Welcome to the Bike's & Bio's Page of the GlobeRiders IndoChina Adventure 2014 Live!Journal!

This is the "up close" and personal Chapter of the IndoChina Adventure 2014 Live!Journal.  I've asked each of our riders to share a little about themselves, and also provide a couple of favorite photos to go along with their Bios. You may not be with them in the flesh, but at least you can learn a bit more about them virtually.

This is going to be a facinating adventure. Not only do our participants get to experience the wonders of IndoChina on their own bike's, but they also get to meet local people of the beaten track, tast the cousine and even try out a massage or more.

It's my privilege to introduce the members of the GlobeRiders IndoChina Adventure 2014.

Best Regards,

Helge Pedersen

Hi 
     I am 67 yrs old  . My first bike was a Lambretta scooter at 14 then my favorite: a Honda 50cc. I am a retired physician happily married to another : Wayne who works as ER physician.

We both gave up biking when we had 3 young kids, but after my chemotherapy I told Wayne I wanted to do a "coming of age" trip with the twins who were 9 at the time.Wayne bought our BMWs the next week and we took off on my 3rd trip to the West Coast from Quebec.

i am now working on my "bucket list" Tierra del Fuego is done... Now to Asia. I am looking forward to meeting you all very soon...Andrée

Hello everyone,

my name is Mike McNulty. This trip will be the third trip with GlobeRiders. I rode the Silk Road in 2011 and South America in 2013. I have made several other trips to South America, North Africa and Mexico.

I have been married for 46 years to my wife Marilyn. We live in Southern California and have two children and four grandchildren. I have owned a semi-truck trailer sales and leasing business for the past 36 years. I am lucky to have a son and son-in-law to run the business while I play!

My other interest are hunting and flying.

Mike

After 50 full-time years at it, I’m now semi-retired from an occupation that kept me mostly on my butt, viz., designing and implementing communications and radar simulation computer systems.  I think that is why my avocations always seemed to involve motion: riding, walking, driving, sliding, sailing, flying and watching the world from these moving platforms.  I recently turned 75 and have pretty much given up sliding and sailing.  Peggy, my wife of 43 years now, and I still enjoy traveling and hiking, though the latter are getting shorter, but so am I.

I’ve been flying small aircraft for almost 30 years – about 2,000 hours in the pilot’s seat.  Now I mostly volunteer and fly for charitable organizations such as Challenge Air and Angel Flight West; thus the photo below with my 1975 Cessna T210L and some human and canine passengers.  Helping these less fortunate and healthy folks makes one realize how lucky we are and, as a friend accurately put it, “Dan, you’ve already won the lottery”.

I started riding motorcycles in my late teens through my twenties, but then had a 30 year hiatus, starting again in my sixties with a recently sold 2001 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Classic.  Though it certainly wasn’t the best bike for the thousands of miles of unpaved roads we traversed, I rode it with two friends from Los Angeles to Tierra del Fuego in 2002 and then up to Alaska’s  North Slope in 2004.  Helge convinced me not or perhaps didn’t allow me to take the Harley to southern Africa on the 2010 Globe Riders tour there, but instead helped me buy and set up a BMW F800GS for that marvelous journey.  That’s where I met David & Tom who are on this tour with us.

Then I rode it (if not very artfully) on a good part of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route with David and Greg Blakey (rip), and last year from Seattle to Boston and back again on-pavement through the northern USA and southern Canada. 

I totally enjoy long-rides and very enthusiastically look forward to riding in Asia.

My name is Tom Petrillo. I'm 51 years old, I've been retired for about 5 years now and loving it. I live in Michigan with my wife and my three children all of which are in college. I've been an avid motocross rider racer from the age of 10 through 26 and now I'm an adventure rider and street tourer on a 2014 GSA, 2014 GTL and a Honda XR 650 4 stroke.

My previous trips include not only Helge's South Africa trip in 2010, but I've also traveled to Argentina, Chile, and Alaska on tours. I've completed the entire Trans-Labrador Hwy route last year as well as the Trans-America trail (western half) and this past month a group of six of rode the WABDR in Washington. I've ridden tens of thousands of miles through out the US and Canada on both bikes and really just enjoy the scenery and being able to meet new people on the best mode of transportation.

I've ridden with David Marsing and Dan Marks on the South Africa tour and I'm glad to riding with both of them again on this trip. I'm looking forward to another one of Helge's fantastic tours with Chris as our leader. 

I live on Bainbridge Island, Washington.   I am married to my wife Vicky and we have two children. My son just graduated from Colby College and my daughter attends Bucknell University where she is on the lightweight crew team.   I retired from Intel Corp. after 23 years and moved to Washington.   While working I had the opportunity to work and travel throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East.  As a young family we hauled our kids all over and immersed ourselves into the local cultures.  That thirst for experiencing new places has stayed with us, the more remote, the better.  I enjoy boating, flying, diving and of course off-road adventure riding.

I have been riding since I was in Jr. High School with friends whose parents were early organizers of off road races and built many of the early racing rigs in California and Baja.   I rode a bit while in college, but was very limited due to weather and budget. I restarted my riding as my kids were heading off to college and dove head first in to adventure riding.  In 2008 I picked up an 800GS and a 650Xchallenge.

My recent riding has been all over the Pacific Northwest primarily back roads and particularly the bountiful logging roads in our area.  I am fortunate enough to spend some time in Baja every year and thoroughly love exploring the single and dual track roads all over the Peninsula.  I have exchanged the 650Xchallenge for a KTM 690 Enduro and am humbled!  What a bike!  I tuned up for the 2010 Africa trip with Helge by riding to Mexico then taking the CDR to the Canadian border then home.   I was able to join Globe riders for the Africa trip with my neighbor and best friend Greg Blakey, who was also riding on that trip on an 800GS.  I have done two solo trans-continental trips across the US and Canada on my new 1200adv.   

 I am really looking forward to the Indochina trip, as this is such an exceptional area with the opportunity for some great experiences and getting to know those in the group during our trip.

My longest trip was traveling around the U.S. and Canada for 16 months in an 18-foot, 1956 school bus that had been converted in a camper, complete with propane frig and oven. On the back was a 175-cc Kawasaki. That was in the 1970s.

I just like being outdoors, from hiking to skiing. I don’t really like to ride on the back of a motorcycle, so I’ll be enjoying a wider view from the support van. I work on the website at Group Health in Seattle.  

Pictures are skiing at Whistler, a ride in a biplane at Boeing Field and lunch during a hike at Lake 22 in Washington Cascades.

I started riding on a Yamaha 50, when I was in high school.  I'd like to say I've been riding ever since, but I've taken several long breaks...including one while I was in Texas for work (not a great place to ride anyway). But when I moved back to the Northwest, I had to ride...there are just too many twisty, beautiful roads calling. 

Currently I ride a BMW 650 Dakar, which I bought in 2006 replacing a 1200 C.  I quit the road bike because, after putting some 60,000 miles on it and a number of other bikes riding mostly in the Northwest, I found there were a lot of mountain roads I'd yet to explore.  (One of the photos below is from a trip earlier this year to Hell's Canyon; shown with a number of riding buddies waiting for a small ferry at a crossing on the Columbia River).

The Vietnam trip is a chance to extend those undiscovered roads.  I'm 66, retired after a career mostly as a newspaper editor, but recently with The Boeing Co. where I worked in communications for Commercial Airplanes and on the 737 leadership team.

I'm also a passionate skier and...now, with more time to get and stay in shape... a hiker. Deeann -- who will be joining us in Hanoi for the remainder of the trip -- is a big influence in hiking -- driven by her love of the outdoors Northwest (shown with me on a short hike at Tofino, B.C.)

For starters Chris loves to ride motorbikes, any kind, anywhere, any way.

He has been riding motorbikes since age 15 and got his first bike, a 125 Suzuki at age 16. He rode enduros and motocross during his high school years in Iowa.

After graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in pharmacy, Chris moved first to California and then to Seattle. Wanderlust knocked and he took a position working as a pharmacist at a US Army hospital in Wuerzburg Germany. While living in Wuerzburg he bought his first BMW an R80RT.

After 175,000 km riding around Europe and 5 years living in Germany , Chris returned to Seattle where he currently works at Harborview Medical Center.

After moving back to Seattle he has continued his worldwide motorcycle touring, riding to more than 65 countries.

Chris first met Helge in 1996 on a motorcycle trip in South America. Since then he has worked with Helge and Sterling on a couple of GlobeRiders productions including Iceland and IndoChina DVDs.

He can't wait for his next journey on his favorite ride, a BMW R12000GS Adventure.

Chris lives in Seattle with his wife Mary and their dog Lucy."