There’s always something more
When I got the motorcycle itch after a 15 year hiatus, I had vivid daydreams of cruising across bridges among cornfields of Iowa. I’ve since lived that daydream countless times and I still love it. My soul smiles whenever I find an open road. But now I’m ready to go further and adventure beyond the 100-mile radius of Omaha.
I ride a 2018 Triumph T120 Bonneville. I’ve installed a skid-plate, a small windshield, upgraded the seat, and outfitted it with soft canvas panniers. Eventually it dawned on me that I was trying to make my Bonneville into an adventure motorcycle, and that seems silly. While I love my Bonneville and it’s great at a lot of things, I’ve found that it’s not comfortable enough for my 40-year-old bones to adventure more than 200 miles a day.
The Bonneville with panniers underneath the Mormon Bridge in North Omaha, Nebraska
What is it that I’m looking for?
Since last March, I’ve had an intensifying itch to reclaim my spirit for adventure. It’s been absent for more than a decade. In July I decided a motorcycle was the right tool for the job. In August I reached out to my friend, Jon, about taking a trip to South Dakota and in September I reached out to my oldest friend, Jason, for advice on said trip to South Dakota. Jason has been going on lengthy motorcycle trips for years. By October I was spending a lot of time researching motorcycle camping. Jason and I have stayed close and it seems we might be seeking motorcycle adventure together.
The right motorcycle for the job
For the last several months I’ve been obsessively researching adventure motorcycles. It’s an impressive market. It’s a challenge to find the proper machine to take me on this quest for the outdoors. There are many makes and models to consider. A bike for about any riding adventure you’d like to go on. The question isn’t: what motorcycle do I want? The question is: what kind of adventure do I want? I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of progress, but still haven’t written the big check just yet.
