Adventure riding books and documentaries

[Alice]

I also enjoyed reading the book Joe and Gareth Morgan wrote about their trip along the old silk road.Some awesome experiences, called "Silk Riders".There is a web site www.worldbybike.com that was interesting to follow at the time.Must be such a buzz to see your bikes all packed up in crates ready to head off on an adventure.

On a differant note, Valintino Rossi is driving in the NZ leg of the world rally which I guess a lot of you are aware of.Its a shame Sebastian Loeb is not driving due to a broken arm from a mountain bike crash.Would have been good to see 2 people from the top of there fields racing against each other.

Some people have a great lifestyle!

[Ghost Lemur]

My website is in progress:
http://www.locokiwi.com
great trip yet to come

You lucky lucky bastard. I'm so jealous. Site has been bookmarked, looking forward to you updates.

Did I mention how jealous I am?

Always wanted to do the big Central/South American adventure ride then arrive in Brazil in time for Carnival. Not sure when it is next, but from people who have been all say the same thing go to Brasilia for carnival not Rio. More fun, less touristy, less chance of getting mugged/stabbed.

All the best for your trip. When do you leave? (may want to start up a new thread if one doesn't already exist, to discuss your trip without dragging this thread further off topic).

[mattsdakar]

If you have seen these movies you will know Austin Vince, one of the main men on these trips. Austin was best mates with my London flatmate and use to spend alot of time at our flat and played in our social rugby team on occasion. Great guy, really off the wall, he teaches at a local school in Mill Hill London. At the time we all motorcycle couriered in London. I had a roadbike but the other guys had DR350's and Austin would often lead the lads on offroad trips in the Welsh Highlands etc. Austin had an old Bedford van and trailer and the boys use to go on annual offroading rides for a week to places like France and Andorra. Regretably I never went as only had a roadbike but Austin always planned the trips meticulously with route maps and driving rosters etc. Austin made a DVD of their last trip to the continent which is excellent and one I hold very dear as my flatmate who I had been thru High school with in CHCH was killed shortly after the trip in a bike vs truck accident while couriering in London.
Austin posted me a copy of the DVD with extra footage added of my friend which was great.
On a brighter note his trips were fantastic and he always had a good yarn to tell about his biking experiences.

[The Big J]

Always wanted to do the big Central/South American adventure ride then arrive in Brazil in time for Carnival. Not sure when it is next, but from people who have been all say the same thing go to Brasilia for carnival not Rio. More fun, less touristy, less chance of getting mugged/stabbed.

All the best for your trip. When do you leave? (may want to start up a new thread if one doesn't already exist, to discuss your trip without dragging this thread further off topic).

Thanks for the good wishes.
I've been to Brazil for carnival. Definitely great. I dodged Rio. Up the coast is where it's at, not Brasilia. And you need more than 2 weeks...
Leaving January.
I'll start a thread once I have a few more journal posts and more stuff up on the site. Inevitably things will go wrong so I may as well make them entertaining for people back home. Am doing a South Island route for practice in December so will have more to talk about once I've quit work.

[PLUG]

Austin posted me a copy of the DVD with extra footage added of my friend which was great.
On a brighter note his trips were fantastic and he always had a good yarn to tell about his biking experiences.

... dvd nite your place ... i'll bring the beer ...

[far queue]

... i'll bring the beer ...

Coooool I'm in

[mattsdakar]

Good excuse to catch up and tell tales...DVD is only 15-20mins long but is good value and gives a bit of insight into the planning etc.
If you are keen seen me a private message, the wife is away next week so any night would suit as will be minding the sleeping rug rats
Rgds

[BMT]

I'm with you there. After hearing about it all the time, I struggled through about a third of it a few years ago then took it back to the library. Inane drival.

I was disappointed also by all the hype I had heard around this motorcycle "classic" (Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance). Its alright, but it turns out that the book is not about motorcycling per se, rather uses a motorcycling journey as a framework to explain the physcological problems of the author. If you are ready for it on this angle its a good read. The Motorcycle Diaries (book & movie) is similar in that it uses a motorcycle journey of South America to illustrate how rather well-to-do individual experienced the lives of the poor and in so doing he became Che Guevara, militant.

As suggested above, the Morgan's & Co (World by Bike) - web site, DVD & book - are good travel diaries of long adventure rides. As is the much thrashed in the media, but still of some reading merit, Long Way Round (book & DVD) - Charley & Ewan. Again, both these get into aspects of rider relationships on tour as well as the cultural experiences & riding.

[madmal64]

One of the best places for info I have found is http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ Grant & Susan have run this awesome site for a while now.
Stories, set ups contact, you name it its fairly much all there.

[Motu]

Well well well,three holes in the ground.....I'm gunna have to eat my hat.Photo's have surfaced of the original ''Zen'' trip....

http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects...68-trip?page=1

[greenman]

'The Perfect Vehicle' by Melissa Holbrook Pierson is a good read.

[Wolf]

One of the best places for info I have found is http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ Grant & Susan have run this awesome site for a while now.
Stories, set ups contact, you name it its fairly much all there.

It's a great site and has its own forum on which I post occasionally. www.advrider.com is also good.

Kinda hard to put either in my library, though. Sometimes it's nice to curl up in bed with a book or throw a DVD in the player.

[merv]

I'll have to be in first with a plug for ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'',the most famous motorcycling book ever - DON'T read it,burn it instead.Stupid friggen book.

Des from last Hurrah travelled the "Zen" roads this year of course. Read about it on their website here http://www.thelasthurrah.co.nz/

[Wolf]

Saw the Silk Riders book with bonus DVD in at Whitcoulls today - definitely on my must own list.

[magicfairy]

Just finished Charley Boorman's "Road to Dakar"
Suprisingly (I wasn't expecting a lot) I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down. I have a whole new respect for anyone that completes the Paris Dakar, and the effort Charley put in beforehand.