The search for a suitable bike continues…

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I have now spent more time that is probably healthy trawling sites offering used bikes for sale here in Andalucia. Some of these are ex-pat sites like FaceBook, but most are sites in the Spanish language.

I’m nervous about buying a bike from someone who doesn’t speak English – my Spanish is good enough to order coffee and tostadas, but I’m not sure it’ll stretch to ‘Why is it making that funny noise?’ or to understanding the answer. However, to find an appropriate bike at the right price, I’m probably going to have to deal with a Spanish seller. Fingers crossed!

Which brings me to the next bit – what bike? There are lots of Yamaha SR250 Specials within my price range as well as a few Yamaha 250 Viragos and one or two Suzuki 250 Marauders and Honda Rebels.  Incidentally, why is it that so many small Japanese bikes have such stupid names? If I really want to go marauding or to be a rebel, I don’t suppose I’ll be doing either on a Japanese 250! And whoever at Yamaha thought that ‘Exciter‘ was a good name for a step-thru needs to take along, hard look at themselves.

Anyway, the single cylinder Yamaha SR250 looks quite appealing (and scores highly for not having a stupid name) but I’m concerned about the seating position. Compare the position of the footrests on this 1992 SR250 which is for sale in Seville:

srpegs

With the footrests on this 1993 250 Virago, also for sale in Seville:

viragopegs

See what I mean? The footrests on the SR are way further back. I presume this is a legacy of the SR being derived from a standard roadbike. Yamaha have added extended bars, but haven’t bothered to relocate the footrests. On the Virago (as on the Marauder and the Rebel), which was designed from the outset as a cruiser style bike, the footrest are much further forward in what looks like a more comfortable position.

In terms of touring comfort, there is no way to be sure without spending time on the road and I’m put off the otherwise appealing SR250 by this odd-looking seating position. My knees and hips aren’t in pristine condition after several trips down the road during my motorcycle career, and I do want whatever bike I get to be comfortable.

If any readers have experience of spending time on the road on an SR250, I’d be mighty glad to hear from them!

See also: Getting closer…

Nutty as a Fruitcake

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I am going to write more about how travel, mental illness, mental health and life purpose have been intertwined in my life since I was a kid in later posts.

Here, I want to tell you about the minimising mallet that I took to my life when I was 49. No gentle pruning for me! I had a steady job I loved in learning support, nice friends, a good social life, a lovely husband and the fabulous children were growing up and flying away… Time to settle into a few hobbies, some more community work and enjoy the lifestyle we had earned. Sure, that was an option.

But I hankered and had hankered for years for the free wheeling life I had BC. Before children. Happiness for me was always a small day pack, a map and some walking boots. And a dog, if possible.

Secretly I had been taking teaching classes in ESL, trying out weekend courses, reading up on grammar, doing a bit of teaching…I chose this area mainly because I have few transferable skills apart from my rapport with teenagers and my total infatuation with language. Words, don´t you love ém?!

We made a game plan. He would stay, I would go and try it.

I had a punt at a interview for a job in Vietnam..never been there..but it was good practice, and to my shock I got it. I took it. I moved fast.

I left my friends, my family, my kids, my colleagues…..and left with a suitcase, a computer and my dear old backpack ( I travel even lighter now!) I minimised all these things to ground zero and set off for a new life, unencumbered by the expectations of anyone.

And it was so easy. So, breathtakingly easy,

 

All about me

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Hi everyone! My name is Julie. I´m 57 and have worked as a teacher, social worker and sometime writer. My job has taken me all over the world, with a special place reserved in my heart for South East Asia.

Petra pup, Jordan

Just now, I am teaching and writing online, dog fostering, running a small charity and enjoying walking and camping in this beautiful part of Spain.

I have pillioned with Steve for all our relationship and I think he fell for me the day his Super Tenere began to fall over and I rushed forward to catch it…

´´Pillion Posts´´ will be a varied menu. . I have bipolar 1 and for me travel is part of my journey to recovery, to escape or sometimes into downright weirdness…

What is this minimalism thing anyway?

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Minimalism is a movement which began, as so many of these things do, in the US. The short version is, it’s about getting rid of stuff. The stuff that we seem to relentlessly and almost unconsciously accumulate as we go through life.

It’s easy for it to seem that having stuff is essential, especially having the latest, coolest stuff.

The sad truth is that most of us have far more possessions that we will ever really use, and we often discard things that are perfectly good because of a perception that having a newer thing will somehow make our lives better.

Julie and I got a head-start on the whole idea of discarding things about six years ago when we decided to sell our home in Scotland and go travelling. We sold or dumped every possession other than those we could fit into two suitcases. And do you know what? It felt good. Really good. Once we had got rid of all the things that had seemed so important, it was finally possible to focus on what really mattered.

Bagan temples2

That’s Bagan, in Myanmar. Amazing place. We were lucky enough to visit a couple of years ago on an electric scooter.

After periods living and working Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar we’re now (sort of) settled in Spain. And we still don’t have many things. When I started to think about getting back into motorcycling after a five-year hiatus, we agreed to try and extend the same philosophy into biking.

I don’t think you need the latest motorcycle to enjoy touring. I don’t think that you need tyre-shredding performance to enjoy travel. I think all of us can probably do more with less. And that’s what this site is really about. Motorcycle travel that’s as simple and basic as it can be and costs as little as possible, because debt isn’t fun either.

You’ll notice that these are things that I think… I don’t know for certain because I haven’t tried yet. Perhaps this time next year I’ll be looking for a full-dress tour bike with a radio and satnav and perhaps Julie and I will be dressed in matching designer motorcycle gear. Perhaps, but I suspect not.

DSCF0277jpg

Touring, minamilist style – a few years back, I bought this Honda XL500R for less than five hundred pounds, re-furbished it and took it on a mammoth trip round Europe. This pic was taken during during a late evening visit to the race track at Spa in Belgium.

Because just like life, motorcycle touring is a journey best done with as little luggage as possible. When you stop thinking about all that stuff, you can actually take the time to enjoy what you’re doing.

If you want to find out more about minimalism, you might want to take a look at this website: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

Choosing a bike

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There are several things to consider here:

Low cost – I want something that’s going to cost less than €1,000 and that includes the purchase price and any work needed to get it ready for the trip.

Good fuel consumption – to meet our target, we need something that will do at least 70mpg with two people on-board.

Comfort – We’ll need something that’s going to be comfortable for at least several consecutive days of riding.

Reliability – As far as possible, I want something capable of doing the trip without the need for major repairs.

Taking all these things together, that suggests a 250cc four-stroke. I suspect that less than 250cc might struggle to carry two of us easily and a larger engine will mean using more fuel. There are several types of Chinese motorcycle available here in Spain, but I don’t hear great things about their reliability so I’m going to focus on something Japanese.

In terms of comfort for two people, that effectively rules out a trail-type bike because they tend to have relatively short saddles. So, we’ll be looking for a Japanese road or cruiser type bike. The need for low cost means we’ll be looking for something from the 1990s or early 2000s.

With this in mind, these are the sort of bikes I’m currently looking at:

Suzuki Marauder 250

Suzuki GZ250 Marauder 03

Honda Rebel 250

rebel

Honda CBF 250

Honda CBF250 05

Yamaha Virago 250

2007-yamaha-virago-250-1

Yamaha SR 250

Yamaha_SR_250

I don’t suppose any of the bikes I’ll be looking at will be as shiny as the ones in these pictures and it all depends what I can find in the local area and at a reasonable price…

See also: Getting closer…

The Journey Begins

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Thanks for joining us!

‘In a car you’re always in a com­part­ment, and be­cause you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car win­dow ev­ery­thing you see is just more TV. You’re a passive ob­serv­er and it is all mov­ing by you bor­ing­ly in a frame. On a cy­cle the frame is gone. You’re com­plete­ly in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watch­ing it any­more, and the sense of pres­ence is over­whelm­ing.’

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I love touring on two wheels. I have ridden in most European countries as well as my home in the UK and I have even managed a little riding in South East Asia.

To me, a motorcycle is the perfect way not just to see other parts of the world but to experience them. You can smell the tang of the forests and feel the chill as you climb high mountain passes. Of course, you can experience these things when walking or cycling too, but a motorcycle allows you to travel through large changes of landscape in a relatively short time, and it’s probably that aspect which I enjoy most of all.

I can still remember the first time I saw the Alps in the distance, like a bank of dark clouds on the horizon. Two hours later, I was there, in the midst of twisting roads over precipitous drops and spirit-lifting vistas. That experience provided a feeling of fulfillment, of being there in that particular moment that is sadly lacking from much of everyday life.

But here’s the thing: I’m getting older. Soon I’ll be sixty. This doesn’t just mean stiff limbs and new aches and pains, for me it has also brought a different view of the world. I still like to travel but speed and power just don’t interest me like they used to. The idea of having the latest, biggest, most hi-tech bike not only doesn’t excite me any more, I actually find it a little dull.

Which is what this site is about. I want to explore the possibilities of touring on a small capacity motorcycle while consuming as little of the world’s resources as possible. I plan to find an elderly bike that won’t cost much to buy and which will probably need a little care and attention to prepare it. Then, I want to see if I can use it to explore parts of the world which I haven’t seen.

I’m lucky in that I won’t be doing this alone. My wife and I have been together for almost thirty years and we both still enjoy the challenge of travel. She’ll be coming with me and giving the view from the back seat.

Together, we’re the Motorcycle Minimalists and I hope you’ll come with us on some big journeys on a small bike.

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