Globetrotter

Globetrotter

ROUNDUP

An Italian’s journey around the world on Yamaha’s Super Ténéré

I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S EVERY GUY'S dream, but I know it's one of mine: chucking it all and hopping on a motor-cycle to travel the world. Some people actually have the nuts to do it, too. Take 36-year-old Italian globetrotter Davide Biga. He sold most of his belongings, found a few sponsors and said Ciao to friends and family.

I met Biga last summer at Cycle World's Newport Beach offices four months into his planned circumnavigation of the Earth aboard a Yamaha Super Ténéré. After leaving his home in Mondovi,

Italy, he’d headed north through France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, down through Finland and across Russia. Once he arrived at Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan, he took a ferry to South Korea, then crossed over to Japan to visit Yamaha Motor Company headquarters in Iwata. After that, it was onto a ship to Anchorage, Alaska, and the beginning of his North American leg. Once he crossed Canada, he rode down the East Coast of the U.S. to Florida, then headed west across the southern states on his way to Denver, up to Portland, down to San Francisco and into Southern California.

Despite thousands of miles on unimproved roads and even some hard wilderness trail, his closest brush with disaster didn’t have anything to do with his riding or the Super T. While crossing Siberia, he fell for an age-old trap, stopping to help a motorist who feigned distress with hood up and arms waving wildly for help. Just as he rolled to a stop, two club-wielding thugs leapt from the back seat! Fuckily, Biga hadn’t dismounted or shut off the engine, so he simply dumped the clutch and hightailed it out of there. Reflecting on the incident, he said he only stopped because the location was so remote that if someone actually needed help, they may not have seen another vehicle for hours.

By the time Biga reached CW, he’d covered some 43,000 miles. He commented that the U.S. was nice because most problems could be solved by a credit card! Ahead of him was Mexico, Central America, South America (where he was going to stay to watch the Dakar Rally starting in Argentina) and then another long boat ride to Africa. His initial plan there was to ride up the east coast, but due to instability in countries along his intended route, he now expects to disembark in Dakar, Senegal, and skirt up the west coast through Mauritania and into Morocco before heading back to Europe sometime this spring.

Biga says the Yamaha, loaded down like a third-world burro, has been a great choice for the journey. Modifications and additions include crash guards, off-road lights, a FeoVince exhaust system (far lighter than stock) and large aluminum sidecases with one-gallon gas cans strapped on the back of each. For additional storage, a large waterproof dry bag is lashed across the rear of the bike.

Because so much of his journey has been on dirt, Biga removed the fuse for the ABS to render it inoperative (there is no Off switch). Otherwise, the Ténéré is stock, has been dead-reliable and only required normal maintenance. And a whole bunch of knobby tires. —Blake Conner