Motorcycle Misadventures

Writing Wild Travelogues

My lapse in postings this past week is largely because I've been collecting paper cuts from organizing notes for my upcoming class on creating travelogues from the road. I'm teaching this class -- really a workshop -- at the annual Wild Writing Women Weekend Workshop (aka W5), an event that I organize along with the other members of the Wild Writing Women, LLC; a business that sprouted out of our longtime writing group.

"Letters Home: Creating great travelogues from the road" will be a challenge to teach in 2 hours since now there are so many factors to consider. Such as the format and publishing medium. Choose a weblog, website, PDF newsletters, or just plain email or an egroups forum like Topica or Yahoo!

There are writing techniques to be discussed, too. Lyn Bishop, the famous digital artist and my co-teacher for this workshop says that "Reading a website is like driving by a billboard." You gotta get the attention of the reader before the click of the itchy mouse finger.

I'm also teaching Accept With Finesse, a class on rights, contracts, and negotiating with editors and publishers, and I'm co-teaching Consider Self-Publishing with Lisa Alpine.

Last year's conference was fantastic, energizing, inspiring, and exhilarating. It's made up of workshops, not just lectures, and the level of experience and creativity of our students is mind-boggling. We've got some literary agents coming to talk about their process, and Amanda Jones--a well-known travel photographer and journalist--is giving a slide show.

We've also got some great giveaways at our party on Saturday night...a weekend at the Capitola Venetian, among them. I can't wait to see who wins that!

For more information go to

The Elusive Condor

I'm looking for a Swiss Condor sidecar bike for my tour of Switzerland this June and July. These elusive beasts are basically the same design as the 1938 BMW, and by extension, the Ural and the Chang Jiang I rode through America and China, respectively. (Only, because the Condor is Swiss, it's made with materials that don't disintegrate in a rainstorm, or so I'm told. I'll probably get a chance to test that out.) I've got a few people taking a look around but they seem to be quite rare.

Gadget Lust: Cellboost Emergency Cell Phone Battery

If you're an Iron Butt rider you'll appreciate these disposable Cellboost Emergency Cell Phone Batterys that give you 60 minutes or more of talk time, up to 60 hours of standby time, and cost $4-6 each (depending on the model phone you have).

What is this term "dual-sport?"

Woo hoo! Sam Correro of the TransAmerica Trail is setting up a great trip for me in Colorado, an off-road "dual-sport" ride, this autumn. So what is "dual-sport," anyway? I found an article on Sam's site from a 1995 Trail Rider Magazine on the topic by Sidney Dickson, an author with an opinion. The article does sensibly point out that, "In 1903 George Wyman rode, pushed and carried his motor bicycle from San Francisco to New York City. That was not "dual sport" because then there were not paved roads." Read Sambo's Tigers by Sidney Dickson.

Gear & Gadgets: Magnetic cup holder sticks onto your motorcycle tank

Did Santa know about this and, if so, why was it not in my stocking? The Magnetic Cup Holder was invented by bikers on long, endurance rides seeking "Iron Butt" status. After thousands of miles of frustration stuffing water bottles between handlebars and windshields, in pockets and coats, the idea of a magnetic pocket was born. There's some extra room in it for your cell phone or wallet, too.

Responsible Land Use: Yellowstone Snowmobile Ban

Though I do love riding motorcycles though the woods, I also value the fact they exist and that I can walk to the top of Mount Tam, for example, and be at peace away from engine noise. I also appreciate the pristine conditions of the land, and wish there was even more set aside for non-road use. NRDC's BioGems News reported today that a federal judge backs the Clinton-era snowmobile ban in Yellowstone Park. Having hiked and ridden on horseback through Yellowstone I appreciate the news:

On the eve of Yellowstone National Park's winter season, a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to revive a Clinton-era plan to phase out snowmobile use in the park. The Bush administration's counter-proposal, which would have increased the number of snowmobiles allowed in America's oldest national park to 950 a day, ignored the Park Service's own findings on the dangers of this activity to park visitors and wildlife. The reinstated plan calls for admitting just 490 snowmobiles per day this winter, and none the following season, and for expanding the use of environmentally friendly snow coaches. News of this victory will be particularly satisfying for BioGems Defenders, who sent tens of thousands of messages in support of a Yellowstone snowmobile ban last year. The Bush administration, though, still seeking to overturn the plan, has already filed its intent to appeal the judge's decision.

How to choose a touring motorcycle #2

Here's yet another experience choosing a motorcycle for a round-the-world trip. Like most RTW trips, off-roading has to be a consideration. Here's an excerpt from the online journals of Chris and Spice.

There is a lot to consider when thinking about modifications for a two-year round-the-world trip. Comfort, reliability, ruggedness, power, practicality, availability of parts, so on and so. The plan was to ride the TransAm Trail as a sort of off-road boot camp for both Spice and I as well as the bikes. Could they handle the constant pounding of 4,000 miles of dual-sport trails completely loaded down? That was what we set out to see...I bought a big GS just like the dream said but quickly realized it may not be the most practical thing in the world. The weight, cost and sophistication may overwhelm my feeble abilities. Next we started to check out the F650 Dakar. We both rode a few but no matter what we weren't sold on the BMW. Around this time I flipped through a few old issues of Motorcycle Consumer News and came on a series written by the renowned world tourer Greg Frazier. He bought and built an adventure touring dual-sport bike, a Kawasaki KLR 650 ready to go for less than ten grand. Eventually we found two young KLRs with not very many miles on them in Alabama. Mine was an '02 model with zero modifications and we found an '01 model for Spice with a few little mods here and there. Now we had to build them. Read the full story.

Read the first installment of How to choose a touring motorcycle.

Travelogues & Tips: Sylvia Stuurman's Travels and Motorcycles

"My life consists of my motorcycles, my children, birdwatching, and traveling. Happily enough, a lot of these interests are easy to combine. In the time left over, I do have a job as well." This is the introduction to the website of Sylvia Stuurman who has entranced me with the stories of her motorcycle travels. She chronicles her frequent journeys, often taken with her husband Ernst, in the USA, Spain, the UK, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, and the Swiss Alps, with a lovely Dutch accent and a great sense of humor. This is an easy-to-read, down-to-earth website with lots of photos and useful tips, especially her tips for long distance motorcycle travel on back roads. Read on for an amusing excerpt from her tips for riding in foreign countries.

Driving: Making Tracks, Making Enemies

This week's NY Times article Driving: Making Tracks, Making Enemies wonders how off road vehicles and environmentally endangered sites can co-exist. It doesn't paint a lovely picture of the A.T.V. driver, typified by Loren Shirk, a networking engineer in Duarte, Calif., who drives his Chevy Blazer over the sand dunes near Barstow, California. He said. "I think my right to go where I want should not be hampered by the whims of somebody else that wants to leave the world looking like it was 40,000 years ago," he said. "If I'm out there just playing around, and I'm not hurting anybody or anything, I don't care what the sign says." Of the argument that he should play by the rules, he said, "The way you succeed in life is to go outside the lines."