The Next Big Adventure Revealed… Van Life to Adventure Motorcycles

Today we are making a decision that is going to change our lives and we are just praying that it's going to be for the better. Myself and Mitch have been traveling now since 2019. This was when we decided to stop our process of buying a house and move everything we own into two backpacks. Fast forward a year of travel, van life in Australia, a pandemic, a house sale and two different vans exploring Europe. I feel like these last five years we've learned a lot about what we want to get out of our short lives on this planet, which is what has led to this decision today. Now there's one time in the past five years that we reminisce about more than anything else, a time that had us in our element and the one time we felt truly connected with traveling and that was when we decided to bike the length of Vietnam. The feeling of freedom we had riding through that country is something that we've been craving ever since we left. Now don't get me wrong we love van life and it'll always hold a special place in our hearts but I think van life encourages you to slow down and travel relaxed and right now we're sort of just craving the opposite. Eventually me and Marfa will be traveling around on motorbikes but eventually being the defining word. I'll give a bit of backstory of how we've got to this because I feel like we need it for the story. Since we got back to the van at the start of this year me and Marfa have been talking about ways that we can liven up our travel because I feel like we need it at the minute and for a while we've been talking about riding on motorbikes and the way that we were originally planning on doing it was for Marfa to be sat on the back of the bike with me and just being a pillion and us traveling around like that until Marfa just came out with a random statement which was Why don't I learn to ride a bike too? And I think she said that a bit of a joke and I said well why not and I said think about it for a few days and give me a decision and well obviously we've made that decision because we're back at home now for Marfa to learn how to ride a Which is very scary and we're going to take you along the whole process. It's not going to be a very quick process but one that I think will pay off in the long term because then it means we can both travel and I can get that enjoyment of riding which you don't really get as much when you're a pillion on the back. I feel like I've tried and tested that and I just seem to get a numb arse and that's about it so I think doing that will be so much more enjoyable for us both Yeah so we have a short and a long-term plan. The short-term plan being for Marfa to pass a full bike test which we think is going to take around a month and then once she passes a full test it's for us to travel around with this van with a box trailer on the back with two bikes on the back of it and the bikes that I'm talking about aren't road bikes we're on about doing this off-road style. Yeah I need to get a lot of off-road practice which is why we want to keep the van and it'll be very nice because then we can travel to really nice places in the UK and then have a nice shower and heating because it's really cold in the UK all the time so that'll be a good like in-between I think. So for however long it takes Marfa to become comfortable riding off-road on a bike is how long pretty much that we're going to be still in the van. Once that comes to a close we've got a couple of trips in mind that we'd like to do a few of them being from North America or Canada all the way to the bottom of South America from where we're sitting now to South Africa or going back on ourselves and going all the way across Europe and over into Turkey but these are very far down the pipeline. Very big plans but a lot to do beforehand. But it's looking like we will have to sell the van at some point to fund that trip. Yeah which is a hard decision to make but one that we will I think try out with even a Europe trip as well before we fully go all in as you guys know we like to just be very impulsive and just kind of go straight in don't we? Yeah like full head first so we're trying to be a bit more sensible with a decision like this. So in this video you'll see a bit of the progress I'm hoping and see how Martha gets on it's a it's gonna be a lot. Yeah wish me luck. So today is the day that I'm about to go take my bike theory test and now that we're here I'm a little bit nervous. You'll be fine. So I only booked it less than a week ago so I'm not feeling 100% but hopefully it all goes well. We'll find out. You're gonna be fine. Okay. Here she is. Oh my god I'm shitting it. What do you reckon? That was really hard. Really? Yeah none of the questions that I knew were on there. It's asking me about trailers and everything for motorbikes. I didn't even know you could have a trailer. I don't even know if that was a trick question I've not looked. Do you reckon you're fast? No. And on the hazard perception I think I missed one because it made me jump. I was that close to the screen and it made me jump. I'm really nervous I don't want to look. Do you want me to tell you? Yeah. Do you want to read? No. You have to open the thing. Yeah you've pissed it. Oh. Not even close. Oh thank god. Oh I was so nervous. Well done Moff. 47 out of 50. That's less than my call on there. Awesome. Not even close. In between this time we have been searching for the perfect bikes for this process and managed to drop on two beauties that we will show you in a little bit. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm about to go do my CBT training which if you don't know it's like your compulsory basic training. Yeah. Where you have to do this before you can legally ride a bike on the road. So I'm going to learn everything today and I'm going to go on the road by the end of it and then hopefully get a certificate and then I can just tootle on on my little bike afterwards. You're saying it like you're going to pass. Are you that confident? Yeah no I'm not. I'm really not that confident but I've got to be because if I go in there scared then it won't be good. I'll panic. So I need to be confident and ready. I've got my got my armour on. I've got my helmet. I've kind of got half the gear and then I'm wearing walking boots. But let's see how this goes. You'll smash it. All right wish me luck. As you can tell we've brought the van up with us today and that's because I'm going to be sat here all day editing videos but the problem is I think I'm going to be very distracted because just outside the window is where Martha's going to be doing her training. I'll try and get a bit of footage of her doing her training and see what happens throughout the day but we didn't want to like go over there and start recording and being all awkward and also put more pressure on Martha. I wanted to try and do as best as possible today. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I met the instructor and the other lad who was going to be doing the training today and he'd already been riding a bike for two years so he was going to make me look really crap. Great. If you can't already tell I'm pretty sure and that's something that's going to make this a lot harder to learn. To begin with I was actually doing pretty well even if I was a little bit wobbly. There's Valentino Rossi. Stopping and starting going around in circles I was thinking ah this isn't too bad until it came to doing the u-turns. No matter what I did I just couldn't get my brain to work correctly. I knew that I could do it there was just the mental block stopping me. Quite a bit of time has passed and I've just been sat watching her this whole time. She seems to be doing okay. Well she looked like she was doing better at the start but now it seems like she's got in her head a little bit. We'll see what she says about it. At some point today she's got to go out on the road so he's got to be comfortable for her to go out on the road. She's coming over now so we'll see what she's got to say. He was like I'm not going to take you out on the road but I'm a bit like this with you. Is that what he said? Yeah. Come in and sit. Oh Mitch I'm having a wobble. You look like you're doing okay to me. Have you seen that cone? I knocked that. Yeah I know I saw you knock that over. I'm just having a bit of a wobble. I'm just getting in my head so much. I know I've literally just said to the camera it looked like you were doing better at the start and now you've got in your head a bit. That's exactly the case. I was like when I was going around there and I was like I literally just did this like an hour ago and then now I'm in my head so much about like. It looks to me like you're going a little bit too slow when you're letting yourself wobble too much. Yeah. Just try and clear your head. I know. You got really chill. Yeah like the guy I'm with he was saying how because I've got road experience he was the other way and didn't have, he doesn't have his license, car license. He's like well you know how the road works so you'll be fine once you're out on the road. Yeah I think you'll be fine you just got to clear your head. Yeah I think it's because I can't do this again. Look at me. I've been laughing at you so much. Not in a bad way it's just like you I can just, I know exactly how your brain works so I've just been like watching you and just like hearing your brain. I'm getting so annoyed with myself. Yeah. God I hope she manages to sort herself out. She does this a lot with stuff Martha does. She knows that she's capable but she winds herself up in her head so now she just needs to be able to like get herself back wound down, get out on the road and just ride like she knows that she can. I really hope she goes out there and she does fine because it will set her back if she doesn't do that. I have confidence that she can sort herself out. She's got to spend two hours out on the road on that bike as well so if she makes any like big mistakes when she's out there the bloke's gonna bring her back and basically she won't get a CBT. So fingers crossed she manages to do it. Off she goes. God I hope she's okay. I've been stood up for the past half an hour because I can't just keep sitting with the window because every single car or bike that I hear coming past I'm checking to make sure it's not Martha coming back early. Oh man I'm a mess. She's laughing and smiling I'm hoping to god that's a good sign. That was the longest two hours ever. How'd you get on? I did it. Oh well done Marv. We might have had to go somewhere else. This is due to my u-turn and I might have nearly curbed the bike on my u-turn but I've got it so I didn't care. Well done. Oh thank you. Oh man you had me stressing big time. I was stressed but I've got it and it's pretty. Yeah I'm so happy that that's over I'm so happy. I was literally like can we go back now I'd done my u-turn I was like can we go back he was like no we've got another 20 minutes but we're done I can't wait to get on my grom now. I just want my grom I was just riding that being like I want my grom. Her grom being the bike that's back at home which you haven't seen yet. Oh yeah. We'll get on to that. Well doesn't this look different? We are all suited and booted today and we're going to go out for a ride together and I'm excited I'm a little bit nervous now that we've got the cameras on us but it should be fun. We're just all here like this now all the gear and we thought we'd run you through our bikes because you haven't seen them yet so we're going to show you around before we actually hit the road. We're in very mish-mashed gear at the minute because we've got some bits on the way we're trying to buy stuff second hand at the minute because it's expensive it's very expensive and we've spent a bit of money recently yeah so I'll show you what we spent it on. So the way around that this is working is this is Martha's baby at the minute this is a shall we say a training bike yes with Martha not riding a bike before ever we needed to get her something that was very comfortable very low to the ground. You make it look you make it look tiny yeah Martha makes it look like a full-size bike. Just touch the floor comfortably I'm still in walking boots so don't judge there boots are on the way but yeah I love this little bike this is what I was missing when I was doing my test I wanted to be on this bike the other day and I couldn't so I'm glad I can now actually ride it legally yeah with her owl plates on and then the way around that things are working is this is also Martha's bike but this one's very big and very tall so she's got two bikes she's not even passed a bike test she actually had both of these bikes before she even did a CBT so what's basically happening is I'm riding this bike until Martha passes a test and then she's graduating onto the big bike and then I'm moving on to my own bike so to save us messing about with having three bikes on the go we've got this one here now so this is a Honda CRF 300L oh my god this is the Honda CRF 300L which is just like a dual sport bike and then Martha's bike over there is a Honda Grom or an MSX 125 so nothing too crazy but for the plans that we've got these should work pretty well I must admit I'm very excited to graduate onto this one but it does absolutely petrify me because it is massive and very different to this little guy but it's nice that Mitch is also getting to ride it as well as Mitch will be getting something similar so yeah there they are these are the two little guys that we're going to be on now we're going to hit the road we've got our helmets and everything so we're going to get gear back up please bear with us with the footage that we're going to get as you can see I've got a mount here yeah we've got two chin mounts on the way for the helmets so hopefully it'll be a lot better when them come this is the first time that we're using the mics so if the sound is crap yeah then that's a reason so we'll see it's all a test for us all we're all learning as we go at this point so bear with us yeah and we'll just get on the road right uh how do I turn on oh yeah we have actually been out on the bikes once already when we weren't recording and we decided that that was the best because Martha needed a bit of a confidence boost after a test she wasn't 100% happy with her riding after that so we've already been out for a couple of hours the other day and this is the second outing but how do you feel now Martha um there's a hill in a minute and I'm just getting ready for that I yeah I can't think until we're over this hill still got a lot of nerves yeah so we're going to take it nice and steady today on the way up to Bakewell which is just on the border of Peak District with the mission today that we're going to be oh oh my god yes yeah I didn't have to stop getting there right I'm all right now carry on with the mission to get a Bakewell tart for a pudding this week we're going to take the scenic route hopefully not get rained on and see what happens should be good right and I'm hoping that I'll just start to ease into it as you know the more riding that I do today um I found after we went out the other day that by the end of like the two hours that we were out for I was so much more comfortable so hopefully with practice it'll just carry on and I'll get better and better each time and the format that we're recording at the minute with a camera being on me and then Martha having it on her chest will hopefully eventually turn into it being a camera each on the handlebar and a camera each on the chin so we're two GoPros down at the minute and the reason for that is because I can't bring myself to press the buy now button so that's gonna have to happen soon we have also got intercom to talk between each other so hi Marth hi Mitch hi I won't take my hands off the handlebars okay so if it's just me talking a lot today it's because Martha's already stressed because she needs to concentrate so I'm hoping because I've set it up like this you might be able to see her a little bit behind me um I also need to concentrate I can't forget that but um yeah this is the exact reason why we didn't record the first time with her going out because having any other distraction is is not really worth it like Mitch just said I needed to concentrate on riding we really do apologize for how loud it is on the bike after looking back at the footage there's a clip of Mitch here yeah yeah we'll see and that just shows how much wind was coming up through the helmet so we've ordered something to try and combat that please bear with us while we get some teething problems sorted this is our third stop already we had this problem the other day as well we just found that we never actually got anywhere because we were just constantly stopping and pulling over Mitch can hear a rattle I don't know if you'll pick it up on this camera something is rattling at a certain revs that Mitch gets to and it just sounds like to me like something's in there I don't know like getting stuck I have no idea no no idea I can't see it I can only hear it yeah do you feel safe to carry on oh I am having a bit of a wobble right now um we just you can't even tell on camera but the wind's quite strong there's just some stronger gusts today and anyway I'm very right now and so the wind then just kind of took me towards the right hand side of the road um in nearly into a truck I mean it wasn't that dramatic but it's stop laughing Mitch sorry I'm sorry you're like you're a very dramatic person it was scary yeah I know I know this is my third time out on the road second time and I have to tell myself that it's okay it just it's just the first time I've had feeling of a bike taking me and the control yeah well you can control you can control the bike the same way you can control the car like if the wind's blowing you can turn against it yeah I know it's just oh my god it just took me by surprise and it's the first time I've had to like readjust myself oh do the little nod yay bye galley oh more pure funny watch for all these potholes on the left go to the left oh stop sign have to stop Mitch where are we going oh that way I keep telling Mitch that he needs to learn to ride correctly because I've still got a test to do so I don't want to pick up any of his bad habits I've got no bad habits yeah whatever I'm definitely changing gear a lot better than in my um cbt test me changing gears was like oh it was terrible it was just jolting everywhere wow this place is all nice it is really nice we got recommended to come this way um by some of my dad's friends we went down to the local pub last night to see my grandparents and we said about doing this trip today so they've given us a little bit of a route but as because of Mitch not having a phone mount we're just yeah navigating quite poorly but still it wouldn't be us if we weren't navigating poorly oh you're gonna get your knee down here Marth absolutely not did you get your gun you just didn't see it oh ah ******* hell what the hell was that oh shit what the hell he's chucking wheat everywhere why did I close my eyes I've got a ******* helmet on I'm such an idiot I closed my eyes that was like getting shot by pallets I think we go right don't we oh you can't no which way are we going here I don't know I think I'm going back on myself oh Mitch what oh no oh **** keep stalling oh I'm on a red light bye Mitch you're going left you're going left down here next to the post office yeah this is where we parked last time oh a guy's running across getting attacked by oh I'm driving on my own hello police don't kill anyone don't kill anyone don't kill anyone is it the first turn in Mitch yeah you're coming you're coming into this car where are you where are you here oh motorcycles look at us designated we're VIP parkers now you made it alive there we are all parked and chained up we've got to pay twice now because we're on two bikes just come on by on the same bike Mitch isn't having a good time right now I think it's a joke that you have to pay the same price for a car as you do a bike and then you've got to literally stick your ticket to the bike and you can't pay on card so you just have to run around getting change proper biker now aren't I I'm feeling like such a biker now here with the chips we've been able to find a little bench right by the river so we're just gonna sit here now and decompress I feel very rigid as well being in all this gear but I'm too hungry to take any of it off but we've made it can you guys please tell me in the comments if you're one of them people but if you're not happy with your food you'll tell them to try and get like your money back or different type of food because I think I'm changing with old age because this is one of them times where I really could just go in there and say that this is shite the peas are frozen cold and it's just made all the chips soggy so it's just like eating swamp on chips please tell them that I'm not actually over exaggerating no it's not it's yeah they've just put cold peas on top of hot chips so it's just made everything cold and mushy which I'm really sad about to be honest but I'll still not go back I'm still in my bride page of not complaining you reckon he'll take it out of my finger I don't really thought he was gonna have my finger I don't want to give it to the seagulls I friggin hate seagulls here are you have you well table mannered as well oh they're nice never getting chips from there again no one can tell me there's a better bar than the than a gold bar these are the best chocolate biscuits in the world no one can name another they're smaller look how small that is I can't because half of it's in your mouth we've got the bakewell tart for what we came for but it was £5.75 and we've gone with the one with icing on it which I don't think is a traditional one is it but this one is better in my opinion anyway so we've got one of them and now we're getting out of here because we haven't got enough hands free and I'm just getting a bit agitated I can't do this bike thing holding your helmet everywhere now we do have the footage of riding home but we can't put you through the torture of listening to the wind all the way back and look how ridiculous my angle was on the way back I'm trying to turn it on there we go oh my god do I look really silly I think I look really I think I look really silly with this so again we're sorry but we'll sort it for next time we've made it back in one piece and we just missed the rain which I'm very happy about it's just started raining now yeah so just came on here quickly before we finish this video to basically just ask for your help and give us some feedback of what you think of our plans of this future endeavor that we're going on any ideas we're open to it we're pretty much in real time now so we're filming this the week it's going out so yeah we're all ears and let us know how you think Martha's getting on I think she's doing very well considering today was her second or third big ride on a bike but if you have enjoyed it please make sure to give us a like and subscribe if you're not already and we'll catch you in the next one whatever that will be yeah who knows see you later