Miles fly when you're having fun

Idyllic photo ran with ad for a Royal Enfield motorcycle.

 Watching the Craigslist ads for Royal Enfields, as I do, I'm hardly surprised when a 10-year-old motorcycles goes up for sale with less than 1,000 miles on it. Many riders, apparently, just don't ride. 

So I stopped in my tracks when I encountered this ad, out of Coquille, Oregon: 

Excellent Condition 2023 Royal Enfield Hunter 350 purchased new in July of 2024... Engine Guards, with ADV Lights, and Rear Bag Mounts and $100 DNA Air Filter... New KM1 Front Tire at 32,000 miles and Brand New KM1 Rear Tire!! Complete Service Record of Specified Maintenance... Final Year left on 3-Year Warranty & Roadside Aid... The Hunter handles like an agile Ducati : ) Everywhere from Baja to Alaska and... NEVER Missed a Beat : ) 

The ad lists current mileage as 37,000! 

I replied, learning that the seller is Ken Brooker, 78-year-old long-distance rider who isn't giving it up; he just has a new motorcycle, and already is out riding it long distances. 

Ken Brooker

When I asked him for more information, he simply pointed me to his Facebook page. There, between his lavishly illustrated ride reports (complete with maps), "memories" of previous rides (complete with photos and maps), and the occasional cat cartoon, I learned more about this cheerful character.

He is "Ken Brooker" on Facebook, but be aware that he wants only "Meaningful Friends, NOT Trophy Friends."

Anyway, putting the Facebook scrambled eggs back into the egg shell is impossible. So just come along while I share some highlights, in no particular order.

Ken named his "green-splashed Royal Enfield Hunter 350" Verdita. He names his motorcycles, of which there have been a number, although I didn't catch the name of his Moto Guzzi V7.

Before he was a motorcyclist he did challenging rides up mountains, and down, on bicycles. Recently, after years of  motorcycling, he has returned to pedaling for some trips, camping along the way.

Doesn't matter; he just likes to be on two wheels. Here's what he wrote just the other day:

I am 78 and I Live for "Reading, 'Riting (Code) and 'Rithmetic" but 

I LOVE the 4th "R" -- RIDING!!

37,000 (S)miles in the last two years on "Verdita," my trusty 

Royal Enfield Hunter 350, concurrent with

20,000 (S)miles the last 6 months on my

Honda XR150L, all from SW Oregon... : )

Everywhere To&BackFrom Baja, Utah & Alaska...

One Facebook friend compares him to Itchyboots.

You realize right away that Ken enjoys smiling at himself. Look sharp at this photo, for instance, of Crater Lake this October:

Do you see the one piece of equipment nobody else carries?

"Yes that is an umbrella," he wrote.

And then there is this "fond memory" from 2023:

First fall in 50 years.

He wrote:

Speaking of... Falling -- I've been Road Riding for 60 years; and

I haven't fallen down (i.e. Crashed : ) in 50 years... I guess

I "Progressed" along the Learning Curve after

four Crashes in the first 10 years...

Never MY Fault, of course : ) Once on ice; Once, deep gravel;

Once, in the rain, with a front tire with a PoorMan's tread;

Once, in a traffic circle right after a 

Corvair dumped a pool of oil...

And now that I am still... Alive(!!) I am well aware that is

50% "Skill" and 50% LUCK... If you hit a

Deer or... If a car turns Left...

Right in front of you...

Skill matters not...

So, I bought my CT125 specifically to ride Off-Road!!

Specifically to do an Out&Back on the 2,000-mile

Western half of the Trans-America Trail...

And, the BDRs!

And, knowing... Nothing about riding Off-Road,

I recently took my... First Spill... I'd read it's...

"Routine" when you ride Off-Road!!

I was only going about 5 mph...

I'd read that Sand is Tricky...

I almost Died...

LAUGHING...

(BDR, by the way, is "Backcountry Discovery Route.")

Ken shared another "fond memory" from 55 years ago, when he'd just returned from Vietnam (Seabees). He did an almost four-corners ride, 7,000 "(S)miles" in three weeks (with Sundays off).

A long way to go and a small motorcycle to get there.

He rode a Bultaco Metralla 250cc two-stroke, with a Sears canvas tent and a "Coldman" sleeping bag. Every now and then a spark plug would blow out of the cylinder head, and the Metralla motor once started backwards.

Small motorcycles and big distances still don't scare him.

I LOVE My Honda Trail CT125... In the last 7 months, I have ridden

"Rojita" 14,000 (S)miles... CareFree and TroubleFree...

BUT

Maybe if I rode a bike with more than 8 horsepower, and with a

Top Speed even more than 50 mph, even just...

Around in Circles!!

MAYBE

I would get more...

RESPECT?!

Well, maybe.

The Royal Enfield Hunter 350 may be on the way out, but Ken remains a fan, posting this:

Blondes prefer men with Royal Enfields.

One of the nicest photos on Ken's Facebook features the Hunter 350, with this caption:

"With all the Dead-Ends and wrong turns (and Oatmeal and... Socializing with bartender Rosie at the TTT Lodge : ), the supposed 82 miles from my home to Harris Beach State Park turned into 111 and took me four hours! And I loved every curvy minute."

The end of a curvy day.

Find the motorcycle in this picture

Motorcycles can make us feel both powerful and small.

 "Why we ride." 

It's a phrase motorcyclists keep trying to complete. 

"Why we ride" has many explanations. Riders probably will not agree on all of them. 

Why do we ride? For the mountains, the prairies, the straights, the curves, the company, the solitude, the joy, the relief, the excitement, the thrill, the relaxation, the destinations. 

All of those, plus a lot more. 

It's safe to say, though, that when I pick up my quarterly copy of "Blue Ridge Motorcycling," the emphasis will not be on speed. 

"I ride to escape computer screens," editor-in-chief Michael E. Gouge writes in his Notes From the Road column in the Summer, 2026 edition, recently arrived in my mailbox.

"The summer weather adds to my enjoyment of today's road trip," he explains.

"I glance down at the (route) numbers I wrote on masking tape attached to the gauge cluster. I have the usual navigation gadgets like most long-distance riders, but they tend to annoy and distract me...

"I keep thinking how great it feels to be back on the bike heading out for a three-day adventure, exploring backroads I've never ridden. The sky shines so bright it hurts my eyes."

Well, alright, we now know what kind of coverage to expect as we page through this magazine.

The Summer edition contains at least two articles by writer Michael Erwin, who also favors taking time to appreciate the scenery.

"On a clear day, you can look a very long way and still not see anything that needs improving," he writes. Well, at least you can from the Blue Ridge.

And he proves it by stopping his ride at all four of the scenic overlooks on his route through the mountains.

Here are some more words from him to ponder:

"There is a modern disease among riders, and perhaps among Americans generally, that causes us to hurry through beautiful places so we can say later we covered them. Route 150 encourages better manners...

"Motorcycles are full of useful contradictions, and one of them is this: They make you feel both powerful and small...

"These are not dramatic side trips. They are modest, civilizing pauses that make a day ride feel generous rather than efficient. The nature center tells you what you are seeing. The lake gives you a place to sit still long enough to believe it...

"Fuel up before you go. Carry water. Do not assume lunch will appear at the next bend in gravy form. This is not deprivation. It is simply the old rule of mountain travel. The place does not organize itself around your appetite...

"Sit down long enough for ice tea to sweat on the table and you notice how people talk, how they nod to one another, how the place wears its wear and tear...

"There was a time when I judged a road mostly by how quickly it could be ridden. That is one of the less useful enthusiasms of youth. A scenic highway deserves better than conquest. It deserves attention. Speed can heighten sensation, but it can also erase memory...

"The motor is not frantic, and I am not heroic. The day becomes less about performance than fluency...

"The best motorcycle roads are not always the fastest, hardest or most famous. Sometimes the best ones are the roads that help you notice your own life again."

Self-portrait of a Royal Enfield Scram rider

The Royal Enfield Scram 411 isn't just for show-offs.

 Nicola Farr was kind enough to write in explaining why the Royal Enfield Scram 411 meets her needs as an experienced motorcyclist who has owned a good number of motorcycles. 

I was curious how the UK resident became such an avid motorcyclist. 

Many women ride, but, obviously, motorcycle makers including Royal Enfield would like even more women to get on two wheels. As the maker of "approachable," mid-size motorcycles, Royal Enfield has more interest in this than most. 

Here's Nicola's reply: 

"Around 1973 I traveled to the states with my mother as a kid; the cars were fantastic just like the movies -- great big things -- in fact everything was bigger in the states and cheaper as well! 

"The UK pound sterling went quite a way; I don’t remember, but my holiday money went a long way. (Ed: The Pound to Dollar rate reached $2.649 on March 6, 1972, highest since being allowed to float in 1971.)

"I bought a skateboard in Venice, California, but didn’t have a clue how everyone stayed on the things. I still have the skateboard come to think of it!

"Visiting the usual famous places, LA, San Francisco, San Diego; we went to Disney and rode the famous rides. I was a wide-eyed 11-12-year-old.

"We drove everywhere in a Pontiac GTO. (I didn’t realize what a cool car it was 'til years later.) It was a brown-gold sort of color. We hung wet towels from the windows when driving through the deserts.

"I had six weeks of adventure and fun camping out under the stars with no tent, playing in the surf while bigger kids and adults surfed the waves. Hiked trails and even went trick or treating at Halloween. I carved jack-o'-lantern pumpkins, something we didn’t do in the UK; we used turnips!

My taste for adventure was well and truly lit.

"Back in the UK I read about a man riding around the world. He was writing a weekly column of his travels. His name was Ted Simon and he was riding a Triumph 500 twin.

"I had seen plenty of motorcycles when on holiday traveling the freeways (usually overtaking us in the car) and being told not to wave at them, otherwise they could follow us and cause trouble. (They were innocent days back then.)

"I was used to seeing old men in army surplus trench coats on bikes that leaked oil in the streets of the UK going or coming back from work. It felt like the UK was always wet, damp and foggy with the smell of coal fires in the air. It was so far from the bright sunny days of my vacation in America, a totally different world from my experiences of growing up in Britain.

"As I got older I often remembered the man who rode around the world. I tried to get the school library to order in a book he wrote but I couldn’t remember his name or the book's name, so it stayed a distant memory not knowing what happened to him on the journey.

"At 16 I was old enough to have a 50cc motorcycle. I had been saving for a long time doing chores and paper rounds delivering the daily or evening newspapers on a cycle. The day finally came; the motorcycle dealer had arranged with my parents to deliver the moped the evening before my 16th birthday.

"It was a blue Suzuki AP50 and it was the best thing ever made. I was up at 4 a.m., dressed and out. Nobody was on the roads.

A Suzuki moped like the one that put Nicola on two wheels.

"Well there was one vehicle, a battery powered milk float delivering fresh milk to everyone’s door step. Then the men who cycled to the railway works started to appear on the roads and the odd car, and a few British motorcycles taking their riders to work, and I was part of all this action on motorized transport and it was truly liberating!

"I learned to drive a car in six lessons and passed on my first attempt. My father was happy I was able to do what I wished, so long as it was safe! That included having a car and motorbike. He probably preferred me in a car than on two wheels but he knew I had a burning desire for two wheels. 

"I passed my motorcycle test and was able to ride larger motorbikes than the 250 Suzuki TS he had allowed me to have after much persuading and telling him I would do advance police training on the bike, which he made sure I attended!

"This was the end of the '70s and I was noticing the opposite sex at college, of course. I was drawn to the hippie kids and my studying suffered. Bikes and cars were sold and others bought or I was being taken around by others who had cars and motorcycles. My family really didn’t like me on the back of some lad’s motorcycle and actually preferred it if I was the one riding my own bike if I had to be on one.

"Being a parent years later I fully understand their thinking but at the time it was the cause of a few heated arguments. Years later with my own kids I again realized why!

"I discovered the missing book by Ted Simon in a book shop one day. It was called "Jupiter's Travels." I bought it and read it twice! I also bought "Wayward Angel" about the Hells Angels in Oakland, where I had seen bikers riding all those years ago while on holiday with my mother in America.

"I still ride today at the age of 62; the family of my own have grown up and fled the nest. My mother is now 93 and still tells me to let her know when I’m back home on my bike! Some things don’t change: like the care for your wild-haired child who rides a motorcycle when she shouldn’t!"

I'm never a Squid on my Royal Enfield

 "Squid." I'd heard the term applied to motorcyclists, but never knew what it meant. Recently an Internet posting out of Kalamazoo, Mich., used the term in suggesting the formation of a riding group: 

"If you ride or are interested in Royal Enfields. All Medium Sized Bikes OK, NO Squids." 

No squids? What is a squid anyway? I was surprised to find a very complete answer on the website of J.D. Power. 

It defined squid his way: 

"Squid is a derogatory term to explain a generally immaturity and recklessness on motorcycles." 

"Being a squid is not considered cool among bikers or anyone else." 

Squids may ride without proper gear, pop wheelies on crowded streets, or otherwise endanger themselves or others. In general, they act in ways that give motorcycling a bad name, the article says.

Where did the name come from? Unclear, J.D. Power asserts, but possibly it originally referred to surfers who did stupid things.

Motorcyclists might think of a squid as "Speeding Quickly Until I Die," Power suggested.

The J.D. Power article is well worth reading, especially its list of ways to avoid being a squid yourself.

Basically it comes down to this: "being a wiser person all around."

I flatter myself that I am not a squid. But I have had my run-ins with a few.

I wrote the following about my encounters with squid behavior. See if you agree:

"My old Royal Enfield and I expect to be passed in traffic. Speed and acceleration that feels exciting to us generally won't outrun anything with a motor on a busy U.S. street.

"Not even a scooter.

"I saw this one particular scooter in my rearview mirror, when he was well back. No helmet, no jacket, flip flops. Yep. Here he comes.

"He passed me at full song, and then, at the big intersection up ahead, he did a right-turn-on-red without slowing.

"Was he in a hurry to get somewhere or just always in a hurry to get anywhere?

"Then an ATV with a rider and passenger aboard gave me no warning at all. They passed me on the left at an intersection, going the wrong way in the center lane reserved for left turns.

"Going twice my speed, the ATV was far ahead when it darted back into my lane. It then kept jinking from side to side, violently changing lanes, seemingly at random.

"I would guess that this was the effect of the driver not having a rear-view mirror and needing to turn his head and shoulders fully to look back and enjoy my reaction at being blitzed.

"I didn't react. Why should I? It ain't racin' if I'm not trying."

Johnny Brittain, a riding ambassador for Royal Enfield

Veteran Royal Enfield trials rider Johnny Brittain accepts a helmet
from company leader Siddhartha Lal at the Ace Cafe London in 2013.
(Photo by David Blasco)

John V. Brittain, born in 1932, died this month. I learned of his death in this tweet from Royal Enfield:

"Legendary Royal Enfield trials rider, Johnny Brittain, passed away 7th March after a short illness. In an illustrious career that spanned 15 years, he won an unparalleled 13 ISDT gold medals. He will be missed by all of us at #RoyalEnfield."

I'd met Johnny Brittain thanks to Royal Enfield. It was September, 2013 and I was at the historic Brooklands race track in the UK at Royal Enfield's expense. I was just one of a flying squadron of international writers invited to the press launch of the new Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 cafe racer.

I took a seat near the front of the room at the press conference, hoping to get photos of the speakers. Two gentlemen were conducted to seats just to my left and it was apparent they were special guests.

The fellow at my left shoulder proved to be Roger Boss, the Royal Enfield marketing executive who'd enthusiastically backed creation of the original Continental GT, back in its day.

Roger pointed to the other man and said, "And he's a famous trials rider!"

That man was Johnny Brittain, and while I knew his name and that he was deeply associated with Royal Enfield's competition history, I knew next to nothing about trials riding. Later I would read this:

"Johnny Brittain was the mainstay of the Enfield trials team through the 1950s and beyond, as well as performing to gold standard in the ISDT with monotonous regularity... Enfield took a good proportion of the trials honors in the postwar era and the main credit for this has to go to Johnny Brittain." That's from Roy Bacon's book "Royal Enfield, The Postwar Models."

According to the website TrialsGuru, Johnny Brittain won the equivalent of the British trials championship in 1956 and "competed in 15 consecutive International Six Days Trials, winning 13 gold medals for his country."

His father "Vic" Britain, a Royal Enfield trials rider of the pre-war years, had retired from competition after the 1948 season. Johnny's association with Royal Enfield began in 1950, at age 18, earning a trials gold medal on the 350cc Bullet. 

In a Forward he wrote to Bacon's book, Johnny Brittain wrote:

"My ambitions were to be a good trials rider and an ambassador for the Royal Enfield Company."

His was an association with Britain (the island) that Royal Enfield of India clearly means to keep alive.

Royal Enfield's press launch of the Continental GT took us from Brooklands, to the Ace Cafe in London and on to Brighton These are sites where the "Suicide Club" Rockers of the 1950s and '60s  made the cafe racer the peculiar sort of British motorcycle everybody wanted.

"In launching this new model," I wrote in 2013, "Royal Enfield (India!) missed no opportunity to associate itself with the long ago history of Royal Enfield (Britain)."

Royal Enfield president and CEO Siddhartha Lal was at every venue, in black leather jacket. He joked that he had hoped to be the first rider on a Continental GT to be cited for exceeding the speed limit in Britain.

Sure, Royal Enfield of India has gone on building the Bullet for half a century after the Brits stopped building them in Redditch, England. But it was exciting to me ̬ actually touching — to see that the company strongly meant to preserve and nurture that heritage.

Instead of churning out, say, Harley clones, Royal Enfield would keep on building distinctively British motorcycles. The Continental GT 535 proved that.

And so did a quiet scene I witnessed later, back at the Ace Cafe at the end of the day with Royal Enfield.

Without fanfare, Royal Enfield executives and historian and author Gordon May gathered in the busy cafe around Johnny Brittain. In a quiet voice, Lal thanked him for coming to the press launch and presented the famous rider with a bright red Continental GT helmet as a memento of the day.

Seeing no photographers I raised my camera over my head and got off two quick shots. Both are terrible.

That's OK. It wasn't a photo op; it wasn't done for the press. It was a moment of appreciation for a veteran whose life well represented Royal Enfield and helped connect Royal Enfield motorcycles with Britain, no matter where they are made.

Motorcyclists set out to beat a record set 150 years ago by the Pony Express

Update: You can now watch a documentary movie about motorcyclists trying to equal the cross-country record set by the Pony Express, followed by a discussion with the riders who tried it, on the website of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. I have embedded the movie below. Allow some time for it to load. It is well worth watching:



The sweeping victory of the Republican Party in the November election changed the course America was on.

Trouble was, if you lived on the West Coast, you didn't know it yet.

It was 1860, and the election of Abraham Lincoln was big news. But there was still a gap in the telegraph line to California.

The Pony Express used the 1860 presidential election as a showcase for what it could do. Before the election, it hired extra riders and prepared extra relay horses.

"California’s newspapers received word of Lincoln’s election only seven days and 17 hours after the East Coast papers, an unrivaled feat at the time," according to the National Postal Museum.

This year a group of motorcyclists set out to repeat that feat, producing a film in the process. The ALT Project will show its film 7 Days, 17 Hours at 1 p.m. Sunday in the postal museum in Washington, D.C. The museum's blog, Pushing the Envelope, describes the movie this way:

"...They ride the route of the Pony Express, trying to beat its speed record with modern GPS equipment and vehicles. This may sound like a cinch but join us to view the film on Sunday, Nov. 7 (the anniversary of the historic fastest ride), and you'll discover that it's not!"

'Tank Girl' rides a Royal Enfield Military

There's an admirer of Royal Enfield motorcycles who is sleepless in Seattle tonight, dreaming of a girl he may never meet again.

She sounds like a real heart breaker. Or, maybe, more like Rosie the Riveter. Whoever this woman is, she rides a Royal Enfield Military model motorcycle.

Here's the personal ad the fellow placed on CraigsList in the Seattle-Tacoma, Wash. area:

"Saw you at BackfireMoto in Ballard last night. I think you caught me staring a little too long, maybe you didn't notice. I happened to notice that you left on one of the bikes I liked most at the event — a Military Royal Enfield with 'Tank Girl' painted on it. Write to me, at least let me introduce myself. I was wearing a bright yellow shirt and black cargo pants."

The only signature the fellow put on the add was "m4w", which I am told is CraigsList code meaning "Male For Women." In other words, he is a heterosexual male.

''Tank Girl'' rider, are you out there? Check your local CraigsList for personals under "missed connections" for a "Reply to This Message" button.