Welcome to the Bike's & Bio's Page of the GlobeRiders Africa Adventure 2013 Live!Journal!

We've asked each of our participants 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 fantastic adventure and we hope you enjoy meeting our participants and following along as they ride Africa!

Best Regards,

GlobeRiders - Partner

All Things GPS

We are 57 & 56 years old, married and parents to 3 wonderful children (28, 24, 21).

Kainan is an experienced biker and in the last few years made quite a few bike trips around the world: Mongolia, Cambodia, Baja, Turkey, Cairo to Cape Town, Southern Africa and many more. He will be riding a KTM990, and also owns a KTM EXC400 and a Yamaha FJR 1300.

Shiree views the bike as her sworn enemy, and she joins this trip according to the old Chinese rule of "know thy enemy".

Shiree and Kainan

I'm 71 years young and a retired container ship captain. I have 3 kids and 3 grandkids.

I've been riding off and on for the past 50 years, mostly off. I got into adventure riding about 10 years ago and have done most of the states in both the USA and Mexico. I've been as far north as Prudhoe Bay and as far south as Guatemala, but 98% of my riding has been on paved roads.

I got back into riding about 13 years ago, first with Harley's and then a Suzuki DL650. I now have a 2013 BMW F800 GSA and a 1991 BMW R100 GS PD.

My hobbies, besides motorcycles, are golf, target shooting, and spoiling my grandkids (ages 5 to 19). This GlobeRiders trip is a first for me and I'm really looking forward to seeing Africa and meeting the people.

First and foremost I am very glad to be able to take this trip with GlobeRiders and should be the best adventure I have ever taken.

I graduated from High School in 1976 and I join the United States Marine Corps right out of high school. My first three years with the Marines were as a grunt with boots on the ground as they say. It taught me a lot about life and if you keep a positive attitude you will get through anything. It was a very difficult couple of years and I left the Marines to pursue a forestry degree. After I finished that I decided I had not finished what I had started in the Marines and reenlisted and join the logistics side of the house and I never thought life was so good as a marine. I traveled a lot and prepared Marines for travel throughout the world. Whatever it took, air, Navy Ship, buses, trains, we did what was necessary to get them there to do their jobs. I ended up retiring from the Marines after 20 years of active service in October 1998 as a Master Sergeant. That started another dream of me being my own boss and I pursued a dream of owning my own business. That lead me to making contacts and discovering an opportunity of owning a McDonald’s restaurants. I started training in January 1999 and completed my training with McDonald’s in 2001 and I became an Owner Operator as a franchisee. I now own two McDonald’s in Helena Montana and that is the reason I can now afford to take such a great trip with GlobeRiders. I’m hoping to also take a trip to China with GlobeRiders.

I have been married to my wife Somer for 33 years and still going strong. I am very grateful she understands the need to see what is over the next hill and lets me pursue my dreams without many restrictions. We have two daughters Amber and Heather. Amber is a RN and works as a Hospice nurse and my other daughter Heather works for me in my business here in Helena.

I have been riding motorcycles for 47 years and have own over 30 different bikes to include Honda Mini trail 50, 70,Trail 90, Yamaha 175 endure, several motocross bikes. My Bultaco 250 Pursing was one of my favorites most of all. Several different street bikes (3) Harley's Ultra Classic. Ironically, ever time I passed a dirt road I always wonder what it would be like to take it. Well Harley are, let’s say, not so good on dirt roads. Well that is how I finial decided I needed something different in my life of motorcycling. When my friend road up on a BMW R1150GS, I fell in love and had to have one. I ended up getting a 2007 BMW R1200 GSA and the adventures began. Took my first trip to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, with it and it exceed my expectation. Unfortunately on my way back home to Helena, Montana, and only about an hour from home, I hit a deer that ran out of the barrow ditch. That landing me in the hospital and completely wrecked BMW GSA. Sitting in my hospital bed with two broken ribs, broken hand and leaking blood out of my kidney, I was able to find a another BMW GSA on Craig’s list in the Seattle area and it was 2008 GSA with only 2,200 miles. I bought it from a guy with broken dreams from the owner that was never able to take time to ride it. He wanted it gone and out of his sight. Every time he came home from working a long day of it would reminded him of what he truly wanted to do “Ride” that dream never happen and that is how I now own this 2008 BMW R1200 GSA. I have sense taken two more trips to Alaska and one trip to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories (Dempster Highway). Last year I also road to Newfoundland camping the entire time riding across the Canadian transcontinental highway. Great time and I love Canadian camp grounds and they are very clean.

Well with that being said I have a lot more miles left in me and I want to start getting it done as they say. No time to waste any more and I’m enjoying the fruits of my hard earned efforts over the last 35 years and going to start traveling more than ever. I have my youngest daughter coming into the business and I hoping she will put me out of a job in the next couple of years. I am very excited to be getting a new 2014 BMW R1200 GSA in olive, but I preferred Red after this trip to Africa. See ya all in Cape Town and let the adventure begin!

I am a self employed gardener. This is my second GlobeRiders trip. The bike is a 2009 R1200 GS. The bike suspension was modified to Ohlins shocks by Stig Petterson. The bike's rear wheel was changed to a Volkswagen car tire which is interchangeable with the chair wheel. The front forks have been extended. The bike modifications and sidecar manufacture were accomplished by Claude Stanley Motorsports in Middleburg, PA, USA.

Marty

Pulling into Ushuaia, Marty and I looked at each other and asked the same question: Where next??

We’re incredibly fortunate to be riding again so soon with Helge. We’re looking forward to the company of good old friends and new ones, too. We think the sidecar’s fully mended from the last adventure, ready for new exploits (abuses?) -- and so are we!

Bill

I’ll start off by introducing myself in a Brief Summary (sort of). You’ve already got my name, which I am (after having worked in international businesses all over the world for half-a-century) quite used to being pronounced as in the English equivalent; - Johnny (as in, Cash). I am a 70 years “young” (at mind at least) Norwegian living outside of Stavanger, and pensioned from my self-employed Subsea Consultancy business (as of last year), now busy fulfilling some of my long overdue MC-dreams. The “International Businesses” referred to above can generally be categorized in five Main Era/Groups:

1. 1960-1970 Sailed in the Norwegian Merchant Navy, some in the World-wide Trade but mostly in the Far East – US West Coast Mixed Cargo Trade. Quit sailing as 1st Engineer due to me wanting to follow-up on my twin boys back home (born in 1967).

2. 1970-1976 Employed as Service Dept. Manager for Alfa-Laval in Oslo, servicing all the - so very familiar - A-L shipboard equipment all over the world (oil purifiers, heat exchangers, oil- & water pumps, evaporators, etc. etc). Now; - THAT was max. luck on my part, being ashore at the right time & place, and answering to the right newspaper add.. Bull’s Eye!!

3. 1976-1978 Again, answering to the right newspaper add. at the right time & place; - I joined the North Sea Offshore Oil Scene as a Sr. Diving System Technician for the subsea contractor Seaway Diving (Stolt-Nielsen Shipowner).

4. 1978-1985 “Climbed the Ladder” as; - Surface Supplied Diver, Saturation Bell Diver, Subsea Welder Diver, Subsea Welding Supervisor, Company Diving Inspector (some in the North Sea, some in the Gulf of Mexico). Started my own Consultancy Business in agreement with my present Employer at the time, who gave me a two-year Contract for a flying start.

5. 1985-2012 Self-Employed Consultant in UWATECH (which your clever brains will certainly quickly interpret as short forUnderWAterTECHnics). My contracts have been in the functions ranging from Subsea Engineer to Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) and Client’s Representative (offshore/onshore) for miscellaneous Oil Companies and Subsea Contractors.

Well folks; - there you have it - more than 50 years in a “nut-shell”.

When it comes to my MC experience – before, in between and after my vagabond life described above, it summarizes as:

1. I bought my first (and only) 50cc Moped at the age of 12, my first 125cc when I was 16 (on my birthday actually). The latter was gradually tuned-up/converted to an MX-racer which served me well in very active competition a couple of years, until I bought my new Greaves-type 250cc Villiers “red-hot” racer at the age of 18 (1960).

2. Then we have the period from items 1 through 4 - as described above – where my MX-racer was “put on ice” in the shed (I still have it actually). However, -

3. – in 1982 I was back home/ashore and yearning to get back on two wheels! So, I got myself a very nice Honda VF750S 1982-model, second-hand with only 5,000KMs on the clock (I still have that one as well in my garage – waiting for the Pensioner to have time for a proper restoration job).

4. In 1994 I purchased my first BMW; - an R1150GS. Mid-summer in 1998 (when returning home from my Summer Holiday) I unfortunately – slightly too late – discovered a massive diesel oil-spill in the exit of a sharp 180 degree left-hand bend. I nearly managed to steer clear by tightening up my curve even more; but not quite enough, so we both ended up hitting the auto railing quite hard. I was OK (apart from an injured LH-little finger) but the bike was a total write-off. So, next day I went to my local MC-shop and bought myself a brand new R1200GS which served me well for 9 years, when I traded it in for the latest 2007-model. R1200GSA. This is my present bike which you’ll all get to see close-up in Cape Town, with all its stickers from the Pan American Adventure in 2010 (32,600 KMs in 63 days). The bike – as-well-as the driver – performed well and were amongst the few remaining 25% of the initial starting bikers, when we arrived in Alaska (7 out of 28). Not only did we lose 75% of the participants en route north from Ushuaia, I also lost 12KGs of my “big beer belly”! This “little addition” to my bodily feature was well established during my two years of commuting on a weekly basis to Aberdeen whilst building the Diving Support Vessel DSV“Scandi Arctic (beer is half-the-price over there, you know). Let me conclude this “Bad News” with a “Good News” – THAT weight loss never came back. So my physical data now are 191cm/102KG (that is 6’3”/225lb for you “ignorants, - swearing to the Imperial System”).

Oh, by the way, the West-to-East crossing from Alaska to New York are included in the Total KMs/Days given above. So is whatever “free days” (5) we were allowed by “The Boss”, Nick Sanders, for bike servicing, etc. Again, your quick brains will naturally calculate this to an average of 500-600KMs a day – dawn to dusk/seven days a week (“turbo tourism” if you ask me); the longest distance in one day was 1.047KMs, and the longest “Working Day” was 15.5 Hrs. (nice roads in Canada though).

“CONGRATS” to you if you have had the time & patience to read through this “Short Summary”.

Let me round off this Essay by saying that I have a very busy MC-season ahead of me in 2013, before I met up with you guys. But I will let you in on that during one of our “End-of-the-Day Beer Sessions”.

Best Regards,

Jonny

Hello all, I am 49 years old and have the pleasure of raising two fantastic daughters (Kristine 20 and Shannon 18). I am retired from my first career as a Law Enforcement Officer and now work for a company that provides security solutions to the world market. I live in Central Florida where I have made my home for over 30 years. I am a new rider and this adventure will be off the charts for me.

I have a 2012 Harley and have ridden across the United States this year with my good friends who got me into this adventure. In addition to the U.S. trip, we have taken several other smaller trips including a fantastic ride up the western coast to deliver our bikes in Seattle, for shipment to Africa. I will be riding a 2013 BMW G650GS Sertao. I have put in countless hours in preparation for this trip and can’t believe that the day is almost here!

I truly consider it an honor to ride with Helge and share the adventure with my good friends. I am looking forward to meeting the others on the adventure and exploring the African continent.

Brent

Hello everyone - this is Dan and Cecilia. We are very excited to begin this journey. This is our first adventure ride outside the US and it appears we have picked a great one, I say this because we have read the 2010 bios and watched the DVD. Preparation began several months ago and here we are the night before we leave packing and getting it all together. It seemed the trip was months away and then .... Bam... its time to go. Helge has done a great job in keeping everyone informed and on track, thank you!!

So here is a little bit about us; we are coming from Albuquerque New Mexico. We have been on several bike rides together this past year and are now ready for an entirely new adventure outside of the country. This year we have traveled from here to Seattle, Washington, from here to Daytona, Florida for Bike Week, and from here to Sturgis, South Dakota. These trips have been so much fun and we have many great memories! Now, let's create our Africa memory!

I (Dan) grew up in Aspen Colorado and moved to Albuquerque when I was 23. I have been riding some form of a motorbike since I was 9 years old from a mini-bike to my first real bike at age 13 - a 1970 Yamaha 175 enduro. Growing up I always watched bikes drive by and wondered where they came from and were they were headed - off into the horizon. My roots are in off-road riding though I have several miles in the street. I began desert racing at age 30 and have participated in several races including the Vegas to Reno and Baja 1000. This is a new page in my riding book - "A ride across Africa!!!" Only in my wildest dreams did I consider this - and now here we are - getting ready.

(Cecilia) My turn, just a little about me... I grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico where I stayed until I was ready to spread my wings and see a new place. I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where I completed my Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan. I then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where I went to school for my Masters degree in Social Work. I missed my family and decided to move back to New Mexico and have been in Albuquerque since 2007.

I am a counselor and life coach and specialize in working with teenagers, young adults and women. Helping people is my passion and if I can be a part of positive change in peoples lives, then I feel I have accomplished my life goal! I always wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle and my curiosity arose from seeing pictures of my dad in his younger ages at Sturgis, the biggest motorcycle rally in the U.S. The past 2 years I have rode a small dirt bike in the desert with Dan and also have been riding my Harley Davidson Sportster 1200. Dan has been a great teacher to me and I am so glad he helped me learn! I love, love, love traveling!

So, here we are about to head out to Africa! I have always lived by the motto "live your life to the fullest" and this is one of those adventures I had to take! My goal in life is to travel to at least 1-2 new countries every year, so this trip is definitely putting me over my goal, haha! I can't wait to meet the wonderful people that we will be traveling with and to see all the beautiful things that I have not seen before!

I was born in Hungary in 1978 and moved with my parents to Moscow at the age of 8, where I grew up and finished school. Between 1994 and 1996 I have finished my A-level education in a boarding school in Pathos, Cyprus. In 1996 I moved to Spain where I have done my university education and started my professional career.

I spent 2 year working as a Marketing Assistant in a multinational company, where I have discovered that working for others was not my thing. I started several companies over the past 15 years; Importing Medical equipment from Russia to Manufacturing Garments in China. I'm currently running a Courier Company in Spain which I have been restructuring and building for the past 4 years.

I have been riding since I was 10 years old starting with 50cc and slowly moving up the scale over the past 20 years to 1200cc. Never been on a tour before, although dreamt about it for the past 5 years, ever since I came across Helges DVD on Adventure Riding.

Bence

This is my 1 1/3rd GlobeRiders tour. My first experience riding internationally came in 2011 on the SilkRoad Adventure. It's been hard to slow down since then. In addition to the riding adventure, I became good friends with a few of the guys by the time we finished Silk Road in Xian, China. Two of us decided to ride South America together 9 months later. We had an incredible ride on and off for about a year and are now planning a GlobeRiders custom tour from Cape Town to Paris in 2014 with another friend from the Silk Road trip. Nikki and I had planned a safari trip to Africa (without the bike) which was amazing- Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. In the mean time, I shipped my bike with the GlobeRiders container so it could sit until I arrive for our Cape to Paris trip. At the end of our safari, realizing that we would have a bike and our bodies in South Africa, we decided to join the tour for the first third- heading home as the group enters Botswana.

Nikki has been super supportive of my motorcycle adventures but this is the first time she will get to share them. Preferring her Ducati to the back of my bike she has never ridden pillion with me. I admire her blind faith and I hope insurance covers chiropractic.

We will be riding a 2010 1200 GSA with the cool 30th anniversary stickers.

John and Nikki
Philadelphia, PA USA

Africa, it was the first continent I conquered as a young lad way back in the early 1980’s. At that time I were riding a BMW R80G/S, the first on/off road bike that BMW had produced. Two years of travels from Norway down to Cape Town and back to Norway had left me with many memories and a deep desire to return to this incredible continent one day. It took some time before I had the chance to ride my bike in Africa again, but when I did it felt so good to be back. For that reason I have in the later years been coming back on a regular basis.

Since the birth of the first G/S from BMW the developing of the adventure bikes has brought some incredible machines to the market. On this journey I will be testing the all-new BMW R1200GS water-cooled bike. From the little I have had the chance to test this bike in and around Seattle I am very exited with the performance of the water-cooled GS.

But despite all the new toys, most of all I am looking forward to travel with a new group of riders, some old friends and others new to the GlobeRiders family. Meeting new and old friends along the road are all elements that make for a great journey.

This is my life now and I feel very privileged and thankful for having this chance to see and explore the world on top of a motorcycle.

Enough said, let’s go for a Ride!

Helge P.