Hitting the Open Road
The Open Road Is Calling and We Must Ride
What the site is all about
The Overall Purpose
The overall purpose of this website is several fold. The first is to share with as many folks as possible the fun of traveling by motorcycle and hopefully encourage others to get out and about and see what there is to see.
I have often been ask what is my favorite place. My answer is that I cannot name one, I like them all. It is a very wide world and there are sites to see everywhere in every country. I have traveled and seen a lot but there is still a lot I have not seen. Glacier Park, the Going to the Sun Highway is something else as is Banff and Jasper. Organ Pipe out in southern Arizona is for sure worth a ride and Big Bend National Park in the spring after a rain is a thing of beauty. The Burr Trail and Highways 24 and 12 in Utah are something else. If you have not seen Crater Lake or Devil's Tower or any of dozens of sites, you should. And that does not even consider the rest of the world.
The Tail of the Dragon back east gets a lot of press. I have done it, and while it is a nice ride, folks, I gotta tell you, with little effort I can name at least a dozen roads that are better in every aspect. And, further, I am willing to bet that there are dozens out there that I am not aware of that others are.
So, all that being said, load up whatever your ride of choice is and get out there and see what there is to see.
Lost since 1964
Essentially, there are two types of motorcyclists in this world. There are riders and there are owners. Riders do exactly that as do the owners. I will leave it up to each to decide what they are.
I started riding in 1964. A friend of mine had a Honda 50 he was trying to sell. I did not want the Honda but it did get me interested in motorcycles.My first bike was a 1953 Royal Enfield 500cc single that I brought home in 3 boxes.
With the exception of March 1967 to March 1968, the year of my all expense paid tour of Vietnam I have been riding ever since. Over the ensuing 50+ years I have ridden many many miles. What with raising a family and having to work for a living, some years I rode more than others.
When two of kids were small I added a sidecar modified for two and we rode. I put a convertible top on the sidecar and we rode it to Niagara Falls and into Canada. With the top up the kids could be warm and dry even it the rain. When winter and the snows came the kids and I had great fun sliding around on the ice.
To date I have ridden a motorcycle in every state except Hawaii, every Canadian Province and Territory, from the Arctic Ocean to Acapulco.
Also, one of my daughters and I flew into Saigon (AKA Ho Chi Minh City) Vietnam rented bikes and rode around the country for two weeks, and flew out of Hanoi. The next year we flew into Phnom Penh Cambodia, again rented bikes and rode around the country for two weeks.
Almost everyone in the family rides to some extent or the other. Grandchildren are now riding their bikes. It has become a family joke over the years that I frequently get to someplace just because I get lost. It turns out that is pretty much true, I do like the back roads and will go out of my way to stay off the Interstates. That led to a family patch with the Lost Since and the year they started riding.
Over the Years
To say things were different when I started riding than now would be a major understatement. In 1964 you had Harleys, various European and very small Japanese (and a few other) bikes. None of them very good for traveling. My last English bike, a 1969 Norton Commando, had a little over 20K miles on it when I traded it in. It had been rebuilt once and was needing it again. In this day and age I have two bikes in the garage with over 100K miles on them and they are still running well.
Back in the day, good riding gear did not exist. Leather was all that was available, waterproof gear was something of science fiction and frozen hands considered normal. I got my first Belstaff suit in 1975 and have not looked back. Now, with actual waterproof textile suits, actual waterproof over gloves and heated gear I can and have comfortably ridden all day in weather that in times past would have kept me in the motel.
Over the years many changes have occurred that made riding better. For me, one of the first was when my BSA blew up. I got a 1969 Honda CB-450 and discovered that bikes did not have to leak oil, lose parts and could have working electrical systems. In 1972 with the purchase of a BMW R750/5 I discovered driveshafts and as I said, in 1975 with the Belstaff suit I discovered waterproof gear. Then, on a Christmas ride to Denver in 2005 I discovered the blessing of heated riding gear.
When I look back to the good old days, they were fun but nothing I would want to go back and do again.