Whenever everyone seems to be in the thrall of serial panic attacks I check out. I invite you to do the same. Nothing good comes from following the herd. Allowing oneself to be manipulated or stampeded is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Doubt me? Remember when misplaced classified paperwork started coming out of Joe Biden’s ears? Remember how that very week a giant Chinese spy balloon materialized in Montana? Remember how the balloon teabagged the continental United States for several days? What happened with the paperwork? You forgot about the paperwork didn’t ya’?
Whenever enough people stop to think they begin to discover uncomfortable things. As soon as enough people wonder too much, like maybe whether the CDC was a good faith source of information about masks… oh look! The Ukraine is winning, or losing, or the whole thing is about to go nuclear, or whatever… Stop thinking and look at the shiny thing!
Don’t fall for it. Keep your feet where they belong, on the muddy earth of the real world.
I’m still pinned down in the long winter of the northland but I understand weather cycles like Al Gore doesn’t. Winter won’t last forever. As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, “in the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love motorcycles.”
In efforts to reduce my daily dosage of dipshits, and in joyous embrace of nearly forgotten youthful simplicity, I’ve been returning more and more to nature. Spring, fall, and summer are when that’s easiest. While everyone hid from each other over Covid and then rushed to bunch up cheek by jowl in a mosh pit to righteously torch Portland, I was elsewhere.
I’d been rambling aimlessly on Honey Badger, my cheap and delightful Yamaha TW200. (I’ve also done overdue maintenance on my cruiser, a Honda Shadow nearly old enough for classic plates in some states. Unfortunately, the cruiser has been mostly ignored while I bounce over tree stumps on the brash little shitbox of the Yamaha. Who knew a farm bike could be so much fun?)
A TW200 isn’t perfect for all things. It does moderately low highway-ish speeds like a politician tells the truth. It can do 55 MPH but it’s painful and noisy and you can tell the bike would rather be beaten with sticks. To ameliorate this, I got in the habit of trailering the little bike behind my behemoth truck. I’d tank up with diesel (quite expensively given the Bidenverse’s fuel prices) and drag my long suffering utility trailer with it’s small cargo to nowhere important. I’d park and spend my evenings happily camping (enjoying the novelty of bulky, heavy camping gear). During the day I’d zip around the forests more or less for free (the TW gets roughly 80 MPG).
Unfortunately, the utility trailer has had a hard life; not the least of which was me mounting my sailboat on it and driving it into a lake as if it were a boat trailer. It’s pretty shot and I didn’t dare take it far. It will soon find its way to trailer Valhalla. Despite still being trapped in the time of snowdrifts and ice, I’ve been shopping for a new motorcycle trailer. Don’t sweat it, I’ve got a line on one. I’ll post details in due time.
With a good trailer the concern of distance fades. New options appear. I can trailer 100 miles, or 1,000 miles. It’s all the same. From wherever I go I can setup base camp and have Honey Badger adventures. I don’t care if politics drives the world into the dark ages, I’ve got a fun summer planned!
Ahhh but lets indulge in whatever flights of fancy come to mind. A TW200 is small, too small for long multi-day camping trips. But is it? I watched Ed March ride a diminutive C90 from Alaska to Argentina. Stupid or not… it happened.
Is that a one off? An unlikely product of Ed’s unstoppable moxie? Nope. Angelo Giannie rode a CT125 across the continental United States. Just like Ed March, Angelo documented every step of the trip on YouTube.
I dream. But if I dream of what can actually be done, I can make it happen. What a C90 or a CT125 can do, a TW200 can do. Why not?
But lets step back a bit. I’m a busy guy and there’s a lot of logistics in such an endeavor. Time to take it easy and test the waters slowly. Mostly, I’ve grown attached to my luxurious Dodge carried cot. I love that cot! A TW200 trip will have me sleeping on the dirt again and that’s a thing that one might transition to slowly. Maybe a few mild overnighters.
Be it resolved, I shall trailer to somewhere obscure and try a few mild overnighters.
Also, lest I forget a big inspiration in this direction, TDubsKid has been doing just about anything you’d imagine on his TW200 and that includes camping.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.
While happily pondering the ultra-small gear I’d need to ride a pipsqueak farmbike into places most people won’t go (like the middle of some desert or in a swamp), I forgot other options. Thankfully, I stumbled across HerTwoWheels, which reminded me of tamer options for my very reliable and much larger cruiser:
A Harley? No shit! Lots of people camp from cruisers (and I’ve done it myself) but for some reason I hadn’t considered such a thing. I’ve been riding Honey Badger in swamps that would eat a Harley and spit out parts… and that gave me blinders to forget there’s a whole world of pavement out there. My Shadow is functionally the same as a basic Harley bagger (I would say better but that’s a discussion for another day). If a Harley can do it then a Shadow can. (Assuming I manage that “sleep on the ground” issue.)
Also, HerTwoWheels makes a point about going solo. I ride solo too. Always. Oddly, modern people (maybe it’s an always thing and not a modern thing?) never do anything solo. Except me, of course. It’s a nice reminder to see HerTwoWheels do the occasional campout on her own. (I should also mention The Emporium Outdoors does his thing with anything from an Argo to a brand new Jeep but he does it accompanied only by his photogenic dog. TDubsKid also rides and camps solo. Ed March is an entirely different critter altogether. He’s his own entire universe of self-reliance and could probably carry his bike on his shoulders if he had to.)
So now, one idea has turned to two; and perhaps many.
What will happen? I’ve no idea. Frankly I hadn’t budgeted for anything too extravagant in 2023. Yet the mind builds ideas that I’ll presumably indulge in due time.
I know what can be done with what I’ve got; and it’s plenty. My logistics look good (this is not by accident). I like to ponder what shenanigans I could cook up with two very different motorcycles, an unstoppable tow rig, and a solid reliable trailer. I’m not sure where this leads but I feel like it’s gonna’ be great!
It’s still winter. Nothing is set in stone. But in a fit of optimism I dug a path to the bikes (which are in cold storage behind a snowdrift). I pushed the little one into my workshop (which is also unheated) so I can start changing the oil and other needful things.
I took a photo. I call this picture “hope”:
