Rant: How international travel improves your riding

A rant on mastering fear is a challenge for all riders at some point. As a professional educator I am always searching for ways to improve how I teach and how I can help others advance their own learning. This video is a rant about what I have learned from the riders that join me to travel on international trips/tours/safaris/expeditions.

video clips are from South Africa, Nepal, T

[advmotorcycletravel]

Yep, when grandma (with passenger holding a goat) passed me I knew I was letting my fears hold me back. Nepal was insane riding and I loved every second! Makes riding WABDR seem extremely tame and some sections used to scare me. Awesome expedition experience. Recommend it to anyone who has the time to go!

[Hans-cpeb]

This isn't a motorcycleriding lesson, this is a life lesson taught in a captivating way.

[cambag]

Probably your best video yet. Should be used as an intro to adv riding course, or just adventuring in general.

[garykleinsteuber]

Years ago I went to a motocross camp. One of the instructors said something in reference to the bigger jumps. "You know the bike can do it, you know the techniques, Don't let fear stand in the way."

[thetessellater]

One of the slickest helmet-cap transitions we've seen...😉 I'm smiling.

[brucehenderson]

As an older rider (64), and I really appreciate this video due to a relatively similar experience. I have about 15 years of riding experience on big & small DS/Adventure bikes and a smattering of road bikes, both sport and cruiser. But truthfully, I've never rode longer than 5/7 hours and never overnight. Last summer, I bought a large adventure bike in California, (I'm in NE Georgia), flew out there, rode with my son in Northern California for 4 days, Rode solo from Sacramento to Kanab, Utah to meet my son in law and a group of 4 other riders, where we rode Utah, Colorado, and Nevada before taking 4 days to get home. I did things I'd never done, road longer in one day than I ever had, and did things I didn't enjoy, but I made it and had fun... in hindsight! There was no option to just stop, park the bike and fly home.

[EvanRobertsonHD]

I always tell people who are new to big Harley-Davidsons is that it is all in your head! Before I realized that, I was always afraid of them and was riding them with too much caution. One day it just clicked in my brain that it was all in my head, and after that it became second nature. Your video is spot on!

[zakparrish]

Bret, this is easily one of the best videos you've done. Fear is the only thing that doesn't get adequately addressed anywhere else and it's definitely been my biggest adversary in really tackling ADV.

Also, speaking as a fellow instructor, that was an outSTANDING delivery. Thank you!

[EcuadorFreedomBike]

Some people say there is no better feeling than facing and then overcoming your fears! But it is tough. It takes hard work and dedication and when you need it most- teamwork. So remember- if you want to overcome your fears then find someone who believes in you and make it happen! Thank you for this, Bret! We are so completely on the same page.

[tommeyer]

I just hit that point myself. I’m making a habit of going on longer trips over varied terrain, into places I’ve never been. And the learning curve is steep and much more satisfying and productive than drills in a parking lot or on the few short dirt roads I can easily get to from my house. The challenge well met, that is unavoidable and demanding, is the only way to become confident in your riding… or really, in any endeavor we set before ourselves. This was a good lesson Bret.

[jamesmills]

Ugg couldn't agree more. I was recently thinking about this and my own riding. I see it as the training vs experience problem. For me, even though I would spend a great amount of time practicing/training on some technical roads near San Diego, I would have troubling applying the skills to a completely new road (and in many cases, less technical road). In a sense I over trained on the roads I frequented, and my confidence was more derived on the repetition of getting over a specific ledge rather than from ledges in general. 

Similar to the people that rode with you in Napal, I had a "ah-ha" moment when riding down Baja. As you said in the video about being in real scenarios is absolutely true. I can train myself for years on how to stand up riding over rocks, but nothing is going to prepare you for doing it with a 200 foot drop off next to you. Many times, due to the pressures of the adventure (meaning I had to do what I was uncomfortable in order to get food or whatever), I timidly rode more and gained more experience riding in a continually different environment. I did find more and more the skills a spent a great deal of time obtaining appearing as experience began to silence my doubts.

For me the problem I had (have) was that because I started from zero off-road skill I sought out training, but overtime found comfort in the controlled setting of training to the point it prevented me from progressing further. It's hard to step out of newly created comfort zone, but now that I am, boy is it paying dividends

[jamesfairmind]

Really important points made in this video that all adventure riders can relate to. My greatest fear/weakness is heights, coming down Black Bear Pass I froze at one point on a big step. My legs felt like jelly and I just froze up, then another rider I had never met came down the pass and stopped by me and said "it's all in your head buddy just follow me" and sped off confidently, riding not on the rocky section next to the mountainside with massive steps but on the smooth part about a two foot wide that sits on the edge of a 1000 foot drop like he was off to the coffee shop. I still could not bring myself to ride that narrow path but nevertheless the spell was broken and I just rode off down on the rocky side for the rest of the way and laughed at myself for being so stupid.

[hall]

This is why I subscribe to this channel! Excellent instruction!

[tvtriviachampion]

Reminds me of a ride in northern Thailand (where I now live) on a road bike. Road turned to slippery mud. I dismounted your assess if I should continue or double back. Then a farmer zipped by on a scooter wearing flip flops. For him it was a day at the office 🤣

[onerider]

Sometimes the thing that gets me through tough spots is the knowledge that there is no other alternative and nowhere else to go. Do or die.

[StephenRock]

Life lessons as well as ADV lessons. Good share.

[thedownwardmachine]

I agree with others who have said this is probably your best video yet. Ten years ago I rode from SF to Tierra del Fuego via the Pan Am and Ruta 40, and what you say is totally congruent with my experience.

I learned a lot about myself and what being an "adventure motorcyclist" is and isn't, with strong emphasis on that part about when you get passed by the locals on less powerful bikes carrying heavier loads.

It's dangerous and romantic and yet mundane and logistical, and realizing that what you're doing isn't that big a deal goes a long way to taking the edge off so you can just do what needs to get done.

[charliem]

I did the ACT Portugal on my own last autumn. I improved more over five days of riding there then in the previous 4 years. because it was real and I had to do it. I couldn't believe how much better my riding had got when I arrived home.

[danielecelauro]

I really like this kind of video! Everything has to do with human perception, emotions and our mind.
It’s never all about the bike, the tire, the power or technique. I mean, it does sometimes..it always has to do with us primarily.
Thank you so much Bret!

[advinjapan]

This is so true Bret, my first experience off-road was on a 250 GasGas in the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Crested Butte, Colorado. It was absolutely terrifying, but I came back from those two days of riding with skills that would have taken me months to develop in a training course….and balls of steal😂