Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

Grant and Susan Johnson have created THE place to be if adventure motorcycling - around your neighbourhood or around the world - is your thing. I've been hanging around that place since 2001 under the nick "Indu". I also maintain a column on country information for motorcycle travellers coming to Norway.  

There are tons of useful information at HU. One of the most useful features is the Horizons Unlimited Bulletin Board - the HUBB - where you can ask all the questions you like and get answers from seasoned motorcycle adventurers. But please make a search on the site first - your question has probably been posed before.

© Grant and Susan Johnson, 1987-2008

GuzziTech is a comprehensive collection of technical tips, hints and tricks from Guzzi riders all over the world. Plus a couple of goodies. If you're a Guzzisti, this site is great.  "Ask Guzzi Earl" is worth a read even if you're not...

© GuzziTech.com, 2001-2008

© Greg Bender

Greg Bender maintains an extremely good site for us Guzzisti as well as antique tractor enthusiasts. His know-how of Guzzi Quotas is probably unsurpassed, especially with regard to the newer Quota 1100 ES. A great source for Quota and Guzzi know-how. 

If you are barely interested in motorcycles, but want to keep on riding into the future, becoming member of your national motorcyclists' organisation should be mandatory. There are too many forces trying to get at us motorcyclists, and these guys are the only one fighting for our rights on a local, national and international level.

If you're a Norwegian motorcyclist, this is the organisation you should be a member of, the Norwegian Motorcyclists' Union (NMCU):

© NMCU

If you're European, click here to find one of your national organisation.

(Riders from Northern Ireland should pay particular attention to Write to Rider - Right to Ride)

In the US, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation is a lobbying organisation with connections to the international motorcycle community, working even on an international level to promote and protect US rider's interests. Click here for more info.

In Canada, the Motorcyclists Confederation is promoting and protecting rider's interests. MCC also have ties to other motorcyclist's organisations all over the world. Click here to learn more.

Australian riders have the Australian Motorcycle Council to promote and protect their interests. Click here to learn more.

Ski, which in this case is the name of the municipal in which I live, has its own motorcycle club, SMCK. These guys are my homies, counting some 45 more or less active members. I have a lot of fun with them, doing everything from touring to partying. We meet up on Tuesdays at a local pub, where also potential new members can meet us. We're not an excluding gang. If you ride, live in Ski and want someone to hang out with, you're welcome into SMCK.
The site is in Norwegian only.

Carl Parker has extensive riding experience from China where he used to live and work. His stay there "forced" him to use Chinese small displacement motorcycles with names that still are quite unfamiliar to us: QingQi, Lifan, Shineray, Zongshen etc. And quite frankly, Chinese bikes have a reputation that is so-and-so. However, it seems that things are a-changing, and the Chinese manufactureres seems to be putting out machines with ever better quality. I am also a great fan of bikes that are affordable and easy to get to. Carl's ChinaMoto-pages gives you a very interesting insight in another world - both geographically, bike-wise and perhaps mind-wise - that is worthwhile to pay attention to.

 
© Carl Parker

© Giuseppe Lombardo

Now THIS is a page you want to visit if you're into motorcycle adventure. Carla King (US) has traveled extensively on motorcycle and even done China on a Chang Jiang sidecar. Her chronicles are extremely good reading as her writing style is very entertaining. Carla King's Motorcycle Misadventures is a must for any motorcycle addict!

The Illuminati Guzzisti pages are not for the faint hearted. This is where the sharper pens and minds (...) of the international Guzzi community hone their rhetoric skills. The forum crew is primarily made up of Guzzisti who have been exiled from other motorcycle related forums due to their inclination to discuss politics, religion, imperialism and fine wines - topics that are normally banned in other motorcycle forums. In this one, however, such discussions are not only welcome but also encouraged. I only recently discovered it, and in no time it has become one of my favourite forums.