CoyoteBroad's Essay For Women Who Travel By Motorcycle
(or want to)
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My posts on these channels are mostly about travel and motorcycle
riding, but in some places, I also talk about my professional
stuff which, sadly, is not about travel and motorcycle riding.
As I said on the home page of my motorcycle travel section, I am all about stravaig (pronounced straw vague, an Irish and Scottish word meaning to wander about aimlessly.) One goes stravaiging about the roads. I am all about stravaig, both on my motorcycle and in conversations.
I enjoy riding through beautiful vistas, I love how connected I
feel to my surroundings on a bike, I love the focus on the road
and the landscape and places other than what I know and live in
most days, I love the opportunity to not think about my
professional work or cleaning my house or all my many obligations
and responsibilities for a while, and I really love meeting people
- people are happy to walk up and start talking to a couple on
motorcycles. I see far more than I do when I travel by car, and I
see things in a very different way. I sleep better at night,
whether in a tent or in a hotel - all that focus on the road and
new experiences and what not makes me exhausted, in a great way. I
feel like a winning gladiator when I finish a trip, and I also
lose a few pounds on a two-week motorcycle trip! I also love how
I'm treated when traveling by motorcycle - people are, on the
whole, incredibly nice, and go out-of-their-way to talk to me.
Is it scary sometimes to travel by motorcycle? Absolutely. If you are a motorcycle rider and don't feel that way, good for you, but for me - yeah, there are times I'm scared. Not so much because I'm a woman but because I'm mortal.
In June 2014, I had my first wreck, on the notorious Shafer switchbacks in Utah, and it was very scary. There are minutes I don't remember at all. I had a serious concussion, had to go to a hospital and get CAT scan, etc. But, lucky for me, I wasn't alone, my husband and several passersby helped, called for medical care, there was medical care nearby, etc., and my bike had very minor damage. Three days later, after much rest, I was fine both mentally and physically and got on my motorcycle and continued my trip all the way back to Oregon and had a great time the entire way except for two days of horrible gusting wind and two truckers who I hope are impotent and sad for the rest of their lives. Two years later, I also dropped my bike on the way to Silver City, Idaho from Jordan Valley, Oregon, on a single track road that challenged me in every way, and I dropped my bike again in 2018, leaving Steens Mountain - both times, I was fine, as was the bike, but, again, I was so happy not to be alone - I've no idea what I would have done in those scenarios, both quite remote, had a I been alone.
I try to ride at every opportunity, and try never to let cold or rain discourage me from riding - we are year-round, most-weather riders. However, i admit that I loathe riding in strong wind gusts, and I had two days not only of wind gusts on that aforementioned 2014 trip that almost made me quit riding right then and there but also dust devils (mini tornadoes), and pretty much the same thing happened for two days in 2015, when I rode all the way from Oregon up to the Yukon via the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, and back down via the Alaska Highway - this time, the worst day was the last day, in the Columbia Gorge. Honestly, if it was that way for every trip I have taken, I'd give up riding a motorcycle. Thankfully, it's not.
So, yeah, wind gusts get to me so much, as does riding on a high
road where there is a sharp drop off on the side, with no
guardrail, and riding on roads with very steep ascents or
descents, especially when I don't know where or when I'm going to
find level ground to stop. Canadian road 3B to Rossland is my
nightmare come true - steepest road I have ever been on. I'm also
particularly bad at starting on a hill or turning from a stop on a
hill. Ugh. Oh, to be taller...
But still, with all that said: I love to travel by motorcycle. I crave it. Because when it's good, which is most of the time, it's wonderful. It's soul-feeding. Sometimes, it's exhilarating and, sometimes, it's calming. It's always interesting. I think motorcycle riding has a lot of the same benefits as EMDR for people who have experienced trauma. For days after just an all-day ride somewhere, I am calmer, handle stress better, process life better...
As of December 31, 2020, I've ridden 47,662 miles (76,740 km) on my own motorcycles in total. My first motorcycle was 1979 Nighthawk, bought in 2009, and after almost two years, I bought a KLR (Kawasaki), which I've ridden ever since. That's more than 4000 miles (more than 6000 km) a year. 95% of those miles / kilometers have been for long distance travel and weekend fun (rather than commuting somewhere). And I hope to ride many, many more miles and see much more. But I still consider myself an intermediate rider, in terms of skill level - being short (5' 4"), I have to be vigilant before every stop, making sure I can put my foot down and still hold the bike up - and that's not easy to stop on steep ascents or descents, let alone in cities where there are pot holes at many intersections.
As I noted above, I have a dual sport, a KLR. It's a motorcycle meant for off-road riding. People take KLRs on dirt roads just a few feet wide, straight uphill, covered in rocks. They deftly maneuver narrow roads along cliffs with steep dropoffs. They wear helmet cams and make videos for YouTube. They drop the bike and laugh and pick it up and ride right on. It's a fearless bike, and most people that ride it are, apparently, fearless. I am not fearless... but I'm having a great time doing what I do.I have my KLR for that 30 miles of gravel and dirt between me and a historic old mining town. Or for touring City of Rocks. Or for getting to that remote, primitive National Forest campground. I know that makes a lot of other dual sport riders roll their eyes, because I don't have plans to do a back country discovery route, I don't ride it on a single lane muddy forest road, I don't pop wheelies... I don't do all that's possible on a KLR, I get that. Sometimes, because I barely ride 10% dirt and gravel on a trip, it makes me feel unworthy of this bike. I sometimes have to ask my husband to turn my bike around in a challenging scenario - the side of a mountain or a severely slanted parking lot, for instance. I accepted long ago that I'll never be an expert rider and that I have to ask for help sometimes and I won't look smooth and confident on the bike at all times. But I don't let those limits keep me from riding - I build my trips with those limits in mind. I'm much better on dirt and gravel than I was when I started, and while I'm no Charlie Boorman (hi, Charlie!) - hey, I've done okay. I've seen a lot of beautiful places because of this bike. This bike never lets me down on those dirt and gravel roads I dare to do in pursuit of some incredible place - when there's a failure, it's all mine. I really do love this bike. She even has a name. No, I'm not going to tell you - it's personal between her and me.
Here are my resources for women who travel by motorcycle (or want to) that I hope you will find helpful:
My former motorcycle:
A 1982 Honda Nighthawk 650
Number of US & Canadian
states I've been to on a motorcycle of my own:
8
Number of countries I've
toured on a motorcycle of my own:
2
Number of countries I've
toured on the back of a motorcycle:
17
International trips by
motorcycle
Albania,
Austria, Belgium,
Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Canada,
Croatia,
Northern
England & Scotland, France,
Guatemala,
Hungary,
Italy,
Luxembourg, Macedonia
(the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Montenegro,
Norway,
Poland,
Romania,
Serbia,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Sweden
Trips riding my own motorcycle
California ("Lost
Coast" and gold
country), Idaho,
Montana
(Glacier NP), Nevada,
Oregon,
Utah, Washington
(state), Wyoming
(Yellowstone), Canada
(Jasper, Banff & Kootenay, as well as Vancouver Island
and a
tour of British Columbia and a bit of the Yukon).
Photos
of Me & My KLR
See
the TravelAdvisor map of where I've been (not just by
motorcycle).
Follow
me!
jayne_a_broad,
personal Twitter account
About travel, motorcycling, tent camping, bicycling (mostly as a
commuter), politics & things I find amusing.
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Adventure Motorcycle Luggage
& Accessories
www.coyotetrips.com
Aluminum Panniers and Top Cases,
Top Case Adapter Plates,
Tough Motorcycle Fuel Containers, & More
Designed or Curated by an experienced adventure motorcycle
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Based in Oregon
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