The bike has to do its job.

Shortly after retiring in 2011, Steven LeBlanc flew to the Netherlands to swap motorcycles with Danny, a man he had never met. Steven would ride Danny's Honda around Europe; Danny would ride his around the States. He found places to stay on Couchsurfing and is still friends with some of those hosts. That one trade became the habit: get a bike that works, write the friends on the list, go again.

He and his friend Irina bought a car in Bishkek and drove it across the 'Stans to Europe. He rode his own motorcycle from Colorado to Panama, crossed the Darién Gap by sailboat, and sold the bike in Buenos Aires when it was time to come home. Africa started on the ferry to Tangiers. Nigeria refused the visa at every embassy, so he flew the motorcycle to Cameroon. In Guinea the road was mud, rock, and water; he went down three times in two days, and every time someone was there in minutes. COVID stopped him at Tanzania. He got as far as Austria trying to return Danny's Honda to Amsterdam before the borders closed.

Four months circling Australia. East Africa later, in a safari truck, to finish what the pandemic cut short. Mongolia on pavement because time was short. A different rented motorcycle in each country of Southeast Asia when he couldn't bring his own. He keeps a GPS track of nearly everywhere he goes, and he is still writing. This site is the albums and maps he already made — 2,419+ real photos and 7 real GPS routes.

“I tend to be much more a practical rationalist. The bike has to do its job and do it well.”

Bye bye Bullet, India, 2014