My Motorcycle Touring Bug

Right now is the perfect time of the year to go on a motorcycle tour. Some motorcycles are better suited than others but the truth is you can have an adventure on any motorcycle. I'm a huge fan of motorcycle trips, my first ever camping trip on a motorcycle was when I was 16, me and some friends headed off to the beach in Holland, roughly 220km away from Duisburg, Germany on our Zundapp KS80 with good spirit, tent and sleeping bags. That was a few years ago now but the motorcycle touring bug is still with me and I love going on motorcycle trips – the word 'touring' can sound a bit old fashion but riding to new places with friends on motorcycles is always exciting. On one recent trip we were camping in the North of Malaysia and I suffered the classic amateur touring mistake – my throwover panniers burned a hole in my tent but I wasn't too bothered as it was small and the location of the hole was easily covered by a plastic bag of the local grocery store.

Next morning I woke up in my tent, with a enormous hangover and every square centimeter of my skin was scratching of mosquitoes bites. I went sleeping, drunk, and forgot to spray the tent.

On another trip to Cambodia only one of us had panniers. We went to the supermarket to get a load of beers and food. All was going well until we headed back to the campsite and the damn panniers decided to open itself and the dual carriageway, disgorging our dinner onto the highway. Lucky, highways in Cambodia are not as crowded as in Malaysia, but still we ended up running like suicidal children in traffic, dodging cars and pickup trucks to get our stuff off the road. We earned our cold beers that evening.

If I was going on a long motorcycle trip tomorrow, what motorcycle would I take? Ideally, a BMW touring bike. They are really comfy, very smooth,have plenty of luggage and all the other bells and whistles which and old fella like me demands. I prefer four cylinder motorcycles to twins because they're smooth.