Motorcycle Travel

Join the adventure as 33-year-old Rene Cormier politely removes himself from the working world that surrounds him and cashes in what few possessions he has to finance a three-year-long motorcycle journey around the world. Never one to let excessive planning get in the way of a good ride, Rene runs out of money half way through the tour and ultimately takes five years to cover the 41-country, 154,000 kilometer (95,000 mile) route.

There are times when sitting on the couch in front of the TV seems infinitely preferable to rolling the motorbike out of the garage for a ride or putting the boots on to go for a hike, yet it’s rare that one regrets the effort. In this collection of motorcycling road trips, garage misadventures, bike reviews, and reminiscences, I try to convey my joy of riding, even when things don’t always work out perfectly. Life is short. The time is now. Do it while you still can.

Recounting the three weeks of blood, sweat, and tearsthat make up a 7,000 mile journey from the glitzy streets of Paris to the hinterland of northwestern Africa, this incredible tale highlights the most arduous and notorious off-road motorsports event on the planet, the Paris-Dakar Rally. Since its inception in 1979, the rally has attracted more than 3,000 participants from all walks of life.

In his ninth motorcycle journey, award-winning author Lawrence Bransby has chosen to travel through Vietnam. With the ever-present spectre of the war looking over his shoulder, Bransby travels throughout this fiercely independent country, meeting local people, riding sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail close to the border with Cambodia, and spending time in a Vietnamese hospital after an accident–somehow inevitable after negotiating what are accepted as the second most dangerous roads in the world.

This book is an anthology of motorcycle stories. These 50 motorcycle tales were submitted to the author over a 13-year period by a wide range of motorcyclists from all walks of life. These authors tell their own personal stories of what happened to them as they rode their motorcycles.

Canada is blessed with thousands of kilometers of empty roads which seem to wind on forever through forested hills and between still blue lakes. What better way to explore them than by riding 40-year-old Italian motorbikes, famous for their dodgy electrics and sparse dealer network? Forty-year-old bikes, aged rider, thousands of kilometers of virtually unserviced empty roads in the middle of bear-, wolf-, and blackfly-infested wilderness - what could possibly go wrong?

The Russian Far East, that most remote of regions on this Earth, is also home to the notorious Road of Bones. Few people have travelled there, and those who do usually travel in groups on well-prepared bikes. Lawrence Bransby, award-winning author and motorcycle adventurer, in his latest journey across Russia - the whole way this time - rode the Road of Bones twice, alone, on an old DR350 that had been stored in a shed in Kyrgyzstan for two years. Two Fingers on the Jugular is the story of this three-month, 20,000-kilometer journey.  

Most people would regard it as irresponsible madness for a father to take his 17-year-old son, riding old and somewhat worn-out XT500 motorcycles, on a four-month ride across Africa. But Lawrence Bansby did. Lawrence and his son Gareth set off on their old but bulletproof XT500s with a handful of spare parts, very little money, and the three Michelin maps that cover Africa. The plan was to travel north from their home in Natal, South Africa, then west through Zaire, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, and, finally, across the Sahara through Algeria, but it was not to be.

After six years of laying rubber on racetracks and immersing herself in the high octane, adrenaline pumping sport of motorcycle racing, Tiffani was yearning for something new from her life on two wheels. Fortunately (or unfortunately), losing her comfortable office job was the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

From the Canadian Rockies to the Panamanian jungle, Motorcycle Therapy rumbles with comic adventure as two men, fleeing failed relationships, test the limits of their motorcycles and their friendship. Join the horn-honking, signal-flashing, wheelie-popping pair as they endure painful bee stings, painful snake bites, and (when they talk to girls) painful humiliation.

Fresh off of a nine-month journey, camping off her 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 sport bike through 49 US states and three provinces of Canada, Tiffani Burkett wasn’t ready to return to a nine-to-five. She had picked up a freelance gig as a motorcycle journalist, she had met someone, and she still had a little bit of her dwindling life savings left in the bank.

Old or unsuitable motorbikes, distant places, poor weather, and gravel roads, these are the common threads in Nick’s motorcycle travels. He’d been hoping to ride out west a couple of years ago until a little heart trouble intervened. Two years later, a short "shake-down" trip morphed into a 9000 mile journey across the continent. Trouble free? Not exactly. Riding a 1972 Moto Guzzi Eldorado, a Suzuki Burgman Scooter, and a 1976 Moto Guzzi Convert (automatic), and ever optimistic, Nick heads for the Canada’s distant horizons.

This audiobook isn’t just for motorcyclists. It’s for anyone who dreams of doing something magical, but gets stuck in excuses and self-doubts. It’s for anyone who needs encouragement to do that something they’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t.

This book is about 21 days and 60 years. A motorcycle ride down the spine of Appalachia, with a little banjo and big myth for company, to play and sing at the graves of dead banjo heroes. About making a life about making work. This book is about outsiders. Interlopers. Class migrants. Death. Awakening. Creative process. Growth through risk-taking. It’s a book about ghosts. Music. Writing. Not writing. What’s this book not about? “Finding myself.” I know who I am.

After taking the year off to save up money and establish a more portable career, Tiffani Burkett was finally ready to get back on the road and finish her "Round The World" ride that she had started on her 2015 Yamaha FZ-07. Little did she know that getting rid of everything in January of 2020 would be one of the biggest mistakes of her life. Or perhaps one of the biggest opportunities.

The Motorcycle & The Molecule is a comical insight into intentional communities, international travel, and alternative styles of living. Mayan rulers, janky motorcycles, and mischievous beavers all make appearances in a tale inspired by a solo research expedition through Central America. 

Many listeners have indicated that they wanted more motorcycle stories similar to those contained in the previous book, 50 Wild Motorcycle Tales. This new book gives 50 More Wild Motorcycle Tales for your listening enjoyment. Most of the stories were submitted to Motorcycle Views by visitors to the site. Walter lived and wrote 19 of these tales; eight of the 19 are fictional depictions of far-out motorcycle events that could happen. Jane Ann Kern wrote four stories before her untimely death. Some tales are short, and some are long. Each tale was edited to provide a good experience.

Within six months Barbara Schoichet lost everything: her job, her girlfriend of six years, and her mother to pancreatic cancer. Her life stripped bare, and armed with nothing but a death wish and a ton of attitude, Barbara pursues an unlikely method of coping. At the age of 50, she earns her motorcycle license, buys a Harley on eBay from two guys named Dave, and drives it alone from New York to Los Angeles on a circuitous trek loosely guided by her H.O.G. tour book and a whole lot of road whimsy.

Familiar roads. Familiar Places. It's easy to get stale riding the same old routes. Sometimes it hardly seems worthwhile to pull on all that motorcycle gear, start the engine and head out. Why bother? It is easy to tire of the road. Cold weather and occasional roadside troubles are all part of the pleasures of riding. Don't let the little things get you down. Sometimes all it takes to overcome the feeling that you've ridden all those roads too many times is a slight change in perspective and attitude.

Well, it wasn't a car--it was bikes, a KLE500 and a KTM990, and by the end of the trip the KLE was pretty much trashed. On their third epic trip together, Lawrence Bransby and his son Gareth head for the notorious Pamir Highway, the second highest "highway" in the world, tucked deep in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia. For those in the know, this area has roads and tracks that can be defined as "motorcycle adventure travel at its best". And it didn't disappoint.