We Would Be Kings!

We needed motorcycles. Without them we would be backpackers, the slaves to train and bus schedules, always needing to walk between our real destination and where mass transit ends. We would have been peasants, but with motorcycles we would be kings! Charting our own destiny, cruising our way through the Americas. Immune to overcrowded buses, delayed trains and bureaucratic schedules. Rising when we desire, stopping as the mood strikes us and helping to impress lovely latin beauties. We needed alluring motorcycles.

We needed tough motorcycles. We need bikes to carry us from small garage to the the end of the world. Over dirt roads, muddy roads, roads with big potholes, deep potholes, roads made entirely of potholes. Wet roads and dry roads. Empty, desolate roads and roads full of angry, swerving drivers. The motorcycles have to be many things and can also not be many things. They have to be robust, comfortable and durable. They have to be small enough that one could could pick them up if (when) we drop them. They can not be soley road bikes, or too expensive that they would catch the roving eyes of thieves.  Nor could they have too many fancy electrical gadgets that would break. Like goldilocks we had to find two that were juuust right. We needed specific motorcycles.

We did not need pretty motorcycles. We didn’t need a Pegasus or a Silver or a Shawdowfax. We need a cowpony. A motorcycle to carry us where we want to go - and bring us back again. We need a "flop-eared, ewe-necked, cat-hipped roan that looks like it should have died weeks ago but has iron rods for bones and nitroglycerin for blood and can go from here to doomsday with nothing more than mouthfuls of snow for water and tufts of winter-cured bunch-grass snatched between drifts for food." * We needed motorcycles.

And we have them. The single biggest expense of our trip and the “ring” that means this thing is going to actually happen. Two Kawasaki KLR 650s. Dual sport bikes for paved and unpaved roads, each with a single-cylinder, carbureted, water-cooled engine. Bikes renowned for their toughness and simplicity. A 2006 red bike with 16,000 miles faded to a rosy pink. And an older 1999 blue bike with 13,000 miles that looks and runs like it did in 2001. Red and Blue. Two bikes, for two boys, to carry us until the road ends.

*Stubby Pringle’s Christmas by Jack Shaefer. Best Christmas story since the original.