The Endless Ride
The Endless Ride
UP FRONT
David Edwards
BOB AUBURN CAME LATE TO HIS MID-LIFE crisis, and when it arrived he did not even have the good sense to assuage it with the implantation of hairplugs, the purchase of an expensive sports car or the procurement of long-legged beauties in high-hemmed skirts.
No sir. In 1989, Auburn-then 60 years of age-bought himself a shiny red motorcycle and went for a ride. He did not come back for five years.
Five years, 51 counties and 165,000 miles, to be exact.
Wanderlust comes easy for Auburn. In 1960, he and wife Marion loaded up a patched-together Cessna 180 with camera equipment, their 70pound standard poodle Beau Pierre, a fold-up Honda 55, and hop-scotched the Caribbean making a film about flying. Shown on a New York TV travel show, their film proved so popular that the couple’s life course for the next 15 years was set: Fly and film for six months a year, edit and show for the next six. With sponsorship from Beech Aircraft, Bob and Marion hit the lecture circuit to spread the gospel of general aviation, much the same as film-maker Bruce Brown did for surfing and motorcycling, and Warren Miller did for skiing.
But in 1976, Marion unexpectedly died of an aneurysm. Grief-stricken, Bob gave up flying and exiled himself to the deserts of the Middle East, where he whiled away a decade shooting photos and writing articles for an oil-industry magazine.
Semi-retired and back in California, Auburn found himself “bored to tears; it was killing me,” and decided what he needed was an extended motorcyele ride.
“Motorcycles are the last great adventure for the average guy,” he says. “And everyone who ever rode says to himself at one time or another, ‘God, would I like to ride this thing around the world.’I decided to roll.”
Armed with a new Honda Magna 700 and 132 pounds of gear, Auburn did just that. Along the way, he shot photos and compiled information for a book about his adventure. Titled The Endless Ride, the self-published $39.95 paperback is available in select Honda dealerships, some bookstores or direct from Auburn (P.O. Box 10044, Newport Beach, CA 926580044; 714/760-3873). Liberally illustrated with 312 National Geographicquality photos and with a minimum of narrative, the 438-page book is more slide-show than travelogue, but is a great thumb-through for any erstwhile world traveler.
Should you actually embark on such a journey, Endless Ride has a clever feature that could prove invaluable: a 19-language parts-and-service phrasebook that covers common motorcycle maladies (“Can you charge my battery?” “Do you have octane booster?” “I need a tubeless-type front tire.”) The idea for the phrasebook was driven home one snowy morning in Athens, when the Magna suffered a dead battery.
“After pushing the Honda into a garage, I began to wave my arms wildly, jumping up and down, cómbining theater, diplomacy and philosophy while shouting ‘Jumper cables!”’ Auburn recalls. “Every time I stopped for breath, the four Greek mechanics smiled and applauded.”
Auburn had few mechanical difficulties during his 165,000 miles on the road, though like any good pilot, he practiced preventive maintenance, choosing to replace parts before they wore out. The Honda’s starter motor was swapped twice, even though it gave no problems.
“There’s no kickstarter on the bike,” Auburn says, “ever try to push-start a Magna in the Sahara Desert?”
At a stopover in India, with 83,000 miles showing on the bike’s odometer, Auburn had the Honda distributor tear the V-Four down as a precaution. “They said it was the cleanest-looking engine they’d ever seen,” Auburn reports. “I changed the oil religiously every 3000 miles, which sometimes wasn’t all that easy-in Portugal, a quart of oil costs $18! I’ve still got the Magna. It’s on its original driveshaft and runs like a clock. I rode it just this morning,” he adds.
During his five-year sojourn around the planet, Auburn spent $71,000, which included the bike, parts and service; ocean shipping and air freight; airline tickets; and cost of living (about $800 a month). That’s less, he figures, than the cost of staying home.
“Accommodations are your single biggest expense, so you camp. I wore out three tents,” Auburn says. “In campgrounds, you meet all kinds of people; you have a camaraderie. You tell them where you’ve been-the refueling stops, road problems, etc.-and they tell you. It’s better than any road map; 24 hours earlier, this guy was there.”
Food was less of a problem than anticipated.
“Pasta,” Auburn explains. “Everybody worldwide eats pasta. It’s the cheapest thing you can get. You carry your pasta, water and a couple of cans of tomato paste. And there’s always somebody at the campground with some wine or an extra bottle of beer.”
Auburn’s advice to those of us who envy his globe-trotting escapades, but are too mired in mortgage payments, career tracks or child-rearing to chuck it all for five years?
“You may not be able to go around the world. But you can go to Mexico or travel the Alcan Highway. That’s a start,” he says.
Auburn himself sees Endless Ride as just a start, a work-in-progress. Currently on a country-wide promotional tour, he’s already making plans for additional chapters based on threeor four-month excursions to select locations around the world.
“I could do this for the next 20 years,” he says. “And when my number comes up, I’ll be very pleased to be with my wife and my big furry dog.”
Don’t count on Bob Auburn’s demise any time soon, however. He has too many rides to take. □
