First comment, your scooter:

Giorgio Bettinelli, an Italian fellow did an RTW on a PX200E and is now spending four years doing ALL countries in the world. The PX200E has competed in the Dakar rally atleast three times that I know of, and actually managed to place atleast one of those times (1980). Two germans rode in 2003 two Vespas from Hamburg, Germany to Cape Town, South Africa. This summer three people will be doing Paris to Ouagadougo. Two brothers will be doing a trip around entire Australia, including Tazmania. My wife and I will be riding cape to cape, bit by bit, with the first leg this summer (Cape Town to Nairobi). All of these trips were/will be carried out on Vespa PX. In the last issue of scoot magazine, there was an article obout a trip from Singapore to London on Lambrettas (eyons ago). So in short, you are not crazy for doing this on a Vespa. You should however consider bringing LOTS of spares and tools on your trip, in adition to spending lots of time getting to know your scooter from the inside out. Do a complete overhaul of your engine, change your oil seals and bearings. If you do this yourself, then you should be pretty prepared to tackle most technical difficulties you will experience on the road. After my trip, I will set up a walk through website for Vespa overlanding, with lots of practical info. Keep me posted about your plans, and I'll help you out with whatever I can. Cost wise though, with all the spares you ought to bring, you may want to consider bringing a different kind of bike.

Second comment, danger:

What is dangerous? It helps to look at the big picture of what might kill you and what won't. Relax pal, you are going to die, some day, so enjoy whatever life you've got left. The most likely thing to kill you is time. Humans are designed to live to about 40, any older than that and you are on overtime, and there are still societies in this world that think 50 is oooold. In reality only 1 in 15 of us will die of an accident, and if you lived to be 80, then you managed to survive 12 million people whoe were not that lucky. You want to live long, be a rich asian girl, want to die young, be a poor black indigenous man and grow up in central Africa. In terms of danger though, more people will be scraped off highways than be killed in war zones, there is a one in three chance that you will die in bed, (of whatever), there is a greater chance that you will die from an household appliance than in a plane crash. Actually, only 5-15% of us will die in an accidien't (depending on where you live, what you do and how long you escape disease). If you really want to live dangerously, stay at home. Every year, cheap toys, shag-carpeted stairs, and slippery bath tubs do more harm than all the terrorists in the world combined.

37.8% of us will die of heart disease
19.3% of cancer
10.3% of stroke
3.0% of non auto related accidents
2.9% of influenza
2.4% of motor vehicle accidents
1.9% of diabetes
1.7% of liver disease
1.5% of Arteriosclerosis
1.4% of sucide

Now that you are worried about sitting at home, so how about adventure travel? The chance of having a real adventure on an adventure trip is pretty remote. Only 5 percent of travellers have a mishap on vacation. Your greatest risk is getting the Hersey Squirties, the runs, the Montesumas Revenge, or in plain english, diarreha (60% chance in India, 53% chance in Egypt, and Mexico 40%). Malaria for instance only affects .0000345% of the 30 million US residents who travel abroad each year, and only 3% of those incidents were fatal. Out of the 600 million who travel each year, only 8 percent however actually seek pre trip health advice. With Canadians, those at greatest risk of dying, are male (71.2%), about 43 years old. About 62% of these die of heart attack, about a quarter of the deaths are from accidents, 7.8% from murder, and 5.2 from suicide. Want to improve the odds? Go on vacation! the info above is cited from "The world's most dangerous places" by Robert Young Pelton. I can highly reccomend this book to any one allready doin some serious travelling or to those planning to. It is probably one of the best travel books I have ever read. Next to Scott's motorcycle handbook, this should be a must read for any motorcycle adventure travellers.

Seriously though, if you go prepared, the chances of anything really really bad happening to you is pretty remote, even in the third world... even in many war sones. Know the places you are going to, the dangers involved, the steps to take to reduce the risk of bad things happening in the first place, and the knowledge to deal with the incidents if they do occur (to the extent possible). There is much literature out there that can help you get prepared, including the books above (great ones). Travel guides to the countries you plan to visit is also a great idea. And, updated news sources are paramount. In adition there is the internet, including this site. Your best bet though is experience and common sence. The first you gain by hitting the road, the second... if you don't have it, then you are out of luck.

After doing all this reading, talking to people, etc., and if you are still worried (there may for instance be conscerns of burning bridges, other commitments, or of tearing up your roots entirely), divide your ultimate RTW goal into several shorter trips and keep an open mind as of when you will do each leg. You may end up just doing that one leg, you may up doing all legs with a couple of years inbetween (to nurture things at home and to save up money), or you may end up going all the way round in one go. In the mean time, between now and 2008, I reccomend you try to squueze in some local scooter trips, do some reading, prepare and test your gear, do some wrenching, save some money, etc. When 2008 comes along and you've got the money, you've prepared the scoot and your knowledge about it, and your itinerary is all planned, and your theoretical knowledge is on par with the best, then you will have difficulties deciding not to go.

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