I know the archives here are littered with "what's an adventure" discussions but, like oil threads, they're good for a laugh as long as enough time has passed to let everyone recover.

As you can probably guess I'm not a great fan of the term "adventure" but that doesn't change the nature of what a lot of people here enjoy doing, it simply begs the question what am I going to call it instead? Instead of going on an adventure what will I be doing when I load up the bike and head off into Canada in a few months time. I've heard it said (in these hallowed pages iirc) that you can't, by definition, have an adventure in North America or Europe as it's all too easy. The infrastructure minimises the risk element and that's what separates adventure biking from touring. Strangely enough though I don't see football crowd sized groups of people pointing their Touratech laden GSs south in the summer (although they'll quite happily head for Moto GPs / IOM TT etc). If it was that easy you'd think everyone would be doing it.

My local free newspaper (just shoved through the door a few minutes ago) has (coincidently) an article on "codger adventure" (an age group that I now, sadly, fit firmly into). The gist of it is that "we" are spending the kids inheritance on "adventure travel" instead of stuffing it under the bed for the kids to find when, post demise, they're clearing the house out. Instead of sticking to "conservative short breaks" the market for "adventurous long haul" trips is (the article says) rapidly growing. Not only that but participants are described as "intrepid", "exotic", "spontaneous" and "carefree". Yup, that's me exactly. I associate myself with all those positive attributes. Gonna wander the world on my bike, taking wimmin as I need them. No responsibilities, no stress, a life lived by my rules. (last couple of sentences mostly courtesy of a 70's Ogri cartoon about a wanabe RTW biker).

Moral of the story - 1st rule of marketing: don't believe your own (or anyone else's) publicity. Find your own adventure in your own way.