WYBDR: Getting My Bike Ready

Once mentally committed to the WYBDR, it’s “most remote” warning became the most important fact. Combine that with “solo” and I was no longer screwing around. It was time to exercise care. The first step in preparation was to make sure my camping/motorcycle gear is top notch. It wasn’t. I threw money at the problem (actually a lot less than you’d think) and that seemed to help. Then I obsessed over my motorcycle.

My motorcycle choice is “unorthodox” (and I’m sure many people I met on the trail silently muttered “lame” when they saw it). The Yamaha TW200 looks oddly toy-ish but it is an unkillable spud of a bike and has the heart of a lion. Yamaha launched it in 1987 as an “ATV Killer”. (It failed. Look how many ATVs are around!) It’s crude and obsolete and silly and slow. It’s more suited to hauling a bucket of feed to your cattle than grand adventures. It costs about 1/3 what the cheapest ADV costs and has 1/50th the cool factor. (Many, perhaps most(?) of the riders I actually met on the BDR spent more on their hard bags than I did on my whole motorcycle!)

Suffice to say, a TW200 is NOT well suited to State spanning distances. Only a loon would try.

Then again maybe the world needs more loons? As far as I’m concerned there’s a true thing that we should never overlook:

“The best motorcycle for a trip is the one you have.”

Also, I trust my little death turtle. That’s huge! Even if I could afford a new or used “Adventure bike” (ADV), it would add uncertainty to my calculations. I’ve flogged my uncomplaining TW200 like a rented mule. It just keeps going. It has done anything I’ve ever gotten into my fool head. I bought that dumb little brick because I always want to get home… if slowly.

When you’re solo and remote it’s time to distrust technology and avoid things like a high center of gravity. ADV bikes look super cool but they’re technological wonders. For example, they have anti-lock brakes, which is almost a necessity to handle their mass on rough ground. The TW200 is so lame it has a drum brake on the back! Then again it’s so small and slow that the drum and the front disk are sufficient. (I said sufficient, not impressive.) The overlooked advantage is there are no sensors, circuits, or gadgets to break. The brakes are sufficient but also hard to break.

The TW200 is squat and not super comfortable. ADVs are tall and have excellent suspension, in part because you need it to handle an ADV crunching over rocks. The TW200’s short dumb suspension beats the hell out of the rider but it too has little to break. And it’s so short, the ground ain’t far away if you dump it.

I theorize the whole ADV idea (which is super popular) is necessarily a series of compromises. Excellence on roads is gained in exchange for “tall but pretty OK” on dirt. For most people, that’s a good trade off. Not for me. For one thing, I’m as short and stout as the TW200. I can’t flat foot a bike with a 34” seat height and there’s no point in wishing otherwise. For another, I insist on doing stupid shit that includes words like “remote” and “solo”.

As “research”, I slavishly watched many BDR Youtube videos (there are thousands and they’re a hoot to watch!). I expected the videos to chill me out. Instead, they threw up red flags. I saw far more drama than I expected. A lot of nice people wound up mildly battered and occasionally seriously injured. More than a few groups of 3-5 lost a few members to “minor setbacks” during a week long BDR! Yikes!

The proximate cause was rarely related to the environment itself. I would expect and hardly notice a few examples of heat exhaustion or mechanical failure or something funky like being trampled by a buffalo. Yet, most “drama” involved a big ADV falling over, and as it does so pushing some body part in one or more unpleasant directions. Eeek!

A minority of the videos showed smaller dual sports. This doesn’t confer immunity to mishap but the dual sport riders really did seem to motor along with less drama. This was an informal YouTube sample. It could have been through chance or bias of videographers. Maybe dual sport riders bite it just as hard but carry fewer cameras due to limited carrying capacity? All I can say is what I noticed.

Also, nobody videoed themselves on a BDR with the odd duck TW200. That made me nervous.

This bothered me. Finally I found external validation. I watched Yammie Noob’s “Adventure Motorcycles Through the Eyes of a Sportbike Guy”. It was a well meaning romp on bikes and meant in fun. But at 10:05 he dropped a truth bomb I’d been sensing:

“The average aging father really can’t buy a BMW GS, add $4,000 in accessories, and expect to go tackle a BDR.”

Bam! That’s it right there!

I’m probably not an “average” aging father. In fact, who knows what that “average” means? But I was going solo and I’m no spring chicken. Solo ventures merit caution!

Before I skate too far on thin ice let me say that ADVs look cool and Yammie Noob likes exaggerating for humor. (I still laugh myself silly at his description of “Wilbur” in The 7 ADV Riders You Will Meet (Thermonuclear Edition). I am not Wilbur but someday I might be!) Also, lots of people take their bike choices personally and it’s none of my business. Nor does my (or Yammie’s) logic comport with popularity. About 80% of the bikes I saw on the BDR itself were ADVs. None were splayed on the ground or parked at an ER and they universally looked super cool. So I could be full of shit.

(Actually I saw very few bikes on the trail at all. Most were parked at gas stops and whatnot in the very infrequent towns. Even parked, you could tell they were outfitted for the trail and yes, they look cool as hell… even when parked! You know what, I’m mis-stating the thing; on the trail itself I saw very few humans of any sort. I saw perhaps a few BDR groups, a picturesque group of horse mounted non-ironic real life cowboys, one road grader that seemed to hate me, and a smattering of dented ranch trucks.)

The remaining 20% of bikes I saw on or near the trail were smaller (but still kitted out) dual sports. I don’t know why, but dual sports just don’t look as cool. (Side note: sometime folks will refer to an “Enduro” motorcycle. That means roughly the same thing as “dual sport”; a dirt biki-ish thing that is street legal and a little less awesome at dirt but more practical. Also, most articles on the subject say something like “ten best bikes to buy in 2024” and they utterly ignore the obsolete and weird TW200.)

For my entire trip, the only idiot on a TW200 was me. I’m sure it happens but I never saw another one!

I saw one Royal Enfield Himalayan. It was kitted out nicely but parked haundreds of miles from the trailhead at an REI store. I’d scoff but I was at the REI store too. I stopped at for last minute gear and my TW200 was perched on a trailer. So what do I know?

I’m not saying you can’t complete a BDR on a heavy ADV, it happens all the time. I merely theorize it’s riskier and more physically challenging. Also, most people consider a BDR a “group effort” thing. Every video of an ADV dumped on a BDR showed a handful of men working hard together lifting it. Fred dumps his ADV. Mike, Ralph, and Barney leap off their bikes and hustle to help Fred. In exchange, Fred hustles to help his friends when they dump. A circle of goodwill unavailable to the solo rider!

A solo guy like me will never ever have a single foot pound of force granted by charity. Part of why I chose a cheesy, little, small, stupid, crude, and slow machine is that I can always pick it up! Also I like its performance in the rough stuff. It favors traction over speed. Most dirt machines zip along using speed and excellent suspencion. TW200’s tractor along slow and steady; like mules.

As for my experience (I have returned after all) the TW200 excelled at the worst parts of the trail. The tougher the trail the more I liked it. It’s not very photogenic or exciting because it chugs along rather than flinging great rooster tails of dirt, but it’s damn good at simply getting through.

I paid for it for performance though. The TW200 has shitty ergonomics. It beat my ass and was very wearying on any long sections.

I should also mention, I was the only solo rider I met. That surprised me, but it’s true.

Stay tuned for more…