British Motorcycle Gear

Again?   Please…

So I guess Charley and Ewan are planning another ride.  I suppose that’s a good thing, even though I thought the first ones were kind of contrived. I mean, really, you have two rich kids riding around the world on their own with corporate sponsorship, followed by a caravan of chase vehicles, spare parts, tool chests, mechanics, and camera crews.  Two dilettantes confusing their income with their abilities, making a movie, complete with photos like the one above vaguely suggesting a combat mission somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan.  Give me a break.  Maybe I’m being hypocritical; after all, I sort of did the same thing on the Western America Adventure Tour and the China ride.  We even had a chase vehicle on both of those rides, too, although I managed to convince myself that chase vehicles are a net negative and I never used them again.

You want to read a real adventure story?  Turn to my all-time favorite…the story of Dave Barr’s solo ride around the world.

Dave Barr in the hills above Lake Isabella, photographed by yours truly.

Dave Barr is a guy who lost both legs to a landmine while fighting in Africa. Undeterred and unbroken, after a lengthy recovery he finished out his enlistment, came home, put an electric starter on his beat up old ’72 Harley (which already had a hundred thousand miles on the clock), and with no sponsorship, no chase vehicle, no film crew, and nothing other than a strong will, Barr spent the next four years riding around the world. He’d ride a bit, run out of money, find a job wherever he was, work a bit more, and get back on the bike. That, my friends, is a real adventure, and you can read about it in Riding the Edge.  Trust me on this: Riding the Edge is infinitely better than the long way whatever.

Joe Berk

Recent Posts

ExNotes Review: Glock (by Paul Barrett)

By Joe Berk I'm not a Glock guy and it's not likely I'll ever own…

3 days ago

A.J. Baime’s WSJ Enfield Piece

By Joe Berk A.J. Baime writes a weekly "My Ride" column for the Wall Street…

7 days ago

The Sopranos: The Final Scene

By Joe Berk Very few (if any) final scenes have sparked as much discussion and…

1 week ago

The Harley-Davidson Museum

By Joe Berk I've been a motorcycle guy nearly all my life and I've owned…

1 week ago

ExNotes Review: The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam

By Joe Berk This is the first of several book reviews to follow in the…

2 weeks ago

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

By Joe Berk The destination on this fine day was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, part…

2 weeks ago