Enjoy seminars on various motorcycle-related topics while at the rally. See our schedule for dates and times.
Max Burns
Max Burns talks about writing, his adventures, and his four Word Dust Press books, Unresolved Connections, These are a few of my favourite roads, Around the Bend (again), and On Any Wednesday.
Max Burns has been a writer for more than a quarter of a century, is the recipient of 10 Canadian National Magazine Awards, four Motorcycle Awards for Excellence in Journalism, and is the author of seven books.
Andres Carlstein
I was born into a fantastic family and raised in Upstate New York. I attended Penn State University and was graduated in 1998 with a degree in Letters, Arts, and Science, a multidisciplinary degree I intended to use as a stepping stone to a medical career. I was in fact accepted into several medicals schools, and it was during my one year lay over before school that I decided to ride a motorcycle to the tip of South America. Thanks to the guidance of my writing mentor and teacher, the late Rob Gannon, author and Contributing Editor to Popular Mechanics, I was lucky enough to acquire a contract to write a book about the trip. As I was living the journey of a lifetime over the course of eleven months I realized that I needed to focus my life on writing, and left my medical career aspirations by the wayside.
My greatest motorcycle inspirations are my father, who had several bikes and was an excellent hobbyist mechanic, Emilio Scotto, an Argentine man who holds the world's record for circling the globe on a motorcycle (7 times!), and my mother, who has ridden a motorcycle a perhaps a handful of times in her life. I told the following story to a friend, and he said that she is definitely the one who has given me my courage.
One day when fiending for nicotine, and lacking any other vehicle to run to the store for cigarettes, my mother fearlessly took my father's BMW R69s out of the garage, without ever having operated it before. She made it to the store and back without a hitch, but nearly caused the premature death of her spouse when he found out. He wasn't mad that she took it, he was upset she left it running unattended while she was inside the store! But she didn't want to have to come outside and have trouble starting it, and to suffer the embarrassment of having to throw her 120lb frame up and down on the kickstand while everyone watched her.
When not traveling I usually live in or outside New York City. My hobbies include martial arts (particularly Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), reading, poker, and video games.
I'd like to also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to God and to my family and friends, and especially to my sponsors: Kawasaki, Aerostich, Givi USA, Corbin Saddles, Clearview Windscreens, Fransisco Illarramendi of Highview Point, and Pablo Illarramendi of PNP Media, who designed this site. I hope to soon have a sponsors page to properly thank them all.
- Andres Carlstein (August, 2007)
Dr. Gregory Frazier
From www.motorcycle-usa.com
Professional motorcycle adventurer Dr. Gregory W. Frazier is the only motorcyclist in the world to have four times circumnavigated the globe solo by motorcycle. He has been described as "America's #1 extreme motorcycle adventurer." No stranger to danger, his adventures around the earth include having been shot at by rebels, jailed by unfriendly authorities, bitten by snakes, run over by Pamplona bulls and smitten by a product of Adam's rib. Frazier's two wheel travels have taken him over 1,000,000 miles and he has literally "ridden a motorcycle to the ends of the earth:" Dead Horse, Alaska; Ushuaia, Argentina; North Cape, Norway; Cape Agulhaus, South Africa; and Bluff, New Zealand. Frazier's work as a motorcycle journalist and professional photographer appears widely throughout the international motorcycling press.
He is a regular columnist for motorcycle magazines Road Bike and Adventure Motorcycle and contributes to Rider, Motorcycle Consumer News, Motorcyclist, and American Motorcyclist in the United States. Internationally his work has appeared in BMW Bikes (Japan), Tourenfahrer (Germany), Motorrad (Germany) and Motorcycle Trader and News (New Zealand). He has been featured in other foreign publications such as Motor Cycle News (Great Britain) and Moto (Russia). Known for his travel and adventure articles, he also enjoys a solid reputation for motorcycle and product evaluations.
Books published include:
- Alaska by Motorcycle
- Europe by Motorcycle
- New Zealand by Motorcycle
- Riding South: Mexico, Central America and South America by Motorcycle
- Motorcycle Sex: Freud Would Never Understand the Relationship Between Me and My Motorcycle
- Motorcycle Poems by the Biker Poet
- Motorcycle Cemetery Tales
- Indian Motorcycles International Directory
- BMW GSing Around the World
- Riding the World
- Motorcycle Touring - Everything You Need to Know
As a documentary film producer, Frazier made numerous contributions to the film industry and motorcycling history with films such as Vintage Iron, Mexico by Motorcycle, Motorcycling on the Ten Best Highways in America, Motorcycling on the Ten Best Highways in the Alps, Motorcycling to Alaska and Motorcycling Down Under (Australia and New Zealand) . A recent release, Two Wheel Wanderlust - Traveling Around The World By Motorcycle, is a video documentary of motorcycle adventurers who have roamed the globe from 1913 to 2000.
Dr. Frazier is also an accomplished motorcycle racer, having won races with BMW and Indian motorcycles. His name can be found in the Pikes Peak Race Course record books aboard both marques and road race tracks throughout the United States and Canada have seen him as a successful competitor on a wide variety of race bikes including Honda and Yamaha. As the founder of the Big Dog Adventure Ride and the Elephant Ride he has enjoyed both events as organizer and entrant.
Frazier is a well-known motivational speaker, often times presenting his multi-media show "Sun Chasing-Four Times Around The World By Motorcycle."
In 2005 Frazier finished his fifth motorcycle ride around the earth, helping a Parkinson's patient "Ride The Dream." The website www.ultimategloberide.com follows their adventure as they circle the globe.
When not adventuring around the world, Frazier, a Crow Indian ("Sun Chaser"), lives in the Big Horn Mountains of Montana on the Crow Indian Reservation. He says of his adventures, "I hate adventure that has anything to do with snakes or sharks."
Andy Goldfine
Andy Goldfine was born in Duluth Minnesota, where he still resides today. He is the design manager of Aero Design & Manufacturing, a company he founded in 1982 to pioneer protective textile riders clothing. He also organizes the annual worldwide 'Ride to Work Day' motorcycle and scooter advocacy program, which he helped inspire in 1991. He has served on the board of directors of the American Motorcyclist Association since 2005. In 1995 he rode his motorcycle across frozen Lake Superior, and in 1996 he motorcycled 17,000 miles from Duluth to Mongolia, crossing Siberia and retuning via China and Japan. In 2006 he was a presenter at the NTSB forum on Motorcycle Safety. Motorcycling has long been, and continues to be, the most important part of his professional life.
Doug Grosjean
Biography (from the back cover of his latest book "Wheels: A Story About Growing Up")
Doug Grosjean learned to ride motorcycles at age 14, accumulating over 350,000 miles in the years since. His travels have carried him to Arizona, Alaska, East and West Coasts, Bike Week, and eventually fatherhood. A graduate of Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona; Doug has worked as a mechanic, photographer, a mechanical designer, and a writer. His work has appeared in publications as diverse as the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America "Owners News" and website, the Internet BMW Riders site (www.ibmwr.org), "Bend of the River" magazine, and "The Metro Press."
Ted Simon
Ted Simon is a British journalist born in Germany. He wrote for the English newspapers Daily Mail, The Observer and The Times. In late 1973, Simon began traveling around the world on a Triumph Tiger 500 cc motorcycle. For four years he traveled over 78,000 miles (126,000 km) through 45 countries. Most accounts from his trip are detailed in his book, Jupiter's Travels, while some of the books gaps are filled in its second part, the book Riding High.
His book later inspired the actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in their journey from London to New York on motorcycles (Long Way Round), where they actually met Simon in Mongolia.
He also wrote the book, The Gypsy in Me, which details his search for his mother's and, particularly, his father's roots in Eastern Europe. This time he mainly walked and caught public transport between Kaliningrad and Romania. This was not long after the Communist regimes in Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania had fallen.
In 2001 Simon started a new journey that roughly followed the same route as his 1973 trip. He was around 70 years old at that time and completed the journey in 3 years. His new book, detailing this journey, was released in March 2007 and is entitled: Dreaming of Jupiter. It was published simultaneously in English and German hardcover editions.
Simon now resides in California, United States.
Simon also wrote the book The River Stops Here: Saving Round Valley, A Pivotal Chapter in California's Water Wars.
He has also been an organic farmer.
