Bucket List Rides...

Reading this thread has reminded me just how very lucky I've been in my motorcycling life. I've ridden on and to SO many roads and destinations that could, maybe should be on anyone's bucket list of rides. I've ridden the full breadth across the continental U.S. a number of times. I've ridden around a large chunk of both North and South islands of New Zealand and I've ridden on some very special journeys through Spain, Holland and Italy.

I've spent a lot of time in the U.S. having first visited there in 1979 when I rode a 750 Norton Commando on a 4 week tour planned to take me and my (then) wife from San Francisco across to a Norton Owners' rally at Woodlands Park near Colorado Springs, and then thread my way back to Los Angeles where the bike was to be sold - sadly - by way of mitigating the overall cost of the trip. For any number of reasons it became a dream adventure - not without its highlights and not without its problems but, overall, the kind of thing that is undertaken as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' trip. It turned out to be anything but - though that is a whole 'nother story.

That first trip gave me a lot of things, not the least being an undying admiration and respect for the U.S. National Parks Service and for the natural beauty of the country and its landscape. Since that first visit I've been lucky (sensible?) enough to have made visits to no fewer than 27 U.S. National Parks in an A to Z of Arches to Zion! I've been to a whole host of national monuments and state parks and, of course, to some of the most naturally spectacular, beautiful and sublime scenery that the world has to offer human eyes and mind. I've had close, and very scary, encounters with bears; a scorpion; a rattlesnake; coyotes .... in the wild - not in a safe, managed setting! I've been hypnotised watching fireflies dancing in the air of a still, warm Wisconsin night. I've watched the sun rise over the Atlantic and set over the Pacific; ridden across vast deserts and endless green plains; ridden to the lowest point on the continent and through the shadow of the highest. I've baked in the desert and shivered in a snow storm .... mostly on motorcycles but occasionally in cars.

Clearly, for me 'once in a lifetime' was never going to cut it and I jacked in work in late '88 and decided to head to the U.S. to become a motorcycle hobo for just shy of a year. There's a LOT of stories latent in that last sentence and I will, perhaps, try to develop some of them for telling on here at some time in the future but I'm quite conscious that my writing "style" is, shall we say, a little bit pretentious, so I think I might need to work on that before exposing the membership to much more of it.

For now perhaps I should just state the obvious and say that, if you have a wish, a dream, a burning desire to go and take a motorcycle ride somewhere different, somewhere special - don't let it remain undone. The pandemic will make it harder but NOT impossible and, if anything, should make more of us determined to fulfill those dreams when the opportunity next arises.

If I can do it - anyone can.

 

Wow DCS900, if you are serious about a "grand European tour" then why not cover the Alps, French Alps, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany etc. Whilst I have not ridden in very many of these regions I have climbed and white water Kayaked in all of these many many times, I completed first descents on some rivers in the Picos De Europa region of Spain and used a Honda C50 as a shuttle vehicle, the Italian Dolomites are amazing with some fantastic scenery, whilst climbing in that region there was an Italian National bike festival and rally, the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland is really magical and returned another 8 times to knock of more routes (and rivers).

Whilst in the french Alps at the start of a winter and acclimatising, I went across the high Alps from France into Italy, Germany and then Switzerland, the only people I saw were a small group of Aspirant Mountain Guides from the UK on a final assessment, after descending and 2 days rest I completed a successful summit of Mont Blanc.

The Alpine roads are fantastic with really breathtaking scenery, I found the people wherever I went to be very hospitable. What I truly admired and respected was the fact that during WW2 the soldiers climbed many of these high peaks by what we now term "Via Ferrata Routes", I can only imagine the difficulties those soldiers endured carrying heavy loads of ammunition and weaponry up those rock faces, often long and steep, no wonder fatalities were high whilst climbing, and they did not have modern kit like I had.

I really do feel blessed that my wife and I have travelled, climbed and Kayaked in some fantastic countries, they all hold special memories in different ways, a month on the South Island of New Zealand led to a job opportunity and some exciting times we had climbing and exploring.

Hand on heart I have never had a "bucket list", my wife and myself used our very generous work leave and just explored, climbed and kayaked where we thought would be exciting and challenging.

We toured Scotland by motorcycle many times and it has to be one of the special places close to our hearts, the same is true for the Isle Of Man. We would regularly get in from work load the bike up, and head off to the lakes or Yorkshire, we would park up climb return have a pick-nick and set off back home.

My thoughts are we (my wife and myself) realised you only get one "bite of the cherry" so we packed in what we could, both our sons have the same values and experienced a lot of those adventures and continue to do so, we all ride and I am a "Rocker" through and through, have been since the sixties and will always be.

I would say go for it whatever you desire, you can't take it with you, the Egyptians tried that and it is still there, although it is a lot more complex than that, the Middle East is wonderful however that story can wait for another time, although I came across some extremely talented custom motorcycle builders in Egypt.

If I had to decide on a favorite place or places it would have to be Scotland and the Isle Of Man. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

Isle of man on 11th May,, had to cancel last year's trip. Been over loads of times but never on the bike unfortunately. This time the speed triple is the mode of transport,,

 

Here in Australia, we have some superb roads and scenery. Ive done Melbourne to Brisbane twice. My sister has just moved to inland Queensland, so thats the next bucket list ride. But id like to do the Americas someday, South to North..

 

I agree with @tunza , most of the best roads in Australia are the East Coast and the Mountains in VIC , NSW ,QLD. SA isn't bad and Tasmania is stunning , though I haven't done anything there yet ! NT has some good areas to visit/see though the roads are pretty much Straight ! The South West of WA has some good road's and places to visit , Winery's region of Margret River and surrounding areas

 

That’s in my list, too. Also, east to west of North America.

And maybe Canada now I think about it…

 

Here are a few photos from a climb I did on Mont Blanc at the start of one winter, the weather was appalling on the climb, however summit day climbing the ridge the weather was fantastic and clear, exactly as the forecast predicted so that window of opportunity was grabbed. I will post some photos of a Scotland tour when I dig them out. Ride safe all.

 

Here are a few photos from a climb I did on Mont Blanc at the start of one winter, the weather was appalling on the climb, however summit day climbing the ridge the weather was fantastic and clear, exactly as the forecast predicted so that window of opportunity was grabbed. I will post some photos of a Scotland tour when I dig them out. Ride safe all from the ageing Rocker.

 

2 trips on the "to do list before getting too old".
Up to the north to cross the Polar Circle (France - Germany - Sweden - Norway)
Along route 66 in Usa

 

Iceman is certainly an apt name for you!
Wowsa!

 

Amazing pictures! Thanks for posting them.