THE NEXT STEP
With an impressive trip like this completed, how do you feel? Are you contented? Curious about other continents? Restless for the road? Missing a sense of home? What’s going through your mind?
After 40,000 miles of travel on the Ruckus, it’s currently parked in the garage hemorrhaging oil through a blown seal and sitting on bald leaking rubber. The life experiences and personal connections I made along the way will stay with me forever.
When I’m out living on the road, I find myself longing for some permanence or sense of place yet after a week of staying put, I’m more ready than ever to get moving again – a difficult balance indeed.
To me, home is wherever I feel comfortable and at peace in my surroundings and that happens to be wherever I park my scooter for the night and pitch my hammock.
The absolute freedom that comes with wild camping and traveling on two wheels without time constraints is difficult to convey to the working man. My quest for cultural exploration and desire to envelope myself in natural beauty on a daily basis continues to drive my wanderlust.
On the outset of my journey in May of 2014, I expected to find that “home” in the country I’ve been looking for but instead uncovered many locations, people and lifestyles that appeal to me. I grew up traveling in a military family as a kid so the act of picking up and moving every few years is commonplace and cathartic. It’d take a physical disability or one magnetic woman to keep me still.
The more I experience, the greater my thirst for travel and exploration. Who knows, perhaps I’ll find my way to another continent to explore in the coming years.
What advice would you give to someone else pondering such a trip?
For many to-be-travelers, work, housing costs, family commitments, or likely a combination of all these factors make travel seem unrealistic or unattainable. Make a plan, write down a goal and start building the steps to see it through. Having the written outline of a trip helps to organize the steps necessary to reach that end goal.
By cutting the high costs of travel, that epic journey does not have to wait until retirement and a fat wallet to accompany it. Stealth camping instead of a hotel room, cooking one’s own meals instead of stopping for gas station food and using a cost effective method of travel (bus, bicycle, scooter) can bring the cost of a trip down while simplifying the input of stressors.
The hardest part of most trips is everything up to the moment when the wheels are spinning and the responsibilities of life disappear behind you.
You can follow Mike’s continuing adventures on his Ruckus via his Lost With Mike blog.
[…] The answer, of course, is the Honda Ruckus. And along with its miserly fuel consumption, the Ruckus is still a darling of the customization scene, as you can see in Honda Canada’s video above. This custom was built in conjunction with Toronto’s Mini Moto Labs (check them out here, here and here). It’s cool-looking, although we’re not sure if we’d ride this one across North America, like Mike Saunders did with his. […]
wicked would have liked to hear a liyyle more about hailfax
Great story! Sounds like a Mike adventure.
crisssss un scooter j’y vais moi aussi
This is a great article and I can certainly see the attraction of the slower paced ride. I read this and began overhauling my camping gear and diving into his blog for gear lists. 🙂
I saw that … lol what a coincidence
Man 66 000 kms that’s insane I haven’t even done that in 30 yrs of riding : (
20 not 30 not that old ….. yet
Ah pretty sure he s on a 50 cc ruckus
Andrew N Steeves
The road less travelled! Enjoyed the Q&A and followed the link to Mike’s Blog. Great stuff. Thanks
Jimmy Clatworthy Tony Bauer
Always wanted a ruckus 250.
Great story. It makes me want to ask all sorts of questions about gear so I can do it myself.
Raouf Hakam Shereef Elkoshairi
Awesome story and photos! I would think a small dual sport would have been a better bike to use.
ANd when i hear thaat you need a GS to make such trip.