There are a fair number of motorcycle riders among us who have a long history of excellence in this craft, yet we know little about them because they don't necessarily bring it to the public's attention. One of the hidden aims of this interview series is to bring to the fore motorcycle touring enthusiasts who are not found everywhere, but whose life experiences can provide our community with many useful ideas. Zoli is one such biker among us, we could listen to his stories until the wee hours of the morning, but we've tried to keep it as contained as possible.
Adventure Bike Rider Interview:
What role does motorcycling play in your life and in your daily routine?
This varies. For a long time - especially in the Cruiser days - the focus was absolutely on riding in the herd, the challenge less so. V2, leather gear, rock n' roll. 😀 Later that morphed into solo touring - typically on the usual European routes - and riding my bike to work in the countryside in winter and summer, so I was riding almost every day of the year. The bikes changed accordingly. DragStar, Goldwing, K1600GTL...I've tried a lot of things, but I've been on the adventure touring side for a while now, and I think that's where I've found myself. However, since moving away from work, riding 140km in the "month-weather-weather" doesn't appeal to me as much, so I don't use the bike for commuting anymore, just for riding and touring.
What was the moment or experience that started your passion for adventure motorcycling?
Adventure motorcycling as such, I believe, began with Long Way Round, like so many of our fellow motorcycle adventurers. It showed me that there was life beyond the Stelvio and the Grossglockner, so to speak. That's when the world really started to open up, and that's when I realised for the first time that adventure really does begin where the tarmac ends - and that's not just a catchphrase. If you look at a map it's not hard to see that 99.999% of the land is not paved, so statistically you're much more likely to find adventure if you can leave the tarmac, explore new places, be self-sufficient in any conditions and be truly free and independent.
The tarmac and hotels are a very big commitment, but you'll only understand that once you really get a taste of what's beyond, if you're curious enough to jump out of your comfort zone with even feet. Not everyone can do that, not everyone wants to do that, and I don't think it's the only and only way to salvation. It's not for everyone, because there are a lot of sacrifices and compromises to pay for that freedom. If you can drive on the tarmac, stay in a hotel, enjoy good company and relax, there's nothing wrong with that either. Everyone has to find their own way. If you feel good at what you do, you are good at what you do.
What type of tours do you prefer?
As I have very little time, I am very careful to spend it well. Therefore, I prefer to hike either alone or with people I know well and have experience with. I don't take risks with strangers or groups. The more people you have, the more constraints you have, at the expense of freedom. For me, 2-3 bikes, maybe 4 is the max this is still feasible if everyone is in sync and accepting enough, willing to compromise. Because an adventure tour is an adventure tour because nothing happens as you plan it - if you have a plan at all. I have less and less, but even so I often overthink, I think...
Solo or group trip?
In the purest truth, solo. Last time I was in Kyrgyzstan, I was alone. So far, this has been the biggest challenge. A foreign country, culture, no language skills and a good two thirds of my trek was in areas where there really is nothing and no one. No signal, no internet, no settlements. Yet I have never felt so free, never felt so alive. And in my common sense, I should have been more worried. But I wasn't, so I'm very glad I took the plunge.
Of course, it's also true that when you're alone, you often don't have someone to share your current experiences with, and that's not always a good thing. Maybe 2-3 motorcycles with similar attitudes, skills and interests is the best for me.
But just because you set off alone doesn't mean you'll always be alone. Even in the most unlikely of places, you'll run into similar people from time to time who have spent a few days together.
What has been your most memorable motorbike ride to date and why?
For a long time my most memorable tour was the Georgian one, but now this one, the Kyrgyz tour, is my favourite. Partly for the reasons I've just detailed, and partly because I had experiences that I'm unlikely to have had in a group, or even a small group - or at least not all of them, and not like this.
One of my greatest experiences on the tour was when I ran into a Turkish guy who was touring on a WR250 and after it turned out that we were looking at the same pass, but neither of us dared to do it alone because we had mixed information about whether it was possible to get over, we agreed to try it together. Unfortunately, there were such rockfalls and river crossings (in the cold, at nearly 4000 metres) that we decided not to risk it. However, the nearest asphalt road and settlement (understand: about 10 buildings) was about 150km away and we were out in the field around 3 pm. It was immediately clear that we would spend the night in the mountains. In itself this was not a problem, because we were both equipped for wild camping, we had food and I could prepare drinking water in unlimited quantities, but the weather was not very encouraging.
I convinced him to let us go and look at the animals and yurts in the mountains. We didn't succeed in our first few attempts, but just before the sun finally set behind the mountains, I saw a group of three yurts calling to me, smoke billowing from one of them, promising warmth. We went over, tried to signal that we would like to sleep here, but they were quite confused (it turned out the next day that it was because they had never had anyone staying with them except family). We made a rough agreement hand and foot - not everyone here spoke Russian - and one of the yurts was given to us. We packed our bags and were invited over to eat. Usual spread-side table, everyone on their traditional side and place, and the guests in the best place. We had a good stay, got to know the whole family who were very excited to have foreign guests.
Two hours later we were called in again to go to dinner, which we didn't understand because we had already been fed. But they told us it was because they had a guest and it was a celebration for them (here the guest is a gift from God and they treat it as such!). And now this is dinner. 😂 So we really weren't hungry that day! The next day the kids showed us around the camp, the animals and we spent a lot of time with the family - now as friends. In the evening we danced together to terrible music reminiscent of Russian Modern Talking, shining clear in the crystal clear sky, in the light of the milk road and mobile phones, and it was the experience of a lifetime away from tourists, settlements, above 3000m, out in the real wilderness, in the raw, untouched nature.
How do you prepare for a long motorbike ride, do you have any special rituals or habits?
I usually scour the internet and watch all the relevant YouTube videos! 😂 I usually do the obligatory homework if I'm not travelling to the known areas. I am interested in the history, customs, ethnography, geography of the place. I learn a few basic things in the language because it makes a big difference.
What might be a bit more unusual is that I usually, also pursuing another passion of mine, fly the planned route in VR in Flight Simulator to bring together the area, heights, distances, directions, nature of the environment, geography etc. This helps a lot with general orientation and effective map use. I like paper maps because you can see through them better than on navin, they never get worn out, and locals can use them. That is if they know what it is, because in several yurts I have had a programme with the children to teach them the structure, features and regions of their own country. Most of the nomadic-semi-nomadic families I visited had been to fewer places in their own country in their entire lifetime than I had in a week. It's worth putting this in context, though.
What type of bike do you use and why?
Currently I have a 2022 Honda Africa Twin CRF1100 Adventure Sports ES DCT that I have left. For a long time I also had a nice air-oil BMW R1200GSA, I really didn't want to get rid of that because it was a robust, well put together, world-beating machine, we went a lot of places, but I didn't need two bikes in the same class and that was the deal with myself, if the AT brings the same reliability that the GS did on my previous tour of the Caucasus, I'll keep it because it's lighter, feels lighter, it's more suitable for off-road and you can loop, but the DCT tested very, very well on the Kyrgyz adventure tour, off-road. That being said, if I had to buy now, it would probably be an older GS again, but not an Adventure, or a T700 with tubeless wheels.
What was your favourite bike?
Still GS. 😀 Simply indestructible! I never had to wonder if I would dare to go anywhere with it. But the GSA was too big and heavy for off-road.
When it was running, I loved the KTM 890 Adventure R, but it didn't usually run.Even for a 1-year-old, it was terribly clumsy, twice leaving me on the side of the road and making me trailer it, and I couldn't have that. It had about 5000km on the clock when I sold it. And on paper I think it could be the best adventure bike available, and I swear I tried to love it! If someone is ok with constant fitting, this is a very good option.
I also had a custom built, cleaned up Husqvarna 701 Enduro, I loved that one too, although it left me on the side of the road on the first tour with 1700km on the clock...so far this one, rebuilt like this was probably the closest to the perfect adventure bike...
But to be fair, I also liked the Goldwing for what I used it for. The comfort and six cylinders do have a certain charm, but my travels are different now.
Dream bike?
An engine that maxes 170kg on fuel, 6-700cc two-cylinder boxer, 90-100LE, gimbal, 21-18" internals, no heated wheels, comfortable for 7-800km a day, 3.5 mpg, goes 86, and has at least 5-600km range. Preferably Honda, Yamaha or BMW, please let me know if you know of one! 😀 All joking aside, if the 890 Adventure R was as reliable as the Africa Twin or GS, I'd be happy with that.
What equipment do you consider important to take with you that others might not think of?
I don't think I carry anything extra. Whatever I need for basic engine assembly is permanently on the engine (basic tools, puncture repair, mini compressor, bandage, fixing stuff, toilet paper 😀). Maybe the water purifier which is new in the kit - I used it a lot in Kyrgyzstan, because I had 4-5 days without drinking water, and it's a pain to carry that much on the bike. This little Sawyer Mini, on the other hand, fits in your pocket practically and despite its size, it gives you a lot of freedom not having to adjust your route to drinking water.
Do you have a favourite destination or country you would definitely like to return to?
I definitely want to go back to Central Asia. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan definitely. I would also like to return to the Caucasus, especially the northern areas, which see far fewer tourists than Georgia.
What are the biggest challenges you face on your tours?
To create the possibility to tour for family and work. My family works a lot to not only accept but support my aspirations and plans in this direction, because when we became a family it was not an issue. Obviously, it's always harder for the person who stays with the daily routine, not for the person who goes on an adventure. So I appreciate that and I don't take it for granted, like the adventurers who were adventurers when they met and the child grew into it. It's a different life situation.
What tips would you give to those who are also planning to do something similar but have not yet done it?
You don't have to go on an adventure to Afghanistan or South Sudan. 🙂 It is possible to expand your comfort zone in small steps. Everyone has to feel for themselves what they are ready for. Once you have that point, then you have to go one step further from that point, because that is where the unknown territory, the possibility of progress, begins. If this step is missed, then you can only gain routine in what you are already capable of. That's how you know you've stepped out of your comfort zone, by starting to question whether you can do what you're planning to do. Where there's a little fear, excitement, doubt, but just enough not to completely discourage you from getting going. Where your emotions are still fighting it, but you know with your wits about you that you'll probably be okay one way or another.
+1 bonus: throw the TV out the window...thank me later!
What is the most important lesson you have learned about yourself or about life during your travels?
It wouldn't take 50 pages 🙂 For me, these tours are not just about getting away from it all. Not just about not having to be a husband, father, boss or child for a while. If I can really get away - not just physically - disconnected, then I can feel who I really am. Here, you get a clear sense of who you really are. Not who you see yourself as or want to see yourself as in everyday life, and often not who you think you are. A lot of people spam their brains with TV, radio, whatever 24 hours a day because to spend even 1 hour in silence, in stillness, really BEING YOU, would be very scary. He would start to know himself and realize that there is a difference between who he thinks or presents himself to be and who he really is. And underneath our social conformity patterns lurks a lot of interesting and valuable things and resources just waiting to be discovered.
A solo tour like this also helps you to understand that there is usually no such thing as losing. You either win or you learn. Everything happens for a reason and often it is only in hindsight that we make sense of what we have learned or could have learned. Given the many unexpected situations you have to deal with every day on an adventure tour, I find it hard to imagine a more effective and intense way to improve your self-awareness and self-worth than by deliberately setting yourself challenges that you don't know for sure you can handle, and that you can only rely on yourself. If we are able to do this consciously, we are more likely to be brave enough to take on situations that don't immediately seem to have a solution, but we already know that we have the inner resources to probably cope with what we are facing.
It's been proven countless times that even a situation that doesn't look good will always work out somehow, and in time it will be turned into a great little hero-story, which can be retold at every meeting around the campfire when the story-litter kicks in. 😂
In general, I think it's important to travel, no matter what the means, but with an open mind, curiosity and as far away from industrial tourism as possible. It can give you a lot! As much as possible, to as many different places as possible. As long as you only go hiking in your own country, you think that even the surrounding countries, the people living there, their way of life, their customs are very different, because that is already "abroad". They are "different".
But once you've been around Europe and you start heading in a different direction, as you go further and further away, and as your horizons widen, you'll find that the difference becomes smaller and smaller, right here in our own backyard. If you've been to, say, the Congo, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mongolia, Iran, Oman, you'll soon realise that there's really almost no difference between our country and the European borderlands. But until you have this experience, you will be left with the gripe of how much better life is here and there for this or that reason. Which may be true, of course - especially if we keep looking at this one thing with a tunnel vision - but if we have more experience, we can also look at it from a different perspective, which can have positive consequences for this particular thing.
What are your plans and dreams for the future?
I would definitely like to do a South America, Middle East and a real trip to Africa (south of the Sahara) in the not too distant future. Pakistan and China are also increasingly appealing as possibilities. I've definitely planned to adventure on every continent at least once before my body and/or soul says "good'wammosma'll do". 🙂
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