Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Interviewing Sterling Noren, film maker and adventure motorcyclist

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Interviewing Sterling Noren, film maker and adventure motorcyclist · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady. My co host Matt Scott is
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: not with us today. He's out doing something fun and overlandy,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I believe, so we will talk to him on our
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: next episode coming up. We do have an AMA plan,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so ask me anything. So if you guys have questions
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that you'd like to pose to Matt or myself, please
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: contact us via Instagram. You can reach me at Scott
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: dot a dot Brady to provide those questions. And I've
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: got a great guest with me today, a longtime friend,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: someone that I have traveled with in South America and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: several locations in North America as well, Sterling Noreen, who
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is a well known filmmaker in the space. He is
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: coming up on three decades of filming adventure motorcycles around
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the globe and that includes the full length of the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Silk Road Africa, through Russia, through Southuth America of course
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: extensive travels in North America. So this is an individual
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: that has enormous experience both as a traveler and as
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a filmmaker, which I think will make for a very
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: interesting conversation today. Thank you so much, strilling for being
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: on the podcast with us today. Thanks Scott, It's great
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to be here. Yeah, man, I mean I'm thinking about
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: some of the trips that we've done together. I mean
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: South America being one. We were both on Expedition sixty five.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It was funny. Just the other day I came across
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: some helmet cam footage that I had remember when we
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: were on we were in Ecuador, not Yeah, we were
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in Ecuador and we got onto a racetrack and we
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: were all they had us all lined up, and I've
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: got this helmet footage of me like flogging this poor
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: rental BMW.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: You imagine riding in a place like South America and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: you don't ever think you're going to be on a
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: racetrack doing it.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that was so fun. I mean I was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: dragging pegs and nearly dragging the luggage on that thing
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: going around the track. That was really fun. Yeah, I mean,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: whole that whole journey was excellent, and we even I
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: remember talking earlier today about how good of a job
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: that everybody did, just kind of being a member of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that team and such variety of personalities and that we learned.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: We all learned so much about each other, and people
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: really had some great experiences on that trip. Absolutely. This
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: episode is supported in part by red Ox Manufacturing. Since
• 2:22
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• 2:26
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• 2:33
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• 2:50
  Speaker 1: tough as tanks. And you made it all the way
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: down to Oshwaia with that one, right of course. Yeah,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: my bike barely made it. But I made it with
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: my bike. Oh that's right. It was that eight hundred
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: gs right, Yeah.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: My clutch went out at thirteen thousand feet up in Peru,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: oh wow, and had to get it back down to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the dealership and get it repaired and finish the journey.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So that was probably shortly after I left the group then,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: because I don't remember you having that mechanical because we
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: were camped out at about fourteen thousand feet at that lake.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Is that about where it happened.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was probably within a matter of a few
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: days after that.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And it was an epic night because not only did
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: my clutch go out, but one of our team members
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: was experiencing altitude sickness and on the verge of needing
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: to be evacuated, and we ended up sleeping on the
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: side of the road at thirteen thousand feet, you know,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: without having planned to do that, shurtening and hauling the
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: bike out on a truck from some locals the next day.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well, that's what makes for an amazing adventure.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I remember after I left that morning, I just looked
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: at the map and I saw this track that came
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: out of the Andies and ended up coming all the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: way down towards the coast, and I just went for it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I had no idea if it was going to be
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a good route or not, and it ended up being
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic through these colonial villages and all that. And
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I get down towards the coast and I'm in this
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: little coffee shop and I'm talking to some locals that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: spoke English and I told them where I came from.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: They're like, you know that that's where all the shining
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: path I mean, that's where ignorance is bliss. I had
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  Speaker 1: no idea that it was, like, not really a good
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: idea to be riding solo on a motorcycle through all that,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: but it was just incredible how beautiful those valleys were
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and how stunning the andes were in that part of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the country.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we went the opposite direction. We started at
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the coast and went up to thirteen thousand feet in
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: one day. Yeah, and that's not necessarily the best thing
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to do to your body.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Yeah. I remember a bunch of folks
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: were not feeling well when we were camped out, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: that was a cold night. I had all my own
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: camping gear with me on the bike, but it wasn't
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really set up for at probably thirty thirty
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: five degrees that we had that night, and it was
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: it was pretty cool. I remember being chiley and even
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: getting up in the morning and seeing frost on the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: motorcycle when I was leaving the lake. That was chili
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, that was an amazing, amazing journey of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: all of your travels. When you think about your journeys,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: what was one of the ones that was your most favorite,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: What was the one that really stands out in your mind.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: You know, people often ask me, like, what's my favorite
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: place I've been to, And it depends on how you
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: look at it or what you're looking for. I think
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Iceland was great for adventure, motorcycle riding and natural beauty.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Travels along the Silk Road gave me a look into
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the Muslim world and also just ancient cultures, cities that
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: have been around for ten thousand years. Yeah, Africa, you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: the wildlife there is like nothing I've ever seen. And
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: of course going across Russia, it's just you know, growing
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: up as a kid with the Cold War in the background,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: it was really interesting to go through all these former
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Soviet countries. Yeah, and so they're all, you know, they're
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: all special and different different ways. But I think for
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: me what's really become the most meaningful to me are
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the solo trips that I've taken. And I haven't traveled
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: around the world solo. I did a big expedition by
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: myself down in the Copper Canyon that really changed my life. Actually,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to be honest, and so that's kind of what stands
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: out in my mind when I look back at the
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: big picture, are some of the adventures where I've just
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: headed off by myself.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: And what do you find that you learn or what
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: do you find that defines this solo travel for you?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Well, it's you're on your own. You have to be
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: entirely responsible for yourself and your survival. And that's not
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: to say that you don't get help along the way
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: when and as you need it, but it's a very
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: different experience to know that you're out there on your own,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: whether it's dealing with mechanical issues or getting lost, or
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: quite often just dealing with the other people that you meet,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: maybe not speaking the same language and having to communicate
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: with people. I just think it's a rare form of
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: travel that not a lot of people do. But if
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: you're the right kind of person and you can have
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: something to do along the way, like I do with
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: my film and video, it can be really meaningful and
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: really rewarding.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think for me, I am such a social creature.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I do enjoy traveling with others, but the times that
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I've traveled solo, like for example, coming back from Peru,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: back to Bogata. Alone on the bike, you spend a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: lot of time with yourself and you kind of decide
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: if you like your own company, and maybe some of
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the things that we don't like about our own company
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: become very obvious that those are things that we want
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to change about ourselves. And until we get those moments
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of stillness in our own helmet, we don't oftentimes recognize
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: either things that we want to change about ourselves or
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: things that we want to change about our life. I remember,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: maybe similar to your Copper Canyon trip, but for me
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: coming back from that trip and completely changing big swaths
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  Speaker 1: of my life because I finally had enough time to
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: think about what I really needed to be changed about
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  Speaker 1: my life, and it gave me that courage because of
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that time alone to make those changes. Yeah. Did you
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: find that to be somewhere for yourself? Yeah?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I think that's part of it. You do have that
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: time and that space to kind of reflect, and if
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: you don't enjoy your own company, it can be uncomfortable.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: But what I've also found is that it's really what
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: enables me to do it and it makes it enjoyable
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  Speaker 2: and possible, is that I have something else to do.
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  Speaker 2: I'm on a film making mission when I'm out there
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  Speaker 2: documenting these trips. You know, I would suggest to anyone
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  Speaker 2: watches my movies and sees me out there doing these
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: kinds of rides, they might have a very different experience
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: because they might get to their campsite in the evening,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: and if they don't, if they're not making a video
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: and they don't have anything to do, they might get
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: bored and they might get restless. Having kind of a
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: higher purpose to your trip, if you're going to go
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: out there and do something on your own, I think
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  Speaker 2: is really important to know why you're there and what
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  Speaker 2: you're doing, and so then those other kind of existential
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: thoughts can kind of take the background, because you're on
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: a mission and you're working, and you're doing something, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you're focused, and your mind has something too. You know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: there always another shot around the corner or another thing
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: to look.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: For, And maybe that could be if you're not a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: filmmaker or a photographer, maybe it's that you're giving back
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to those communities that you're visiting, or maybe you're helping
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to do some philanthropy along the way and doing good
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: as we go.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: In another way, maybe you want a journal. Maybe you
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: want to work on that novel that's been on your mind,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: or maybe you want to learn a musical instrument, or
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: get into bird watching or trail running. There's so many
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: things that you could do along the way that you
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: could park your bike or your vehicle, and your trip
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: could become more rewarding and enriching because you have this
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: other passion that you're bringing into the fold as well.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: For the listener, let's paint a picture of kind of
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: this formative travel experience that you've had. Why don't you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: let everybody know what are all the big trips that
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you've done, and maybe when we get to the end
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of that, let's talk about a little bit about what
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you learned along the way with those.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I would say that when I look back on
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: my life, one of the biggest trips that I did, ironically,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: it was when I was nineteen years old, and I
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: didn't look at it as an overlanding trip. I didn't
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: even know what overlanding was at that time. I grew
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: up in Michigan and my dad was up in Alaska.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: He lived in Anchorage, Wow. And when I was eighteen
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: years old and i'd graduated from high school. He said
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: if I wanted to fly up there and visit him,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: he would give me this old Army surplus pickup truck
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: that he'd bought at an auction, and it was a
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy five Dodge. He paid four hundred dollars for it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: It was army green, and long story short, the next summer,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I flew up to Anchorage and he gave me that
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: truck and I drove it back to Michigan forty five
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: hundred miles. Wow, it just opened my eyes and I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: ended up building a little homemade camper and lived out
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: of it for a year while I was attending college.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: And the next summer I invited a buddy of mine
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: to go back to Alaska so we could work in
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: the fisheries. So that summer that I turned nineteen, we
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: drove from Michigan to Anchorage, spent the summer on Kodiak Island.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Then decided we wanted to go to Mexico, so we
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: drove down to Tijuana and then back to Michigan. And
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: so that was an eleven thousand mile road trip in
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: a four hundred dollars vehicle when I was nineteen.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Oh Man, I love that and it. I think when
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you're nineteen, just have no idea what you're supposed to
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: do or not supposed to do sotally and the fact
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: that you did it in this four hundred dollars truck
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and I.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Replaced a one radiator hose on that whole trip. That
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: was that's a rental issue that we had, but it
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: you know, without knowing, like you said, what was possible
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: or how you should do it. By the end of
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: that trip, it just kind of opened my eyes to
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the country that I live in, the kind of travel
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: that's possible in a vehicle, that that was just going
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to be somehow part of my life.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, that is a wonderful story. So how do you
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: go from a four hundred dollars military ex military pickup
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to riding motorcycles? What was your first motorcycle?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: When I was eight years old, my parents surprised me
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: with a Honda fifty, a little trail bike, okay, and
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: it just came out of the blue. I had showed
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: no interest in motorcycling whatsoever.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: We lived in West Michigan on a blueberry farm, so
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I had lots of trails and woods around me, and
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: it was kind of didn't have a lot of kids
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: in the neighborhood to play with, and so she thought
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: this would be kind of fun for my brother and
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I to go ride around the woods. And so I
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: got that little bike, and pretty soon I was taken
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: off on five ten mile rides, which is pretty big
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: deal for an eight year old kid.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: No doubt. I would load up.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: My knapsack with a sandwich and an apple and be like,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: see you later, mom, and go ride for the afternoon.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: And so I think that's kind of where it started.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: When I got in high school. In college, motorcycling disappeared.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: My mother kind of did not want me to ride
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: on the street or get a big motorcycle. It was
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: too dangerous. My dad and my grandpa were both injured
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: on motorcycles. I thought it was kind of funny that
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: she bought me a motorcycle and started this and then
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: told me I couldn't do it. Sure, So I finished college.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: No riding during that time, which was probably a good thing.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: But when I graduated, I moved out west to Seattle,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and I bought an old BMW motorcycle and I started
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: street touring and did that for about four years, riding
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: around the Northwest on an old airhead and really found
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: that I liked everything about it. I liked on the bike,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I liked the riding, I liked the roads, I liked
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the travel. The only thing that was missing was that
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it wasn't a bike that I could go off road.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: And because I liked the mountains and the wilderness and
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the dirt roads, that's what kind of led me into
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: looking towards what kind of bike would be a good
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: bike to travel on those kinds of roads, but also
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: go long distance on the pavement to get to those roads.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: And what was your first adventure bike?
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: The first bike I got was a nineteen ninety seven
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: BMWF six fifty GS. Oh yeah, And that was the
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: year that BMW came out with their first chain drive GS,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and so for me as a young person, it was
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: kind of the first GS that I could afford. It
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: was in the price range, and so I went out
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: and bought that bike brand new from the dealership and
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: that was my first adventure motorcycle. I've had three BMW
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: motorcycles in twenty three years. I had the six fifty,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: then an eight hundred, and then the twelve hundred.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: How many miles did you have on the six fifty.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Before I finally got rid of it, I had it
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: for twelve years. I put seventy thousand miles.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Incredible. Yeah, and that's one of the most reliable. I
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: think I've seen more f six fifties out and about
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: in the world than twelve hundreds, for sure. And probably
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the only bike that I've seen with travelers more often
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: would be like a KLR. Those are pretty ubiquitous when
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: people are actually going around the world. That six fifty
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: just got such good gas mileage, and they were pretty
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: inexpensive and pretty reliable. They were popular for sure. Yeah.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And then you got the eight hundred. And is that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the same eight hundred that you had when we were
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: in South America.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, and that South America trip was the
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: last ride on that eight hundred. I still have it,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: but it's it's just sort of sitting there now.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You know. You know, I actually just thought of a memory.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: You and we were in maybe Baja or something like that.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: We were testing motorcycles and you were filming and you
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: had you had just parked your bike I think, on
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the side of the trail and someone just ran into
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it and knocked it down into a ditch or something
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: like that. I remember. I remember they was totally in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: it like you didn't. The only time your bike fell
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: over the whole trip when someone ran into it when
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it was on the side stand. Yeah, I remember that.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised. My wife is full of stories like that. Yeah, exactly,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you were just trying to capture some piece of film
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and your bike was being innocent up on the side
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: of the hill. That's hilarious. Well, and then, now what
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: bike do you have Now?
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I've got a twenty seventeen twelve hundred GS the rally,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: and then I just picked up a new Huskvarna seven
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: oh one LR. No, that'll be fun long range, Oh,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: that'll be really fun. And what's inspired you to break
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: away from the BMW trend? Honestly, I just wanted something
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: that was smaller and lighter. Sure, you know, the GS
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: is great. I'm still going to keep that. It has
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: has a place and lots of rides in the future.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: But you know, I wanted something a little smaller, lighter,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: more nimble, so I could do the more challenging roads
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: a little easier. And when it comes time to pick
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: up the bike, you know, it just wouldn't be as
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: big of a difficulty as sure with the twelve hundred.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that those those mid range bikes
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: are becoming so much better for travel now too. Some
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: of them you can get with cruise control. They have
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: not just big singles. A lot of them are multi cylinder,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: so they ride a lot more smooth. I mean, I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: think about the performance of a Triumph eight hundred or
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: eight fifty Tiger compared to an eleven hundred of even
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: a decade ago or more. I mean, they're faster, lighter,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: more comfortable. It's pretty amazing what they're doing with the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: small bikes now. Yeah.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I think this bike is definitely going to
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: have its place in my stable. And you know, it's
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: just nice to have a choice when you have a
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: ride coming up, to be able to choose the right
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: bike for that ride, rather than be limited by just
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: the one bike that you have.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: People always say, well, what's the perfect motorcycle? I think
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the perfect motorcycle is two of them? Are three of them?
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah? What do they say that the perfect number of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: motorcycles is the current number of motorcycles plus one and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: plus one plus one exactly. Yeah, that is what's that
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is nice thing about motorcycles. You can have the most
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: amazing BMW and you're maybe into it thirty five grand,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: which is what a stock or runner costs, So you
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: can really go all out. You can have like the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: ultimate luck and the ultimate barkling and everything else like
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: that for a much more reasonable price than a fourhol
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: drive or a camp or a trailer would cost. So
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: much of your time as a traveler has been also
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: spent as a filmmaker. You have done a lot of
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: projects for other people. I know you've done a lot
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: of work with Turtech and you've done a lot of
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: work with other manufacturers. And you have your own YouTube channel,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: which is Motorcycle Travel Channel. So that's Motorcycle Travel channel
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: on YouTube. And you recently launched a series called Solo.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit more about what inspired
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: you to do that trip, How did you document it,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: what makes it different? Maybe give some insights into the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: listeners that want to document their own trips on how
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: to do that, maybe some of the gear you used.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all good questions, all good stuff. So the series
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: it's called Riding Solo, and it came out last summer
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: and it was based on a ride that I took
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: last July six thousand miles by myself from my home
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: in Arizona up to the Canadian border and back. A
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: lot of the projects that I've worked with on the past,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: like Expedition sixty five in South America that you were on,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: were group rides. We're big group rides with a dozen
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: people or more. Those are all great experiences, but they
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: also introduce a lot of complications into the travel experience,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: and particularly the movie making experience, because as a filmmaker,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: you know, I go into those projects and I might
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: have an idea in my mind about what it means
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: to make a movie, but to get twelve other people
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: in on that process can be quite a challenge.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to do a project where I didn't
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: have those complications, and I could do it the way
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I wanted, where I had all the time in the
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: world to film things, the way I wanted to stay
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: in a particular location, to go hard, to go fast,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: to go slow. So I decided I would just take
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: off and film my own adventure. I also decided that
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I wanted it to really be an adventure in the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: sense that I wanted it to be a camping adventure.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: So from the start, I decided that I was going
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: to ride six thousand miles no motels, no hotels, and
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that I would camp and cook my own food for
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: breakfast and dinner every day. In a nutshell, that's what
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: it was. It ended up being a twenty five episode
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: series that's on my YouTube channel. Each episode is about
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: anywhere from ten to twenty minutes long, and it's a
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: pretty simple formula. They usually start out with some scenic
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: riding shots through different landscapes, and I really tried to
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: get a lot of really good aerial footage on this project.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: I've spent a lot of time learning how to fly
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: a drone, get the right shots, do it at the
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: right time of day to really capture that the beauty
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: of the landscape and the bike going across the landscape.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And so I think the question for you on the drone,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: did you use the like the follow me functions of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the drone or how did you capture those shots?
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Good question, and a lot of people ask me that
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: there's a couple ways that I do it. Yes, it
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: does have a follow me function and it's pretty cool.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: It works to an extent. It can either follow you
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: behind you, or you can set it to like parallel track.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: If you go too fast or you get behind obstacles,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: it'll lose you and it will stop. You can get
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: some good footage that way. The other way that I
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: do it is carry my controller on my tank bag
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and I'll position the drone in the air for what
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: I think looks like a good shot, and I'll start,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: you know, one hundred yards before the shot, and I'll
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: ride into it. And then just before I get into frame,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: while it's recording, I'll take my hand off of the
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: motorcycle and move it over to the tank bag and
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: I'll start to fly the drone forward as I ride
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: into the shot. So now you've got the shot, you've
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: got the movement of the drone, you've got me going
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: through it. And then I'll just repeat that process.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, So you're riding one hand, riding one handed,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: which you probably do that a lot, trying to film
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: people from your own motorcycle when you're on trips.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: You know, I really I don't. You don't have you
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: that I ride with a helmet cam. You know, That's
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the way I get footage when I'm riding. But when
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I'm filming other people, I'm usually off the bike on
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: the side of the road with a tripod and a
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: long lens. And because that's what I've always tried to
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: bring to my movies is more I don't take shortcuts.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: I really try to whether I'm filming myself or other people,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I try to get up a head of the group,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: classic old school filmmaking with a tripod and a long lens,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: and it's like landscape photography in a way. I try
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: to get that perspective and composition, but with a road
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: and a vehicle traveling through it.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I mean just thinking of the logistics of trying to
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: capture yourself cinematically solo riding, which means that you you
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: have to ride up, set up the camera, you know,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: get back to the bike, put all your gear on again.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's the story of my life. You know how
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: many hundreds of miles have I walked to and from
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: my camera. But the amazing thing is now, when I
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: started filming this way, it was probably my first trip
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: to Mexico in two thousand and nine, was when I
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: did this kind of solo filmmaking. All I had was
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: a camera and a tripod, so I did everything that way.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Now the technology has changed a little bit. The drone
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: is my magic tripod. It's you know, it's beyond my
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: wildest dreams because I can launch it in the air.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I can position it wherever I want, places where I
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: couldn't even put a tripod if I wanted to. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: then I ride through the shot and I don't have
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: to walk and go back and pick up triphod. I
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: just call it and it comes back to them. And
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: so it's that's cool. It's really a game changer.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that you're using the helmet cam, and then
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: do you also have like a POV camera that you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: put on the handlebar to shoot back at yourself.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: For another helmet camera, Okay, I can mix up the
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: helmet camera angle. So I basically use three cameras that
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: each have their own purpose. That would be my mirrorless
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: camera that I would put on the tripod, the helmet camera,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: and the drone, then weaving those together to tell the story. Yeah,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: and so going back to the formula for each of
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: these videos, you know, it starts out with some riding
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: to kind of give the viewers a sense of place
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: and where I'm traveling through. In the second half. It
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: would be kind of the location, the camp site. I'll stop,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I'll find a beautiful place to camp that's remote where
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I'm the only person around. I'll set up a really
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: nice camp, I'll cook a really good meal, have a fire,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: and just kind of repeat that process. And it just
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: sort of the same formula, but it just takes place
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: in a different location every time, and it just follows
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: me on this journey across the country, which took place
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: obviously during the pandemic when a lot of people were
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: cooped up and they weren't traveling, And so I think
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: it allowed a lot of people to sort of vicariously
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: experience some travel and some solitude and maybe see an
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: individual's healthy relationship with him or herself in a solitude situation, sure,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: which a lot of people were kind of going through
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: and wondering how do they cope in solitude? Yeah, so
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: that just gave it sort of an interesting came out
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: at an interesting time.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: When we were talking earlier, you mentioned that you kind
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of intentionally eskewed the traditional travelogue where you're not just
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: standing talking about everything that you're doing, that you're just
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: showing the viewer what you're doing. Again, maybe again, that
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: stillness of watching this person have an experience in a
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: really authentic way. Maybe.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've really moved kind of in a different direction
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: with my videos with this project, and you know, it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: been interesting because some of the things where things that
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking about and working towards in along for
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: a long time, and I think some things just sort
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: of naturally occurred along the way. But the essence of
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: it is that they really slowed down. And the videos
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: that I've been making lately have little or no dialogue
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: in them. They're more meditative, they're more relaxing. They sort
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: of just present the experience as it is, without a
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: lot of talk and explanation and personality or anything like that.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: You know, I've been pretty surprised at their reception.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Well, your films have always been if I can remember
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: even some of the films that you've done, but you've
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: done most of that Country Discovery Route films, Is that correct? Yeah,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: eight out of ten, and then recently you worked on
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: bringing all of those ten films together into like a
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: ten year anniversary series for them, and that launch is
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: fairly soon, right, Yeah, that's going to be premiered this weekend,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and for your listeners that are probably listening later. It
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: will be available for free on Vimeo on demand on Amazon,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: so you can just go to RIDEBDR dot com to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: get all the information. But it's an eighty minute feature
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: length documentary about the ten year history of backcountry Discovery routes.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: That series of routes, I think is one of the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: best executed route serieses that we've ever had in North America.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I think the Australians have done a good job of
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: similar projects, but I think it's one of the finest
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: overall series of routes. And the number of people that
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I've talked to that said, I'm going to do the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Washington BDR or I'm going to do the Arizona BDR,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and people that are planning their annual vacations around going
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and experiencing one of those routes, and they're associated with
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Butler Maps too, Is that right? So there's a team
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of people over there that have done a wonderful job
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of crafting these very remote adventures that are somehow accessible.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's a great team. They are really well executed,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: and you can watch the film, you can buy the map,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: you can download a free GPS track and you can
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: go to the website and get all the information about
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: campsites or lodging along the way, or even real time
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: weather map. It basically gives you all the tools you
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: need so that you don't have to really spend months
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: and months and months planning out an adventure ride of
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: that magnitude.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it seems to remove a lot of the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: unknowns when we piece together our own adventures. Some of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: us really like that serendipity or the complete chaos that
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: can come from coming from going someplace new and unknown.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I think that one of the real advantages of the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: BDR is that, in general it can be ridden by
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: a larger adventure motorcycle by someone of average skill, and
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: they can have an incredible experience along the way and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: oftentimes even interact with other travelers on the same route.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And I also like the fact that I believe almost
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: all of the BDRs, or at least in some way
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: or another, can also be driven by a full drive.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: So those that are listening that have a full drive
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that would love to do one of the these cross
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: state routes, just know that most of these back country
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: discovery routes can be done with a full drive as well.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: That's true. It's just a service that I believe that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: has been made available to the community at a very
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: reasonable price. These maps are very reasonably priced, and I
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: would just highly recommend that people that if you live
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: in the West, most likely there's a BDR that is
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: associated with your state, so you could even do it
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: in pieces over a couple of weekends, take a vacation
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: for a week and go cross an entire state. That's right.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: And do you know if have they worked on beginning
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to piece them together where you could literally do like
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: a border to border route. Is that something that they
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: have done?
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: You know, there's some suggested connector routes between where a
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: particular BDR might end and another one might start. Yeah,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: but you know, you could already do the Washington BDR,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: then the Oregon BDR, then the California BDR, and you know,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: you know, the Utah and the Colorado and then you know,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: there's just numerous ways that you could connect these routes together.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: And the slogan for the new film is ten years,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: ten routes, ten thousand miles of adventure. Sure, that's ten
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: thousand miles of logged out GPS tracks of rides ready
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: to go with an infrastructure built around it.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: And the cool thing is is that it helps all
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: these remote communities that don't have a lot of tourism
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: and their economies aren't doing well. Now that the BDR has,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: you know, is sending hundreds of riders through these places
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: in the summer season, these little towns are pretty happy.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: They're still to have riders coming through and have some
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: life breathed in their economy selling rooms and gasoline and food.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: And it's become a really cool thing that's, you know,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: enriched a lot of places in a really positive way.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that these routes like that are I
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: think they have a lot of appeal and I think
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: they do a lot of great service for the community.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I remember when got my first motorcycle. I bought this
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: KTM nine to fifty in facts here in the shop
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: behind us. I had no idea how to ride it.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't even have a motorcycle license yet and I
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: was leaving for the Trans America Trail in two weeks.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So that experience of doing crossing the country on dirt
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: on a motorcycle that I didn't really know how to ride.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, i'd ridden dirt bikes, but there's a big
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: step up from a dirt bike to a nine point
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: fifty and somehow me and the motorcycle survived it. But
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: it was that idea that someone had put together this
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: adventure that where I didn't have to focus on the
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: planning and the route finding and everything else like that,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I could go and just learn how to ride and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: learn how to survive off a motorcycle for a couple months.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was a great experience, and I think
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: that these BDRs are a little bit more digestible than
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: crossing the country.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of resources, there's a lot of riders.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: There are Facebook pages for every BDR route, so that
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: you can connect with other riders in your area and
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: maybe share that experience together. Because we always recommend that
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: people don't really go out and do these routes by themselves.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: They do go through really remote locations, and you know,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: it's best to have have a team that you can
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: enjoy the experience with and that can help you if
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: you run into any difficulties.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a brief break and we will
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: be right back. This week's episode is supported in part
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• 30:49
  Speaker 1: When you were doing these big international trips, was that
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: with Helgay or who.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Was Yeah, that was with Helgay Peterson with globe Riders,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's ironic that I spent ten years
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: doing Globbriders travels with Hellgay's and over the course of
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: those ten years we did five expeditions that ranged in
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: length from thirty seven days to seventy one days. So
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: it wasn't like I was full time riding around the world,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: but I did do some big, big trips. I did
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: that for ten years with him. The last year that
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I did a Globbriders project was the first backcountry discovery route,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: And so I spent ten years traveling around the world
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: before I actually cracked open the door and started traveling
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: in my own backyard.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: YEA, sure, hell Gays has done trips like this literally
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: for decades, decades and decades. He's a known personality in
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the adventure motorcycling space. What do you think were some
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: things that you learned from Hellgay? What were some looking
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: back on that experience, what were some of those that
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: awareness that you had of what Hellgay had done, or
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: what he taught you along the way, or what you
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: saw him teach the people that were with him. Well,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: absolutely so much.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, as a young motorcycle filmmaker, I could never
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: have found a better mentor than him. I mean he
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: taught me everything from motorcycle mechanics, like how to fix
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: a punctured tire, how to set up a motorcycle. You know,
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: what are panniers and how do you use there? How
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: do you carry camera gear on a motorcycle, you know,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: all those very practical skills, But I think what meant
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: the most to me is he you know, he taught
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: me how to travel. You know, as a traveler, how
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: do you interact with other people, the mindsets that you
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: have to have for these difficult scenarios and situations. And
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: you know, you learn by example, and when you have
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: an example in front of you of someone who's traveled
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: around the world on a motorcycle for twenty years, you
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: just pick up by osmosis so many things. And I
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: was just so fortunate to be able to work by
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: his side with him as he was guiding these tours
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: for glow Riders and being a photographer that he's always
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: been to go there and film these trips, and he
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: gave me complete freedom and authority to do the video
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: side of the trips anyway that I wanted to. So
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: it's really supportive, beneficial relayationship, really thankful to had that
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: opportunity to work with him for so many years.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he did some beyond the tour guiding that
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: he did, where he did some significant expeditions including the
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: cross the Darien Gap, and so he has an incredible
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: history and it's worthwhile for those that are listening to
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: research a little bit about hell Gay and learn about
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: where he's traveled in some of his knowledge and experience
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: along the way. But that is so cool that you
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: had that opportunity to spend that much time with him.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: And it probably just was like going to overlanding University
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: in a way, because you were not only in these
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: places where you were rapidly learning, but you were also
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: with someone with a great deal of knowledge.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it was priceless. It just meant so much to me.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I don't even know what to say. Yeah,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: so many experiences, so many miles. Yeah, he was just
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: such a good person to travel with, too solid, a
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: solid individual. He just never once saw him upset about anything.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and I think you have to be that
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: way to guide a group of people. And he had
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: some I think even on one of the trips that
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: you were on there even the guys even had some
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: very serious injuries. And otherwise, for what you'd like to
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: share about it, maybe share one of those experiences and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: what you learned from seeing like tragedy unfold on a trip.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think about that. I'm at a
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: point in my career where I've done enough projects and
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: filmed long enough that I you know, I spend a
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: lot of time working on the current project or the
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: next project, but I also spend a lot of time
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: thinking about where I've been and what I've seen and
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: kind of telling those stories as well. And one of
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: the things I haven't really talked a lot about in
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: any of my films are those difficult moments.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: I have seen a lot of riders get hurt and
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: get pulled out of projects or rides. I've seen helicopters come,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: I've seen ambulances, I've seen you know, I've pretty much
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: seen it all. And fortunately, at least so far in
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: my experience, nobody's ever been killed on a ride that
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I've been on. But I've seen a lot of broken
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: legs and ankles and that kind of thing, and it's
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: you know, it's not something you I want to see
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: happened to any one of your mates along the way
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: on Helge's trips. You know, one of the first big
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: trip that I did with him was from Beijing to
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: munich in China. One of our riders was struck by
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: another vehicle and ended up having to go to the hospital,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: and you know he was he was going to be okay,
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: but he had a punctured lung and broken ribs and
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: it was the end of the trip for him. Two
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: years later, he went back to do that trip again.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: I wasn't on the trip that time, but there were
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: three riders riding together in the Ukraine and they came
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: around the corner onto a one lane bridge and a
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: car was coming the other direction and impacted all three
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: of them, and one of the riders was hurt really bad.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: The other rider that was there his second time ended
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: up losing his leg, and the third one was killed.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: He died on the way home. That was a tragedy. Yeah,
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: the good news is that my friend that lost part
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: of his leg on that second attempt went back a
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: third time. He doesn't give up his side car and
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: he finished. Wow, he still rides today in his sidecar.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: And he's amazing individual, amazing persistence, you know, to do that.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I think about on the motorcycle stuff. I even just
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: a few days after I left all of you in Peru,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: one of the riders did end up having an accident
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: breaking a leg, And that does happen with surprising frequency,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and I think if I consider it from my own perspective,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: it usually happens because we're riding too fast for our
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: line of sight. That is almost always the most common.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Now there are freak accidents that happen you have no
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: control over. What I tend to find is if I
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: can't see the road ahead, I will slow way way down. Yeah,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: because it could be as you've seen traveling in the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: developing world. You can come around a corner and there
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: can be no road, or you can come around the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: corner and there is a chicken bus sideways trying to
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: do a three point turn, or there is an half
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: of a load of bricks across the road. I guess
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I've seen that enough where I base my speed entirely
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: online of sight. It doesn't mean that I don't ride
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: fast in developing countries, because I will, but only if
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I can see. I think that that is probably for
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: the listeners if I was to impart any advice on
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: trying to say as safe as possible is if you
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: can't see, get down as close as you can to
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: that speed limit you see posted, which is usually pretty slow.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: You know, I've never thought of it that way, but
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. I mean that's the way I ride.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I would never ride faster than what I can see ahead,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: and I just like riding slower in general, because I
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: like to stop, I like to see things. I like
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: to take pictures. I would say to maybe someone who's
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: new and getting into adventure motorcycling, I think I see
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff in this industry that sort of
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: shows people all of these techniques about how you can
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: ride adventure bikes and drift around corners and do wheelies
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: and all this stuff. You don't have to ride that way, Like,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: in my mind, there's a difference between riding like a
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: dirt biker versus a traveler. Yeah, and I've always ridden
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: like a traveler. I want to go the distance, I
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: want to see things. I want to conserve my energy.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: I want my bike to survive. And so don't think
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: that you have to get into this and ride like
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: a hooligan to have an.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Experience or an adventure. Yeah, yeah, or an adventure. Yeah.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: It seems like that you can ratchet up, especially when
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: you're outside of the developing world. You can ratchet up
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the risk super quick if you don't keep the speeds low.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And same here and on backcountry discovery route, so
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: you can. You know, I'm not saying it's not fun
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: and that there isn't a time and place to really
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: rip it up. Yeah, because I do that too. But
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: you know, if you're a beginner or just getting into
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: it or whatever, you know, start a little slower, learn,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: you know, learn, you know, get some miles under your
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: belt before you think that you have to ride like
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: that in order to survive or have a good time.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And if I look at a lot of the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: big round the World trips, it seems like that the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: riders that are on the small bikes, like the ones
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: that are riding the two hundreds and the two twenty
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: fives and the two fifties, they tend to just finish
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: the route because they're going so slow. I remember running
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: into a guy by the name of Stefano Melgrotti, an
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Italian that had ridden around the world length of Africa
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: and come all the way up through the Americas, and
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: he rode it basically the speed limit or less, which
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: in developing countries is usually fifty miles an hour or
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: forty five miles an hour, and he would ride at
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: those speeds because he got better gas milage and he
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: just said, it's safer, I can make it to the end.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: And whereas on these big adventure bikes where you've got
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty horsepower or more on board, it's
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: easy to do two or three times the speed limit
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: before you know it, and the consequences of that, the
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: sudden stop is a big problem. You know.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: It's really interesting because I just got this smaller motorcycle,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: this Hostkavarna seven oh one, and I had an experience
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: this last weekend with that bike. Really taught me a
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: lot of lessons. And since we're talking about this the
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: subject of risk and riding, and I should probably tell
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: you what happened, because I haven't told this story yet.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: We're ready. We're ready.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: On my six thousand mile riding solo project, I fell
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: over once on my GS and I got it on
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: the drone. It wasn't anything big, it was just a
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: little tip over. I'd ridden in an OHV area just
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: to get some different looking footage of going over some
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: whoops and some stuff, and I tipped over. And of
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: course in the comments, everybody says, oh, get a smaller bike,
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: get a smaller bike, And I think that's kind of
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: funny because I rode six thousand miles without falling over.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: It was a perfect bike for that trip. I would
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: need a smaller bike, but that said, you know, sometimes
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: you do want a smaller bike for some of the
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: more rugged rough stuff. And so I got this smaller
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: bike and I've been out riding it and getting used
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: to the smaller bike and what it can do and
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: where it can go and those kind of things. And
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: there's a road that I don't know if you've ever
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: heard ever done down here, but it's called the Rug Road,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: and it's over by the era of Vipa Canyon wilderness, okay,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: north of where I live. And I've always wanted to
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: go to the air of Vipe because it sounded like
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: it was sort of a paradise here in Arizona. There's
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: free flowing water year round and creeks, And so I
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: drove up there in my van and thought I would
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: make a video of camping overnight in the van, a
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: little overlanding, and then the next day I would ride
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: my new lightweight motorcycle on the Rug Road, and it
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: sounded pretty difficult. They call it the rug road because
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: once upon a time someone had filled a pickup truck
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: with carpet remnants and put it on the road to
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: stop the erosion and help give them traction on this
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: really difficult steep section. And so you know, I'm thinking,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: maybe I get up there and it's too difficult and
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I turn around. You know, that's kind of the mindset
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: you have to have on these kinds of projects, especially
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: you're going by yourself. You're like, Okay, i'll get to
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: a point and if I can't do it, I'll I'll
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: just turn around. Well, I spent the night and I
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: camped up there, and it was absolutely beautiful and peaceful,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: and it really was like like an Eden. And I
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: got up the next morning started to travel further inland,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: and I might say at this point, I'm about eighty
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: year ninety miles north of Wilcox, the nearest town with
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: any kind of supplies, gas, food, anything. So I'm already
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: pretty far out in the wilderness. And then i leave
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: my campsite and for the first ten miles it goes
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: up out of this creek and onto like these different
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: maces desert road. But it was recently repaired and maintained,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: so it wasn't difficult. It was kind of grated, but
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: really steep and loose, and I get out ten miles
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: on that road to a place called Parsons Grove. It's
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: an old homestead and things are going good, so I'm
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: thinking I'll make it all the way through this rug road. Well,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: when I leave there, the road just gets kind of crazy.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: It got really rough and really rocky and really loose.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: And I rode up this hill and down a hill.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: That's kind of scary when you're by yourself and your
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: way out there, because when you ride down a hill,
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: you want to know that you can ride back up
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: and out sure, or else there's another way out on
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: the other side. And I didn't know how the road
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: was up ahead, But once I started going down that hill,
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to go back up it either. And
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: I got to the bottom and I went up another
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: hill on the other side, and by now it's getting
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm riding over bowling balls and logs, sure,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: and the bike is doing awesome. I'm like amazed. I'm like,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: my gs, what I would have turned around miles ago?
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Sure?
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: And I guess that's my point is that you know,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: everybody says get a smaller bike, and it's true. It
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: can take you on more difficult roads. But it can
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: also get you into situations that you wouldn't get into
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: on your GS because you would have turned around a
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: long time ago. So what ended up happening happening is
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: that I got about three miles into this this really
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: difficult road, and by then it was about eleven thirty
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: or noon, and I was completely exhausted. My motorcycle had
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: tipped over five or six times. I'd picked it up,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I'd kept going. I was battered and bruised in my
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: water supply when my camel back bladder was almost dry.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: I had less than a half a liter of water left.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: And I'm sitting out there, thirteen miles from my van,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: thinking I don't have it in me to keep pushing
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: on this road. I really have to turn around in
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: order to be safe. Sure, And so I did. I
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: turned around, and it was just as difficult going back,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: and I only made it a mile and a half
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: before I couldn't pick up my bike. I was exhausted,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: and I was sitting there and it was twelve o'clock.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: The sun was beating down on me. I had about
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: four mouthfuls of water, and I was thirteen miles away
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: from my van and it got real. It got real
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: really fast, and I kind of like at that point,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, this is where the fun stops. Now
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I have to really just you know, just be focused,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: be focused on doing the right thing survival. Yeah, and
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm going to have to walk out. I
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: don't have any other option. I just I can't sit
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: here and just drink the last of my water and
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: wait for someone to come. And so I started to
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: walk out. I left my camera gear, I left my tripod.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I just brought a GoPro with me because I didn't
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: want to carry that extra weight. I walked up and
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: down the though hills back to that Parsons Grove and
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: by the time I got back to there, which was
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: still ten miles from my van, my water had ran out.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: I was dehydrated, my mouth was dry, I was getting
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: muscle cramps. I was starting to experience the beginning of
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: heat exhaustion, which could lead to heat stroke. And so
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: then I was getting kind of scared. I'm like, I,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: you know, I can't continue walking ten more miles without
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: any water in the midday sun. You know, I need
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: to need to do something. And so I looked around,
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: and fortunately there was a manky little cattle spring at
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: that place in the trees, and it was one of
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: those little cesspools that you just find out in the
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: middle of nowhere, filled with leaves and algae and brown
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: water and insects on the surface. And I sat down
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: in the shade and I thought, I need to, you know,
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: make a plan here to cool off, wait till the
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: sun goes down a little bit to walk out, and
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: I'm probably going to have to drink some some pretty
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: bad water. And if I catched giardia, it's better than dehydration.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: As I was sitting there, I thought, you know, maybe
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of re sources in this old, abandoned place
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: that I could use to boil this water. So I
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: started looking through the trash and I found an old
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: can of spam, and I built a little campfire and
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: I sat there for three hours boiling little cans of spam,
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: you know, water in those cans, and pouring it into
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: my camel back, And over about three hours I got
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: it filled up, and then as the sun was starting
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: to go down, I walked out ten miles from there
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: in my motorcycle boots brutal back to my van brutal,
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: and it was it was tough. I was dead. I
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: was dead when I got back to the van. I
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: was so tired, And for the next four days I
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: was recovering. All the skin came off my lips when
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I got home. I had a dentist appointment a couple
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: days later, and they said, oh, my god, the inside
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: of your mouth is like swollen and irritated. We've never
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: seen like what's going on. So it was the real deal.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: It was the real deal. And you know, it taught
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: me a lot. I learned a lot of lessons about
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: risk and adventure, not to buy a small bike and
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: not to buy a small bike. Oh what a great story, man,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: And thanks for sharing that with us.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, that's the latest news. That's incredible. And with
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: all of the things that you've done in your life
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: in these really remote places. Here you were a half
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a day from home having one of the closest calls
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: with disaster that you've had in your life.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: It's true, it really is. It taught me a lot
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: about the desert. And you know this, I have a
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: kind of my eyes have been opened to this new
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: because I've only lived here for three years.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: In the desert.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: So it's you know, it's a beautiful new place that
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I love exploring. But you know, I've got to be
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: careful about what I'm doing and where I'm going and
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: how I do that. And also I don't want to
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: be irresponsible and encourage other people to behave that way.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: You know, I need to be a role model that
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: shows people the right way to go about these these things. Yeah,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: you know, because I do want to encourage people to
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: travel solo on their motorcycles because I think there's a
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: lot to be learned that way to do it responsibly.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but even role models can make mistakes. You know,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: I make mistakes on a daily basis. And I think
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: that because you came out of it by making good
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: choices and you kept your head clear, that you, uh,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: you live to tell that story, which I think would
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: empower a whole bunch of people. So I think it's
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: it's also a really positive thing that of course I'm
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: glad you're okay, But from that you learned a lot.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Now do you think that you would would you bring
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: anything different with you the next time you went out?
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a few confusing I would probably do different.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I would bring more water. Number one, I just didn't
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: didn't have enough water to be heading that far on
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: an unknown road by myself in the middle of the day.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: So that's the first thing. And i'd known what that
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: road was like, I wouldn't have I wouldn't. I wouldn't
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: have done it. It wasn't an appropriate road. It got
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: to where it wasn't fun. Yeah, and even if I
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: had to do it or wanted to do it, I
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: would have done it with another person.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Sure. And then do you think you would have brought
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: a maybe some kind of a satellite communicator, like an
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: inReach or something along.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: I was gonna mention that, you know, I've never used those.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: They've been pointed out to me and recommended from so
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: many people over the years, and in fact, a mutual
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: good friend of ours actually gave me one that's sitting
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: on my desk at home. I just never have activated it.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know why.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: I've kind of resented them. I've always just figured it's
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: my responsibility to get me out of whatever situations I
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: get into. But you know, I would definitely consider it
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: pretty responsible thing you do, and you know it really
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: could save your life. The thing that concerned me the
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: most I guess was that I was fine and I
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: made it out of there. But what if I'd injured myself? Yeah,
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: you know, what if I broke a leg and I
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: wasn't able to walk out of there. Yeah, you know,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: that's you know where that could have been really really dangerous.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They can be a ripcord for sure, which I
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: think is a crutch. And I see your point. I
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: think it's very valid that people shouldn't see it as
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I don't need to prepare because I can communicate, because
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: what if that stops working? What if when you crash,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: it breaks when you go down, or it goes with
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: the bike when the bike gets swept away by the
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: river or whatever. It's it's easy for us to lose
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: those electronic devices too, So I think you make a
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: valid point about it not being a crush much, but
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: in the situation of being solo, it may be the
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: only way to save your bacon, right. Yeah, yeah, cool.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Well that's an amazing story, man, Jeez. Along those lines,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I do like to ask
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: on these podcasts, and for someone with three decades of
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: adventure travel experience and multiple laps around the world on
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: a motorcycle. Talk a little bit about what you would
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: recommend for someone who wants to be new to motorcycling,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: they're new to overland travel. What is some advice that
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: you would give them, What would be the words of wisdom,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: of the pearls of wisdom that you would give them
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: before they started?
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: Start slowly, but start, you know, start now. Don't think
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: that you need to do this or need to do
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: that first. I mean, obviously you have to get a
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: motorcycle if that's what you're going to do, but I
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: think you'll there's more value in learning things that you
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: need to learn by going out and doing it than
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: getting psyched out of doing it because you need to
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: prepare and do this and do that.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: For example, I never I never took a motorcycle off
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: road riding course, And I'm not saying that's a bad idea.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: I think it's a good idea to take one of those.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: In my case, they didn't really have those courses when
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: I started, but it was okay, Like I learned from
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: trial and error just by going out there slowly and
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: appropriately and notching it up each time and learning that,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: oh I could do that road. Maybe I can do
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: this road, and so I would, you know, just encourage
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: anyone that wants to do that that you can start.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: You can start right now. And also it doesn't have
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: to be the biggest adventure in the world. You know,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: depending on where you live, there's probably a lot of
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: great things right outside your own back door. And I
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: like to think about it as like, say there's a
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: person that wants to run a marathon or an ultra marathon.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: Maybe they do that once a year, but that's not
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: the only time they go running. They probably go running
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: every day, three or four times a week in order
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: to do that marathon. And I think about that with overlanding,
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: that you have these big dream trips that you want
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: to do, but it's just as important to make sure
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: you're getting out every week for a one hundred mile
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: trip just in your own backyard, because that will keep
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: you in shape and keep you in practice, and you'll
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: know how your gear works, you'll know what's broken, you'll
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: know your systems will be dialed in just from those
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: little short weekend trips. And so I do a lot
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: of those myself. I probably get out once a week
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: in my van and in my motorcycle and go camping,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: and there's places five miles from my home where I
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: go camping just so I can be around my gear
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: and my vehicles and using things and trying things so
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: that I'm ready and I'm prepared for those longer trips.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great advice given the fact that you've also
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: been a professional filmmaker for your life. What are some
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: words of wisdom and maybe some insights onto equipment that
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: you would recommend for someone who wants to begin documenting
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: their own journeys. What are some of the basics that
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: you'd recommend for them.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: Well, we're certainly blessed with no unlimited choices when it
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: comes to the gear for filmmaking that we have today.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: It's you know, the cameras are smaller, higher quality, and
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: less expensive than anything I've ever used in the past.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't really matter what kind of gear
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: you choose. It's all out there, all the brands, the manufacturers,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: they have appropriate cameras and it could even be your iPhone.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: You know, it really comes down to the story that
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: you want to tell, and you know, what makes it
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: meaningful to other people to watch. I guess it's not
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: the home movie, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: anybody can do it. It's not easy. The hardest part
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: is really the editing and the time that it takes
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: in the long run. So I would say kind of
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: like be aware of that and think about it, because
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: I have seen a lot of people that go out
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: and get drones or helmet cameras and they use them
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: a few times and then they realize that they have
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: all this footage that they don't end up knowing what
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: to do with. So you know, if you are serious
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: about it, just sort of go into it knowing that
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: the filming is one thing, but the editing is going
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: to be the bigger part of the work, and it's
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: where that story really is made.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: And it seems like to me that if people focus
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: on capturing audio, clean audio when you've got a lot
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: of wind noise, even on your iPhone, you can plug
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: in auxiliary microphones that you can put a wind sock
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: on and protect her and try to reduce some of
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: that wind noise. I think that makes a big difference.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: And absolutely taking it a little bit more of a
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: stable shot, put it on a tripod or set it
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: on a rock, very.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: Simple tip, very practical. I would also suggest people to
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: think about getting multiple angles. Yeah, you know, if you're
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: whatever it is that you're filming, try to get a
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: wide shot that shows the context, try to get a
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: close up of the face of whoever's in the scene.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: Then try to get a couple detail shots showing what
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: it is that they're doing with their hands or on
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: the motorcycle or whatever, and then maybe throw in a
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: creative shot that's something surprising. And if you could just
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: keep that little formula in mind for every moment when
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: you're filming, you'll have such a better movie in the end. Sterling,
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for being on the podcast. We
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: have traveled so much together, and I've learned so much
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: from you as a filmmaker, and you've inspired us to
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: create our own productions as well. And I think that
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: if people just hop onto your YouTube channel, they're going
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: to get a real good sense of where you've been
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: and what you've done and those lessons and stories that
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: you've shared along the way.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: You know. Kind of is a last question, and I
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: do like to ask this of those that are on
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the podcast. You have and it doesn't need to be books.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: We talked about films earlier. Would you recommend. Are there
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: any books that you'd recommend or even films that you'd
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: recommend that our listeners pay attention to. That's a great question.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: I could do a whole other podcast talking about books
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: and films that have influenced me. Some of the ones
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: I wrote down here because I knew you were going
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: to ask this question. The Journals of Peter Beard. Okay,
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: he was kind of a New York socialite that was
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: married to a supermodel and parted with the Rolling Stones,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: but he spent a lot of time in Africa and
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: created these beautiful artistic journals of his life, you know,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: living in the bush, and they were kind of hugely
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: inspirational to me as as a young person. Journals of
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: Peter Beard.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Didn't he just pass recently, like within the last year
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: or two? Not sure? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: a great one.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: And then here's another one I want to bring up.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if you've heard of this one
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: or read it, but it's called A Sense of the World.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: It's not that old, but it's about how a blind
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: man became history's greatest traveler. It's the story of a
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: guy named James Holman who was blind in the eighteen hundreds,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: and he literally found a way to travel around the
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: world as a blind person in the eighteen hundreds, and
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: he was like imprisoned in Siberia. He hunted elephants in Africa,
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: he helped map out the Australian outback, and he became
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: this travel lecturer after doing that, and then he just
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: disappeared and history forgot all about who he was. But
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: when we, you know, we think about what's possible or
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: what is impossible as overlanders, think about being a blind
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: man by yourself in the eighteen hundreds, traveling around the world.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: That's fascinating. And what's the name of that book again?
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: A Sense of the World? Okay, very cool? I like that.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: How about some your favorite films? Which ones come to mind? Well?
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: As a motorcycle filmmaker, probably one of the films that
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: inspired me the most was by the Indian filmmaker Guardav
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: Jani and he made a movie about ten or fifteen
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: years ago called Riding Solo to the Top of the World.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: And in that film, he left his home in India
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: and rode up into the Himalayan mountains on a royal
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: enfield by himself, and he filmed everything by himself. He
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: carried a television camera and a tripod. He would walk
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: up the side of the mountains and set up the
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: shot and walk back down to his motorcycle and ride
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: through the scene. And it's a very beautiful suite movie.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: You know, he doesn't come off as this egotistical big adventurer.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: He's an explorer and he wants to meet the cultures
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: that live way up in the mountains. You know, if
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: you haven't seen that one, it's on YouTube. It's free.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: Anyone can watch it. It's a really beautifuly beautiful movie.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really beautiful. Yeah, I remember watching that years ago.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I really loved it. Well again, Sterling, thank you so
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: much for being on the podcast. How do people find
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: out more about you? Give it again? Your YouTube channel?
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: How do people follow you on Instagram or any of
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: the other my face twits.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Or got it on YouTube? It's the Motorcycle Travel Channel.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: I'm on Instagram as Sterling dot Noreen that's n O
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: R E. N. And the name of my company is
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: Noreene Films. We have a website, a Facebook page, and
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: then finally there's the John Quill Motel down in Bisbee
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: Arizona that my partner Eva and I run and that's
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: j O n q U. I L the John Quill Motel.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: That's how you can find out where I'm at when
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: I'm not out in the desert getting myself lost and dehydrated.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: And your hotel is so cool and Bisbee is such
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: an awesome little destination. So people who are looking for
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: someplace to go explore in Arizona, make sure you check
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: out Bisbee Arizona and the John Quill Hotel and say
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: hello to my friends Eva and Sterling when you're there.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: So thank you all for listening and we will talk
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: to you next time.