About Us

John and Shane are brother's-in-law through the marriage of Shane and John's sister Alison.  Both share an avid sense of adventure and, being of Irish descent, they enjoy each other's company when not working on their motorcycles or this trip.  Here is a bit of an overview of these two adventurers; John is a an easy mannered guy with a calm approach to life, nothing ever really bothers him, and when faced with adversity he always knows that there's a solution...it might not be right away, but it will come in time.  Shane is a detail oriented skinny guy who hates for things to be disorganized.  Plan well in advance is Shane's motto, have a backup plan for the backup plan, and if you are faced with challenges he believes that it's a result of either poor preparation, lack of research, or just not enough detail.  John is content with whatever life throws at him, deviations from the plan..."not an issue," delays..."not an issue," lost...."we'll figure it out, I'll just ask someone." 

They also have very differing views on the use of technology, particularly when it comes to riding motorcycles.  Shane enjoys having his GPS, music and Bluetooth accessories available at the touch of a button, preferably wireless.  John on the other hand prefers to navigate by "gut feel," which, unfortunately for Shane's ego and gadgets, tends to be fairly accurate.  An example of John's reluctance to technology was accurately demonstrated just a few months ago when the Province of Ontario introduced legislation requiring hands free devices for cellphones, PDA's, Blackberries etc...  Rather than purchasing a Bluetooth device, John has innovated his own "Toque-tooth" which is the process of wedging the phone in the side of your toque and talking while driving, seriously. These two different personalities lend well to each other and should make for an interesting blog in the coming weeks and months.  Despite their differences, they both share a passion for adventure which they hope will be achieved through this trip.  In addition to this being an adventure they saw an opportunity to assist a village in Guatemala in conjunction with UNICEF, which happened to be along their route, that suffers from severe malnutrition.

Both are avid motorcyclists with a combination of both onroad and offroad experience.  In early 2008 John came across a website of a Kansas police officer who had made a similar trip on a BMW 650GS to the exact same place in Costa Rica where John and Shane have visited on several occasions.  Discussions were had amongst the two of them over several weeks and a pact was made to ride from Toronto to Costa Rica.  First, John had to finish getting his license and then we had to acquire the right motorcycles for the trip.  They acquired the bikes in early June at Budds BMW in Oakville, which they both highly recommend, and began the process of acquiring after-market parts that we would need in order to complete the trip.  John got his license in the Spring of 2009, and they continued to acquire parts for the bikes, and the summer was spent training for this trip.  Both trained for this trip by doing a combination of long and short distance jaunts throughout Ontario and Quebec as well as riding the bikes on and offroad.  Luckily for the two of them, after contacting the Kansas police office, "Shawn'" was gracious enough to provide them with all of the data and trip planning materials from his trip.

One of the most significant trip obstacles came in July when John was struck by a vehicle that had illegally passed him in a school zone, leaving him pinned beneath his bike.  His left leg was severely damaged and John spent several weeks in physiotherapy rehabilitating his injured leg.  This left him off the bike and Shane without a riding partner.  In addition, Shane was blessed with the birth of his son on June 28th which took precedent over any trip preparation and training.

John resumed riding in September with an ambitious trip of 2,300 km's over 2 days from Toronto to Eliot Lake in Northern Ontario.  The trip had been planned as an 1,800 km ride until a full Manitoulin Island Ferry left them stranded with either a 5 hour delay or a 5 hour ride.  They chose to ride, although Shane was quite upset that their "schedule" had been screwed up....not too surprising.  The final day of this trip they rode nearly 14 hours and 1,100 km's.

The final several weeks have been spent acquiring the necessary documentation to make a trip like this including insurance, Mexican vehicle importation permits, waypointing, and researching the different areas that we will travel through.

Here is a rough summary of our itinerary in the upcoming weeks...