Kate Zrim Moto Femmes | Ambassador
My Dad has been riding motorcycles since he was a teenager and is no stranger to a good old motorcycle adventure in our beautiful home country of Australia. In 1975 he rode solo from Whyalla to Wilpena Pound, in 1978 he rode solo from Whyalla to Perth, in 1980 he rode solo from Whyalla to Mildura to Broken Hill and in 1981 he rode solo from Whyalla to Melbourne to Sydney.
“…but a few years ago I decided to take the motorcycle by the handlebars and hit the road solo.”
I, on the other hand, grew up around Dad’s bikes and loved going on the back, but a few years ago I decided to take the motorcycle by the handlebars and hit the road solo. I have never looked back and love riding, but unlike my Dad, I had never been on a big adventure and was mostly a weekend rider and had been exploring, but never a big road trip as such.
So you can guess what my Dad’s response was when I said I wanted to take him and a couple of Royal Enfield’s around the west of America and do loads of miles in a day, see loads of things and plan day by day as we go without a care in the world. Actually, you probably can’t guess what my Dad’s response was. It was simply ‘count me in’. Not, ‘Are you sure you will cope with the long days of riding’ or ‘It’s not easy carrying all your gear and riding so far through some difficult roads’ or ‘It’s not safe for you’ or ‘Perhaps we should take more time and plan more before we go’. It was simply ‘count me in’. It is for this reason I bloody love my Dad.
“It was simply ‘count me in’. It is for this reason I bloody love my Dad.”
We did some minor planning in the couple of months we had before we set off from Australia to the US of A but basically we knew we were picking up and dropping off the bikes up in Orange County and we had our International Licences ready to roll. That was it. With a backpack bigger than myself and a couple of sleeping bags strapped on we took a Continental GT and Bullet on our big West Adventure.
Planning each day as we went, the first couple of days were just finding our limits on the bikes in the sweltering heat, learning to ride on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, got to know the roads we could expect rather than just going off the maps and had an idea of which towns we would stay in based on the amazing scenery we wanted to see along the way. We had some WiFi in the evenings which helped us plan but other than that we had our trusty road maps! No GPS or fandangle system to help us navigate, just the map, street signs and the help of locals. It was the best way to do it.
We will be sharing the details of our trip with you soon and will talk about the places that we visited, the people we met, the roads that were ridden and why exactly we had the most amazing adventure ever on our Royal Enfields.