Jayne Davidson

Posted in Canada, Snapshots | 1 comment

Jayne Davidson is another one of our long distance riders who is doing an epic cross-Americas rider with her brother on her KLR. This is her story! [Rashmi Tambe, Editor, Global Women Who Ride]

Please introduce yourself. I’m an adventurer and have been travelling by motorcycle for the past year and a half (from Alaska to Patagonia is the general plan). I learned to ride motorcycles to do this trip. I wasn’t a motorcyclist before deciding to do the trip with my brother. Currently I am not working or studying but I’m going to have to soon as the money is running out! Previously I worked in London in electronic ticketing for public transport.

Life goals? No idea. I am trying to live in the moment and take each day as it comes. I’m not actually a die-hard motorcyclist. I’m a traveler who happens to do so on a motorcycle. I do do all my own mechanical work as much as possible though. I like to know it’s been done right! The internet is an amazing resource for that, you can learn anything on the internet, and also find friends to help teach you.

I’m single, no kids, no house, just my bike Cricket, and what I can stuff onto her.

What was your motorcycle license test like?. I bought a 125 cc motorcycle in London, England to learn on. To be allowed to ride you need to do a one day CBT (compulsory basic training). I did that training and then rode my little bike around London for a few months until I flew back to my parents’ house in Canada. Riding in London is baptism by fire because there is so much traffic and you need to weave through the traffic in order to get anywhere.

I bought my current 650 cc big bike in Canada and took the motorcycle test there in Calgary after doing a 4 day course. It’s much easier and cheaper to do the test in Canada than it is in the UK. I passed the first time!

Tell us about your current ride. Riding from Alaska to Chile (where I am currently) has been life changing. I’ve been travelling with my brother, although I’m now going solo because Phil broke his collarbone in Peru and hasn’t been able to ride for the past two and a half months.

We left Vancouver, Canada on July 25, 2012 heading north to the Arctic Ocean. We almost made it before my bike stopped working and I jumped on the back of Phil’s bike for the final few hundred kilometers. We crashed about 100 km from the end of the road, and rushed to hospital because I had a pretty bad concussion. To this day I don’t remember those twenty four hours of my life.

After that we headed South. We’ve had an incredible journey, meeting so many amazing people in 16 countries.

In Peru my brother crashed his bike on the way to Cusco with his girlfriend Kelly on the back (she had flown down from Canada to join us for a couple of months.) Phil broke his collarbone and two ribs in the crash, so we were stuck in Cusco for six weeks. At that point I met some other motorcycle travellers and continued on without my brother, because his collarbone still had not healed.

I am currently in Southern Chile. I’m planning to head to the Southern tip of South America in the next few weeks. Check out this blog post that I wrote one year into our trip. I think it captures the essence of my motorcycle travel. http://ultimateride.ca/live-like-you-are-dying-one-year-on-the-road/

 

Are there any motorcycling related issues that you feel strongly  about? I strongly support helmet laws, my brother crashed with me on the back in Northern Alaska, resulting in a severe concussion. If I had not been wearing my helmet, I could be dead, or at least have severe brain damage.

If you could re-design the world to make it more motorcycle-friendly, what would it look like? Motorcycle parking in every street, drivers who are always on the look out for bikes, and free ice cream for all motorcyclists.

Do you have any advice for people who want to get into motorcycling? Take some lessons, start on a small bike, and do it now!