I Bought a 2024 Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro To Fulfill a Dream as an Older Rider

You ever buy something aspirationally? You hope by making a sizable investment in something, like a gym membership or a parachute, it'll push you to do something out of your comfort zone? Anyway, I bought myself a new Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro. This isn't a motorcycle review, so don't bail on me quite yet. If you're here for a motorcycle review, well, the 2024 Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro is outstanding in just about every way. It's capable, it's fast, I think it's sexy as hell, and it's got every creature comfort you might want, including a heated pillion seat. I don't need to heat any pillions, so I'll probably just use that to keep my takeout nice and warm. One thing about the Tiger 900 Rally Pro, it's big. It's huge. I mean, it's like mounting a small horse. Except this is a very expensive horse with more, well, it's got a lot of horsepower, is what I'm saying. It's certainly not the biggest bike out there. I rode the Triumph Rocket 3 a few months back, and while not very tall, it's about the size of an angry hippo, and it sort of rides like one too. The thought has crossed my mind that maybe this Tiger is too much bike for this older rider. I'm only 5'10", or 178 centimeters, and I'm shrinking by the day, probably. But this isn't a very difficult bike to ride. In fact, it's pretty damned easy, and it's smooth, and it's fun. It's not like my Scrambler, but more like an expensive turbocharged minivan. The point of having this bike in my garage, though, is not to channel my inner soccer mom. It's to travel long and far, on roads and on dirt, in rain, in mud, in blistering heat, in bone-chilling cold. In the Pacific Northwest, we call that March. As I mentioned in a previous video, my dream for quite some time has been to ride across America on a motorcycle, and while I could do that on my Scrambler, hell, I could have done that on my Vespa, I wanted something that was purpose-built for the job. I wanted there to be few, if any, limitations on where I could go, and the Tiger 900 Rally Pro accomplishes exactly that. So last week, I said goodbye to my beloved Vespa and traded old Gwyneth in for Lily. I'll miss the Vespa, but truth be told, it had been doing a lot of sitting around since the Scrambler came to town, so it's best someone else enjoy that fine Italian craftsmanship. In other words, it's someone else's problem now. I kid, I kid. I've only had the Tiger for about a week, and it's already back at the dealership getting its 600-mile first service. Even though I'm said to whine and complain a lot, they cut me some slack and made some room for me to get this done early. Sometimes, the squeaky wheel gets the service. Or something. I just bitch a lot, is what I'm saying. I leave in June. Ugh, that feels so good to say out loud. I leave in June. I'm riding from Oregon to Massachusetts. If all goes as currently planned, I'll actually be leaving Newport, Oregon and riding exactly one road the whole way to Kenmore Square in Boston. U.S. Route 20. The longest road in the country. Go ahead and ask me what I know about Route 20. Well, it's called Route 20, and it's the longest road in the country. That's really it so far. Is that enough to plan an entire, maybe three-week road trip around? I've done an extraordinarily minimal amount of research so far, but the idea of leaving Newport and landing in Kenmore Square makes my heart race. Kenmore Square is where I spent countless nights as a college student stumbling drunk in search of something, pretty much anything, to eat. It's a place that helped define my 20s. Now, thanks to so many encouraging comments on my riding alone video, plus support from my wife, a co-worker or two, my good friends and so on, I'm feeling quite good about my decision to cross the country on a motorcycle. I realize many have done this before, and I'm not defining a new genre of riding here. I'm not itchy boots. But it's a huge step for me. And like a lot of you, I bet, I'm not exactly brimming with confidence in myself, my riding abilities or my stamina. But what I do have, in spades, is a whole can of, I don't give a shit anymore. I guess that comes with age and being a dumb guy. So starting now, I'm officially planning my once-in-a-lifetime adventure across the country on a Tiger 900. Tomorrow, I'm heading out to look at panniers, because let's put that aforementioned horse right in front of the cart. I have a bit of a gear problem, if I'm being honest. I'm up to about 40 riding jackets, 27 boots. I lost one in a recent incident I can't talk about for national security reasons. I've got more gloves than this city has hands. Oddly, I've only got one adequate set of riding pants and zero luggage for the new bike. I'll need tools. I'll need rain gear. I'll probably need a bike cover, a lock, and a double barreled shotgun or something. Maybe just pepper spray. Also, and this can't be overstated, I need to get my ass in shape. The most I've ridden in one day is somewhere between 400 and 500 miles. The most I've ridden in one adventure is about 1,000 miles. I'm not 100% sure because I'm not one of those folks that counts miles as a badge of honor. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but I'm just ADHD and don't have the attention span to care so much. What's much more important to me than collecting miles is collecting stories, so I'm planning to document the entire trip here on my channel. I'm sure I'll have many stories to tell, and I'm already dying to share them with you, but I'm going to need some help. I'm not starting a Patreon or anything like that. I'm not going to start some super fancy fan club on YouTube that promises exclusive content and so on. What the hell kind of content would I offer that would be exclusive? Oh, here's me making eggs. Marvelous. I'm looking for brands to reach out to, brands that I, and we as a community of older riders, respect and trust. I'll be asking these companies to support this adventure in any way they can, but also, I refuse to sell out and start making long, boring product review videos. I think any company worth their salt would understand that. I have a few questions for you as viewers, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments or via email about what you think, but let me preface all of this by saying two things. One, Bugmoto is a very small channel in the scheme of things, and I have no delusions of grandeur here. I'd be lucky to get any sort of support. And two, I don't want to start peddling products to you, especially ones I don't 100% support. I've put a lot of work into this channel so far, and I'm not about to alienate my subscribers by treating them as a commodity. It's not my style, not my interest. I have a nice day job, so I'm not in it for the money. So my questions are, if my travel videos included sponsor support, would that turn you off? If I used to briefly mention certain products that are great, would you see that as an ad? Would it cheapen the content, or would it in some way enhance it? And do you know anyone in the industry that might be interested in what this channel is doing? I'm in this to tackle something I've wanted to do for quite some time, and I'm really hoping that by doing it, it'll inspire you to do something similar. Do you have dreams of riding across America or, you know, somewhere sane? Are you almost there in your head but need just a bit of a push? That's what I'm hoping to do with these stories on this trip. I'd love nothing more than to hear all of you say, hey, I watched your videos. They were pretty bad, but still, now I want to do an adventure of my own. That's it. That's the plan. The plan is to plan, do a thing, tell stories about said thing, and inspire you to go out and make your own stories. Help me by engaging with the channel, by offering up travel ideas and sponsorship ideas, putting me in touch with your uncle that works at Moscow Moto or something. I'm not looking for your money, just your enthusiasm, maybe your connections, or just your tepid support. I'm off to pack my parachute and get ready for this leap as soon as I get home from the gym.