Two Wheel Driven

Trading the corporate life and high tech bikes for a DR650 and Motorcycle Adventures in Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory

G'day Im Ed - thanks for dropping by.

If you’re interested in riding motorbikes, adventure travel in Australia- and a bit of depth on for flung locations - this blog might be of interest.

I’m a traveller and adventure rider recently diagnosed with complex ptsd after ten years of inpatient and outpatient mental health recovery. The diagnosis has helped me reassess my priorities. 

Now I'm two wheel driven and back on the dirt where I belong.

I'm currently based at home in Cairns, Far North Queensland and planning my next outback motorcycle tour.

The Ride So Far

My first motorbike adventure tour was on the Aegean Islands of Greece aged 17 (see picture at top). I’ll always remember that seductive feeling of the sunshine on my face and body, riding for the first time without protective gear and a helmet. It was on that tour that I first felt the liberation of 2 wheels - wind in face, the freedom of the road. The ability stop anywhere, whenever, turnaround easily. I always remember thinking to myself that on a bike I experience the world as it is, every change in temperature, every insect, every bump, I feel it, unmediated. I was hooked. 

As a young fella I had some early mental health trauma and even then, as a teenager on the Aegean, the bike was more than transport. It was the only place the noise in my head stopped. While I felt the early pressure to follow a 'proper' life - work and 2.4 children, that two-stroke engine offered a temporary escape from a world that already felt like a tight fit - a non-stop pressure cooker.

From that Greek holiday there have been very few years of my life where I have not owned a motorbike and it has not been my main form of daily transport. 

Speed, Chrome, and the European Detour

At 26 I bought my first big adventure trail bike - the Triumph Tiger 900. At the time the big trail bike category was still relatively small - the BMW GS1100 was around and the Africa Twin and Tenere but many of the newer models were yet to emerge. 

On the Tiger I toured many places in England, Scotland as well as a trip to the north of France. I loved the loved the Tiger - it gave me leg room that sports bikes didnt and the grunt of the triple engine was awesome on long journeys, easily pulling away and cruising on motorways in the UK at 100mph (160kph). Selling this bike was hard as I really enjoyed riding it - but I wanted more power at the time. 

Later in my 20s I continued touring in Europe on my Honda Blackbird (below). At the time this bike was the fastest production bike on the road, capable of speeds of 160mph (the first to break the 300kph barrier). But what really stood out about the Blackbird is how capable it was of doing speed. It is a genuine touring bike. In the picture below I had just arrived in Aberystwyth, Wales after an exhilarating ride from London in around 4 hours. Let’s just say the average speed was not something I would do today.

I sold the Blackbird because I thought I would die on it. There were plenty of things to die from back then and I didnt need another. Maybe I was using the bike as a means of overtaking the life I couldnt keep up with….I'd started studying for Masters a then Doctoral degrees in pretty poor mental health, with very little money, working part-time to fund my studies, the pressure was intense. 

The Sledgehammer and the Scalpel

If you could get two more different bikes at a similar size, next I bought a Suzuki Bandit 1200. The Suzuki was more a daily get around bike for me, although I did a fair bit of touring around the UK in the few years I had it. They are very capable touring bikes, just lack a 6th gear and I never got round to putting a screen on mine which didnt really worry me, I dont mind the wind in my face, that’s riding! I think the Bandit probably had the best gear box of any large bike Ive ridden, aside from the fact it could do with a 6th gear. Such an underrated bike for the money. Suzuki through and through. Value.

I'd got a lucky break after completing my studies and scored a job in London. It was very high pressure working for a Member of Parliament and in PR, then for a policy think tank, all suited up. The money was good, but the pressure was building and I felt like I was doing work completley against the grain of who I was and my values, but it wasnt as simple as just give it in. Somehow I got promoted and became CEO before I knew it and in the same period meet my soon to be wife. The pieces seemed to be fitting together at the same times as they were falling apart.

American Iron: The Florida Keys

Before I moved to Australia in 2011 my then wife and I Melissa (sadly it didnt work out) were in the States a fair bit as she was based in Fort Lauderdale. We took some time out and hired a Harley to ride from Miami to Key West - a seriously spectacular journey down via the Florida Keys.

Of course going to the hire shop in Miami I was like a kid in a candy shop and there was no way I was riding out with anything less than the biggest bike in the shop. I’d wanted to ride an Electra-Glide since I was a kid - and this was the chance. The ride was amazing, music blasting on the stereo, huge levels of comfort from the plush leather of the Electra-Glide Classic 1600 and only a waffle house and stunning sunsets between us and an amazing hotel right on the tip of Key West. 

Far North Queensland - a New Home?

When I l moved to Australia in 2011, first to Port Douglas, I had given up my job. Mel and I flew into Cairns and for me living in Port Douglas represented that huge sea change I needed - to get my life back, re-visit my values and re-assess my priorities. 

We spent an amazing year in Port Douglas, married at St Mary’s Church, living with Mel’s wonderful parents and then looking after a house for a couple up on the hill overlooking the Coral Sea. But ultimately Mel wasn’t happy living in Port Douglas and we decided that in the interim she would go back to work on a yacht for 6 months, while I would get a job in a similar area to what I had worked in in the UK - moving to Sydney. It was a really hard move for me, I loved Far North Queensland and it was very painful to move away from a quiet life back to a corporate office one. 

Once in Sydney, I bought a Yamaha XJR1300. Very similar to the Suzuki Bandit. The Yamy just has a bit more presence and street cred due to its size, bigger tank and rear tyre. The Yamaha allowed me to explore Sydney in a bit of style and get out to see a bit of NSW without being so bound by being in a car which drives me nuts. I hate being in cars! It's very rare. I had secured a job with the NSW Government in central Sydney and would ride to work most days across the Harbour Bridge. 

The Fighter Jet with No Soul

My second bike in Australia was the big BMW GS1200 Adventure Black. Of course the lineage of this bike is very well known dating back to the original GS R80 introduced in 1980 and its latter model the 1100 famously ridden by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Borman on the Long Way Round - that inspired many adventure bike riders worldwide. I’d wanted one of these since the Tiger but it was always too expensive so when I found one at an amazing price I snapped it up. It gave me the chance to tour some big chunks of NSW - down to the Victoria borders and all the way across to Mildura and Broken Hill. 

The Bike is jaw dropingly good. It wasn’t until just before I sold it that I found time to go through all the menus and options and that’s kind of the point. It’s too good. It’s a bit like going out for dinner and having someone eat the dinner for you and not having the chance to give them a slap before they run off. Of course, with all the rain modes and traction control and ABS etc etc, you can choose what to have on or off, but at the end of the day - I dont care about any of that. I just want to ride. It sounds almost stupid to be ridiculing safety featuring and comfort etc because the bike is probably the most comfortable of literally hundreds of bikes ive ever sat on. I’t’s like being in the cockpit of a fighter jet. But, again, I don’t care, I don’t want or need any of that. The BMW was a masterpiece of engineering, but it felt like a filter between me and the road. My life had become too convoluted; I didn't need more menus and modes. I needed to get back to the raw, unmediated connection I felt as a kid in Greece. I just want to ride and be free. And that sums bmws - for me. Don’t get me wrong, if a bike has load of soul but is useful I won’t want to be anywhere near it, but there has to be a balance, right?

By the time I was a Director in Sydney, I had achieved everything the world told me I should want. But the truth is, I had been running on a treadmill since I was young, fueled by a corporate expectation I never truly chose. The BMW was the ultimate 'mask'—a high-tech, expensive machine for a high-tech, expensive life. But beneath the surface, I was cracking. You can only ignore your own nature for so long before the engine seizes. Something had to give.

Kreng Jai and the Hills of Asia

I’ve visited Thailand probably 5 times in the last ten years and hope to go back soon. I don't drink or care much for the party side of things. Nowadays I'm about Muay Thai and love the culture, kindness and humility of Thais. After dating a Thai lady for a few years and getting to understand Thai culture a bit I could only want more.

North Thailand in particularly, away from some of the really busy tourist areas has some of the best biking regions in Asia in my opinion. I spent a month in the hills between Chiang Rai and Pai on this Kawasaki Versys exploring the beautiful countryside. The Thai people are so welcoming and friendly and Thai food it my favourite in the whole world so I’m always happy when I’m there. 

I rate these little Versys. I've not tried the bigger ones yet, but the 600 was good enough. Decent power, very light and nimble. Definitly not much use off-road but in Thailand anything with a bit of clearance and suspension is better than the average scoopy scooter and will get you 90 per cent of places no problem. To use a heavier bike would be asking for trouble as soon as the terrain gets seriously muddy. It just turns into a lifting competition. How many times do you want to lift your bike, 600 or 1200? I go 600 every time.

Some of the aspects of Thai culture fascinate me. Whilst in the west our whole way of being tends to revolve around individualism, in Thailand the idea of Kreng Jai is central to the way most Thais act day-to-day. It’s quite hard to translate literally but it is a mix of consideration, deference, and reluctance to impose. Often seen as a mindset, or a way of thinking that reflects a desire not to inconvenience or embarass other people. This can play out in interesting ways ways in Thai life as Thai people can often be influenced by Kreng Jai  - a deep awareness of how ones actions affect others - which is often something lacking in western people. Once understood, it provides a great way to be able to connect at a new level with Thai people. 

I also had the opportunity to tour Vietnam and from Hanoi have explored much of the north to Halong Bay and the Chinese Border all on this Honda CRF300. Great bikes for what they are but far too small for my height and weight and luggage. I was only hire this bike from the location I was at or lose a day so figured I would just do a few hours each day and relax at small family hotels when I was tired. It worked out ok. I speak a small amount of French and the Vietnamese people especially outside of the business central areas of Hanoi are lovely and helpful. My intention one day is to return to travel down to Ho-chi-min. 

Living in Australia for the past ten year I’ve had a few different Harley’s and these have taken me on some great memorable routes. Here are a couple of them.

The crack finally became a break. I walked from office life when my PTSD flared up and moved back to Far North Queensland, ending up homeless in a van during the peak of the wet season. It was brutal, humid, and humbling. But in that silence, stripped of the title and the corporate armor, I realised I didn't need to be 'The Director.' I just needed to be me. And 'me' belongs on a bike in the bush.

The Mandatory Entry Fee: Captain Cook Highway - the gateway to the Daintree Rainforest and the road to Cape York

The Captain Cook Highway  - Cairns to Port Douglas - this is my home to work commute and one of the most beautiful roads in the world, just stunning every day! If you're planning a trip to Australia, this 60km stretch of bitumen between Cairns and Port Douglas is the mandatory entry fee. It’s where the rainforest meets the reef, and on a Harley, it’s pure cinema.

That’s the ride so far. From 160mph on English motorways to the humid hills of Cairns. But all those Ks led me to a realisation: the further I want to go into the bush, and the deeper I want to go into my own recovery, the simpler the machine needs to be. I don't need a fighter jet cockpit anymore. I need a 'Bush Pig.'

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