Osama Bin Laden’s last hiding place was within a block of one of the great motorcycling roads of the world. The Karakaroum Highway goes from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to beyond Sost, where it meets the border with China. The road passes a point where three great mountain ranges of the world meet – the Himalayas, …
Category Archives: Motorcycling
Brass Monkey – the big wet
The last days of the monkey were wet, which means less photos. We stayed dry and cozy in layers of protective, warming and rain proof clothing though.
Brass Monkey – snow time
Yes the theme of this batch of pictures is snow. Unsurprisingly snow and motorcycles are not entirely compatible. I was one of three round the world motorcyclists that decided to let their bikes have a wee rest. Luckily Mod managed to stay upright – he’s the one with his 7 year old daughter on board.
Brass Monkey 2010
It’s the first frost, and ski season starts tomorrow (at Coronet Peak), so clearly it’s Brass Monkey time. Here’s the first batch of photos, sent while sitting in the sun on a farm near Fairlie during a cat-dog stand-off.
Tour of New Zealand – 2009/2010
I spent 2 weeks or so riding around New Zealand over the Christmas New Year break. What glorious fun. (There is a more complete set of photos over at Flickr.) It reaffirmed what a wonderful place this is. Even during the height of the summer break it was easy to get away from it all. …
Do you feel assured?
I imagine there is some ancient research backing up the use of the “be assured” strips across toilets in a certain class of accomodation. I for one feel it really is a waste of money, as not only is it obvious when a bathroom has been cleaned, it’s also hard to catch anything nasty from …
Want to motorcycle the world? It’s easy
This DVD intro gives a taste for the sort of person that you need to be to ride the world. Assemble your personal excuses, and then watch. (Hint – age and even Parkinsons won’t cut it. Neither will lack of use of a limb, no money, no motorcycle license, gender (ha!), no experience and so …
BMW’s new bike – the S1000RR
BMW has just released the street version of their Supersport bike. This is an important event in the decade long takeover of the marque by horsepower crazy hoons. Those hoons still believe in ABS and traction control – this bike has 4 settings that adjust the engine, ABS and traction control for Rain, Sport, Race …
Alcohol and driving: make it 0.0% or forget it
Good news – the NZ Government wants to look at reducing the drink driving limit from 0.8 g/l to 0.5 g/l. It’s been 0.5g/l in Australia for years – folk over 40 will remember Peter Brock always had had 05 on his car, as that was the limit for drink driving. But is it the …
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Extreme sport and adventure motorcycling
Marathons, Iron Mans, and now Extreme-Adventure travel. It’s all getting just a little ridiculous. I’ve found myself in more than one conversation this week with people that, having completed in these sorts of things (e.g. Coast to Coast, half Iron Man) have now decided to move on. They are still challenging themselves, but will ride …
Time to return
From beautiful Cape Leveque, which is North is Broome, I woke in my tent to the dawn light. After visiting a local community, it is time to return. The day before I fielded several phone calls from companies I am involved with, received the final investment documents and call for cash for a new one, …
Signs of WA
Two interesting signs, showing that yes, you are in Western Australia. The first $22 per hour for cleaners. Despite these rates (similar for waiting tables) travellers tend to stay only a few weeks and then move on. Indeed folk arriving in, say, Broome can pick up a decent paying job within a day. The second …
Running low on fuel….
Forty degrees Celcius in the sun, and I realized that I was probably not going to make it to the next gas station if I kept going to the latest gorge. So I turned around and headed for Derby, on the west of the Gibb River Road. Slowing right down, and with pumped up hard …
Travelling with the iphone for a week
First some rants; “nz” gets auto changed into “ms”, and the auto replacement function does not learn from its’ mistakes. Safari keeps crashing, with increasing regularity YouTube videos simply do not work anymore I can’t flip photos in wordpress Mail does not flip horizontally, making it really hard to read HTML emails that assume a …
Up the Tanami road
It’s the main drag from alice springs to the northwest, so I was expecting the Tanami Road to be pretty good. It was, but vast tracts were still unacceptabe for locals. I cruise at 100-110km, regardless of terrain. The worst roads are deep sand and sandy corrugations, and there was a bit of the first …
Lance Wiggs 