DITCH THE GPS AND RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE
Getting lost on purpose has put me in front of some of the most beautiful scenery that Mother Nature has placed on this planet. The practice has put me on some of the most extraordinary riding roads I’ve ever had the pleasure to traverse. My only regret is that I hadn’t done more of this over the four decades that I’ve been in the saddle.
Yes, I have a GPS unit on my bike and I do use, to some extent, what I consider to be the greatest navigational resource available to motorcyclists. You can read about it in a previous blog post on the topic. It has earned a spot as one of the most popular features in the Roadcraft USA catalog.
The Heart of a Biker
Deep down inside, however, I feel compelled to ride my own rides. I regularly find myself getting lost on purpose. Maybe it’s the Easy Rider influence on my psyche. I’m at an age where Peter Fonda’s iconic film had more of an influence on my riding philosophy than, say, Sons of Anarchy. When Wyatt and Billy kickstarted their Panhead choppers to explore America they didn’t have cellphones on their handlebars displaying the kind of directions that are dolled out today by Google Maps and Waze. No. They were explorers. Adventurers. Free thinkers. It seemed to me like the right way to approach two-wheeling. Well…up until the movie’s distressing climax anyway.
Our heroes in Easy Rider were not the originators of this school of thought. The celebrated Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson, penned these immortal words back in the 1800’s:
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
Are You a Biker or Not?
One of the things that attracted me to the motorcycling lifestyle was its autonomous nature. Bikers are supposed to be independent thinkers. Self-governing. The kind of men and women who eschew compliance to the expectations of others. It’s almost a rebellious act to practice getting lost on purpose.
Yet early in my riding ‘career’ I fell into all the common novice traps. Attending scheduled weekly bike night events. ‘Riding’ in a pack on short, safe, escorted group rides. Most of these you paid to be a part of. Your admission cost was directed towards some worthy charity, of course. Somehow that made it all OK. I could act like an outlaw, but justify my bad-assery (and loud pipes) by telling my non-riding friends and neighbors that it was for a good cause. Some people spend their entire life in the saddle engaging only in these safe, sanitary activities.
One of my early bikes. All “show” and very little “go”
For me that got old pretty fast. It didn’t take me long to realize that all the ‘bikers’ I looked up to and sought the approval of (and camaraderie with); weren’t really riding very much. They weren’t going anywhere. The words “Live To Ride” were emblazoned on their T-Shirts, but they barely traveled beyond the borders of their home towns.
The Good Old Days
Yeah…us old-timers can tend to preach about how tough we had it. Walking five miles to school in the snow. Uphill. In both directions. You’ve heard all the clichés. But the fact of the matter is that GPS technology wasn’t around when I first started traveling long distances on two wheels. We weren’t getting lost on purpose back then. It was simply part of the game. I’ve been a paper maps and compass kind of guy for almost four decades. I still roll that way more often than not.
There’s something pure about staring at a map, as opposed to asking Mr. Google how to get somewhere. You get a real feel for what the upcoming ride is going to be about. Granted a lot of my ’staring at a map’ is done these days on a 32” computer monitor in my home office. One of the saddest casualties of the GPS navigation revolution has been the demise of cartographers. Good paper maps are getting harder and harder to come by these days. Even the formerly stellar examples that were distributed by AAA have been reduced to multi-state consolidations that show only the fastest and/or most efficient main roads.
You Are The Product
If an app is free, YOU are the product. Truer words about internet-based resources have never been spoken. When Google Maps, Waze, and all the other “free” navigational apps design a route for you there are two objectives in mind:
1. Get you from point A to point B in the fastest, most efficient way possible
-and-
2. Get you to pass and patronize as many paid advertisers as possible along that route.
Sorry. I didn’t become a biker because I saw it as an efficient mode of transportation. I certainly didn’t become a biker to become Google’s bitch. I’ll choose my own routes, thank you very much. Getting lost on purpose is half the fun.
Someone Is Watching You
It’s no great secret that your cell phone is tracking virtually every move, purchase and decision you make. I’ve come to accept that to a certain degree. If I want the convenience that modern technology offers, I know I’m giving up a bit of privacy for that privilege.
I am, however, careful about what services I use and how they ‘follow’ me. I use apps like Waze and Google Maps solely to determine traffic conditions when I’m making the necessary return trip towards my Long Island home through the nightmare of NY City traffic congestion. Even then I use them only from a parked position for a minute or two. Apps like Relive have no place in my life. I certainly find no need to record every move I make. I surely have no reason to display that information online for all the world to see. Where I go; when, and for how long, is my business. No one else’s.
Wanderlust
There’s so much that can be said for choosing your own path. What satisfaction is there in moving through a set of ready-made driving directions? Why follow a fixed sequence of waypoints laid out by someone who doesn’t share your spirit and mindset? You’re not putting together a piece of IKEA furniture. You’re on an adventure!
Ride your own ride! Take some detours. Take some chances. A wrong decision doesn’t cost more than a little time to fix. In a life where technology is available to make things easier I find it incredibly engaging to make things harder. The rewards are great. You’ll discover those wonderful motorcycling roads that you didn’t know were out there. You’ll come upon breathtaking vistas that you never would have laid eyes upon when following the canned directions that come out of that little electronic box.
A gem of a road discovered in rural Maryland by wandering away from the beaten paths of navigation apps
Decompress
You’re out there on two wheels to escape the pressures of everyday life, aren’t you? Make a concerted effort to leave the modern conveniences at home. Or turn them off at least. For a little while anyway. Sure, you’re likely to feel a bit uncomfortable at first. The anxiety will quickly go by the wayside when you relish in the satisfaction of conquering the challenges on your own.
In my book Road Work: Images and Insights of a Modern Day Explorer I stated the following:
“Safe motorcycling requires 110% of your concentration. Give it any less and you’re intentionally putting yourself in harm’s way. It is this very concentration that removes you from the petty worries of the world you leave behind.”
When I look at the images above of the ‘cockpits’ of some motorcycles I can’t help but wonder how these techno-geek riders can concentrate on the road ahead of them at all!
Trust Your Instincts
According to an article published in Scientific Reports, dated April 14, 2020 “…people with greater lifetime GPS experience have worse spatial memory during self-guided navigation, i.e. when they are required to navigate without GPS. When we navigate in a new environment, we are required to pay attention to our surroundings and to update our position using our own internal navigation system in order to reach our destination. Using GPS removes these requirements and renders navigation less cognitively demanding.”
In other words: Use it or lose it! Our reliance on electronic navigational aids is eroding our own natural abilities to get us where we need to go. For those of you that don’t know (or care to know) how to read a map; you should know that you’re relying on something called the Global Positioning System (GPS). It consists of 31 satellites orbiting the earth 12,500 miles up. They were originally put there by the Department of Defense to support military navigation. They became available for civilian access in the year 2000.
Photo of a GPS satellite courtesy of GPS.gov image library
The Department of Defense is able to selectively restrict access to the system. It happened already when service was denied to the Indian military during the Kargil War; a conflict between India and Pakistan. In theory it could happen to Google…or WAZE…or you. Worst case scenario is probably that the system will become a great government revenue stream. That’s right…once we’re all hopelessly addicted to our electronic navigational aids, we’ll have to pay for the privilege of using them.
A Biker For The Ages
The hardcore motorcyclists that have read thus far get treated to this introduction to the most righteous motorcycle rider I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing and riding with. Lenny “LT Cherokee” Totoro was a biker’s biker. It was to Len that I dedicated my book. In his far-too-short life he rode three different BMW GSA motorcycles close to 1/2 million miles. He put another 1/2 million miles on a couple of Harleys before that.
Multiple transcontinental trips through all of the lower 48, every Canadian Province; as well as excursions through Greenland and Iceland, were on his resume. Not once…not ever…did Len carry a cell phone, sat phone, GPS unit or emergency position indicating device onboard. It was his steadfast conviction that he should rely solely upon his God-given instincts and abilities for survival. In his own words, “I don’t want to risk losing my edge”.
Photo by Fred Hom
Long before rides like the BDR (Backcountry Discovery Routes) were even plotted out, Len could be found exploring uncharted wilderness areas…on his own. Without the benefit of electronic navigational aids. Without the safety net of electronic communications devices. Len truly put the letters ADV in adventure motorcycling. Getting lost on purpose? Getting lost was a way of life for him. It’s what he lived for.
Now I certainly don’t recommend this unguarded philosophy for any responsible motorcycle adventurer. If nothing else, though, you have to admire his confidence, courage and faith in his own abilities. They threw away the mold when they made that guy. I truly hope there is an afterlife of some kind. I miss him dearly and look forward to riding with him again.
The Bottom Line
I love GPS technology. It has saved my butt on numerous occasions. But I won’t allow that little black box to make personal decisions for me. I choose where I want to ride; when and how. The fewer people that are privy to that information the better. That’s the biker in me talking. I grew up with paper maps and the skillset of using an ordinary compass. I have a fairly good sense of direction and I exercise that intuition as often as possible. Like any other electronic convenience it should not preclude us from having a basic understanding of the fundamentals behind it.
Asking my GPS to find me a nice dry hotel room somewhere soon
What are your feelings? Do you practice getting lost on purpose? Let us know in the comments below. If you have any specific questions you would like answered, please feel free to contact us directly via email. Be sure to subscribe to Roadcraft USA. We send out occasional email notifications when new features hit the blog.
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Great topic!
I do enjoy the “just go…” concept, but only feel confident enough to do that in my car. Reason being, Inguess I don’t feel confident enough or feel too vulnerable to the unknowns out there, such as horrible road conditions, etc… Ill paraphrase a quote from one of my favorite movies, Shawshank Redemption, “I’m an institutionalized man”. 🤷🏽
At least I do explore, and “get lost on purpose”… even if in the safety of a cage.
I use a GPS quite often….to get lost. What I mean is that I just pick a direction that I want to go..N-E-S-W…and then follow the direction on the GPS. Like using a compass, but when I come to an intersection I can see what direction the roads are going and choose the one that goes in the direction I want to go. Since I’ll never choose an interstate or even divided highway if I have any other choice, it’s often the slowest roads that use. Sometimes those roads even dead end further down the way and I find myself backtracking or going in circles at times, but by doing this I’ve found a lot of roads and interesting sites that I would have otherwise never found.
When I do have to go to a certain spot (often 2-3 states away) I make my own routes to get there, using online and paper maps. I’ve found that such companies as America Rides and Butler Maps still make outstanding paper maps, and they highlight the great roads on them! I often just string those great roads together into a fantastic route to follow, plot that out in basecamp, and then transfer that route to my GPS.
GPS is just another tool to use.
Great article!