. To be honest I need my motorcycle moved occassionally because I park in a poorly selected locations (anything that requires backing up even the slightest incline) and sometimes I need my motorcycle picked up since I’ve been known to go down on gravel and simply drop it when I’m tired.

Ideally I’d like my riding buddy to have a decent level of first aid and CPR because I want to know the person I ride with can take care of me or anyone else if something goes wrong. This is something I provide the people I ride with — I want to get it in return.

I also want my riding buddy to have mechanical ability so if one of our motorcycles stops running his first thought will not be to call for towing. The ability to fix a flat tire, repair things that may break when a bike drops, diagnose why a motorcycle won’t run are all basic skills I would like to see. One of the reasons I prefer riding with males is because there are times when I work on my motorcycle that I’m not strong enough to break bolts loose — I need someone who can.

A basic attitude that we’re in it together and to share all chores when camping, take care of each other, and always help each other with bike problems is definitely required.

For a guy to ride with me he has to have the ability to dial back his testosterone induced need for high speeds so that I am able to ride with him on my 650. He also has to have a pretty decent sense of humor to get him through the times when I’m scared, over tired, or starved since I tend to get a little cranky at those times. I rally quickly, but I do have my cranky moments. He also needs to be able to handle the rare meltdown — I’ve had days when I’ve been so scared for so long that I have ended up in tears. An important point here is that I am not fearless like some people are — I do things even though I’m scared. It catches up with me at times.

Speaking of sharing the work of camping — it’s a lot more fun to ride with someone who has good camping experience and skills. When it comes to other accomodations someone has to be comfortable in luxury hotels and also tolerant when less than stellar motels are all the available. I’ve had to spend the night in some near hovels because I was too tired to go farther. Not my favorite thing, but not the end of the world either.

There are some motorcyclists that ride only for the ride — if it can’t be seen from the motorcycle it doesn’t need to be seen. Take pictures? Forget it. This approach doesn’t work for me.

I love the ride but I ride to see the world so I like to stop to see things and even take time to get photographs. I research the trips before I go and know what I want to see along the way. One reason I don’t like ridiculously high speeds is that I really believe the experience should be savored. I don’t have the ability to savor at 90 MPH.

That’s a pretty good start — I’ll post more ideas as I come up with them.