Ep. 1165: Endurance Motorcyclist Wendy Crockett

You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Thanks for adventuring with us as we

discover what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world.

Now here's your host, Kurt Linville.

Hey friends, welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Today is Monday, January the 12th.

It matters because I'm talking to you from the past.

Right now, as you're listening to this, I am somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean or the

African continent. In an airplane, flying to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro. Super excited

about that. I am pre-posting this episode so that the Adventure Sports Podcast can continue

to roll while I am out of the country. So we're going to keep on posting episodes. And

I also am going to have a couple of episodes that are from the Backpacking and Blisters

podcast. They're going to guest host for the Adventure Sports Podcast while I'm out.

So that'll be a lot of fun. Those guys are hilarious. And upon my return, I'm going

to put together an episode that features all the climbers that are on Kilimanjaro and

will give you a bit of a play by play about that trip. So really looking forward to all

of that. Thank you so much for your thoughts and support as we climb Kilimanjaro now on

with the episode. Hi friends. Thanks for joining the Adventure Sports Podcast today. This

show is going to be so much fun. I can already tell Wendy Crockett and I have been just

talking before we hit record. I finally said we have to hit record. This is too good. So

we're just having fun swapping motorcycle stories. Wendy Crockett holds a Guinness World

Record for the longest distance covered in a single ride in a single country. She also

has one of the Iron Butt Rally at least once. I'm going to have to talk about that because

I saw different sources citing different numbers. But anyway, that's a 11 day, 11,000 mile

rally. She is a endurance motorcycle rider. She is a motorcycle mechanic. She actually owns

her own motorcycle shop and she has been all around the world. It's going to be a lot of fun

to talk about her unique approach to enjoying motorcycles. Wendy, welcome to the Adventure

Sports Podcast. Thanks for having me Curtis. So Wendy, where are you right now? Just because

I think it's fun. I am in August Caliente, Mexico. Two days ago, I was in Santa Cruz, California.

So that's that's one of the hidden superpowers of people that do long distances is like

and just say yes. And then 2000 on the bike and go. Yeah, most people, when they think

of Mexico, they think about the airplane, not the motor. Right. So there is so much beauty

in Mexico. So many incredible things to see riding through here. I just if I possibly

can ride, I will. Oh, that's fantastic. And what's home base for you? Home base is Rapid

City, South Dakota and the black hills. And the riding and the black hills, I've seen,

I've seen videos and pictures and it just looks like so much fun. It's really, it's

a nice secret that we have up there. A lot of people when they think of South Dakota,

they think of the open prairies. And we definitely have a lot of that. But the black hills are

just fantastic for motorcycles, bicycles, hiking. It's, yeah, it's a great place to be.

I've been there a couple of, no, I guess three times at least and but never on a motorcycle.

Every time I was there, you know, you're in those nice, beautiful switchbacks, curving

around the, the small mountains, you know, and I just think, wow, this would be so fun.

So much fun. Absolutely. Perfectly designed for motorcycles. Even though it probably wasn't

right? I think that's one of the things about motorcycles is we're always riding on a surface

that wasn't really designed for a motorcycle. But motorcycles are just so versatile.

Yeah, absolutely. How did you get into motorcycles? I mean, there's so much to cover here.

We're going to have to zero in on something. But just tell us the story. When did you start

riding and why? So I get that question a lot. And I think the most honest answer is I was

just born this way. Like I did not come from a riding family. Nobody in my family owned

a motorcycle. And I just from a very young age, like junior high school, I would see motorcycles

and they just spoke to my soul. Like that is the way that is meant for me. And of course,

my mom said over her dead body. So I turned 18 and moved out and started my motorcycles.

Well, my dad was not really a fan of me having a motorcycle, but he gave in. And I ended

up starting. I guess I was 12 years old when I started riding. And I probably put 10,000

hours on my little Yamaha Enduro 100 before I turned 18. I just rode it non-stop. I absolutely,

I'm just like you. From the very first time I saw a motorcycle, I just thought I've got to do

that. So anyway, I understand where you're coming from. That's awesome. Yeah, it's just really fun.

It's such a visceral way to interact with the world. There's just very little else like it.

Oh, that's so true. You've probably seen this. And I'm sure listeners have probably seen this too,

but there's an ad out there where they start it by saying cars lie to us, but motorcycles tell

the truth. Have you heard that? I haven't heard that one. I heard another one that was saying riding,

driving in a car is like watching a movie and riding motorcycles like being in the movie.

And that's a really good accurate descriptor as well. Well, why do you love it so much?

I think a big part of it is I ride solo is another aspect of that. So there is something about

exposing yourself that way to the elements, to the dance of the road, to the animals, the smells,

the people, especially when you are riding solo. People really feel free to approach you in a way

that you kind of don't. You know, the more friends you have with you, you kind of create this little

bubble and that you're in your bubble that is separate from the world around you. But it's a solo

traveler. People are really fascinated. You know, did you ride this here? Where are you coming from?

Where are you headed? Let me tell you what is great about my town or my country or my village.

So it's a very, very unique way to experience a country. And I think every new set of wheels you add

to creates kind of this bigger bubble around you. So motorcycles, bicycles, walking are incredible.

And then cars and buses and everything else are just one more step removed from that magic.

It really is true. I think when we're in cars, people even have different personalities when they

drive cars. Have you noticed that? Absolutely. But on a motorcycle, you kind of have to be real. I mean,

you are out there. You could use the word exposed, but I prefer available, you know, approachable.

Right. And it's just just so much more, so much more real. You're not hiding behind a wind

shield or a ton or more of glass and steel, you know? Right. So here's another aspect that I think

is super cool. And I want you to come in on this. In a car, I feel like I'm sitting in something

and it's doing something and I'm just kind of in it. Right. But on the motorcycle, I mean,

it's almost weird. I pet my motorcycle. I hate to admit that. But it feels like it's a part of

me or it's alive. And when you're riding it, the whole motorcycle has to move and shift with you.

You're like one thing, not like I'm something in a car on a motorcycle. I feel like you kind of

become one with a machine. And we anthropomorphize that. I know I've talked to so many motorcycles

Oh, yeah, I named mine such and such and you know, and what is it about motorcycles that they

almost feel like they're a part of it? It is. I think definitely it's much more of an extension

of your body. And the more I ride, the more car sick I get because I am so used to that motion,

that sway, you know, completely present and interactive with that ride in a way that we're just

not in a four-wheeled vehicle. So it's definitely for me, it feels like when you hear people

describe when they're on Riddlin, how, you know, it just kind of slows everything else down and

you just have this pinpoint that you can focus on quietly. And that's what motorcycles are for

me. All of that background noise of life fades away and you're just present right there in that

moment, just fully engaged with the ride. Wow. Well, I have not done anything like the

distance of done. And that's a unique approach to motorcycles. A lot of people like to tour,

but the idea of being on a motorcycle for, I mean, a dozen hours, maybe two dozen hours,

you just go and go and go and go and go. So you're an endurance rider. Tell us what that's about.

The endurance riding, the kind of base entry level to be considered a member of the Iron

Buet Association, which is a group that oversees the sport of safe long distance riding, is a

thousand miles or 1,610 kilometers in 24 hours. So if you are on high speed highways and you're

keeping an average of say 70 miles an hour, it's less than 15 hours of riding. So it's not

really, really time-consuming. People immediately, their approach is like, that's not even

mathematically possible. Now it's really possible, as long as you're not fooling around a lot when

you're stopping, things like that. But there's also people that do a thousand miles, 24 hours on

dirt bikes, or they plan scavenger hunt type events. So you are gathering points by visiting places

and documenting doing things, whether you're needing to go visit a nudist colony and

take a picture of yourself and your riding gear in the hot tub, or take a tour of a museum and

catch a picture of a certain exhibit. So that adds kind of this silly fun treasure hunt element to

the sport that really makes it easy to go just one more, just a few more miles down the road.

Oh, that's fun. Before we hit record, I was relating to you that I'm on a DRZ 400 and they're

notorious for having very uncomfortable seats. And I mean, if I get it, I'm usually off-road.

I don't know what the conversion factor would be for exhaust interstress or tired, you know,

on the body compared to off-road versus the pavement. I don't know what that conversion

factor is, but there is one. But a hundred miles on my DRZ is enough. I am pushed. And my dairy

air is well past, well done by that point. So hell on earth. If you're going to be on a motorcycle

for 15 hours or more, what sort of considerations do you have to make to make sure that you can

be comfortable in some? Well, I will say the most, the best investment I have made in my rallying

motorcycle is in a custom. And I work with a company called Russell Daylong that takes your stock

seat pan and basically crafts the seat to your butt. And it is the most comfortable place in the

world for me to be sitting. My husband has a Russell Daylong, and I have a Russell Daylong,

and we both love ours, and we hate each others. Because they're made for the individual.

Exactly. They did such a good job of fitting it to each of us individually. But I, you know,

I have a tall windscreen, and that helps create a quiet calm bubble for me to sit in. I have water

on the bike so I can hydrate as I ride. And it's just a very comfortable place to be.

Wow. Well, when I do something like a hundred mile day off road, I'm in recovery the next day.

I am just exhausted. So to be fair, those seats are designed to do a different job. But in the last

few years, I've been impressed to start seeing some of the more the, you know, the stereotypical

dirt bike hard as a board seats are getting a little more comfy. I actually did the Iron

Butt Rally last year on a fresh off the showroom floor Chinese dirt bike with, with the stock seat

and everything. And I was really impressed at what a good job they did on, on making that,

that off road seat a lot more comfortable. So, huh? Well, I'm going to stretch my knowledge.

Was it a beta? It was a Zonte's. It's actually not available in the US, but they, yeah, they're

available in a lot of the rest of the world. Okay. A 703 adventure, the model that I rode.

Well, you have won the Iron Butt Rally. Okay, how many times? Because I know you've been in it many times,

but yeah. So I've been in it seven times, and I won one time. I podium several times. I also came

in third place and had some, some close finishes, but just the one win. So how do you win the

Iron Butt Rally? Explain this event to us. The Iron Butt Rally is an 11 day, 11,000 mile head-to-head

competition. And basically you show up at the starting line, the night before or the morning of

the start of the rally, depending on that year's theme, they will give you a list of bonus looking,

maybe 100. It may be 500 points on a map. They all have different point values. They all have

something that you need to do there to prove that you were there. And you need to plan the route

as efficiently as possible to get as many points as possible without missing time-limited checkpoint

window. So not everyone is doing the same route then. Everybody is planning their own route.

And so some people get in it just to finish and they want to see as many beautiful things as

possible, and they'll select their bonus locations for whatever is the most interesting things that

they want to go see. And then the people that really want to place well will completely disregard

whatever it is that they are going to see or do and just put together the highest point value

route that they can. So there's definitely something for everyone that gets into the Iron Butt

rallies. Everybody gets to the end and go, man, I'm exhausted. I'm not sure I'll do it again.

And three months later they're saying, when do I have to have my name in for the next Iron Butt

course? It's a little bit of the type too fun. So much of adventure sports is like that. But

you feel like you accomplished something. It's exhausting, but when you reflect on it in a

couple of days, it's like, wow, okay, that was cool. Yeah. And it's really the ultimate vacation,

just imagine showing up at the starting line hotel and you have no idea where you're going to be

in the next 11 days across the entire width and depth of North America. You know, you may be in

dead horse Alaska, you may be in, you know, Captain Rosé in Canada or Newfoundland or you know,

I've been in Miami in the middle of the night in the eye of a hurricane in just this eerie

calm as the only person on the road just puttering through there to a just while these wonderful

experiences out there in life that you would never ever have occasion to have outside of this

this strange pursuit. Oh, man, you have so much expertise in motorcycles. I've ridden a lot,

but I'm a real hack. Just you're the one who knows how to make it work the right way. Do you

have any tips for people for? Well, let's start with just doing a long ride. Things that you'd be

like, okay, this really matters. I would say the the first most important thing to know is there

is no right way. There's the important thing is that you get out there and do it. If this is

speaking to you and and you keep making excuses, just do it. The very best bike to have an

adventure on is whatever bike you own right now, assuming it is roadworthy. And, you know, I have

done big rides on 100 CC Chinese bikes on sidecar rigs, big bikes, small displacement bikes,

mid displacement bikes, you know, all bikes are good at something. So, you know, don't don't

hold back waiting for that mythical, perfect bike to or mode of transportation in general to

float into your life because there will always be something better down the road. They're always

being excuse. I took my Yamaha FJR, which is a sport touring bike up beyond the Arctic Circle

to a town called the Nuvik. And I returned from the trip and did a little right up on the journey.

And I had so many people on the internet saying, why did you take your FJR to a Nuvik? That is

stupid. You should have, you know, written bike ABC or D. And it's like, well, you're still sitting

behind your keyboard telling me what I did wrong. And I've been to a Nuvik. So that's exactly it.

You couldn't have said that better. Sometimes you just have to go. And I often say on this on this

program, people worry too much about the gear, whatever the sport is. And it's fun to get really

kind of be a gear head and get really techy about it. It's part of the enjoyment of a sport. But

you don't have to. And you don't have to wait to have the money for the expense of perfect thing.

Like you just said, the right thing to go out on is what you have right now. Absolutely.

That's fun. I've heard so many debates about adventure motorcycles because they're trying to bridge

the gap, you know, between comfort on the highway for long distance and still being able to get off

road without having to worry too much about the challenges that a street bike would have, you know,

in difficult dirt situations. And it seems like everyone's trying to build the perfect hybrid.

But I don't think it exists. What do you think? I entirely agree. And that's the reason I have 14

motorcycles is because they're all they're all perfect at something. They all have some fun

aspect to their personality that makes them great. But, you know, the, the, and I will readily admit

there are a lot of fantastic adventure bikes out there that far exceed. I have the weakest link

in that machine. Absolutely no question about it. But do I need an 800 pound machine

to do the type of ride that I'm enjoying? And I'm, I'm really happy to start seeing the, the industry

skewing towards more small and mid displacement bikes because I really think it opens up this type

of adventure to a whole new group of people when it's a low risk high reward situation on a,

you know, much smaller lighter bike that you can say, Hey, where does that path go?

That's a steep road up to that little village. Well, I'll check it out because worst case scenario,

this is a pretty lightweight bike if I need to pick it back up. Oh, that's fun. So just for fun,

you have a lot of motorcycles. You have a motorcycle shop. You've been doing this a long time. So,

you don't have to tell me your favorite. Okay, because that's really hard for us to sort out.

There are too many wonderful things about, about bikes. But if I name a style of trip,

a style of ride, can you say, well, here's an example of a bike that would be good for,

sir, because I think that would be good for the listeners. A lot of listeners, you know,

they, they don't ride motorcycles yet. And I'm going to say yet because I think everyone should

give it a go. It's a lot of fun. But let's say that you're a beginner and you just want to learn

to ride and you've decided not to ride on the streets yet. You're going to be riding on

back roads, dirt roads, things. So I mean, a fantastic way to start always is like the TW 200.

They are the most forgiving little bikes. That's a Yamaha with kind of fat, fat chunky tires.

And they've got enough power to get you in and out of places, very forgiving with those,

you know, the big fat tires, a nice part of your suspension system. They will just go and go and

go forever. So definitely a great starter. Okay. And what's the drawback to that, learners?

You're not going to have it is not a highway bike. It is, you know, it will be hard pressed

if you were trying to keep up with interstate traffic, for sure. It's probably not the lightest

thing out there, but it's ubiquitous. You can get parts for it, which is important.

Important aspect that I think of as a mechanic that not everybody does, parts of availability.

I'm running into that right now just because my motorcycle is 21 years old.

So I was just trying to order a new clutch cable. And I'm like, none of these look like they're

right. So I ended up just ordering one so I could mess with it. But that's kind of stuff you run

into. Okay, here's the next, next ride. I told you before I hit record, my dream is to go to Iceland

and do the, you know, the highway that goes around the coast. But then I also want to cross over

the top, you know, so I get some dirt in and some high passes and that kind of thing. So what

kind of a motorcycle or maybe it takes more than one, but what kind of motorcycle would you recommend

for a trip like that? Yeah, see that would be a great one for one of the bigger adventure bikes

at Africa Twin, Super Tenderay would be a great choice for that. You know, of course you got

BMW just about any of their GS's, you know, starting from the small ones up to the bigger ones.

I'm definitely partial for longer trips like that to a bike that has a shaft drive and you get

less power to the ground, but it's way lower maintenance. So when you're looking for something

that's going to be nimble on a variety of road surfaces like you'd find in Iceland, but you

may have big mile days to get behind between places where you can camp or spend the night or find

food. You're, you're going to want and that you're going to be doing less like single track type

things, presumably on the the roads in Iceland, you've got limited road choices. So you don't need

to be so worried about the weight on that one. Okay, and we were just visiting about what it would

be like to ride in Tanzania. So what motorcycle would you select for that? You've got a lot of sand

in Tanzania, a lot of loose surfaces. So definitely a smaller displacement bike. So something like

the Himalayan 450 from Royal Enfield is a really nice kind of middle of the road. You know, you

could get definitely more into a more aggressive dirt bike situation, more of a enduro than a dual

sport or adventure bike. But again, the question is going to be as you get real lightweight, you

also are losing fuel capacity. So what are those distances going to be that you're trying to

cover each day? And is it worth the weight trade off of a slightly porky year bike that can get

to the fuel range you need? Yeah, I have an extra gallon on the back of my motorcycle at all times

for that very reason. I have an extra four and a half gallons on the back of my bike. Wow.

Okay, so we covered everything from kind of a enduro ride, an adventure ride, you know, a

beginning ride. But what would you use if you wanted to do all the pig tails from your neck

of the woods up in South Dakota? And I love my young model FJR. It just, it keeps my bike is also

20 years old, my primary, but I've got several FJRs. But it is just that perfect amalgamation of sport

bike twisties for the, you know, the twisty roads in the mountains and nice and stable at highway

speeds and not, not too, uh, partly and unwieldy to take on shale roads for 1700 kilometers up

to the Arctic Circle. Wow. Yeah, of course, in the, in the black hills riding, riding your pig tail

bridges and the needle highway of the iconic bike is obviously the Harley Davidson or the Indian

motorcycle well represented with a stir just right there. Oh, that's fun. So we only touched on

5% of the different types of riding that are out there and the different types of motorcycles. But

I think what it illustrates is that there is so much to this sport. There's so many ways to do it.

There is again, there is no wrong way to enjoy motorcycle.

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co slash ASP to plan your big adventure. Well, let's talk about some of the amazing things that you've

done and join motorcycles for a little bit. So we talked about the iron butt rally 11,000 miles

and 11 days and that's cool. But we need to talk about this. It was about a hundred thousand

mile trip Australia, Canada, US, you're visiting all the states and provinces in these three countries.

Is that what's going on? Well, we what we were doing is and we is my friend Ian McFee. He and I

were competitors against each other in several iron butt rallies. Okay. And we happened to in 2019

that which was the year that I won. We happened to have long sections of our route planning

that overlapped and it overlapped in such a way that we had to stick together. We were visiting

the islands around Vancouver, British Columbia and we had to take a series of like five or six

fairies in between islands and documents something on each island and there was only one way

to string all these things together and make the timing work. So we we had to stick together

for the better part of a day, which is really unusual in this event. And we found that our rhythms

just aligned naturally. We didn't have any communications connected in our helmets or anything.

And our speed was the same and our style of riding and our fuel range. So I'm having only

ridden together as competitors. He called me up following the rally and he said, I had this idea.

I want to ride my motorcycle in 49 US states minus Hawaii. I said, well, that's boring. Everybody does

that. He said, I want to ride it in alphabetical order. And I said, well, that sounds ridiculous.

Totally. And he's a big ramps. So he is Australian. And he and I, like I said, we'd not

ridden together on purpose prior to this. We don't leave in competitors. So we decided to add

the Australian states in alphabetical order as well as a shakedown ride to see this as we figure

again, low low risk high reward attempt to shakedown and see if we could work together well. And the

in order to get alphabetically to the states we started in Alabama, the next state is Alaska.

So the ride we did across Canada was a connector leg too. So that didn't count. The miles in

Australia didn't count towards the Guinness World Record and the miles in Canada didn't count.

Only the miles we rode together within the country of our choosing, which happened to US.

Wow. So you want to do a mouth of medical. That means that you are going to be traveling over

states. So you're not going to count until you come back and do it again in the right order.

Is that the way it worked? It absolutely did. And it's just, it's, it's absurd. And everybody's

like, well, why would you do it? You know, we just love motorcycles. It was just an excuse. It didn't,

I mean, it didn't make any more sense to us at the time than it does sound like when I'm explaining

it to you now. But it was just an excuse to get out there and spend some miles on the road and see

how much of this continent we could see. But yeah, so he had decided that you can't just touch

the border of each state because that would be cheating. That wouldn't really count as visiting

the state. So we had to go photograph the state capital building of each state. Yeah.

In the middle somehow. Yes. So there were times that like we went from Virginia to Washington to

West Virginia. And in the criss-cross going from far east coast, far west coast back to the far

east coast, we drove right past the West Virginia capital. We waved to it on our way past.

We had to come back. That's hilarious. Okay. So just so people can think about this,

I don't know if I can actually do this. We have in alphabetical order, I'm not going to do all

50 states. But so Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, and then is it California, and then it would

be Connecticut, then Delaware. It just keeps going. But if people, yeah, Colorado, I skipped Colorado.

That's where I am. But the point I'm trying to make is that we're going back and forth coast to

coast and north to south. And we're hopscotching all. And this is a big area. I mean, the United States,

what is it? I think it's like 3000 miles from New York to Los Angeles or something like that. So

wow. That's a lot. Approximately. It is. It was so the base distance was about 66,000 miles

doing the states alphabetically like that. And then we decided because this planning had started in

late 2019, early 2020, then the pandemic hit. And then we had all the time in the world to sit and

fiddle with this plan. And at some point, we were looking at this going, well, I wonder if there's

a world record. I had known the person that had set the individual world record for the longest

continuous journey. And I was thinking, I wonder what the current team record is. And there didn't

happen to be a team record. But they agreed to let us make the attempt. And they set our benchmark

on the existing solo record. So it was like 72,000 miles was our benchmark. And then we built a

little more on there for buffers. So our final ride plan was 83,000 miles in 80 days within the US.

In 80 days. So we're doing over a thousand miles a day for 80 days. We were. And part of the

complicating factor is because this was in the periphery of COVID, he as an Australian was not

able to apply for a longer tourist visa for his trip to California. The they had just opened

for applications for longer tourist visas, a couple of weeks before we started travel. And as

soon as they announced that the they were taking the the applications again, it immediately had like

a nine month. So there was no possible way for him to get that longer visa. So we were working

in within the parameters of a 90. Oh goodness. That drives the record, I guess.

It did. It gave us a very what we thought to be a very fixed pivot point in there that we had

to work within. Wow. That's crazy. So you wrote a book about this trip. And it sounds delightful.

It's called Pushing Miles. And then the subtitle is a chronicle of motorcycles may him in

metal. And I understand there is a lot of mayhem. Tell us about the things that happened along the way.

Oh my goodness. So it started 70 miles from home. We were setting up a service depot in a town

called Odell, Illinois, just because it was about smack dab in the middle of the country. We would

crisscross past it enough times that we could put all of our service tools and equipment and

fluids and and et cetera in this location. So I was trailering both of our motorcycles to that

starting point 70 miles from my house. I hit a deer and I totaled my car. No way. And I am standing

on the side of the highway in the middle of the night with Ian on the phone. And I said at least

we got all of our bad luck out of the way early. Oh, not conwood. We said that at least once a day

every single day for the next six. That's crazy. You know, my son's truck is in the shop right now

today because a deer jumped in front of it. And you can't do anything about it. You cannot miss a

deer if they jump right in front of you. It's just it's just going to happen. Yep. And it was it

was the first time I've ever hit anything bigger than I could eat in a single sitting. So I was

not prepared for the amount of damage that it caused just it stepped right in front of me. So

but I you know, you figure that has never happened in my lifetime. We'll be all right. That was a

that was the left field thing. And then the replacement vehicle that I got broke down never had a

problem with that before. All of a sudden I'm desperately trying to get that running again so I

don't miss my flight out of the country to Australia. Then we had all these problems in Australia.

Then I had an emergency surgery in Australia and no way every single one of these things with

truth. There was no precedent for this amount of stop going wrong. So we with the greatest of

optimism kept saying, well, the statistical probability of things continuing to go wrong at this

rate is effectively zero. Right. So we'll just keep on going. So did you ever think this one

was trying to tell you something? Oh, I don't think we're bright enough. But like we are

deliberately at one point in Australia. I hit a kangaroo and I you know, I got the bike picked up

and I'm checking myself over and I'm you know flinging my arms to get the kangaroo away. And

he interns around and comes back. We sit there and you know, we're kind of doing this damage

control and then we will pause for a minute each other. We go can't tell anybody about this because

smarter people than us are going to tell us to stop. Are you listening to these signs from the

universe? Maybe you guys should pack it in and call it a day. That's crazy. So what else happened?

Can you just list some more like this and this and this and this and this? So a few hours before

we were supposed to be on the plane back to the US. I had ended up in emergency surgery for kidney

stones in Australia. No. That I'd never had kidney stones before. Ian, it was too late for him

to cancel his flight or to read because flight he'd have to pay for a whole new ticket. So he flew

back to the US without me. So that started his visa clock ticking while I am in the hospital in

Australia for a week. So we were behind the label right right from the get go. So he went to Australia

to Alaska without me. So that screwed up our entire trajectory. We lost a bunch of miles by not

riding together and then he started having a lot of mechanical difficulty and I don't want to

you know, bash away at the poor BMW. He was riding a 21 year old BMW R1100 RT and it had never given

him a minutes trouble before this. But we had trouble with leaking seals and his clutch slipping and

he bent rim that's you know, he hit a pothole and broke his frame in half on his motorcycle like

not hyperbolicly literally just his left side passenger foot peg mount was the only thing holding

the halves of his bike together. And all of these things are such wild left field occurrences that

there was no no president for such carnage with such regularity. But I had a second procedure

because of my kidney stones and it was supposed to be outpatient and that went awry. So I ended

up in the hospital for eight more days. Ian got COVID. We had to we were down for a week with Ian

with COVID and then our our grand crescendo 800 miles shy of our Guinness World Record minimum mileage

the gearbox exploded on his bike in the middle of the Nevada desert. Seriously? Seriously? Yeah.

So and it was it was funny. I was saying I will buddy tow you if I have to to get 800 miles on these

two bikes and I'm looking through my bag and oh yeah the ratchet strap we could have used to

buddy tow you was now being it had been cut to length and was using to hold his saddlebag on which

broke off his bike and went skittering down the freeway when his frame snapped 20 at the bottom.

It was crazy. It is so wild. I mean so statistically improbable to have so many unrelated

things going wrong just like one comic strike after the next. And you say lightning can't strike

twice in the same place but it does. Absolutely does and it's you know where we had created a

WhatsApp group with a very small number of people that we that knew we were doing this ride. We

wanted to make it completely under the radar so we could keep the pace we needed and we didn't

want to have interruptions or interference from from from outside folks and so we had a handful

of people on WhatsApp group that we kept abreast of our daily activities and every day they're like

will you please stop saying you got all of your bad luck out of the way earlier just bringing it

upon yourself at this point like I am afraid to check my messages in the morning and see what

fell off of somebody's bike last night or somebody's body though it was it was it was comedy of

errors for sure how did how did you get that last 800 miles in so it wasn't just the last 800 miles

we actually did remember the the Guinness minimum was like 72,000 but our personal goal was 83,000

so we had a buffer yes so this is where comes in I think something that all of us can relate to

when you really step out of your comfort zone and get out of the get out in the world is as soon as

you put yourself out there and ask for help people 99% of the time are awesome and they want to be

part of your adventure and they want to share a little bit of their world with you and that's

something that we very quickly found is you know as far as we could tell we have exhausted the

complete number of oilhead BMW clutch plates in this country but I know some mom and pop out there

has please sitting on their shelf so we put something out on the internet can does anybody have

a local mom and pop shop that they think has this can you make some phone calls and let us know

so not only did we find somebody we were in we were in Denver we had just cleared out your

moto electrics of all of their parts and somebody in Pennsylvania said I found a shop in Virginia

that has your parts and they have the specialty tools they will loan you to install this the seals

that you need he left his house road from Pennsylvania to Virginia to pick up the parts for us

and was writing them out to us in Illinois so we could meet him out there to make the repairs that

that we needed wow why no other reason that he wanted to play a little part in our adventure he

just wanted to see our crazy dream kept alive for one more day and the number of people we we had a

issue where his exhaust broke and was creating issues and we had made calls we made a lot of calls

like the the whole coming day every town we projected to to be through of any size we were

calling to see if there was anybody that can help world it up very quick just it's a two-minute

job we can pull it all the way down for you so you can repair this for us we couldn't get anybody

that was available willing to help and so we said let's just let's pull off the freeway let's have

a coffee let's do a reset we'll come up with another plan so we pull off the freeway and at the

stop sign on the off ramp right in front of us is a mobile welding truck and he and a knife kind

of look at each other and go okay well we're not going to be creepy but if he stops in this little

two-horse town we'll follow him over sure enough he stops in town we pulled up behind him and

explain the situation he said oh yeah come on around the corner man I'll hook you up no problem at

all just nice cook the time out of his day and Ian said well can I can I pay you can I get you a

case of beer or something he said absolutely not man a biker's got to stick together I'm just

happy to help this is really cool I hope you guys succeed and it was you know every around every

corner and I think ultimately that is what kept us going because we had this ever growing just

beautiful tapestry of people out there in this world that just happened to be in the right place

just happened to read the right post and said you know what yeah I can do that I can help you guys

I'm here for you and then you know they were in the background cheering us on you know so it was

a success that we wanted for everybody that had invested something in seeing us succeed I love

it you know what seemed to mind just then Wendy is that I don't like to talk politics on the show

so I'm not going to accept to say that it seems like the major parties want to create division

and we start distrusting our fellow humans and if we don't get out and find out that people are

great that you might be missing because right now the media is feeding us a lie humanity people

are wonderful and how did this trip change your view of humanity or maybe you would already realize

this in your prior travels but how does that impact it it absolutely has and I think the biggest

impact it has had on is seeing how it has impacted my daughter and she is 11 years old now but she

has written motorcycles with me all around the world I she had it and I took a long trip in Pakistan

and she will tell you that is her favorite place in the world to visit she went from the time

that she's small she's written in our sidecar rig and so she and I have explored all over Mexico

together and Nepal all through the Himalayas and so as far as she knows like all kids grow up having

adventures around the world in five cars but it's also she has absolutely no qualms in saying you

know when people start making xenophobic comments she said no when when we lived in Mexico we stopped

and asked somebody where the bathroom is and they said Mikasa Sukasa and then let us use their

bathroom and then we played with their bunny and they made us dinner and that's like she's very happy

to say no my experience all around the world is that no they're actually super cool they're you

know very welcoming very warm the vast majority and you just yes you need to put yourself out there

and again that's it's part of the beauty of traveling by mode as you you put yourself out there

and in a way that makes it really really cool the interactions that would not have come with any

other mode of travel but that's that's my big takeaway is watching her go fearlessly out into the world

knowing you know when she and I were going to be writing our sidecar rig down to Yushwaya at the

southern tip of South America when the pandemic hit and that's how we ended up living in Mexico and

the to see to see those experiences and the impact that they have had on her I just hope that somewhere

she's got this fearless spirit that she takes on to the next generation and it continues to be

happy to say no it's not exactly like you've heard get out there and do it I I I have people that are

shocked that I ran down here in Mexico by myself and it's you know the where where I was going with

our South America tour is a lot of people who like South America that's dangerous and it's like well

that's saying that North America is dangerous don't go to Nova Scotia because there's gun crime in

Chicago and it's like that's marginally misinformed if you're being streetwise about where you're going

and how you conduct yourself but too it is a continent yes such a wide you know ray of of

situations and communities and cultures and politics but most definitely so many so many good people

can't say that enough I love that have you ever gone through all the hassles of getting on the plane

security luggage long waits at the airport all that kind of stuff and then when you finally

arrive at your destination not only are you worn out but you also might fill a little bit disconnected

I know that I do when I hop scotch around the planet on a plane that's one of the reasons why I

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that is so and I I'm just thinking about the wonderful gift you've given your daughter

to take her on these sorts of experiences so beautiful it's it's something that I frequently have

people in our you know niche of motorcycle travel and competition I'm fairly well known so she has

seen people come up to inspiration things like that and I like to talk to her about the women

in our country that you know thought for our rights to ride motorcycles and wear pants and vote and

those are the women we are standing on their shoulders but when I took her to Pakistan

she we were eating at a restaurant that was owned by a woman she was the first woman in the

entire Hunza Valley to own her own business and she was telling my then nine-year-old daughter

I had people try to set my business on fire they were vandalizing you know spray painting my

business they would spit on me in the street and I would go home in tears every single day going

I don't know why I keep doing this and then she just swelled with pride but now now there is

another woman that owns a business and it still gives me chills that my daughter spoke to the woman

that is changing her world today that is you know such a powerful thing that those there are still

women like the ones that we see in our history books not to the extent that we should be but we

we are starting to see women give credit getting credit where credit is due for the work they've

done in this country and to know they're there are still women out there fighting that fight is really

important I just had a horrible idea windy what if you held a 10,000 female motorcycle rally in

Afghanistan so the there's an event called the women riders world relay that they did their first

event in 2019 and they're going to be coming back this next year with a slightly modified version

of the relay but the concept was that a physical wooden baton and the baton started in the UK

and it was passed from woman rider to woman rider it threw 120 countries around the world through

tens of thousands of women riders I also happened to be carrying a baton with me when I won

the ironbot rally which was really really amazing and yeah that was an absolutely incredible

feat to link together women in a lot of countries where women can't ride unescorted there was a

lot of difficulties getting across borders where women needed permission from their parents or

their spouse in order to travel and timing across an incredible variety of of climates and and

political and weather climates it was incredible undertaking and then also coming up this next year

there's a all women's motorcycle ride in Pakistan that will be teaching local women to ride their

own motorcycles in Pakistan and for the most part they are not allowed to pilot their own

motorcycles unescorted so we are just in the last few years starting to see more women in Pakistan

learning to ride and you know just pushing that envelope pushing that envelope a little bit more

but giving them those skills to get out there on their own to maintain their own bikes like how

to service and do their regular maintenance and that just a little bit more of independence as a

really fantastic what I have found windy and I I think hopefully people generally agree that it

seems there's a very small minority of people who have some ideology that creates so much trouble

for everybody else especially when they have the power and when you go to these places where

women are are fighting for for their rights for for just a what we would consider in the west

a normal existence you have to remember most of the people in that country probably don't care

that much about it it's the ideology that's driving some sort of an elite group at the top

and when you ride a motorcycle in a place like that you are a witness you're a testimony you're

saying look all I have to do is ride through here and you see that I am a woman who can do this

very well as well as anybody irregardless and I'm doing it and wake up you know that takes

guts though as it ever made you nervous I don't know you know I always have there's always that

little bit of nerves there is that the that first step leaving home is the hardest no matter what

it is that you're setting out to do and that I have written more than a million miles all

around the world and that is still holds true to me today is that first just getting to the far

side of town is everything everything secure I've got everything thinking about things that could

go wrong on the road and then you get a little bit down the road and you're like I remember why I do

so I I don't I love it yeah I don't think there's been destinations where I am particularly

concerned about about destinations I love underdog countries that said I do my research and make

sure that I'm making wise choices about my travels but it's more that you know once you once you

pee on yourself away you get get off that block get halfway across town get halfway across the state

then all of a sudden what seems so potentially scary again falls into this beautiful day let's just

get out there doing I love it so cool so we haven't covered half of the feats that you've done

but it's so fun what we have talked about and the name of the book if you want to know more about

that 100,000 mile journey it's called pushing miles a chronicle of motorcycles mayhem and metal

and the Ian McFee was the the partner that you did this feat with and from Australia

um what else do the listeners need to know how can they find out more about you and what you're

up to they can go to pushing miles dot com and that will direct you to where you can get the book

it is a chunky boy it is 800 pages because there was never ending array of things that went wrong

but there is also an abridged version and there is an audiobook that's voiced by my co-author

so they'll find all that information and there's a lot of bonus material so every time you find

yourself reading through the book going there's no possible way that can happen you can hop

on the website and find the correlating pictures and videos but the proof they'll love that

particular bit of mayhem and then that has any of the events that we're speaking at or book tours

I do a lot of motorcycle mechanic workshops motorcycle first aid workshops and those will be listed

on the website uh well windy I I was just thinking how much I could benefit from some of your

knowledge I I struggled to work on my motorcycle but I have to share one thing that I thought was

pretty crazy um knocked a hole in my engine block and seized up the engine on a ride a week

before my old co-host Travis which a lot of listeners know and I were headed out on a big ride

and so I had to swap the engine in my motorcycle while working a full time job in about five days

no pressure no pressure but I figured it out I couldn't believe it and but I had you been there

it would have been easy but I thought man what's the probability I'll actually get to go on this ride

and I it seems like I keep running into that over and over again so I would love to take some of your

motorcycle mechanic works that would be great yeah absolutely you're right around the corner you'll

have to come up and and visit and we'll get you we'll get you a trail ready but I I will say to

all of the listeners remember that adventure is what happens when things stop going to plan and

you find a way to keep going well and that's that's beautiful that's that is where the story comes

from right absolutely and that's where the book comes from I I've got to read your book now just

because it sounds hilarious frankly it sounds so improbable but here's a testimony for this again

or an example you just kept going and you did it with everything that was going wrong you're like no

we're gonna go we're gonna keep going and that tenacity is amazing but you did it it's little a little

bit tenacity little bit stupidity little bit unflagging optimism but we we dragged it across the

finish line kicking and screaming oh that's fantastic how did you celebrate in the end what did you

any and do very interestingly our our 80 day tour became 119 days and that is a whole

another story about how we managed to get him another visa but the everything had gone so

wrong we had lost 52 total days to sundry chaos and failures and we got to the finish line and it

felt so anti-climatic because the ride looked nothing like we expected and so we we rolled in and

it was about midnight in a you know quiet gas station and we said well that's that then maybe

we should turn around and do the states in reverse order see if we can get it right next time but

we'd we'd both be broke before we could make that happen so yeah it was it was oddly anti-climatic

for having technically made it to the the a sort of finish but it looked nothing like the average

of thousand mile a day that we had so confidently had in our original ride plan so it's and I think

a lot of people that do a lot of long travel of any sort can can relate to this feeling that when

when you're doing something big and it comes to an end it it feels like you're being shot out of a

cannon into a brick wall like all of that momentum that you had built up in your world and you come

to a stop and then you just look at all of the regular life going on around you and it's like

these people have no idea that I just did something incredible like it's just very very disorienting

to try to get your speed back to regular life and the world as you know it you'd come back change

from every one of these you're not the same person you were when you left home you know a two

weeks ago or two months ago or two years ago so it's a very yeah I think the antidote is to start

planning your next adventure well a very wise travel advisor that I interviewed I'm gonna say six

years ago just a guess she said never have just one trip planned always have to because when

you finish the one you say okay now there's this other one I get to start working you know and it

it helps to let down and I love that advice that she gave but there's another side to this too and

that is that we begin to understand it's not about the summit it's about the climb absolutely

and I think that's a thing that people have difficulty when they're trying to wrap their head

around long distance riding and you know it's it's not for everybody most certainly it's a

a in up in there with ultra marathoners and as far as doing crazy stuff just to do it but a lot

of people miss the fact that the beauty is in in the doing it's in the ride yes I don't even really

need a destination that's just an excuse to get out and do it but my happiest place in the world

is in the saddle and watching the sunset you know over the coast of Nova Scotia or dancing

under the full moon and then desert in the middle of the night in in Nevada there's just so much

beauty out there stopping and having a random chat with somebody at a gas station and just

learning that a little bit there's still people but I wonder how their adventure carried on after

our brief ten minutes like that is the beauty of just putting yourself out there in the world

you never you never know when you are going to have that experience that just fuels your soul

you just gotta be out there in the world make yourself available to it that's a beautiful way

to wrap this up thank you so much for your time today windy I enjoyed that immensely and I'm sure

our listeners did too so to everyone out there I'm gonna put the the information the windy shared

in the show notes so you can find her in her book and that sort of thing but maybe it's a motor

cycles maybe it's bicycles maybe it's walking maybe it's you know human powered flight I don't

know what it is but make sure you find your thing and get out there and have some fun absolutely

thanks Curtis out of last