Backpackers on 2 wheels or Adventure Motorcyclists?
 

Just out of curiosity... and with a smile...

Is there a difference between backpacking on 2 wheels and Adventure Motorcycling?

Sometimes I get the feeling that some riders are elevating them selves to explorers and adventure-riders, while the rest (me being one of them) are not hardcore enough, and our new, expensive shining BMW,s or whatever is a thorn in their eye. And our dreams about doing Africa from north to south should remain just that... a dream. So we dont ruin their image or steal some of the glory.

Or is it just me...

P.S.
I,m not on Lariam. Not yet anyway :-)

The mainthing is that you are happy with the way you are dooing it, not what people call it.
So just enjoy http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

Yngve

I asked a similar question on the HUBB a while ago. Since then I have come to believe that it’s all a matter of opinion. Don’t be too concerned about such things, rather be glad that we all are different and do things in different ways.

I want to ride around the world but I refuse to be eaten up by the fact that I haven’t gotten round to it yet.
What did Bobby McFerrin say before he killed himself? “Don’t worry. Be happy”

No there ain't. We're all tourists wether we like it or not! We may have sexy looking motorbikes and cool looking motocross clothes but we still queue up in Boots to buy suncream and Immodium like everybody else!
matt

So what's wrong with backpacking?
Thats how I got around until I discovered the joys of motorbiking.


I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how you travel (1st class/backpack/4x4/weekend breaks/walking/cycling/hiking/biking) or what your reasons are for it, as long as you do it for your own enjoyment/fulfillment.

I think it just eats some people up because they feel that their 'uniqueness' is being eroded. That's for them to deal with, not you.

I agree Geoff, the fact is traveling is not a new invention or unique to people of the last few centurys. According to anthropologists modern man first came into existance in Africa and travelled the planet nomadically before finding a piece of land and taking root there, and thousands of years before them the Neandatals were who were found to have lived in europe were also suposed to have originated from Africa, niether of these races of people had motorbikes or rucksacks, just an instinct to travel and explore.

So if someone looks down there nose at you because they have had more experiances than you, seen more countries or have a tattier looking bike than you, just remember he/she does not own the patent on travelling, it is what it is,to whoever does it, for whatever reason they want it to be. Your not doing it for them, your doing it for yourself

Maverick Bubble

Backpacking on 2 wheels = adventure motorcycling™ IMO. Did I cook up the phrase to describe overland moto travel? Maybe, but it was only a sales ploy: 'AM™ Handbook' sounds a lot more sexy than the 'Two Wheel Backpacking Handbook'! So does 'KTM, Adventure', 'adventure cheeseburger', etc.

Some like it hardcore, some take it easy, some want it easy but have a hard time and some say it's hard when it's easy. We're all just two-wheel travellers (having an adventure...™)

Nevertheless, I must say I have experienced an irritation/envy in the Sahara among 4WDs when you happen to occupy the same part of the desert and ruin their fantasy - but bikers are usually thrilled to see eachother. Don't know if that is what you meant

Ch®

Interestingly I've recently had a couple of debates about this, including one with Geoff who's commented above, and I do admit to having something of a rant about our, and I stress our, activity becoming 'backpacking on 2 wheels'.

When asked to explain myself, I couldn't. I guess that in Geoff's words I felt the uniqueness was being eroded. In no way can I claim to be an expert at 'overlanding' or to be 'one of the first' to head off to some other continent. Even if this was the case, my rant was probably unfounded.

Expedition? Can you call traversing a long lonely desert or mountain track an expedition when locals use it every day?Adventure? Well you could argue that any trip on your bike is something of an adventure. It all depends on the viewpoint of whoever's taking the trip.

I guess 'overlanding' is becoming more popular, just like so-called backpacking or taking a gap year. But why shouldn't it? It's your trip, however you want to label it. Just try to enjoy it.

We travel by mororcycle rather than backpack....but we have the appropriate Lonely Planet books in our saddlebags.
What then does that make us??????????

I tell you what, if you think motorcycle touring/adventure motorcycling/backpacking on 2 wheels etc. is becoming diluted by the number of people doing it, aspiring to it, etc. that its been hijacked by the popularist media, that the very soul of the activity is being eroded by people who do not fully understand it, then you should have tried being a snowboarder over the last 15 years!
matt

It's all a matter of interpretation
 

Having followed some of the classic overland routes around the world and stayed at the odd backpacker gaff on the way, I've come to think of "backpackers" as the rather annoying subset of "travellers" who get pissed everywhere and demonstrate a serious lack of cultural sensitivity.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always up for a few pints myself and have been known to exceed decent consumption but at least I am ashamed and appologetic if I make an idiot of myself.

I think it is fair to say that "travellers" is a good catchall expression that lumps together "backpackers" and "overlanders" and that of course includes people in huge luxurious motorhomes through to people with penny farthings - yes we met one in Eastern Turkey.

As for how to define an "adventure motorcyclist", there's a mystery. Rush hour traffic in Britain can be more dangerous than any other motorcycle experience. Camping in the desert is a more peaceful and safe option compared with staying in any major city. Anyone who puffs themselves up by proclaiming to be an "adventure motorcyclist" and belittles anyone else is plainly a buffoon. We've all been out there and seen that different parts of the world have different behaviours and we find that interesting and elevating. We need to look inwards sometimes and see the differences within our own cultures and celebrate them for giving the world such wonderful diversity.

Then again, you can take the drunken louts in the dormitory and shoot em!

Inconsistent, moi?

McFerrin
 

Bobby McFerrin is still alive. :offtopic:; I know, but just want to clear it up.

See what I mean
 

So, you describe yourself as traveller, not adventure motorcyclist, backpacker or anything else for that matter. Good call! Keep on travelling.

My 2 penny worth.

The guys at work back home think what I am doing is adventurous. I think that I am just travelling from New York to Colombia where I finished, I camped, I stayed at Youth hostels, motels and hotels. I read Lonely Planet and Footprints. I had a backpack strapped to my motorbike.

I think it is just travel by a different medium than buses. Have met the 'high class backpackers' who fly to their next destination and skip the local buses.

Everybody has a diff agenda, a diff time frame, a diff goal from a trip.

Let em do it their way, you do it your way and see the parts of the world than you want to see and in the way you want to experience it.

Just my thoughts

Paul

I think we are all travellers, just from time to time the means changes.

we probably all use feet, boats, bikes, 4wheels, and aeroplanes from time to time. For most maybe the bike is just the preferred option...

fair enough. i´d add ''and to no-one´s detriment'' after your word fulfillment, Geoff. sure you'd agree.

i was once in a remote place in australia, difficult to reach by road. as i came over the last hump before the wide, inland river i was looking for, i spied the roof of a houseboat. bugger it.

but their beer was cold, i had none and they were willing to share. i wasn´t quite sure whether to see myself as hardcore for having got there alone on a bike, or soft for enjoying the benefits of refrigeration. can anyone help me in this dilemma?

cheers,
andy

The most important thing is that you get yourself out there...no matter your mode of travelling...

AND who wants to be stereotyped?!?!?

At least you didnt mention THEM.......
 

At least you didnt put C*R*V*NS in there! I'm afraid I'm firmly with Clarkson on my hatred of those things!!

Martyn

This is to me at least the whole point. You have to give yourself time to 'enjoy the moment' as and when they arise.

Put it this way, had the place been desserted would it have been more enjoyable ?

What's in a name?
 

I remember this was one the topic of my final high school exam essay? Should I paste it here???

In the 70s bcakpacking anywhere outside Europe was pretty "out-there", now it means nada... yet I meet BPers in hepas of places that have lay scarred from coral on remote becahes waiting for their mates to run back into the jungle to find a stretcher, or a 67 Canadian year old guy that went to Chile for a holiday with his wife and told her he decided he was gonna walk home... (which he did!!!).

Waddya call all these guys? Do they need their own name?

I've met some great 4-week-holiday-back-packers also, so why do we wanna set ourselves apart with special title if we chose to do it a bit harder?

Same reason I have a Ducati and a Husaberg... cos its nice to be alittle different, i didn't pay any more than a rice burner, and bit less than than a fart (harley...all noisi no substance), and I wouldn't ne arrogant to say I got better value, just difference.

You wanna call yourself an explorer, choose your audience and call yourself Magellan (it'll pass in a 36th floor office), an adventurer (should work down at the local pub with the yobbos and the rednecks) but if ya meet someone else doing something you respect, call them something cool; not urself.

If you've got wild enough stories, they'll choose what you are, not you. But even then I disagree with myself... I love hearing the beautiful stories (cos I usually tell my own spectacular stories instead of my beautiful ones because people love the shock value, love to be impressed), so I'd rather hear a story of immense beauty or unusual kindness.

So here's a new thing to rouse some debate:
Part (yes, only one of teh reasons) is that when we travel a 3rd world country on our bike, doing something that not many people have done, with our wealth and our white (sic, excuse me those of you guys that are red, brown, yellow, blue, black or purple) skin we are at times adulated.

So how about... "White Gods on Two Wheels": tongue in cheek guys...

don't we all "suffer" at least a little from what I call the white god syndrome when a tribe of little tackers are tearing along beside you, their little legs pumping as fast as they can go on their rusty outsized and outdated bicycles laughing and sticking their thumbs up, or when a local tribesman runs his hands lovingly over your bike wishing he had one and asks for a photoof himself on your ride?

Lol, what's in a name... PERCEPTION.

Can't see a dilemma - a beer's a beer after all.

Ted Simon discusses this, in his usual eloquent manner, in Jupiter's Travels.

I feel that there is some truth in what was asked in this post.

Certainly there are some who, by virtue of the fact that they have been completing their journey by only riding along glacial arretes and dune ridges, feel that you have acheived little by "just" riding one or two countries.

As others have pointed out, I think that is their chip on the shoulder and should not detract from your experience. We rode two up on a (not-so-shiny) BM for a few months and most of it was on tarmac, but we did about 400 miles off-road. The roads/tracks were really technical to the experienced off-roader, but having never done it before, I felt fear at times and exhiliration at the end. For me that was an achievement and an adventure and I look forward to the next trip.

What feels like acheivement, excitement, wonder, all depends on the individual. As long as your trip brings you to the place you want to be, geographically and personally, that's all that matters.

Bring on the next ride!!

Why does it matter how you do it ?
 

However you travel, on foot, two wheels, four, donkey, camel, horse or on a sled enjoy the experience of your own adventure wher'ever you go.
Cheers
Ian:thumbup1:

White God on two wheels
 

Not exactly sure what is meant by backpacking on 2 wheels. I haven't come across the phrase before. Maybe it's a meaningless ditty created by someone who wanted to slag off someone else for no real reason. There are plenty of such phrases in this world. More is revealed by those who use them than about those against whom they are directed.

I think there is a difference though between backpackers and bikers. Beyond the obvious motorcycle between the legs of the latter.

Backpackers are passengers.
Backpackers are __dependent travellers.

I daresay we could all agree that one of the greatest things about motorcycling is the sense of freedom. Where's the sense of freedom on a bus?

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with backpacking; if motorbikes hadn't been invented, maybe that's how I'd get around. But motorbikes have been invented. And motorbikes offer a greater opportunity for self-reliant travel than buses, coaches, trains and planes. They demand more concentration and determination than 4-wheelers. They give generously to the focused; they take viciously and ruthlessly from the dreamers. They are the logical choice for anyone wanting to rely on his own decisions rather than on someone else's.

What's in a name?
 

To me "two wheeled backpacker" suggests you are in it for the experience of travelling and simply choose the bike as a way of getting from A to B.

"Motorcycle Adventurer" for some reason now brings the picture of a buffoon dressed from head to foot in goretex supplied by the same sponsor as his 130 mph bike doing wheelies to entertain a crowd drawn by his outlandish appearance and film crew. Before I saw that bit of film I'd have assumed the "motorcycle adventurer" was as much or more into the riding as the travel. I think going into the pub and saying "I'm a motorcycle adventurer" would probably not result in serious discussion about thorn puncture prevention!

You can't even call yourself simply a traveller anymore.

I'm reasonably happy to be associated with "backpackers", less so with people who blast across a country so they can play in it's dunes before retireing to some four star hotel to complain about the pool. If the people who do it for real adopt any title, the buffoons will of course be the ones in the pub shouting about how they are one i'm afraid.

That said, what business is of of mine to tell people what to do. If you want to ride dressed like Lily Savage and call yourself Doris, enjoy yourselves.

Andy
Sidecarist

That's a useful definition. (If indeed there are people who have this philosophy. Can't say I've ever met such a person). Does everyone sing from the same hymn-sheet on this, do we know, or do some people use the same phrase but in a way intended to insult? I suppose the answer could be "both".

PS I like Charlie Boorman, and his wheelies.

So the general consensus of opinion appears to be an emphatic NO! And long may it stay so... hurrah!! Just do what you do, don't be defined how you do it
:thumbup1::scooter::funmeteryes::clap::mchappy::co ol4:

Works for me.... :thumbup1:
I usually call myself an "Overlander"... cus I like going overland ... and overlanding makes the trip there (the journey) part of the fun. I find aeroplanes/busses boring, too much sitting not in control, but i do use em.. a bike is my perfered method of travel.. cus i like em.. and having your own transport (of any sort) lets you get off the beaten path (or atleast off faster)... that is it for me... K.I.S.S.

You can walk away from a bus if it breaks down.

Sums it up for me, no matter how 'heroic' I think I look.:laugh:

Bloke on a bike
 

I think it depends on what we mean by all these terms (but I would say that I'm a linguist). So for me:

• Explorer - someone who sets out to map a particular area and find out what's in it - Livingstone
• Discoverer - someone who sets out into the unknown to see what's there and finds new things/knowledge and brings it back - Columbus
• Expeditionary - someone who sets out with a specific goal in mind or a specific place to reach - Burke and Wills
• Adventurer - someone who goes looking for excitement and who likes to test themselves by not taking the easy road - McArthur (Dame)
• Traveller - someone who moves on from place to place seeing what's there and experiencing what goes on in everyday life - Me
• Tourist - someone who goes to see the sights, eat the food, drink the wine, lay on a beach, stay in hotels - My mum and dad
• Backpacker - someone who goes to the see the sightsn, eat the food, drink the wine, lay on a beach, but doesn't have the cash to stay in hotels and so stays in hostels instead- Me, when I was a student.

So I seriously doubt many of us are Livingstones, Columbuses, McArthurs, Willses or Burkes (especially not given what happened to those two) although we may be berks. I like to think of myself as a traveller as I'll rough it with the best, and I don't like to hang out in groups of my fellow countrymen(women) that much.

That said, I've been an explorer in my own small way, making my own mental maps of places I've been to or lived in; I've certainly been a tourist when I could afford it and felt the need for loos that flush and showers and beds, and I know I've been a backpacker seeking out places where fellow Europeans hang out at times. I'll occasionally even be an adventurer, when I'm feeling the need to push my envelope and get out of my comfort zone - haha.

About the only thing I can safely say I couldn't argue with is - bloke on a bike.

Google 'mid-life crisis' - it explains everything.

Enjoy the ride!:mchappy:

I was called a drunk lout one or twice. But I see my self as a traveller.

I like your list, and I agree with how you've described different types of travellers. But when you doubt that many of us are Livingstones and Columbuses etc, you are almost certainly correct to the degree of these particular peoples achievments, especially by everyday modern standards. However you are not necessarily correct in terms of people who use this site to plan their trips, because I would have thought that a great number of them were at least explorers and expeditionaries - isn't that what adventure motorcycling is all about?

When I was younger I was, at times, a backpacker. But I have since been a tourist, a traveller, an adventurer, and expeditionary and an explorer all to varying degrees, but still within your definitions. I have yet to become a discoverer (unexplored places are becoming harder to reach - but they're still out there), but have every intention of discovering something, somewhere or someone... somewhen!

As for Dizzie's original post, I have to agree that some people who call themselves adventurers etc are just glorified backpackers or tourists. But in many cases, that is as close to being the real thing as they're ever going to get, so I reckon we should let them have their glory.

Yeah, that'll do.

But here's a question for you all. Is the most important thing for you:

a) the travelling, or
b) just being on a bike

Too Easy
 

For me that is way easy.. it is: A:thumbup1::thumbup1: The Travelling!!!!

the bike is just my preferred means, I would still want to travel if I was unable to ride:(:helpsmilie:.

Put them together and I am in heaven :clap::palm::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::mchappy::m chappy::Beach::D:D

This has probably been said already but in my opinion the adventure riders are bike enthusiasts whereas the backpacker is just giving it a go.

All 100% subjective but to me (coming from a backpacking background):
* backpacking = the freedom to go where you want and do what you want carrying everything you need on your back
*adventure motorcycling = the above but with everything you need strapped on and an engine to do the leg work

Both are going to mean hugely different things to different people. Backpacking - 2 day walk in the lake district staying in a pub overnight or 3 year trek round the world? Drinking nightly in a bar with your mates or learning the lingo with the locals?

Who cares, anyone doing either has :thumbup1: from me!

hmm a picture tells a thousand words:

http://www.backpackers-au.com/bk/_bo...COOTER%201.jpg

is different too



http://www.superplushsuspension.com/...dventure04.jpg