Motorcycle Men
Motorcycle Men
Episode 485 - Talking with James McBride Author of Around the World in 40 Motorcycles
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Hello Boys and Girls,
Today, we’re talking with world traveler, adventurer, and author James McBride, whose book Around the World in 40 Motorcycles chronicles an epic global journey across continents, cultures, and forty very different machines. We’ll dig into the planning, the riding, the people, the challenges, and the moments that made this adventure truly one‑of‑a‑kind.
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SPEAKER_02Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to episode 485 of the Motorcycle Men Podcast. I am Ted, your host, and we are here, as usual, in the corner booth at the V-Twin Cafe. Hey, joining me today, we are talking with world traveler, adventurer, and author James McBride, whose book Around the World and 40 Motorcycles chronicles his epic global journeys across continents, cultures, and 40 very different machines. We'll dig into the planning, the riding, how it all happened, the people, the challenges, and those special moments that made this adventure truly one of a kind. So get ready, grab your helmet, and settle in. But before we do that, hey, the Motorcycle Man podcast is brought to you by Scorpion Helmets, offering high-quality, innovative motorcycle helmets and technical apparel at an incredible value. So to learn more, visit scorpionusa.com and wild ass seats. Now you can improve your comfort and ability to stay in a saddle longer with a cushion from Wild Dash Seats. So if you're tired of those painful pressure points and fatigue, go to wild-ass.com and get your cushion today from the real Craig Johnson. Viking Bags. Now look, they're a world leader in motorcycle luggage and one of the fastest growing companies in motorcycle parts. Luggage for whatever you need, wherever you go, and whatever you ride. And of course, as always, Tobacco Motorware for the best in casual riding gear for men and women. There is only one place you should be going, and that is Dave Spans over at Tobacco Motorware. Visit them at tobacco motorware.com. That's tobaccomotorware.com, and our listeners will get 10% off your order when you use that code Motoman. Hey, your safety is worth it. So get on over to Tobacco Motorware and get in Dave Spans. Alright, time now for that little chat with James McBride. Okay, boys and girls, we're back and joining me all the way from where are you again?
SPEAKER_00Uh Sarasota, Florida, sir.
SPEAKER_02Sarasota, Florida. Mr. James McBride. Did I say that correctly?
SPEAKER_00You did. Absolutely. James McBride.
SPEAKER_02And James is here to tell us about he just he's you're the author of a book. And but before we get into all of this, why don't you tell us who you are, what you do, and yada yada.
SPEAKER_00Okay, thanks, Ted, for inviting me. Um, I'm a boomer, um, and uh that particular generation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, what can I tell you about myself? I grew up in the UK. Obviously, I'm English, you can tell, but because I talked funny.
SPEAKER_02I didn't couldn't even tell.
SPEAKER_00It's a bit of a giveaway, and uh I haven't lost it yet. But um I uh grew up in the 60s and 70s in the UK, uh going to school, and I was um, should we say a spectacular underachiever at school? Why? Because because I always I always wanted to either fly planes or drive race cars.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. There you go.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you know, perfectly achievable ambitions. However, when I was 15, um a careers master came to the school and he was interviewing us all in a one-to-one basis. McBride, what do you want to do for a living when you leave school? I said, Well, I'd like to fly, I'd like to join the Royal Air Force and fly planes. There you go. And um, and he said, uh, forget it, you've got no chance. So think of something else. Well, honestly, Ted, I couldn't think of anything else. And I thought, I am so screwed, because that's all I wanted to do as a teenager. I was what the UK guys call a petrol head. All right. So if it moved, if it had wheels, I was into it, whatever it was. Right. Except motorcycles. My parents were professionals, my dad was a doctor, my mum was a dentist, or the other way around. They were in the professions, and they were dead against the idea of me going on anything with two wheels and an engine. So at the earliest opportunity, they bought me a car, yeah, to keep me away from uh the evil monsters. And it worked for a while, I have to say. So I left school having achieved virtually nothing in my exams, and um I drifted into nursing, which sounds a bit of an odd choice. Well, you see, it was expected that I would follow in the family tradition go into medicine or dentistry, and to sort of placate my folks, I said, Well, I'll I'll give nursing a try. At first, I wanted to be a social worker because if you're a social worker, they gave you a car. I thought, well, that'll be good, wheels. And they said, No, no, don't be a social worker. They said, uh, go in, go be a nurse. I said, Okay, I'll be a nurse. Well, I joined nursing in uh September 1st, uh, 1975 in York, northern England. Cold, rainy, uh, sometimes there was sunshine in the summer. 74, 76 was a great summer, 76. But anyway, so by the by, I joined nursing and I kind of drifted into nursing, and I was in nursing for about seven years. I did my general nursing first, and then my psychiatric nursing. Well, by the time I'd done a couple of years nursing, um, I read a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Guess what? That book, uh you know it well, and a lot of your listeners know it well. Um, that book didn't just change the way I looked at life at the age of 21, it changed the way I thought about life. Yeah, and that is a big thing for uh for a youngster in it at an impressionable age. And um I changed uh my way of thinking, and of course, I just had to get a motorcycle, and it was a couple of years before I told my folks. Um I mean, the first motorcycle I had, of course, was an MZ uh 125, which didn't have enough horsepower to pull the skin off a rice pudding, to be honest. But um it was it was it was transport, it was two wheels and an engine, and it made a lot of smoke because it was two-stroke, but it got me around and it got me through the traffic. I went on from there, I wanted more power, more speed, you know the way it goes, Ted. And um, and of course, before long, um I graduated, should we say, to the Honda 550. And that was I was then into well, into nursing, of course. I'd been nursing for about three or four years, and I had the Honda 550, and I found that I was able to travel and I could camp and I could travel for you know hundreds and hundreds of miles for a very few pounds. And of course, I was broke. Yeah, you you if you're a nurse in the 70s in in the UK, you're broke, okay. Student nurse, and I was I never had any.
SPEAKER_02Well, if you're involved with motorcycles, you're broke, also.
SPEAKER_00Sure, that that comes later, of course. It's a different stage of brokenness. This is true. When you end up spending, you know, yeah X percent of your uh available income on it, of course. That's that comes later. But but anyway, so but I found that I was able to travel and it gave me the freedom and confidence in my early 20s, which changed the way I was living. Um from there I went to a Honda 900, uh CB900 FA. I don't know whether you remember that was called the Bald Or in in Europe. No, and it was it was a phenomenal machine. Of course, the the Honda 750 broke the mould and became the universal Japanese motorcycle, sure, but then it developed into the uh Honda 900 from the uh mid-70s and late 70s when they were racing at uh the Baldor, 24-hour motorcycle race in the south of France, which I became obsessed with. And of course, obsession, the young person leads to action, and of course, I was I'm off to the ball d'or, I've got my tent, I've got my motorcycle, and that's where we went. So um, and I was uh traveling on the continent in different countries in my um in my time off in my annual leave periods, etc. And then it came to the point where um I was working in a psychiatric ward. If I tell you to imagine um one flew over the cooker's nest, yeah, you're pretty much all the way there to how it was in those days. They were locked psychiatric wards. We had about 28, 29 um disturbed male patients, most of them middle-aged or older, involved with small results.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00I was I was nursing, I was trying to help, you know. Yeah, um, and we had an incident one time on the ward. I I've been nursing now for seven years, and I was looking around and I could see um my uh, should we say, more senior colleagues on other wards, male nurses in their 40s, and they were all a bit doolally. I mean, man, they were they they do say if you work with them, you get like them, and there is a certain amount of truth in that, unfortunately, because after a while you kind of accept strange modes and patterns of behavior which uh really not acceptable to yeah, to normal society. Okay, but um, and I I used to look at these other guys and think, I don't want to be like you really. And in the background, of course, I'm doing the motorcycling and I'm traveling and I'm seeing a lot of the world. And then we had an incident on the ward. Um, a patient was beaten up at night. I came on the next morning and filled in the accident report, which basically named the night nurse that had um beaten him up. I submitted the report to the authorities, the senior nursing officer there. And it's all in my book, by the way. This, so you don't have to worry about remembering any of this. But but uh I then had this weird interview with him who wanted to see me. He said, uh come to my office, I want to talk about the report. I said, Great, at least justice is gonna be done for the patient. And this old guy that was beaten up, who was, you know, he'd spilt some tea on the floor or something. You know, cardinal offense. And um, so this uh senior nursing officer interviewed me. I was 22, 20, no, 24 years old, and he said, uh, you've got to change the report because it implies that this patient was beaten up by the night staff. I said, Well, that's what happened. Clearly. I said, and there are there were there were witnesses, you know, there were other patients on the ward, witness what happened. And I just wrote it down as they told me their story and the witness statements, etc. And he said, Yeah, but they're not real credible witnesses because they're psychiatric patients and they're committed. Wow, and therefore there are no witnesses, yeah. You see, this is now it's this is this is 1982. Yeah, this is a long time ago, man. Yeah, things were different. And I suddenly had a flash, and he said, Look, you just got to change the report. You know, you can't uh write it like that. I said, But the report stands. I said, uh, you'll have my resignation this week. I'm going. And I just, you know, I mean, I just thought, Ted, there is no way I can fight this. Right. And at the age of 24, I had a flash of um, you know, a visualization of what my future might be if I tried to fight it, and I'd be up against the lawyers, the authorities, the police, the, you know, the hospital system, etc., etc., and I'd be on my own. And I thought it's pointless. And you know what? It's time to go. And so I did. And I rode out of that hospital on my Honda 900 heading south, and basically um cleaned out of York, went back to my folks' home, you know, re regrouped, and then headed with a whole group of other motorcyclists down to the south of France to watch the motorcycle race. And that was it. And of course, one by one, they all started to come back north to the UK through France, which is actually a big country, it's a three-day ride, really. Yeah, and um, one by one they were coming back north in September 82, and I was heading south, and I I didn't have a job to go to, so I said, Well, I'm carrying on, and uh, and eventually I was on my own. I ended up going into Spain and then down to southern Portugal, which of course is where I met the uh Swiss princess, and we fell in love, like you do, like you do.
SPEAKER_02Wow, so quite interesting.
SPEAKER_00Well, so that I mean that was kind of just the start. I mean, it just you know, from there on in, uh, motorcycling became a way of life for me in my off times. Of course, I didn't have a job, so what am I gonna do? So I came back to the UK and I thought, you know what, I've always wanted to fly. And I I uh looked into it, and there was an old school friend of mine, he he just applied to the Royal Navy to be a helicopter pilot. And I thought, yeah, that sounds good. And I looked into it, I was now 24, 25, I got uh 25 now, and um and they had a maximum age limit of 26, and I thought I better get my skates on because uh I'm gonna be too old for this gig shortly. So I applied and I groomed my life a little bit, if you like, and um my application was successful. And I started in the in the Navy, I sold the motorcycle. I thought, where I'm going, they're gonna give me planes to fly. That's gonna be a lot more fun for a while. Yeah, and um, and then I went into the Navy and uh I flew helicopters, I flew fast jets, and uh the rest is history. I then when I left the Navy, um the first lesson was to stop dropping bombs on the customers, of course, uh when I went to the airlines, and uh and so I went to the airlines and I never looked back. And uh there you go, I spent 40 years flying planes.
SPEAKER_02No kidding, 40 years of flying, man. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00I wrote I wrote some books. I wrote um in fact from about 2006, of course. By the 2006, why not the clock forward? I've been doing it for a long time and I've worked in many places in the world. And there was an old friend of mine who had a publishing company, he was running a flight uh flight training magazine, and he said, Will you write a regular column for me? So I said, Yeah, sure, but what do you have to write? You said anything you like, you know, 1500 words a month. I said, Well, that's quite a lot of words. Um, and I wrote that column then for 17 years every month. Wow, and I thought, whoa, yeah, you see, I mean you can do it, but bear in mind when I was going back to school, I failed English completely. I don't know where the writing came from.
SPEAKER_02Well, if if you you you you you're reading my book, and if you if you read the introduction or the foreword, I mentioned in there what my English teacher had said to me.
SPEAKER_00So well, Ted, let me tell you, uh, one of my abiding memories at school was um one of my teachers, Tommy, said to me, he said, MacBride, you'll never get a good job looking out the window. And I thought 20 years later, when I was an airline pilot, I thought, well, he was wrong about that.
SPEAKER_02Well, hey, when you're flying a plane, what are you doing? You're looking out the window. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00I had a great job looking out of the window for a very long time. No, it was super really. But um, yeah, so so I wrote um a flight safety and training column for 17 years, and then I thought I I thought I came across um self-publishing. I thought, well, self-publish, why not? Yeah. And I wrote what's uh called the flight deck survival manual. And why I wrote that was to guide newbie pilots, wannabe pilots, and try and tell them all the things I'd learned in 30 years at that point, um, and all the things which I wish somebody had told me before I started flying, right? Which would have made the journey easier because it's a tough road, man, you know, uh especially you know for youngsters these days to get into the flying world. And like I say, I mean, you know, I was put off for 10 years by a stupid careers master who didn't know what he was talking about, you know, and he should have he should have been a better advisor, but he wasn't. He wasn't good at his job. But I didn't know that. It took me 10 years to work out, Ted, that and and after reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and from motorcycling a lot, um, that anybody can do anything in this life if they want to. Right, if they want it badly enough, if they're driven, if they are motivated, do not say no you can't to a teenager. And I live by that these days, and I've lived by that with my kids. I've got two kids, absolutely, and whenever they said, Dad, I want to do this, I go right ahead. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_02Do it. Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. There we are. I know exactly what you mean. So you went out and you wrote this, you you wrote you wrote a book, but before you wrote the book, you you did something pretty amazing. Um what was it that made you say to yourself, I'm going to ride around the world and I'm gonna do it on 40 different motorcycles.
SPEAKER_00Well, the funny thing is I never intended to ride around the world, but the reason I've called the book that is because I have ridden in five five continents in over 20 countries on motorcycles of every possible description, but it's been over 40 years, and it's all of those events and you know happenings and journeys that are made, and you know the way it is, Ted. When you when you're out there riding, especially if you're solo, things happen and you meet people all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and it's a fascinating thing, and just the beauty of uh you know different cultures and travel, yeah. It's so it's so uh energizing and innovating. It's just amazing. And so I wanted to and I'd wanted to write that book for for like 20 years. Well, in the meantime, of course, I wrote um I wrote six books, I think. I I've wrote written five flying books, okay, plus a um plus uh a cookbook.
SPEAKER_02A cookbook oh it's it's it's for the um motorcycling aviator cookbook, right?
SPEAKER_00No, but it does have a theme. It does have a theme because in 1990, right, I was crazy enough. I I was coming out of my first divorce, and um and and uh if you've ever been through a divorce, I don't know. I mean, it's not an easy thing for a young man because of course when you when you marry you think things are gonna last for a thousand years. And and so coming to the realization that it's not happening that way after four years is a bit of a blow. Anyway, so I came out of my first divorce and I was due to in receive quite um a lot of money from the sale of our property that we had together. And my mother said to me, she said, uh James, what are you going to do with that money? This is the one, the same one that said, Don't join the Navy. Don't give up your job nursing. She said, She said, What are you gonna do now? I said, I'm gonna ride off down to Portugal with a motorcycle and a tent. He said, Well, you haven't got a job to go. I said, That's exactly right. She said, What are you gonna do for money? I said, Well, I she said, Um, you know, you you should go back into nursing because you have your pension to think of. I said, I've cashed that in. They gave I was horrified. Oops. She said, they gave me 330 pounds. I thought it was a lot of money in those days. It was, yeah. Anyway, so no, but but my mum, she said, uh when I came out of my divorce, it was um it was um uh wasn't 1990, something like that. 90 uh yeah, it was 1989, 99, and she said, uh, what are you gonna do with all that money you get? I said, Well, I'm gonna drink most of it. She said, No, no, that's stupid thing to say, James. She said, Um, what else do you think you're gonna do? I said, Well, I think you're buying an aerobatic biplane and and uh teaching people to fly. Because of course, by this time I've been in the Navy and you had a fly, I was flying airliners. So um she said, no, no, think of something else. I said, Well, I'm gonna buy a uh a yacht and uh sailing boat to sail, but and and rent it out for the times I can't use it myself. She said, No, no, somebody will run it aground. I went, okay, I could see that happening actually.
SPEAKER_02Mother's wisdom coming around.
SPEAKER_00Mother's wisdom, that's it. And then I thought, okay, I'll tell you what, I've always fancied is a ski chalet. She said, Well, that's a great idea. Let's go. So off we went. So we went to France and I bought a ski chalet off plan. It hadn't been built yet. We stood in a field in the Alps and uh with the developer, and I bought a ski chalet off plan and um committed myself to the mortgage and all the rest of it. And we had that ski chalet for 10 years in the 90s. Okay. And um, if I'd invested the same money just in um, you know, um a deposit account or or an in a Roth IRA or something like that, it would have been worth a fortune. Okay, but as it happened, we got a lot of skiing out of it instead. Yeah, and and a lot of friends and family came and they had great times. So, what can we say? But uh so we had the ski show. Now, what was happening was we were always cooking, all the time. You'd go there, and there were a party of eight or a party of ten people. It was five bedrooms, five bedrooms, a couple of bathrooms, a sauna. It was a great place, it was hopping. And of course, so we were always cooking, somebody was always cooking, and I had all these recipes that people were giving us, and they were all loose in the kitchen in this loose, loose folder. And I said at the time, I said, one day I'm gonna write a book, I'm gonna write a recipe book, and they all said, No, you won't, no, you won't. And of course, once I'd written the first two flying books, I thought, do you know what? I think the ski shall I cookbook, the ski shallet cookbook. There you go. And I called I called it Cooking on the Piste, because that's it's a very subtle double entendre for a British person. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, so there we are. All right, so but the getting to this now I i I is the title of the book kind of misleading because you see it because it gives everybody the impression.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a bit of poetic license in a way. But and of course it reverberates with around the world in 80 days.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00So around the world in 40 motorcycles. In actual fact, it is around the world, but not at the same time. Right. And not on the same journey. But it's part of a life journey. And that life journey has taken me, Ted, around the world. Okay. And I tell you why, it's because of motorcycling and that first darn book that I read, Zen and the Art of. Um, and I can still remember the first uh few words of the book. You know, I can see by my watch on my left wrist that it is 8:30 in the morning without taking my hand off the handlebars. That's what Robert Persig wrote. And and it is a fabulous book, which was life-changing for me. And because of the motorcycling, of course, I was able to achieve my um dream, which was to fly planes for a living. And I've flown, well, I wouldn't say every type of airplane, but I've flown a lot. Um, my airliners, you'll be pleased to know, as a good old American gentleman, um, my only airliners were always Boeings. If it wasn't Boeing, I'm not going. Really? Okay.
SPEAKER_02Nice, I like that. I like that.
SPEAKER_00And and the Boeings I flew were the 737, the 757, the 767, fabulous, amazing, incredible machines. But do you know what? If Boeing Airplane Company had built motorcycles, they would look just like Harley Davidson's. Because they've got huge controls, and you know the Harley, you put your hands on the handlebars, and you know it's a Harley because you can barely fit your hands around the grips, you know, and they are thick and they're big, and then they've got big pedals and big footboards. I love them so much, man. Meh. Yeah, yeah, they are the best, really. But of course, they they do say, sorry, Ted, they do say, as we get older in our motorcycling career, that we'll all end up on Harley's. I've heard that said more than once.
SPEAKER_02Yes, everybody ends up there, and there you go. That's it. Now you now so you so you did this around the world in 40 motorcycles. And this happened over a period of how many years?
SPEAKER_0047 years.
SPEAKER_0247 years.
SPEAKER_00So I was writing the book in my head for the last 20 years because I thought I need to get all this down before I before I pass away and forget it all. So, in a way, it's kind of like an autobiography, as way it's it's a bit of a memoir. And of course, my kids are in it, my family's in it, yeah, the dogs are in it, you know, everything. So there we are.
SPEAKER_02Wow. That's that's kind of amazing. Now, was there any planning in any of this? Or it was just like, I'm on the ground, I'm I'm gonna go, I have to go from here to here, let me just go.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it was any planning I used I used the motorcycle a lot in my let's see now, the late uh 2014, 2015. I used the motorcycle a lot, as you'll read in the book, because um I got the job flying for a low-cost operator in Europe called Ryanair, who they are a copy of Southwest Airlines. So they um have this thing where they need their pilots to be mobile, flexible, and able to travel between air bases and airports in Europe throughout the whole of Europe. And I found myself um with this challenge of getting between um places, and I thought, how am I gonna do that? And you can fly, of course, you can between airports, that's the traditional way to do it, as we know. And I thought, do you know what? They'll give me expenses for road travel. Wow, that's that sounds good. I'm gonna get paid to ride a motorcycle. And I'd I'd bought an old BMW R80, R80 Stroke 7, and 1978 Boxer Twin, eBay. Uh eBay's got a lot to answer for, right? Of course. Yes. Well, I'd had I'd had it stored in the UK for about five years, and I thought it's just a beautiful thing because it'd only got about 5,000 miles on it. It was a 1978 model, it was like 35 years old or whatever. And I thought I'll probably never ride it, but I just had to have it because it was, you know, a good price. And then I thought that's the machine I'm going to use to travel around Europe. And I did for about a year. Two years, two years, I think. And then I um found that on the autobahns in Germany, where you're struggling along at 75-80 miles an hour with all this baggage on the on the bike and no fairing on the front, you've got nothing on in front, it's a naked bike. And I'm thinking, do you know what? I'm getting a bit old for this. I'm 60, you know. This this isn't this isn't sensible. And besides which, I'm being paid to use the motorcycle, so I think I might upgrade. Guess what I thought? But of course, early 2017, I met a new lady in my life, and she was American. And she said, I I hear you're gonna change your motorcycle. I said, Yeah, that's right. I said, I'm gonna buy a Harley Davidson. She said, Why would you do that? I said, Because you're American. I said, and you can't criticize Harley Davidson because that would be unpatriotic.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. And you know what? It worked, it worked, it worked. What did you get?
SPEAKER_00Oh, electroglide. Yeah, of course. Oh, electroglide Ultra with a bag of you know, 110 cubic inch engine, a CVO model, and just gorgeous. I called it Ruby, and it's just it was the best, really. Travels with Ruby. Oh wow. Um we went through a revolution in in Spain together. We did a lot. Uh Ruby.
SPEAKER_02So you had the Harley over in Europe.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, which is kind of um exotic, really. Yeah, Hardy Davidson in Europe, you know, because they were never built for Europe, really. I mean, European roads and little lanes and all the rest of it, but it was it was fun having it there.
SPEAKER_02Well, electric light is practically as big as some of the European cars.
SPEAKER_00Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. I remember my friend saying, my friend, uh my old buddy Ashley, he he we've been motorcycling together for 50 years. And buddy Ashley, he he was the one who went and bought it for me. Because I said, Go and find an electric light, I need one. And he bought it for me and said, Yeah, you owe me this much. I said, Okay. And I said, What's it like? He said, He said, Well, it's over 900 pounds in weight, it's over nine feet long. He said, I don't know what it would do in an accident, but it would give a very good account of itself. I said, Yeah, you're probably right. But it was my first motorcycle with um cruise control and uh beautiful sound system, and just amazing, man. And I just wondered wondered where I'd been all that all that time.
SPEAKER_02How many players? How many places did you take that bike?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's in the book. I mean, it's uh lots of places all around Europe, you know, uh uh Germany, Spain, Italy, um you know, everywhere. The UK, obviously. Um, I didn't actually get out to Greece on it, that came later. Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But uh yeah. Well, I know I know there's Harley dealers all over the world, but yeah, yeah. You must have what kind of what kind of reaction were you getting here riding around on this big American bike all over Europe?
SPEAKER_00Oh, a lot. There'll be a lot of um a lot of respect because of course it was red, it was red, beautiful red colour, and substantial fairing, etc., and panniers and and uh saddle saddlebags as we call them and torpak on the back. Um and um, you know, uh wherever we went, it was standout. It was a standout ride. And of course it had quite loud exhausts on the back as well, mufflers. Um they didn't do much muffling. But the um the guy who had it, oh, and I had a flag on the back as well, which was for ceremonial purposes only. And uh July the 4th, 2020, I flew the um flew the uh Stars and Stripes on the way northbound from Malaga from back from Spain up to uh up to England. Anyway, but that's another story.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's talk about these 40 motorcycles. What you 40 different motorcycles over the 40 something years. Yeah what what do do you recall all what those bikes were?
SPEAKER_00Oh, of course, yeah. I mean you you'd never forget. I mean, yeah, yeah, I mean and the nice thing, you know, is that I loved them all in their own way. I even saw a Jawa 350. You probably have no idea what I know what a Jawa is, yeah. Oh, there you go. Good. But it's a two-stroke 350cc single, and I saw it only a couple of weeks ago at Sarasota Cars and Coffee here. And I got talking to the Polish, uh, Polish American guy that owns it, and he was such a such a great guy, and he'd rebuilt it. And I said, Where did you find one of these? He said, Oh, Chicago. Yeah, you would have to go to Chicago because uh there's a large Polish diaspora in Chicago, yeah, really anyway. So, but um yeah, he bought it from Chicago. But uh, I had a set I had a Jower 350 and sidecar, and and that was like well, in fact, the the the chapter is entitled The Worst Combination. And I can give you the magic why the magic w oh man, but it was fun. I mean it was it was hilarious, you know. But there we are. But uh, but no, uh all the time different motorcycles and and different adventures and different stories. Uh and a lot of it tied in with the flying, for example, my Ducati um Urban Enduro, which I bought is a 2010 model or something, I don't know. Um, and um, and I've still got that bike, and in September I'm gonna ride it to France this year, so that's my next uh trip, really. Um, and that bike I bought while I was in Bologna in Italy when I was um flying for Ryanair, and and I was actually uh just down the road from the Gicati factory, but I bought it, it was a UK bike ball on eBay. But I went for a test ride on the Gicati Desert Sled, which is 1100cc. Absolute savage, it was amazing, and I came back white as a sheet. I mean, I've scared myself a few times, and the salesman said, Oh, you like it? I said, No, it's as it's brutal. I said, I couldn't possibly have this sheet. I said it's great, but not for me, bro. Yeah, you know, yeah, but uh but I loved it, just phenomenal anyway. The beautiful the the 800cc version is incredible. I love it to bits. Wow, and I remember you were talking on the other um podcast the other week to um She Who Knows Moto, yeah and um she knows Moto and and you were talking about the the symmetry and the balance and the the um the beauty of a motorcycle and how you know the weight front and back end of a motorcycle, how it can be more weighty one end, and you know that Ducati Urban Enduro um has aesthetic harmony, which I rarely see in motorcycles, but then of course it it's in a it's in a good family. Let's face it, uh Massimo Tamborini, when he designed the Ducati 916, going back a ways, they changed sport bike design and styling forever. Oh and and that that machine was fabulous. I had a 916 eventually one time.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. Well, you're just been all over. With with regard to the bikes, have you rich which was there any bike that stood out for you aside from the carty? And what bike really stood out for you in any of the places you went? Or surprised you?
SPEAKER_00Um I think the Royal Enfield.
SPEAKER_02I thought you would have said something like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. The Royal Enfield bullet, let's face it, Ted, it was designed in what 1932 or something. And um, of course, Royal Enfield was a good old British, British Magel chapter. And um and and of course they went bust in the 60s, 70s, I like to say, but it went all the way through 40s, 50s, 60s, and the bike that is now the Royal Enfield Bullet is by and large a 1950s motorcycle for the road, updated with electronic ignition and fuel injection, but it's still that um uh parallel uh sing. Well, no, it's a single, isn't it? Five single. And and it's just a delight to ride. Um, and uh and of course I read it, I rode it in Laos and Thailand, and then we did another trip. We went to the Forbidden Kingdom in Nepal, um, which is uh the upper Mustang Pass. Yeah, and that's the photograph that's on the front of the book with the Royal Enfield. Now, that is a road-going bike which will go anywhere, which was completely nuts. I mean, they had slightly um mud and snow tires, you know, tires with a good bit of grip on them for um for going off-road. But we were off-road 90% of the time in in the upper Mustang Valley. Oh, um, and and to be there on a road-going motorcycle was just um a dream come true in some ways, but in others it was a nightmare. Wow, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_02Well, there were no thoughts of using the Himalayan for that, things like that.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's the funny thing. Do you know I think they do now? Yeah, because this is going back to 2019 when I was there, and I was kind of disappointed when um when we went to uh I went to um Nepal and found it was still the bullet. Um I knew it was going to be, but I I I thought they might have got the Himalayan in. Um but they hadn't by then. But now I think they do. And and it's with a company called Vintage Rides. Um, I have no connection with them apart from being a satisfied customer. Yeah and uh French company, they they do tours all over the world with motorcycles, and they're all based on Royal Enfields, and these days they use a lot of Himalayans, and it's obviously an amazing bike off-road.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of people who have ridden all over the place with the Himalayan, you know, plenty of documents on that. Let's talk about some of the places you've gone to, uh some of the diverse countries you've been through, the little cultures and all that. Is there any moment uh that you can share with us where the scenery or the people or anything like that made you think about, yeah, this is why I ride?
SPEAKER_00Um Vietnam. Vietnam um was an incredible experience. I went there in 1996. I was flying for Royal Brunei Airlines based out of uh Brunei, Southeast Asia, and they had a contract to do um uh what they call a wet lease contract with one of our airplanes to fly for Vietnam Airlines out of Saigon. And we used to do at Ho Chi Minh City, we used to do the Paris run. Um to fly to and from Paris, which was their, of course, um expression, China. It was their their most uh lucrative uh route to Paris. But um when I was there, we they put us in this lovely hotel called the Omni Saigon, which was actually based on the old CIA headquarters that they demolished after the Vietnam War. Funny old thing, but there you go. And um, so it's there's history everywhere, of course, and Saigon's just a fabulous uh city to walk around. And I um I spent a lot of time, a few days um touring around the city, and then I thought I need to go out and see more. So I went and hired a little motorcycle, it was a Honda Dream, and the Honda Dream 97cc was just the sweetest machine you could ever ride. Uh so easy, of course. But it I didn't realize at the time, but I've since researched it, and it's the machine which put the whole nation on two wheels because Vietnam Vietnamese um, you know, in the late 80s, early 90s, they had very little in the way of uh mechanical transport, um, two wheels, and then they started buying Honda Dreams from Thailand secondhand because they couldn't get them officially because of the uh communist regime, I think. And then um eventually uh Honda started set up a factory inside the country. But the Honda Dream put a whole nation on two wheels, and it was just awesome to be able to ride that motorcycle. And I went out to a place called the Coochie Tunnels, which is to the northwest of Saigon by about 50 miles, something like that. And that trip was uh epic, really. And that was where I shot a tiger with a machine gun. What you have to read the book to find out, really, but there you go. AK 47.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, really? There you go.
SPEAKER_00That's the tiger was only a target, Ted. It wasn't I was gonna say, what?
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00But I it did feel wrong. Yeah, you know, it did feel wrong. I mean, there was a you know, there were targets and they had this range where where you could fire the guns from the Vietnam Vietnam War. Of course, you know, I was I was uh yeah, let's do it. Wow. Yeah, so funny.
SPEAKER_02Highs and lows. Uh what's some of the most exhilarating moments you had and some of the lowest moments you had?
SPEAKER_00Well, there've been a few breakdowns where you thought goodness me, what am I gonna do now? Um, yeah, um there was a low moment uh not so long back actually, um, when I think it was back in 2022. Um and uh I was riding the Grinch. Yeah. The Grinch was um Harley Davidson Soft Tail Custom that I bought in an auction in Virginia, okay, up in uh DC. And then when my wife and I moved south to come uh to our final, you know, retirement home in Florida, um, or home to which we retired, I should say that better. And um, and we brought the Grinch with us. And this bike I thought was I loved it, it was great, but it had been standing for about 15 years or something, and I yeah, a long time. The guy who owned it hadn't ridden it at all for a very long time. That was why it was in a consignment auction. And so I had the carburetor apart, I had the fuel system apart, and of course, there was always fuel contamination, and so um I did my best and I got it running really well. It didn't have any silencing at all, it was hugely loud. Um, and it was uh was it an 88? I think it was an 88 twin cam engine. Fabulous motor, nice, nice engine. That's what I have in my bike. Well, you know how it sounds, it's a great machine. So we read we rode, and um what I did was I I brought I brought my brother over from the UK um and uh my old friends, and there were four of us, and we called ourselves the Mild Hogs, um, which is a parody of that film with John Travolta, the Wild Hogs. Anyway, us Mild Hogs, we we got saddled up on motorcycles and went north, and we went to do the Blue Ridge Parkway.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So we hadn't even got out of Florida, and I was riding the Grinch, I was leading the way, and the Grinch died. And I thought, oh, this is I've been looking forward so much to this trip, and uh there we are. Anyway, so uh and that was um why do we call it the Grinch tragedy? Oh, it was called the Grinch because um it had a specialized custom paint job which is green flames and some sort of green Grinch devil face thing on the tank, and it was my wife who said, you know what, that's that's called the Grinch, that bike. And so Grinch finally let me down. And I I mean I loved riding it, but you know what? When it let me down, it was it was uh it was a low point.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, that's that's uh all these now all these trips that you did, uh this is of course this is as a result of your your your your career as an airline pilot. But how did how did that but as far as it goes for your things like food and accommodations and all these travels, is it what was this was this really easy? You didn't have there wasn't no camping involved, or this was all uh hotel to hotel kind of I eat wherever I want.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it depends. I mean, um certainly while I was working as an airline pilot, the hotels were provided.
SPEAKER_01Of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That was nice, yeah. Um and uh but in the early days I was camping a lot. Wow. Um, of course, you know, and you just get on with it. And I had I had some great times camping. Of course, you know, um everybody's got their sort of level of comfort that they need. And for me in the early days, what I needed was um I needed a good tent, and I had one, um, because I've been in the the Boy Scouts, you know, um when I was a teen. And then um, so I had a good tent, I had a good sleeping bag, and a roll-up mat underneath, and I had a great coffee maker, and I had um um like um it's it was called the Coleman uh petrol stove, and it worked from petrol in the uh fuel tank gas, if you like. So that was for me was great, and I had a little mocha coffee maker on the top of the stove, and I was happy. And um, yeah, I could I could survive for a long time with that, and of course, yeah, exactly. Um, and these days, of course, now well, we have to have everything, don't we?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I suppose, yeah. I mean, I mean, listen, you give me you you can still be a comfort camper.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_02You can still, I mean, I know I know I am. I'm a comfort camper, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I have to be now, I'll tell you. I mean, I just yeah, I I I complain at the moment's notice.
SPEAKER_02I used to go to bicycle fest festivals back in the uh 90s. And at those bicycle festivals it was all camping. Yeah, of course. You know, and I would bring I would bring a cot, I would have a I had a separate uh cooking tent. I had uh I had quite a sep people would come to visit just to see my site. Oh, right. It would take me like three hours to set up. You were doing it civilized. I was I was being civilized. Yeah. You do you know how many miles you you've ridden based on all those trips? Have you ever kept track?
SPEAKER_00No. I did uh well I know I did 17,000 flying hours in my logbooks, because of course the logbooks, I've got seven logbooks, I think, something like that. Um, of all the flights that I did. Yeah. Um I worked for 20, no, I worked for 12 companies, which sounds like a lot, but it was I never had a plan. And in fact, at the end of my last flight was into Miami, um, Miami International for DHL cargo, and I shut down the 757 on the ramp, and I just thought I'll do a quick um selfie um, you know, home to my wife to say, darling, you know, I've just finished, I'm on the ramp here, and um just shut the airplane down, I'm on my way home, kind of thing. And I looked around, I said, I've you know, I've flown for you know 17,000 hours, um, 12 companies, and uh over a hundred countries. And I came back and she said, You never went to a hundred countries. I said, Okay, I'll count them up. And I counted them up, and there were only 94. Oh, yeah, so she was right, she was right. But as for motorcycling miles, these days I don't do as much as I should. Um, I would say something, it's under 100,000 miles, which sounds pathetic in 50 years. Yeah, but you know, I mean Hey, any ride is a good ride. It doesn't matter how long it's exactly, you know exactly.
SPEAKER_02For the listeners, 17,000 hours equals 708 days.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a lot. It seems a lot. Yes, it's stuck in an aluminium tube, it is pretty much.
SPEAKER_02Um along your travels, what be it airline or motorcycle, specifically motorcycle, yeah. You've met a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is anybody that stands out?
SPEAKER_00Snoop Dog. Oh, really? Snoop, yeah, yeah, yeah. I flew Snoop. Um, when was that? That was about 2013, I think. I was flying a private jet. Okay. Uh a big one, a really big one, round Europe. And we they they said to me, oh, they said um get to get yourself to Lisbon quickly. We're sending the jet there, and then pick up the customer, the client, and then you're gonna fly him round Europe. I said, Okay, fine. So I dashed across Europe. I got to Lisbon in Portugal, um, for the uh private jet airline. And I said, Who's the who's the c was the client? And the rest of the crew said, Oh, you don't know? I said, No, I don't know. They said, It's Snoop Doc. I said, Who's that? You don't know who he is? I said, No, I haven't a clue. The only thing I know is that that Woodstock character on the Charlie Brown. No, no, no, not Snoopy. Snoop Dogg. I went, okay. Anyway, this tall black dude came on board who's like as tall as a basketball player, and he was the sweetest, nicest person we ever flew. Oh, really? Honestly, Ted, he was just the best. Oh, wow. And we flew in for a week, we had him on board for a week. He was going around um Europe, we went to the south of France, we went to um places. Oh, and we ended up in Greece, and we went to Switzerland. We ended up dropping him off at Mykonos in Greece, and he was going around all the clubs doing his um doing his gigs late at night, you know. And um, but Snoop Dogg, he was our favourite ever VIP passenger on board. And he was just so sweet. And do you know what? I actually I had to turn him down one time. We were in the south of France, and and um he said he was getting off the jet, and he said, Hey Cap, you know, come and have a photograph, and we're you know, arms around uh the um you know the the crew, etc. And we're having photographs taken with it. He said, Captain, he said, why don't you come out with me and my guys tonight in uh in Nice, south of France? We'll do the French Riviera. I can't do his accent, I'm afraid. He said, We're gonna have a great night out, and the crew are watching me, and I said, Snoop, I'm sorry, man. I said, We gotta go, we've got another flight to do. And then the crew are going, No, you just said no to Snoop got out for a night. I'm going, I can't tech. I can't make the aircraft go tech, you know? Yeah. Oh man, yeah. So yeah, the turn the day I had to turn Snoop down, but he was such a lovely guy, really. And you know what? At the end of that trip, I said to my daughter, I said, You meet me in Mykonos, I've got an empty, empty private jet, and I'll take you to Corsica for the weekend across you know across Europe, like you do. Because she could do those kind of things with private jets. And um, so she met me in Mykonos and she said, Where is he? Where is he? I said, He's gone. She said, I wanted to see Snoop. I said, He's not gonna wait for you, honey. We've got to go. Wow. Yeah, so she I said you would take Snoop's private jet to Corsica and we did.
SPEAKER_02That's interesting. Oh interesting. Wow, yeah, yeah. Now all of this is a buzz, all this traveling, yeah, even with the motorcycles and all that. Yes. How how has that changed you over the years?
SPEAKER_00Oh well, actually, it's it's kind of kept me young thinking, I think. I mean there's that thing like um you've got the hereditary age and you've got the biological age. Yes. And I'm uh you know, I'm a 60-something boomer, but do you know what in my in my head I'm still 23? Yes, and you are as well, Ted. Yeah, oh absolutely. I can tell. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, it's so you know, it's so easy to click with somebody who you know is thinking the same way, and um, and that's what it is, and I think it's travel. Travel broadens the mind and exposes you to so many different uh events, people, places, and uh situations, and after a while you can kind of deal with it. Yeah, um, the funny thing is, I don't miss flying at all. I did it for 40 years and I thought I would. Um, but you know, when you're when you're a commercial pilot or a professional aviator, there is a background level of stress which you never really get rid of until you finally you know shut the plane down for the last time and walk away, as I did in Miami, and and didn't look back. And I loved flying. I loved the I love the 757, was my favorite airplane. That 757 that Boeing built, you know, it was designed by guys who drove to work in Seattle in V8 powered automobiles in the 70s, and they designed an airplane with too much power and with incredible performance, and it would stop on a dime, as you guys would say, and um you know it had so much power, wonderful airplane, and it they're still flying today, yeah, and they're what 50 years old or something, the 757, 757. And I used to train guys who'd come from the Airbus and they would come onto the simulator in Paris, and I was doing some training, and they say, Oh, we're going to fly the 757, this old donkey. And I said, Yeah, okay, let's get in and we'll fly, gentlemen. Of course, they'd done all the course, but they'd never actually flown the airplane, and this is they're gonna fly the simulator, not even the real plane, but the performance is just astonishing. And as they took off, you could see it as they pulled the stick back, and this this thing rushed skywards like a rocket, and and they were, oh my god, what's happening? I say, Yeah, welcome to the 57 Chevy, because this thing really motors. Wow, and it did, and it's an astonishing airplane, and I just wish that you know, Boeing killed it too early, yeah, and you know, that's another story, yeah. But um, yeah, you know, and so they're just a fabulous machine.
SPEAKER_02I I get that you miss it.
SPEAKER_00I kinda do, but you know what? I don't really, because that level of background stress has gone completely. And after about six months, I woke up in my own bed with my wife, and and I said, Dani, you know, that's the best night's sleep I've had for 40 years. And she said, Are you kidding me? I think no seriously, that is the best night's sleep I've had for 40 years, honestly. When I look back down the years, the decades, cheapest. I lost a lot of sleep, man. You know, but there you go.
SPEAKER_02But but didn't motorcycling kind of bring that calm back to you though, in between exactly.
SPEAKER_00It was a kind of a de-stress mechanism. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean that people say motorcycling is dangerous. Well, I tell you, Ted, I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in January 2022. And then, yeah, right. And when, and I said to the doc, I said, Okay, I said, and I'm I'm not afraid of bad news. Uh but give me bad news if you have to, kind of thing. Early 2022, I'd retired about three months earlier. Okay, and I said to the doc, I said, give me the bad news.
SPEAKER_02I mean, congratulations, you retired. Here's birthday cancer.
SPEAKER_00There you go. Life expectancy, what can I expect? I won't hold you to it, but what do you think? He said, Well, he said three to ten years, and I'm thinking, three, three, I mean, it's it's end of life time, you know. And I'm thinking, oh MG, I better put my affairs in order. So, um, but then do you know what? Motorcycling is not dangerous after that. No, no, it's not because if you've got only a few years to live, you think, holy crap, I better get out there and ride. Yeah, and and I um fortunately I had a brand new Harley Davidson Fat Boy, which is still in my garage, and I love it to bits, and I'll never sell it. It'll be the last bike I ever own, and I will only ever sell it when I can't lift it anymore or stand and ride it. You know the way it is. That's the way I'm thinking. Well, wind the clock forward because the good news is I received fabulous medical treatment. I did two years of intensive drug therapy, um, I did um a huge uh radiation therapy program, and um I am pleased to say that I am symptom-free these days, which is um a huge um testament to the quality of medical care that's available in this country.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful, excellent. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. So now I yeah, yesterday I had my PSA undetectable uh confirmed again.
SPEAKER_02So that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00What I would say, Ted, is if you're over the age of 50 and you're male, get your PSA tested. Because I never did and I never realized how important it was. And my wife, in fact, I tell you what, Ted, I I I dedicated um our last aviation book I wrote, which was called This One. How to steal a jet. How to steal a jet. Yeah. As I say to people, I said, don't take it as an instruction manual. I said, and if and if you get caught stealing a plane, it's not it's not on me, it's down to you. All right, yeah. I dedicated that book to her, Rosemary, because she is the wife who saved my life. Because at the end of my flying career, she said, now you're gonna get a proper medical because I've been cutting corners. And I said, Okay, I'll go for a proper medical. I went for a proper medical in Virginia and they did a whole rack of blood tests. I'd never seen so many blood tests. I said, What's this? What's that? They said, You've got an elevated PSA. I said, What's that? Yeah, they said, PSA is important, it can indicate possibility of prostate cancer. I said, Really? Can it? I didn't know. Oh, dumbass. What a dumbass. So, so they they tested again, then I went for a consultation, I went for an MRI, then I went for a biopsy, then a bone scan, nuclear bone scan, CT ski, yeah, all the scans, and man, it was out of the prostate, and I had two tumors in my pelvis, and it was just about to break into what they call metastatic cancer. Now, when I was a nurse, I watched a lot of little old guys in their 60s and 70s die very quickly from prostate cancer because the treatment wasn't there. Now, and I and I was terrified, Ted, and I was in a bad way emotionally for quite a while about this diagnosis. And then I met a fabulous oncologist who's in her 40s, and she and the rest of the people in the Florida cancer specialists here um did an amazing job. Wow, there we are. Glad it all worked out for you.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I'm fired on all cylinders. And recently I said to the doctor, I said to another doctor, I said, How many years life expedience? He said, Oh, 15 plus. 15 years plus. I'm thinking I like you better than the first one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Of course. And the last time I asked, they said, You're gonna die of something else. Give it up, you know, so don't keep asking. Awesome, excellent. Well, that's good to hear. There you go.
SPEAKER_02So, what do you hope your readers will take away from your book, uh, Around the World in 40 motorcycles?
SPEAKER_00Well, I hope it makes them smile. Good. Uh that's the first thing. I hope it amuses them because um I've had so much fun. So much fun and and uh lucky escapes and hilarity, yeah, you know, um, with motorcycling and the people I've met and the situations I've been involved in, etc. Um, touch wood, I I've never um I I've lost friends through motorcycling, and that's that's tragic. And and and I touch on that in the book. There's a there's a a chapter towards the end um entitled Gary Shovelhead, where you you can imagine what motorcycle he owned.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So um and Gary was a New Yorker, and uh I knew him for a year, um, and then he died, God bless him, um on the fifth fairway on the golf course. What? So Ted golf's a game dangerous game.
SPEAKER_02It is, it's more dangerous than motorcycling, apparently.
SPEAKER_00It was for Gary. Wow, yeah, he had a heart attack. And um yeah, and that that's it. So you can get taken away. Yeah, so it's um it's one of those things. There you go. So what's which I hope that people smile and I hope they learn uh learn quite a lot, and I hope also that they um it encourages young people to start motorcycling because if they don't, we're dinosaurs, Ted. You and me, you know, yeah, we're the last generation.
SPEAKER_02I hear I hear that a lot.
SPEAKER_00And we must we must try and encourage the next generation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, get right. It's there's nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_00We need to tell them that that only a motorcyclist knows why a dog sticks its head out of a car window.
SPEAKER_02Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00You know, and they've got to click onto that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's that freedom that it's hard to explain to somebody it really, because I've I've been in a situation where you have to get somebody who doesn't ride a motorcycle, they only drive cars. Yeah. That explained to them what it is about the two wheels that that that draws you to it, that wants you to and it's hard to explain that to somebody who doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00Except once it gets in the bloodstream, yeah, you'll never get rid of it.
SPEAKER_02That's right, you know, and and you can say all the cliches, oh, it's the freedom, oh, it's the wind in your hair, or lack of, whatever. Yeah, and it's just the you know, and it it just those descriptions just don't do it justice.
SPEAKER_00I agree, I agree. And you know there are so many parallels. I you said it on your podcast before now, there's quite a lot of parallels between flying and biking, because with both of them you've got a bank to go around corners. Yeah, you know, that's just the start.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can't turn flat.
SPEAKER_00You can't turn flat, not easily. No, it feels wrong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. So, what's next for you?
SPEAKER_00Well, um, I'm looking forward to going um to France with my brother and an old buddy, and we're gonna do just uh good old-fashioned um World War II battlefields tour, etc. Oh, that's how you went with the motorcycle. It's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_02You're gonna ride motorcycles?
SPEAKER_00Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah. No, we're going over on the ferry. Um, and uh we go the take the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Cannes, which is of course just near the Normandy beaches. Yeah and uh I visited the Normandy beaches uh a couple of times before. One of the saddest places in the world is the uh cemetery for the American forces. There's something like 9,000 um 9,000 graves there, Ted. And the saddest part about it was they were all in their you know, 19, 20, 21, and they all died on the same day. Wow, you know, and it's it's a place where you just stand there and cry. You know, it's um it's an incredible experience, anyway. So, but moving on, we'll be um going with I'm going to take the Jacati naked bike. Um, and um my brother's got his new Honda C B thousand. Um Ashley's on his um BMW GS 1350 super bike thingy, yeah. And we'll we'll be fine. Um, we're gonna go and do you know, three old guys um you know, sorry I'm just waiting.
SPEAKER_02Hold on, back up a second. Yeah, you're gonna be riding a Ducati.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Is that your Ducati?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I kept it in the UK. Oh, it's oh you did? Oh, okay. You see, when when I met my current wife, the um current Mrs. McBride, who's the last the last one, basically um third times a charm test, let me tell you. So um when I met her, she said, How many motorcycles have you got? I said, Oh, I think I've got eight. She said, I think nine would be too many. I said, Well, I quite like you, actually. So one by one, um, they've gone, and I'm now down to three. So um I have a Jucati Urban Enduro still in the UK, and I found it difficult. I couldn't sell it because it looks so pretty. And um honestly, um the uh the Jucati, you know, I I the chapter in the book is called If Looks Could Kill. Yeah, and if looks could kill, you'd be dead looking at that motorbike because it's just every angle, it's just photogenic and aesthetically pleasing, and they did such a good job with it. And riding it, it's not the easiest or nicest one to ride, you know, but it doesn't matter because you know you think to yourself, I look so good on this.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's funny.
SPEAKER_00So it's great, and it makes a wonderful sound from that V-twin engine. You know the way the V-twin engines sound, yeah, they're good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know what it is the Ducati is the Harley Davidson of Europe.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. There you go. You know, there you go.
SPEAKER_02A lot of people don't want to admit that, but that's the truth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there are a lot of parallels with with the uh the companies, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. How can people learn more about you and your book?
SPEAKER_00Oh, um, well, uh look on Amazon, it's on the on Amazon, of course. My books are all on there, and the book's called Around the World in Forty Motorcycles. Um, and basically I tell people, I said, I've been writing the book for over 20 years in my head. I finally got it down this year and uh put it out there, and it's like 47 years of um life lessons and love affairs, happiness and heartbreak. And it's all from an honest perspective of um a guy who loves to ride motorcycles. Yeah, um, but there you go.
SPEAKER_02All right. Any closing words about the the trips that you've taken and encouraging others to get out there?
SPEAKER_00I would say if you've ever just thought about it, you need to get along. And uh if you're in the US, of course, you should go to your local high dealer and go and kick a few tires and wander around and ask about rider training. If you've not if you've not done it, go and get the training first. And there are some great people there who will help you with the training, and they'll of course help you uh to uh purchase a motorcycle. Excellent.
SPEAKER_02All right, now I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you with 10 rapid fire questions.
SPEAKER_00Now I've got my I've got my coffee here in the V Twin Cafe. And you're enjoying enjoying it very much.
SPEAKER_02Good. All right, you ready for your 10 rapid fire questions?
SPEAKER_00Of course. You shoot right away right away.
SPEAKER_02Number one, first motorcycle you ever owned.
SPEAKER_00First motorcycle I ever owned was the um you call it the MZ, but it's the MZ125 TS Alpine, which was rather a large grand title for um uh a glorified scooter with 10 horsepower.
SPEAKER_0210 horsepower? Only 10. I think my dog has more than that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I sure I'm sure it has, yeah. That's right.
SPEAKER_02Number two, favorite country to ride through.
SPEAKER_00Favorite country. Um I would say the United States.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I tell you why, because there is so much diverse um environment and riding, and and all the roads, do you know the roads are great in this country compared to other places I've been, you know, uh Albania, for example, Romania, um, Greece, God bless some Turkey. I mean, you go down the other end of the Mediterranean and you'll find some dodgy roads there. And of course, then out to the Far East. I mean, you know, don't even talk about it. But but America, we take it so much for granted that um, you know, we have building codes, regulations, um, law and order. We have the choice, we have climate choice, we have environmental choice to live. And the road system is amazing, yeah, absolutely stunning. True, you know, really. Um, and I I I love it. So to ride in the USA, and of course, to ride a Harley in the USA for me is a dream come true, Ted. Oh, good. I never thought. I'd be, you know, to this stage in my life, I never thought I would be so happy and so lucky, and I am.
SPEAKER_02Well, there you go. Number three most unexpected delicious food you've had.
SPEAKER_00Um, I think the cinnamon roll in the um cinnamon roll in the um the V Twing Cafe is absolutely delightful. They warmed it up for me, and I'm so grateful grateful. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh number four, best motorcycle from all the 40 you've ridden.
SPEAKER_00Best. Wow. Best. Um best, best, best.
SPEAKER_02I think you're leaning towards the Ducati. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, do you know the Ducati stole my heart, but then I was in love with Ruby. Ruby, the red Harley Davidson Ultra Electroglide Ultra, um, with a 110 cubic inch engine, the CVO model, with those stars on the lever seat. That was the comfiest seat I ever sat on a motorcycle by far. And there's a you there's a YouTube video on my um YouTube on my website, a YouTube channel, etc. And it's called um uh Ruby Goes to London. If you look at look up Ruby Goes to London and um and I put the cameras on the bike and I went to London from uh Nice, south of France. But that motorcycle was just gorgeous, and that's what influenced me later on, and only uh a year or so ago, I managed to pick up um a nice road glide here, a road glide special. Because I because I ride with the hog out of Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay, um the old town chapter, they are just fabulous people, yeah and I love them to bits, and um and they've been so welcoming and you know you know your way. I mean, when you're trying to find people to ride with, okay, get out and ride and meet people, and you meet people and you you exchange details and the rest. But if you ride with a club and you ride regularly, then you get to know people properly, and they they get to know you, yeah. And there's that brotherhood and there's that comradeship, which the camaraderie is fabulous. Oh, absolutely. And they oh yeah, they ride a lot, these guys. I mean, they ride three times a week, um, you know, every every weekday, uh every weekend, and a Tuesday night dinner ride as well. Um, I can barely keep up with them. But the nice thing is they are so disciplined. There's a lot of ex-military, um and a lot of senior people there, and they're very disciplined, very safe. Yeah, and uh that's that's the reason I ride with them. I mean, they and they are just such characters, yeah, really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, most uh number five, most challenging terrain you've ever faced riding.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's gotta be the upper Mustang Valley, um Low Man Tang. We rode up to the Chinese border on the Tibetan plateau, and that was 17,000 feet above sea level. Yikes, I think something like that. I mean, you could you could walking, you were out of breath. Yeah, I didn't try running. No, I mean, you know, it was it was a breathless experience, but you know what? The the scenery was as breathtaking. Um, but the terrain riding with a Royal Enfield bullet, um, it was the uh it was called the Jeep Road up to Loman Tang, which was before 1992, I think it was uh westerners, no foreigners were allowed in the valley at all, um, which is why it was called the Forbidden Kingdom. Oh, no kidding, and it was the kingdom of low. Oh and we rode up to Loman Tang, and to to um experience that on a motorcycle was just the best. Wow, but okay, it comes with it, it comes with the price, and fortunately, fortunately, I I rode a bit with a very uh strong uh ride riding suit and good helmet and gloves and stuff and boots, and it's all in the book, etc. But um uh on I think day five I felt like the crash test dummy because I'd fallen off about three times. Seriously, man. I could not believe it. Everything was loose, loose gravel, you know, as well as. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh I mean, that'll do you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and the drop, I mean, I can't stand heights, which is a bit strange for an airline pilot. Yeah, but I couldn't stand heights, and we were riding right next to the edge of these you know, precipices and cliffs, and I was just thinking, if we go off here, there's nothing gonna stop you.
SPEAKER_02And you're at 17,000 feet?
SPEAKER_00No, well, that's that was the highest we went up to the um the Tibetan plateau. Yeah, it may not be 17, it may be 16, I can't quite remember, but I know it was high, and it was very thin. I mean, bear in mind above 10,000 feet um, you know, um cabin altitude with an airliner, you have the uh altitude warning comes on, and above 14,000 feet the um oxygen mass drop down in the cabin for the passengers. So so yeah, so you've lost the pressurization of the plane. Well, we were above that, we were 16,000 feet, 17, I can't remember now, but it was very high. And on that trip as well, we did the deepest gorge in the world, which is the valley in between Anapurna, the mountain, and Dalgiri. Um, and it's like super deep. I mean, it makes the Grand Canyon look like a small river.
SPEAKER_02No way, really. Oh, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Anyway, anyway.
SPEAKER_02Um a tool or item you refuse to travel without.
SPEAKER_00Oh, um a tool or item I refuse to travel without. That's a good one. Um I have a little tiny flashlight, which I carry with me everywhere I go. I recharges tiny with the LED, and you put it on and you know you've got light. I know you can get it from your phone, but your phone battery dies sometimes, etc. And trying to find the the button when you're an old geezer like me takes a while. But but you know, that little tiny flashlight, I always have it with me.
SPEAKER_02You know what? You can you can never underestimate the power and wonderfulness of a flashlight.
SPEAKER_00There you go. I'm telling you. We call it a torch.
SPEAKER_02Torch, yes, that's right. It's correct. You guys call it a torch.
SPEAKER_00I always carry a torch.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And it's funny, a lot of people you say you carry a torch, and we go like, you mean like one of those ones you're going through a cave with? That's what people think. I know what you're talking about. Number seven, country with the friendliest people.
SPEAKER_00Friendliest people. Wow. You've got to say America. Oh, okay. Yeah, honestly. Honestly, man, and I know you kind of take it for granted, but the openness of people in the United States has always uh been a wonder for me. And most recently I'm in the process of trying to obtain citizenship, and it would be a um fulfilling a a dream to be able to do that. I mean, the the openness of people in the USA is phenomenal. And I understand that there's all sorts of political divides and all sorts of um other other things go on in society in the states these days, but you know, Americans have always got more in common with each other than they have to argue about. And what amazes me is this is the richest, most powerful nation in the world, and you've done it in only 250 years. And there's the thing, and guys, you know, just stunning, absolutely stunning, really. You know, thank you. Thank you. No, seriously, I I I'm you know, I'm a big big fan.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad you are, I really am glad you are.
SPEAKER_00No, seriously. And and bear in mind, Ted, I have flown. Well, according to my wife, I've only flown to 94 countries, and I've been all over the world and I've lived in a lot of countries, and man, there's a lot of shitty places out there. Yeah, and this ain't this ain't one of them. I bet. Yeah. This country is tops. Oh, absolutely tops. I think that's great.
SPEAKER_02And um you're welcome.
SPEAKER_00You know, thank you, sir. Um appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Number eight, most beautiful sunrise or sunset location.
SPEAKER_00Whoa, that's gotta be uh for me, that's gotta be Greece, Greek Islands. Let's go with Santorini.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, some going down over Santorini, man. You're gonna find that one hard to beat. Wow. And look for the green flash. You know, the green flash.
SPEAKER_02A lot of people don't know what that is. All right. We'll let them hang. We'll let them hang. There you go.
SPEAKER_00Just Google it.
SPEAKER_02The green flash, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I've seen it twice. I've seen it. I've seen it twice. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have seen it.
SPEAKER_00And and when you see it, you think, did I?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or didn't I? Did I? I'm not sure. But then you think, yeah, it was there. I've seen it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh number nine. This one's gonna be tough. All right. A bike you wish you had kept.
SPEAKER_00Uh my Athens Beach bike. Yeah, XL Honda XL 500R. You know, I found that bike in the street. Did you really? That sounds a bit weird, I know, but yeah. It was honestly, it was gonna be it was gonna be trashed. It was gonna be scrapped. It was by the uh by the garbage cans, by the bins in the street in Athens, in Greece. Um what yeah, was it 2012? 2012 it was, and I said to my son, Lawrence, I said, come on, give me a hand, let's get this bike into the garage. Right. Dad, you can't steal the bike. I said, I'm not stealing it, Lawrence. I'm saving it. I'm saving it. Come on, get with the program. He's like, Oh, the brakes brakes are seized, come on, push, push, push. XL 500R10. And um, you remember it was uh what 1982 it was big, big long suspension, long travel suspension, single cylinder, four-stroke thumper. Yeah, no electric start, just a kick start, and I rebuilt that motorcycle, I think twice eventually, um uh and with a frame up restoration, and I got all the bits from eBay, of course, like you do. Yeah, of course. And um, and I got a buddy of mine to bring the engine in his um hold baggage and and in the uh aeroplane on the flight from the UK. I got an Honda FT500 engine because it was a lot better. Anyway, so I put that in the bike and um rebuilt it, and I used to use it as my daily transport and to go to the beaches in Athens and Greece, and I used it all the time, and it was just such a joy to ride because how they could make a single cylinder engine which should have so many vibrations, but they had the balance shaft mechanism, yeah, which took them all away. And I was like a stone. Uh wow, this is incredible! And they Honda built it because the XT500 Yamaha was so successful and won the Paris Dakar rally, etc. And Honda thought, my god, we need some of this. I can't say that in Japanese, but you know, they must have thought we need to get on the bandwagon, and they rushed they rushed the development of the XL500, but it was a fabulous bike, it was a thumper. I found one in Athens in Greece. I used to use it regularly around town, and uh and it was just the best. But eventually I left Greece and came to the USA, and I thought the bike's gotta go. And and um, there'd always been a situation, should we say, with the registration of that motorcycle, which was should we say, not entirely proper. And and the Greeks wouldn't like, they were okay with it because they're very relaxed about stuff. Being in Greece a little bit like being in the Wild West back in the 1800s, I should think. Anyway, so um, and I thought uh I could never really solve the registration problem. How shall I get rid of this motorcycle? I know, I'll leave it in the street, like I found.
SPEAKER_02No way, did you really?
SPEAKER_00No, I did. I have one morning before dawn, Ted, I pushed it out from our apartment in Athens, southern Athens, and I pushed it out. I left it next to the bins, okay, uh, with a full tank of fuel, with the key in the ignition, all right, and it was there ready, it was on it was on the kick, one kick, it would have gone. There was no registration on it, obviously. But I bet that bike now is still running around Athens.
SPEAKER_02That is fine.
SPEAKER_00Wow, and I it went from me as I found it, and it was absolutely perfect. All the lights worked, everything, and it was just the best machine, man. So it was a great one.
SPEAKER_02So essentially you gave it away.
SPEAKER_00I did, but then I it was gifted to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, that's true. So that's true.
SPEAKER_00Try to pay it forward, that's what you do in life. That's good. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, now uh number 10, last one. One word that you would use to describe your around the world in 40 motorcycles.
SPEAKER_00One word. Wow. Um I stumped you. Yeah, you got me thinking. I'm looking at the book now, uh looking the way through it. I mean, um, experience.
SPEAKER_02Okay. That's good. That'll work. That'll work. Yeah. Yeah. That'll work. Listen, James, listen, I want to thank you very much for being on the podcast. You've been absolutely a joy to speak to. It's been actually a pleasure. Absolute pleasure.
SPEAKER_00It's been a pleasure to talk to you, my friend.
SPEAKER_02And it's it's good that we, you know, you know, we strayed, even though we strayed from motorcycling, and you know, that was great though. It was good to good to talk to you. I really appreciate it. All right. Uh, so listen, thank you very much for being on the show. Don't go anywhere. I want to talk to you when we're done. But uh thanks again for being here.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. Really enjoyed it. And the and the V Twin Cafe, they've done us proud this morning.
SPEAKER_02Talk to you soon. All right, thanks for joining me and James McBride here in the V Twin Cafe, where we talked about his trips that he took and rode 40 separate motorcycles around the world. We're going to talk about the miles, the machines, and the memories that shaped that whole thing. James's journey is a reminder of why we ride. Discovery, connection, and the thrill of the unknown. Hey, listen, if you want to support the podcast, get on over to our website at motomenpc.com, and there's a link to buy us a coffee or a pizza or whatever you want. And you can listen, you can also sign up on our mailing list there, and we'll let you know in advance when the next episode is coming. Hey, check out some of the videos on the Ride with Ted YouTube channel. I've got some more videos coming. They're just slow to happen. So, but they are out there. Hey, uh, the Motorcycle Podcasters Challenge is winding down. We are in the last week. So get on over to Motopod Challenge to see the stats and see what's going on. Great stuff is happening. Everybody's digging it really good. Alright, and you can also get a copy of my book, The Road Most Traveled, on the Motorcycle Men website at motomenpc.com. To save yourself a little eight bucks. And if that's good, do it. If you do it, I'll sign it for you. Alright, boys and girls, that's it for now. Thanks again for joining us here on episode 485. Fifteen more to go to the big 500. Thanks for joining us. And remember, boys and girls, we say stupid crap, so you don't have to. That's it.
