Of Jupiters Travels and my travels.

I've been seriously thinking about selling my motorbike over the last few months. I really like it and enjoy riding it a lot but over the last year or so I just haven't been using it enough to really justify keeping it.
In 2008 when the bike was less than a year old I rode it up the west coast of Scotland, taking in some of the stunning scenery and roads and camping out wherever I felt like stopping. It was a great trip and I envisaged doing more trips in a similar vein in future (the outer Hebrides was to be my next target).

Unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way. I've toured all over Europe on my various bikes over the years but this bike is better suited to smaller roads such as those in Scotland or possibly the west of Ireland.
My plan had been to wait until Spring (when people start looking for a bike for the summer and the market picks up) then see if I could sell it.
At Christmas when I was down at my Dad's house in Yorkshire I borrowed his copy of "Jupiter's Travels". This is a book written by a journalist called Ted Simon. He jacked in his job in 1974 and set off (on his own) to ride around the world on a Triumph T100, he's been travelling on and off ever since. The book documents his adventures, it's also the book that inspired Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman to do their Long Way Round trip. I've always meant to read it after I'd read about it in their book and after hearing my Dad mention  it.
 I'm about two thirds of the way through it now and it's a great read, it's not really a bike book, just a book about traveling (he just happens to be on a bike). It's also a lot about Ted Simon discovering things about himself through the hardships and elation of his experiences. There's much more substance to it than Ewan and Charlie's books, it's less superficial.

Most of the rides I've done recently have been with my friend Pat who has an old Suzuki GSXR 600. The problem with this is that Pat's bike is a sportsbike, it works best on open fast roads with sweeping bends, my bike is a supermoto which works best on narrow, tight twisty roads. We've had some great runs but it's always a compromise to find common ground for our respective bikes.

Pat has however just put his bike on ebay so that he can sell it and put the money towards something similar to my bike.
All of a sudden with the prospect of having someone else to ride with on the roads that I love and after reading Ted Simon's brilliant musings I'm not quite so sure that I want to sell my bike!!!!!!