And so the journey begins.....

I've always loved long trips on a motorcycle, and after meeting Austin Vince at a Round the World presentation about his home made movie "Mondo Enduro" at BMW Motorcycles of Escondido a few years ago, I got the bug of possibly doing a round the world trip myself. I also hosted about 15 motorcycle travelers at my home over the last 4 years, some of them on their own round the world trips. I was inspired by all the people I hosted, and continued to attend round the world trip presentations at local shops whenever I could...including Simon and Lisa Thomas, Allan Karl, and Sam Manicom.

In February of 2015 there were some changes in my life and I realized I should start planning my own journey around the world. I had just adopted a dog (Doc Holliday) 3 months earlier after my last one passed, and I thought "what should I do with my new dog" ? I contemplated getting rid of him, but I just could not do that. So I started researching traveling with a dog and found Kuhjunge's round the world trip report on ADVrider, where he and his girlfriend were traveling with 2 bikes and 3 dogs in a sidecar. Also got referred to Stan McGhee in Germany, who travels with his wife and dog all over in a sidecar. I asked them specific questions, like if the extra time, money and effort involved with taking a dog to other countries was worth it, and if they had to do it again, would they do it with a dog. Both said that it was well worth it, they would do it again with a dog, and a dog will often enhance your trip and even open doors for you in many places. So, I started researching what is needed for entry into other countries with a dog, found a travel site called "PetTravel.com" which is a wealth of information, and decided Doc Holliday was going with me.

First thing was to decide what bike to buy for this journey. I wanted shaft drive, parts availability and reliability with good power. There were only a few choices in my mind...BMW 1150 or 1200 GS, Yamaha Super Tenere 1200, an older Airhead BMW GS and maybe a couple of others came to mind. One night, a friend Ed (Shafted) and I were sitting in our favorite fish taco bar in Ocean Beach, discussing my plans and what bike to use. I didn't like the fact that on an older Super Tenere, you cannot turn off the ABS and the newer ones have too much electronics like suspension adjustment, etc. The newer BMW's also have too much electronic suspension, canbus and ABS. An older Airhead to me, doesn't have enough power for a heavy sidecar rig and they also have weak electrical systems and alternator. Ed said, "you know, about a 2003 BMW 1150GS "Sport" Model would be just about ideal"...no canbus, no ABS, slightly lower first gear. He happened to check Craigslist later that night and found one an hour and a half away, with only 9500 miles in showroom condition...I said, "I'm going to buy it this weekend, whether or not I use it for this trip". So that's what I did.

Next step was start looking for a sidecar builder. I contacted a few around the country and chose Chris Canterbury of Boxer Metal, in Chico, CA. The design process and commissioning of the sidehack build started in August of 2015. Wheels, subframe and leading link front end were ordered from EZS Sidecar in the Netherlands. The parts arrived in December at LAX in Los Angeles and I happened to be working in LA that day, so I picked up the crate and later that week, drove the parts and the bike up to Chico in the truck with Doc.



Commissioning the build on a handshake.






Doc Holliday was jumpin' for joy....




Some pix from later on, during the build process.....







to be continued...

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Rad 'n Doc
BMW 1150GS - RTW Sidehack Rig