Motorcycle touring looks good from the outside.

We’ve all seen those great photographs from motorcycle tours. A bike parked in front of a dramatic mountain pass. A road disappearing into the distance. A coffee in a sunny square somewhere you couldn’t pronounce before you got there.

The sort of thing that makes you want to pack a bag, fire up the bike and go.

And, to be fair, those moments are real.

They just aren’t the whole story.

The reality behind motorcycle touring

What you don’t tend to see is the alarm going off before you’re properly awake.

The cold start. The faff with luggage. Checking the weather again, even though you checked it half an hour ago. Trying to remember where you put something you were certain you’d packed.

Then there’s the riding.

Hours in the saddle can be brilliant. They can also be a long time to be sitting in one position, especially when the weather turns, the roads become monotonous or you’re simply tired.

Some days you ride for hours and barely speak to anyone. You spend a lot of time alone with your thoughts. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need. Other times, your own head is not particularly good company.

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Touring with other riders

When you’re riding with other people, that’s another thing entirely. People ride differently.

They stop at different times. They have different ideas about pace, fuel, food and what counts as a reasonable day’s riding.

There are the little nuances of travelling together that never make it into a photograph.

The work behind the ride

And then there’s everything around the riding.

Planning the route. Finding somewhere to stay. Working out where you’re going to eat. Checking fuel stops. Changing the plan because the weather has turned, a road is closed or something has simply gone wrong.

There is always something.

Sometimes it’s minor. Sometimes it changes the entire day.

The unexpected is part of motorcycle touring, whether you planned for it or not.

Long days, early starts and fatigue

A lot of touring is also just being tired. Not dramatically tired. Not some great heroic struggle. Just tired in the ordinary, accumulated way that comes from early starts, long days and doing it all again tomorrow.

You arrive somewhere, unload the bike, find your room and realise you haven’t really stopped moving since breakfast.

And then you do it all again. None of this is particularly glamorous. But it’s part of why I love it.

Why I still love motorcycle touring

I ride an adventure bike because I like travelling.

I like the feeling of leaving home and gradually getting further away from it. I like the roads, the places, the small discoveries and the sense that the day might still take you somewhere you didn’t expect.

I even like some of the difficult bits. Not always while they’re happening. But afterwards, usually.

The reality is that motorcycle touring isn’t one long sequence of perfect roads and beautiful views.

It’s early mornings, tired body and mind, bad weather, awkward plans, missed turns, long silences and the occasional moment when you wonder why you thought this was a good idea.

Then, somehow, you find yourself doing it again. That probably says enough. The good bits are still good. Maybe better because they sit alongside everything else.

The long days. The fatigue. The planning. The uncertainty. The time alone. The people you travel with and all the little things that come with that.

You don’t have to pretend those parts aren’t there.

You can be tired, fed up, uncomfortable and still love being on the road. That’s probably the most honest version of motorcycle touring I know.

Yet, as I say, I still love it.

Even the bits you don’t see.

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