Originally Posted by mollydog

I'll be dating myself as my first inspirations go back a few years, before most MC travel books or movies. I started on mini bikes at around 8 years old and gradually moved up. As a kid growing up surfing on the beach in Malibu and Santa Monica we traveled to Baja to Surf. Beaches in SoCal were so crowded in these years that Baja became a viable alternative. This about '62 or so. Surfing and riding go together .... always have.

When my older buddy got his license, we went down to Mexico on our own .... I was 15. We took our boards and our Honda 50's (which had been converted to dirt bikes). Later we took our Bultaco race bikes along.
Somehow riding down there seemed so "Exotic". This peaked my interest.

My friends' older brothers let us tag along to the races at Ascot Park, near Long Beach, California. Ascot was the most famous flat track venue in the world in the 1960's and 70's. It was huge in those years .... ask anyone who was there. Here I saw all the legends ... but crazy Dave Aldana was one of my favs. This was all before famous American GP world champs like Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz came to Flat tracking. They all went from flat track racing to road racing and showed the world how to ride a motorcycle. Americans dominated Moto GP for 15 years.

Around this time came "On Any Sunday" which I'm sure was huge inspiration to many. But did you know motorcycles and Surf movies shared the screen before Bruce Brown's epic docu-drama? Well, it's true. So right away, bikes were firmly implanted in my small brain which had been soaked in salt water and sand since age 5.

I loved everything about Mexico as a kid and still do today. I took a couple Adventure rides in Baja in the early 70's on a Honda CL185. Later took off for parts unknown South, hauling a 350 Jawa on the back of our camper.
At some point caught a serious travel bug and somehow I've never really recovered.

First Adventure rider I ever heard of was Danny Liska. A famous BS artist
and hustler.

Patrick