TRAVERSE 7
EDITORIAL
TRAVERSE :
Enough With The Bullshit !
T he rise of the social media
influencer is a recent phenomenon when compared to the lifespan of the adventure rider and the motorcyclist in general and yet they have spawned an entirely new market , a genre , which is as perhaps disingenuous as that of the telemarketer or Nigerian Prince that needs one ' s help .
Attention grabbing headlines that forewarn of impending disaster that never eventuates , clickbait titles that drive a YouTube viewer to watch our favourites who itch to tell you that a certain country is full of the hard , the miserable , and the dangerous . Yet there is one other style of influencer that grinds even more .
An almost plague like force has started to emerge in recent years of the adventure rider who revels in displaying images of impossibly blacked out bikes , gear , and surrounds extolling virtues of riding the difficult , the remote , the dangerous all proven with an impossibly clean bike , and gear , suggesting that the background is bullshit and the bike hasn ’ t even taken a ride to Starbucks . What the hell is going on ?
It started with the Triple Black of the Bavarian kind and has spread to even the Japanese 700 named in the Tuareg language for desert , everything in between has fallen victim . And yet every genuine adventure rider knows even the most perfect of gravel roads cause grime that settles on a bike , and to keep anything black looking clean is near on impossible .
So , stop with the bullshit ! Impossibly clean bikes , and black ones at that , photographed on gravel , dirt , or mud , is as plausible as a manufacturers sales brochure press images . Keep it real and keep the bikes , and gear , doing what it was designed to do … to be ridden and used .
Read on to find real adventure riders influencing people to get out and ride , to explore , to get dirty , physically , and metaphorically … keeping it real ...
Leigh
TRAVERSE 7