Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

I have shared your "follow your lusts at all costs" attitude. I am a Panigale owner. I was an "A" East Coast Enduro rider in the 80's. Your continued inspiration through out this thread has motivated me to purchase a new XC300W KTM to ride at the OHV areas of mountainous Oregon after a 25 year dirt bike lay off. Thanks for helping to make me realize that dirt riding was the one segment of my life that was important enough for me to re- kindle.

Hey AH, you are a pretty inspirational guy.
You know I've been keeping up with the RR, and by the way, best one I've ever read.
It is really cool to read about all these readers being inspired by this tread, it's pictures and philosophies.
Don't know if I mentioned it before, but that trip I'm taking of the South West next year has been in my mind for about 15 years out of 21 riding. I say THANK YOU for being the straw that broke the camels back! I just hope my writing will be half as interesting as yours.

Hi AH from switzerland

i' m impressed by this thread on many levels, probably the nicest ever read..

by the way, some guys here barely dare using their pani on open roads but you turned it into a dirt bike or like

take care and ride free

Where did you stay in DV?

I was there from 31st to 2nd - camping.

Was great

petzi-baer

M0t0Rider
I can't get it to work (even though I can view it). This is why I didn't mess with video for most of the trip!!!! I'll upload it somewhere else 4x and try to get it to work, considering what I risked just to take the video!\

hery22
Great to hear! One day I'll have a KTM, too....


Thanks, Rico. Much thanks. PM me the link to your R/R when you've got it up (and of course plan at least a few days in DV!).

Lolodesiles
Much appreciated. Great to hear my R/R has made it to Switzerland. :) Pani makes a terrible dirt bike, but as long as the wheels will turn I'll feed her gas.

petzi-baer--stayed in the Amargosa Hotel and then in Furnace Creek. Looking forward to the day I can camp AND have a bike to ride. Camping's the only way to go in DV imho.

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A-H;
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Ahhhhhh, the 990 ADV the latest to my collection she is just awesome, made me go out and buy a pair of XL350 R's to get me re acclimated to the off road life of years past and feel comfortable letting the bike go. She handles the pavement like a sport bike the dirt and gravel roads as if they were paved and if I ever learn to ride her right my ass may let go of the seat and i will truly enjoy her. A 110 ++++++++HP Dirt bike will surely exercise the Sphincter.<o></o>
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Just love this RR, you have a talent, F--- the Software and Write!
Read your own words, then follow them.
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Rick

"Read your own words, then follow them."

Excellent point, Rick, and exactly what I, too, need to be reminded of. When this R/R comes to its conclusion I think everyone (myself included) will be pleased to discover what the future has in store.

Video link is fixed. (Photobucket clearly has some issues for videos, so I uploaded to catube.)

Will my love affair ever end?​

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen violets damasked, blue and white,
But no such violets see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she moves, treads on ground.​

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.​

Happy New Year !

I love this with the ABS. No worries about slamming on the brakes. I'm no speed king but here in India, it is so easy to see dogs, bicycles even tractors drive on the opposite direction in your lane - on highways!

I went and played with one at the store and you are correct, quite and amazing little camera. This thread should sell a few I imagine :) -Steve

"Is there any greater torment then to grow old without having fulfilled the dreams of our youth? Attack your dreams or be attack by them later!"

In my prior life, I attempted to convey this to various people in my family, with the response being 'no response' to 'stop being a child'. My standard line was this: I don't want to be 80, looking back at my life and say, 'damn, I should've done.......' Now, I said this while working 50+ hrs/week AND building a house.....and then a second house & barn! It wasn't like I was not employed or working. In my experience, alot of people never look beyond 'this afternoon' and when you try to explain to them where your headed/what you want to experience and 'feel', they look at you like your speaking Russian! They just don't 'get it', nor do they want to understand it!

Very interested on where your headed!

Can't agree with you more. I've been working hard, being "good", being responsible, etc. for a long while now, and at every turn there's the government with its hand out demanding more money. It seems the system has essentially become a grist mill, hungry for more willing fools to throw their youth into, with a "comfortable" sustenance life as the promised reward.

But where's the fun?? And where's this "free" country I keep hearing so much about?!?! It seems like there's a goldang rule for every little thing, and violating any of them results in either losing your job, jail or a fine of some sort. "Don't park there!" "Don't ride your bike there!" "That's sexual harassment!", "I can't believe you just said that!", "Don't walk outside with that beer!" "You were going 50 in a 45!" Etc. etc. etc. I probably spend 100 hours a year just keeping my government paperwork up to date for vehicles, homes, licenses, etc. it's just mind numbing.

"Liberalism" is destroying our society and turning us into a bunch of automatons, under the guise of "safety" and "respect" or "tolerance". It's a sad, ironic joke that we say its about "tolerance" and yet we have less and less actual tolerance for any kind of misstep, or freedom.

I feel the sands of time filtering through the hour glass, the grip of fear of dying of boredom.....of being in the same place, doing the same thing 30 years from now. I feel as though I'm on the precipice of a great chasm, ready to risk life and limb for a chance to just let go and plunge headlong into the abyss, for a chance to see what's at the bottom, and with no way of knowing if I can ever climb back out. Just for the sheer excitement and uncontrolled chaos it will bring.

And reading your report (and those of a few other folks) is leading me slowly closer to the jumping off point. Closer to the day when I will throw off the shackles of this incredibly constrained existence, and just LIVE.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I'm not entirely sure you can begin to know how influential reading this can be for certain individuals - like me.

Same here.

What I take from AntiHero's trip is that there are more choices available to us in life than we generally realize, but we have to be open to recognizing them; also, a lot of the reason we don't succeed at things we say we want is that we give ourselves the easy out by embracing excuses. Some choices result in our not being able to ride off into the sunset. Having children, a spouse, pets, a mortgage, a career....these things tend to tie us down. To some extent they can be worked around. Read GP1152's report: "me, a blonde, and two ducatis". Spouse? Check. House? Check? Careers? Check. Kids? No. But, she rides. So they can't just take off RTW but they can go on rides together during vacations. Then you have Gene and Neda (aka Lightcycle)....sold everything except what they could pack on their bikes, quit their jobs, and are on the road totally open-ended. No kids No pets. Sold the house. Tiffany Coates: no spouse, has a job she can come back to but flexible time off, no kids, don't know whether there's a mortgage. Point being that nothing comes without some kind of cost, and it's our responsibility to figure out how to expend our "capital"...i.e. the time we have to live. Blaming the govt or the liberals or the conservatives? Nah. If we want to ride strongly enough we'll find a way. If we don't, then we didn't. That's it. Either way if we recognize our choice as a choice we'll be happier in the long run, even if it means we realize we're done with riding (because then you can let it go and find something to do that you WANT to do). Jus' my dos punts.

Its a North American variety of "sun spider", totally harmless (unless one considers being frightened by bugs harmful). We even have them in the dry parts of Oregon. They are voracious predators and if you have any problems with larger pest insects, they are your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae

Different strokes. That is ALL it boils down to. It isn't right or wrong, until someone tries to impose their view on how life should be lived on someone else. I've done a lot and made a lot of choices most other people "don't get". So what? Its my life, I life with the consequences, how does someone else have a right to judge?

Some people travel or adventure because they truly are using the outward journey to explore themselves and test their limits. Bravo.

There are likely some people on this site who are practically running from themselves and personal issues and they have been running for years. Wherever they go they find themselves and their personal demons. AntiHero is not one of these people, but I find myself feeling sad for those who are trying to self-medicate with travel, and it isn't providing a cure.

Some people are so jaded, or unfeeling they seek the extremes just to feel anything. As long as they aren't hurting anyone else, great, and if they have the ability to tell their tales, their's are often the great tales from the edge.

Hell, there have been times in my own life where all I wanted was a quiet corner in which to read a book. At other times I took great risks to pursue what mattered to me. Neither one of those times were "better" or "worse", and I enjoyed both in their own time.

Say what you want, but the guy reading his favorite books just may be having a better time than a young gun out on the ride of their life. Its all personal. There is enough world and enough different paths for people to find their own way. There are people living in situations where they honestly do not have the luxury of choosing any life but but the one they find themselves in, so we who cam choose should consider ourselves blessed.

In short, live life how you need to, don't worry overmuch about other people getting your life choices and don't worry about getting other people's life choices. Definitely don't bother with trying to justify your own style, AntiHero certainly doesn't!

Man, I 100% hear what you're saying. You are describing what Australia is becoming very rapidly. Except we get taxed a lot more than you guys.

I'm not really sure you understand what I wrote. I'm not blaming "Liberalism" for preventing me from taking a trip - although excessive taxation certainly does affect my ability to build my nest egg. Platinumgrit sounds like he "gets it" too. It's about working your ass off like a hamster on a wheel, not getting anywhere and not getting out of the cage. or at least realizing what little wealth we're able to accrue in our current society, is not worth trading for life experience, excitement and FREEDOM.

Reading about these fine folks actually doing it, is pushing me so close to doing it too, now that I'm reaching the age that I realize there's more to life than what we're "allowed" to do in our sterile, politically correct prison.