I Want To Go Now !!!
 

:helpsmilie:

Im sooo fed up with saving and waiting to go travelling. Its really getting to me now. Iv not been away for nearly 2 years now due to saving and prepping and im getting VERY bored and claustrophobic.

Im still thousands off my saving target and starting a new job which forced me to buy a car has stopped me saving for the last 3 months (and counting)

I've still got another 15 months before I can afford to depart and its driving me CRRRRAAAAZZZY !!!

As soon as I put some money away, i get slapped with a big bill or expense whcih sets me back again.

Im considering getting a loan now and doing it on credit but its truely the path to the dark side in the long term :thumbdown:

Anyway, that feels a bit better now. Its good to vent :mchappy:

how much is enough ?
 

I believe Emillio Scotto set out with $300 on his Gold Wing .
Not an ideal bike ,by current thinking, and not a whole lot of money .

That wont even get me to the Airport :)

Im determined that I will save £10,000 and ride all of South America and Australia without coming back in debt that i will have to pay off over years (and thus stopping future plans)

Just really pissing me off now. Im sooo impatient.

Bought a CAR!! :eek3: Travel on CREDIT! :thumbdown: Ted old boy, you truly have gone to the dark side! And what happened to your girl friend? Hey, why not shag some rich mid forties divorcee that is looking for a bit of "excitement" in her life and get her to finance the trip? :devil:

I'm sure there had to have been a good reason for buying a car....like you don't like riding in rain?:rain:...or gets too cold? :freezing:

So you are working at a bike dealers now? How's that going? Any money to be made working there?

Saving is always tough, combined with serious expenses it becomes almost impossible. Can you move home or in with relatives? Sell everything you have that you really don't need? Sell that car and get an Aerostitch and commute on your bike? (Lawyers in San Fran ride to high end court dates wearing their $5000 suits....Aerostitch over it. No worries.

I'm stuck too....lots of us arm chair adventurers are. Getting clear and getting out there is very tough....staying out there once your out is actually easier.

Going the credit route would be a disaster unless you never plan on returning or you have nothing to lose. (or that the bank can take).

You could apply for a dozen credit cards and max them all out then split...but
they'll find you. Been tried before. Interpol.

Good luck, think outside the box. Sacrifice. Beg, borrow ...or steal...no, skip that last bit. Bad Karma will follow you and ruin your trip! :bored:

Patrick :scooter:

Yeh but Emillio did it and you haven't !

MMMnn ,I think Mollydog is right , you are young ,single and need to think outside of the box !!

I will do it. Im just very impatient and want to do it NOW !

Im debt free, I have a few grand tucked away and have the bike prepped and all my gear ready. I just need another £7k for flights and living expenses and im gone.

I needed to get a car because firstly I want to keep the bike as mint as possible for hardcore travelling and not rack up high miles through wet dirty city cummuting. I have to wear a flipping suit too which is aukward on a bike and I also need the car for other family obligations too (driving elderly family about etc)

I dont start the job in the bike place for another week. Because ill be on probation, they will only pay me minumum wage until my salary review after 3 months :censored: . Still, its better than what im doing now (soul destroying IT)

Iv got my plan and ill do it, I just want to do it this year. I didnt count on set back in my saving plan.

I cant think of "outside the box" ideas !! Im not prepared to steal or con money out of people just yet LOL

The EX girlfriend is the reason Im not already there and had to pay off £8000 worth of debt that she dumped me in. She screwed me over big time.. BITCH GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I was only having a little rant anyway :rofl:

Hi Ted,

We met at Horizons names Lee I ride a F650 Dakar and live local to Ripley, the best way to save up is not to go out I know it hurts and it almost killed me, but that's the only reason I can get away next month.
I'm due to leave on the 1st Aug (Had Visa Problems) taking the GF with me for the first 3 weeks in Europe then she's flying back and I get to go to Africa until spring, then it's over to South America and work my way up north for a while.

It also helps if you get some great sponsors like Metzeler, they have just given myself 4 sets of Tourance and Enduro 3 Tires to take with me and a huge discount on any more that I need.
If you visit my site you can see who have sponsored my trip so far, there are others that are also going to help out on the way round, without my sponsorship deals I would have been £1,000s of pounds worse off, so it's always worth asking.

Ride safe

Lee http://www.f650ridetheworld.com

Hey there !!

Dont think i have your cockney enthusiasm for blagging freebies :rofl:

Ill check out your site though. Have a great trip dude.

Can't you get a few weekends away to test out all you equipment, you are only a few miles from Wales, that's cheap enough, and a shakedown for your bike as well.

I do and have done numerous times. Sadly a weekend in Wales is not scratching my itch.

I dont neeed a weekend break or even a holiday. I need to pack up and leave for a long tour of distant lands.

Scratching the itch
 

Mr Magnum,

Dude! I hear ya!!!

One not-so-fine day, I found myself in almost £12000 debt, with a boyfriend who had managed to get himself sent back to Oz (denied entry after overstaying and was promptly put on a plane outta here). Soul destroying, because the only thing I wanted to do was to find a way to get on the next flight, and there was absolutely no way that I could see a way that that would be possible (man I have never wished so hard for someone to pay everything for me!! No sugar daddys in site)

Today, a few years later, I have that ticket booked, a visa approved and a whole new life waiting for me, sans that boyfriend and becaause I have always wanted to go, rather than going because of someone.
I never ever, when I felt more stuck and stagnant than I ever thought possible, thought that I would be grateful for the time I had to stay to pay my debts.

Thanks to that time I got my bike license, have since been on several trips (a couple of nice big ones too) and have a whole new take on life's hiccups.

I can't really describe how absolutely soul destroying it can be to feel so stuck, but if you dig deep and come out the other side, there are whole countries that await you Ed.

Go with coins jangling in your pocket and that mischievious grin on your face and you will be able to go as far as your bike will take you. No looking back, no chalking up a second period of being stuck because of debt, just new horizons and new adventures.

Someone cue the bike riding into the sun set and some soppy music
:)


Okay, so that was a bit mushy and not really very useful.
What I had to do though was take a big step back, regain some objectivity and launch into finding a job that wouldn't make me want to kill anyone and would pay me as much money as I could feasibly get; become the worlds best hermit and not spend any money that I absolutely didn't have to; and develop saintly patience.

I decided, after about 6 months of that that it might drive me insane, so opted for living a little too and dealing with the fact that I would probably have to change my goal date... but then let myself have the flexiibility to think of making the goal possibly even better than it already was.

That's my 2p anyway.

Oh, and have rants :) and tantrums and drunken evenings (cheap beer mind LOL), it's therapeutic.

I don't know if that helps, but it was therapeutic for me to write it too. ;)

Yeah what Shells says is very true, what's happened to your misses by the way? Take her with you and make her pay for everything, go on be a BUM:thumbup1:

Blag me I don't Blag who says I Blag :innocent: I only ask for kit that I know will be of use on my trip, and will stand up to an indepth review, like Metzeler, Scottoiler, Hex Code, Pure Hydration, Mr. Funnel, MotoPumps, Hennessy Hammocks, Green Leopard and all the others. LMAO

I offer to review their kit, offer links on my pages, and pimp products like when I was demoing the GS-911 Diagnostic Code Reader for all those BMW riders at the June Meeting. So it's not really Blagging it's getting value and marketing their kit as a thank you for putting a little trust in me and my trip.

Or then again you could sell a kidney, pay a visit to the Sperm Bank, become a Blood Donor or my favorite become a Gigolo

Hmmmm was a nasty break up last year.

She was a bit of a bunny boiler to be honest. She asumed I was cheating on her because I emailed a girl on my Spanish couse (I wasnt by the way, it was legitiamte essay stuff). She was VERY jelous (cant blame her)

Well, she smashed up my flat up and trashed all my stuff and did one with our joint travel savings. Gets complicated after that.

Gigilo huh !! Where do I sign up ??

Blighty Blinkers
 

Cheer up Ted ,you are more than half way there !
I imagine you'll be selling the car before you go so that's not a total loss .Very good of you to transport your elderly relatives around - Ted's a good boy really !!!
I wouldn't worry about keeping the bike pristine for your trip , it won't stay that way for long and a month into the trip you'll wonder why you bothered .
Just keep at it mate , put away the pennies ,stay away from baccy ,whisky and wild ,wild women .
That comes later !

The car wont be worth crap. Only cost me a £800 but its the expensive that goes with it. Insurance, tax, MOT's. The real killer is the price of fuel. In a car it makes you cry.

1L of fuel costs about £1 and it uses twice the fuel that my bike does :(

On a good note, I don't smoke or drink excessively but the wild women have me suckered every time :rolleyes2:


Ill get there in the end but i cant STAND the waiting.

Ok Ted - we hear you, so me and the hubby are going to book the campsite this weekend. What date do you want to come over?????

The pool will be closed from mid-Sept onwards, but that doesn't matter does it? (It matters atm because you need it to cool down - it's only 40C now!)

1600 miles one way, but petrol is 1 euro per litre here and food is really cheap. Will that scratch your itch?

Hey there...

I feel better already :thumbup1:

Im just having a bitch because im so impatient and havnt been away on the bike in AGES. Also the rain is really pissing me off. We've had 3 dry days in 6 weeks (yes iv been counting lol) Really puts a downer on my mood.

I start my new job in the Motorcycle dealership next week. I will need to have a chat with the boss about time off. I cancelled my trip to the Portugal meet due to this new job so im not going to bend over for him again ;)

Thing is, because its seasonal, I think I would be daft getting anytime in August and September off. Its the busiest time then with the new registrations coming in and its the period that I earn the most comission (and boy I need it).

Book your campsite for whatever suits you and the majority best. If I cant make it I cant make it. It wont be the end of the world. Im sure I can wangle most things if I put my mind to it though.

Ted vale la paciencia!
 

Man you need to put yourself together!
Otherwise you will get insane,hahahaha and dont enjoy our landscapes.
Try to focuse on every day life, and tribial stuff.
Of course it depends on how ansious you are about this trip.
What you obviously are,so take a long cold shower. Relax and keep saving.
As i live in Argentina i only need to sit on the bike and ride..... its all here.
I don´t remember to have this feeling you have now before.
During my stay in germany i could visit a lot of countrys.Calculating all by my income.But a gig trip like yours is money consuming thing.
Keep the nerve and focus on the escential thing: your mind.
The trip will come and go faster as you desire.
Cu here sooner or later
Cuidate
KH

You better have a big steak and a cold beer waiting for me then :D

Lee & Ted
 

Lee - I was talking about you the other day (http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ck-hello-28079) and nice website.

Teddy, I know how you feel. I had large debts and after 18 months of trying to save I'm....still in debt. I see the student debts as just another type of tax but I've only halved my other debts. I have at least managed to also buy my bike and the gear and I'm ready to go...8 weeks and 2 days until I do!

My plan...I'll be getting a personal loan the week before I leave. Although it worries me to be in so much debt, I think at some point in the future it will only be £xxxx less of equity in your house or one shiney new car less. I also like to think it's the same cost as having not been a smoker (at whatever it is...£5 a pack, £10,000 must be about 10 years worth of smoking).

I have to admit though, I wish I could have had the patience (or maybe discipline) you do to save it all first. I always finds things easier when the pressure's on though (if you money's spent you have to save!).

See you on the road (or at the next HUBB meet)

Chris

A new plan
 

Iv made a dicision !!!

I start my new job in 1 week. Im going to give it 3 months to see if I like it.

If i like it then ill fight the boredom, keep saving and go away with savings in November 2008, as originally planned.

If I hate this new job then im getting a small loan to cover my short fall and leaving THIS November.

Ill only need a small loan as i have a few grand already and will just sell most of my stuff for anther grand or two.

I didnt want to get in debt again but it will be a small loan and easily paid back within a few months of saving when I get back.

Lifes too short to be bored shitless !!

:nono: :thumbup1: :funmeteryes: :scooter: :mchappy: :clap:

Quit your debts and see the world- all at the same time
 

Hello my dear friends who worry too much and even worse: worry about silly things.:nono:
Whats happening to You is the way it all starts, or more correct .... ENDS!
You are on the way way to become law abiding, "responsable" citizens in a capitalistic world.:( (called Democracy to make us believe we have something to say in this "civilized" world)!

I had a study loan that I was paying off for years but it never diminuished. There were always the odd months where I simply could·nt make ends meet and this added punishment interest on the debt so I was back to where I was months earlier! It was·nt fair. Lots of my friends, who had·nt chosen to study, were all just fine, making money and living life. I started to calculate how many years it would take, with the crummy wage that I would be making, when having ended my studies, and found out I would be a fairly "mature" (age wise) person when I could start enjoying the fruits of many years of suffering, and .... decided enough·s enough!:thumbup1:
Got a job in a foreign country, and hav·nt heard a word since : "thats the way to do it, money for nothing and the chicks for free"!:clap:
Anyone, to whom this sounds a morally, not correct thing to do, just keep on paying, till You end up working to make the status quo system function,
the stinking rich stay that way and laugh their bullocks of when they think of their slaving herds of sheep: You and I.:helpsmilie:
Who·s laughing now, eh eh eh?:w00t: :lol2:
PS. don·t pay tax either!!!! and definitely: DON·T be daft enough to vote for any of these lying bastards!:thumbdown:
Love and piss of to them.:oops2:
Dan:tongue_smilie:

Go Dan! :thumbup1: My sentiments too.
We are here for a good time, not a long time:mchappy:


Trophymick

Dan, you really are a mischievous one !

Love it :thumbup1:

Want More, Do More
 

My son and I have a part-time tree trimming business. If I need extra cash for vacation, bike gear, extra stuff, we go out on weekends and WORK.

Typically $500 on a Saturday. No big deal. Pretty easy. Cash business.

Bottom line: If you want more, do more.

life
 

Long ago I discovered it was just too hard to save, then put everything in storage, travel, come back to nothing, with nothing, get a crummy job and start all over again. Now, I work as a photographer/writer WHILE I travel. Currently in Colombia where I'm 'stuck' for a few weeks catching up with work, as I don't even have petrol money to get to Equador! It's getting easier financially, but for me, this is most definitely far more pleasurable than having the crummy job. I'm usually broke, but I was usually broke with the job and lifestyle I hated to!
Lorraine

Just my kind·o girl....
 

Wow :thumbup1:
sounds like a sensible human being, and a lady on top of it all!
That·s the way, Lorraine. Good for You.:thumbup:
People, myself included, could learn a lot from Your brave choise of lifestyle, not just talking about doing it but actually living it.:clap:
Have a good life,
definitely love and peace to You my Dear,
Dan:tongue_smilie:

Lorraine made a great choice and that's what is meant by thinking outside of the box .
A practical person with skills can always find something to do to earn a few bucks to fund the next stage of their journey .
Work for cash , avoid the taxman , a message close to my heart - good one Dan !
Ted ,you should maybe buy a couple of "trade-in" bikes , fix them up and sell them on ,get some cash that way .It all helps .

Thanks to Nigel [on another thread ] I've got a great theme for a trip in Aus/NZ [thinking outside the box again ] .

The HUBB is a great place !

also
 

I met an argentinian biker in quito. When he travelled, he used to make some cash by making those hippy necklaces/earings etc... that you see everywhere in touristy places. The raw material is very cheap and you can make a fair bit of money for little work by selling to tourists.
That friend would have a trick: he would not say the price of the items but would ask the buyer, give me what you want for it. Sometimes he got little money but sometimes he got a lot! by doing this you remove the bargaining bit and the buyer don´t want to appear mean! good idea I think!
Also, Ed, I´m a banker, trust me on this one: DO NOT USE A CREDIT CARD to fund your trip!!!! Anything but! If you´re really desperate, get a loan at a decent interest rate but not credit card!!!!
Also may sound silly, but "menial" jobs can pay well. Cleaning staff (in London) make up to 10 pounds an hour, money in hand. Do you have 3 hours free on saturdays? If you´re good, people will pay for it!

You´re a programmer? Private evening lessons? Why not? I used to make good cash (tax free!) by giving math lessons to spotty teenagers when I was a student! It is good money!

So maybe see you in Ushuaia for Xmas then! :)
good luck and be patient! Shell put it very nicely!

Why do you guys feed into this? You know by now that Ted will never go anywhere.

Why post then ?

Do you know me ?

Sound like you know SH*T all about anything to be honest. Based on your only other "useful" post on the HUBB.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...357#post144609

Andalucia
 

I've booked it Ted. Check your mail.
October sound good for you?
3k mile round trip?
Will that go a little way to scratching your itch?

Sounds brilliant !! :D Im sure the new guv wont mind me having time off in October

No mails yet though (our server is slow)

Get it advertised on the HUBB asap :D

Will post it in the next few days Ted.

In the meantime, just to give you a taster of what the scenery is like around our way and what you can expect to ride when you get here, take a look at my web album. It isn't as exotic as South America, Morocco or Africa - it's southern Spain and most of these roads and tracks are 20 minutes away, Sierra Nevada is a couple of hours away and Malaga 30 minutes. This is what we spend every weekend doing.

Picasa Web Albums - Dakota - Motorcycling

Great shots there Allison :thumbup1:

Scenary looks beautiful and warm. Far cry from the UK at the moment.

I cant wait !!

[quote=tedmagnum;144610]Why post then ?

Do you know me ?

Sound like you know SH*T all about anything to be honest. [quote]

I know you're not going to do anything but go to HU meetings and post that you're going and never go anywhere. It's old already.

Sorry old chap. I Wont be baited into an argument.

You'l have to get your jolly's elsewhere. :nono: :thumbdown: :tongue3: :sleeping:

Hmmm
 

Tut tut :nono: that's not very friendly Max.

Had a bad day? Decided to use an alternate sign-on to stir up some trouble?

Why not tell us about YOUR trip prep experience? That'd be more useful.

Bad move Max, you've unleashed the snarling yet lovely "Shells" :gunsmilie:

Ted,

I have a similar problem with fustration.

I am planning on going south to Senegal in a couple of months time, been building up to it since Feb this year and now just got to recieve my Carnet, and add some new panniers on the bike and i will be as ready as i can be.

I enjoyed the buildup to it, and getting me and the bike ready but in a weeks time I will by ready to go but cant for 2 months due to visas and work. I have to grit my teeth and keep the bike going East to work when i rarther be going South....

Regards, Mike