Another dimension of 'What is diy mc travel?':
There's been talk about people who create and prepare their bikes and gear themselves, and also talk about people who travel 'off the cuff' (for want of a better term). The two are often quite far removed from each other.

Some people who build their own paniers 'etc' go quite over the top (imo), and are quite obsessive about having every thing/feature they could ever need and having absolutly the best possible. This to me is just a different side of the same coin from people who spend hours flicking through touratech catalogues 'etc' searching for the best kit money can buy and having every 'adventure motorcycling' accessorie they make. The difference between these two groups is only about the bike and gear, and the actual style of travel can often be quite similar.


To my mind the concept of 'diy advmoto' some here are getting at is more the ethos and style of the travel, not about whether you built your own bike and luggage. Thusly I don't see why buying ready made gear in any way excludes one from being a 'diyer'. It's hard to see someone on a brand new beamer with all the touratech clobber fitting this, but someone who just bought a bike and some basic motorcycle luggage and set off could well be.


In someways diy is about striving for independance, and in someways this can end up lessening a travel experience because it will reduce your interaction with people in the places you're travelling through.

/Edit, one last thing:
What's more adventurous, or even more 'DIY'; The traveller who takes a tent and a camping stove, and spends every night camping in the wilderness cooking their own nosh. Or the person who doesn't even have any camping equipment, and spends many a night in dodgey small hotels and guesthouses, and even in people's houses when it's offered or when desperate, and whom eats every day from dubious local cafes etc. The reality is that most travellers seem to do a bit of both however.

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UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350