Hi all, i hope everyone is well.
Im new to the Wild Dog forum and also extremely new to adventure biking.... well, so new that i don't even own a bike as yet, but am hoping to fix that issue soon. I'd say that's pretty fresh to the scene.
A little bit about my background goes like this; In terms of owning a "bike" id have to say that the only bike that was ever in my possession was a 19 something (even before the 1990's) delivery bike many, many, many years ago, when playing outside was the choice of most kids. We lived on a plot and i used it to do a bit of off-roading, well actually sand roading, mainly because that was the only form of road that an exceptionally heavy over engineered bike with shocks that were still from the 80's could "handle". This is not to say that i didnt come off on the corrugated sand road because of the bike bouncing all over the show. Even though the bike wasnt much to go by i loved every minute of it. I think it was probably the freedom, so to speak, of being able to jump onto a bike and forget about all the worries of your surroundings(because a 15 year olds life is so pressured). Liberating is probably a closest description that i can think of to the feeling. Jump ahead a couple of years till about 3 years ago. I can honestly say that in the interim i have never been motivated to look at or even buy a bike until one day when doing a Western Cape tour i saw a bike with panniers drive past. I thought to myself, how cool would it be to just pack up the bare minimum and head out onto the road, forgetting all restrictions and experience the luxury that mother nature provides for us every single minute. In my opinion we tend to forget about what has been given to us when we are too busy trying too hard to make it.
This must have planted a seed and that seed has been ever growing too the day. I feel that i am at a stage where im ready to take on the notion that bikes arent all that dangerous, only if driven in and on the right conditions.
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, thats the long and short of it. I look forward to contributing any info or experiences that i have in the future with you.
Greg
Im new to the Wild Dog forum and also extremely new to adventure biking.... well, so new that i don't even own a bike as yet, but am hoping to fix that issue soon. I'd say that's pretty fresh to the scene.
A little bit about my background goes like this; In terms of owning a "bike" id have to say that the only bike that was ever in my possession was a 19 something (even before the 1990's) delivery bike many, many, many years ago, when playing outside was the choice of most kids. We lived on a plot and i used it to do a bit of off-roading, well actually sand roading, mainly because that was the only form of road that an exceptionally heavy over engineered bike with shocks that were still from the 80's could "handle". This is not to say that i didnt come off on the corrugated sand road because of the bike bouncing all over the show. Even though the bike wasnt much to go by i loved every minute of it. I think it was probably the freedom, so to speak, of being able to jump onto a bike and forget about all the worries of your surroundings(because a 15 year olds life is so pressured). Liberating is probably a closest description that i can think of to the feeling. Jump ahead a couple of years till about 3 years ago. I can honestly say that in the interim i have never been motivated to look at or even buy a bike until one day when doing a Western Cape tour i saw a bike with panniers drive past. I thought to myself, how cool would it be to just pack up the bare minimum and head out onto the road, forgetting all restrictions and experience the luxury that mother nature provides for us every single minute. In my opinion we tend to forget about what has been given to us when we are too busy trying too hard to make it.
This must have planted a seed and that seed has been ever growing too the day. I feel that i am at a stage where im ready to take on the notion that bikes arent all that dangerous, only if driven in and on the right conditions.
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, thats the long and short of it. I look forward to contributing any info or experiences that i have in the future with you.
Greg
