Stop me Before I buy a Buell… - CityBike

dr. gregory w. FRAZIER
Big headlights. That was what it took
one motorcycle seeker of fame
and fortune to ride in Antarctica,
making possible a record-setting cold
adventure.
While much of Europe and North
America was suffering the worst cold since
temperatures were first recorded, I was
using a motorcycle to wander around a hot
and humid part of the Philippines.
In the small town of Binmaley, Art
Cunanan, operations manager for the
Bangsal Restaurant and Suites, approached
my table to ask what I was doing riding the
‘big’ motorcycle (600cc) he had seen me
arrive on. I told him I was poking around
the Philippines for a few weeks and gave
him a business card.
He studied it briefly, then said, “I once
met a woman riding around the world on
a motorcycle. She took it to Antarctica. I
can’t remember her name, but she had big
…” while extending his hands in front of
his chest, far out.
Cold Adventures by Big Headlights
I smiled, and suggested a name.
He said, “Yes, that was her! How did you
know her?”
I thought for several seconds, then said,
“I showed her how those big … (here I
extended my hands in front of me) would
get her and her motorcycle to Antarctica.”
He wanted to know more.
I recounted how the woman had used me
and my USA base while trying to seek fame
and fortune on her motorcycle trip around
the world. At first she thought she could
score both, by being the first person to ride
a motorcycle in Antarctica. I
popped that bubble when I told
her that a Japanese man named
Shinji Kazama had already done
that, and more. In 1987 he had
ridden a 200cc Yamaha to the
North Pole, then in 1992 tagged
the South Pole.
She then seized on the
opportunity that she could
gain notoriety by being the first
woman to ride a motorcycle in
Antarctica. After considerable
time and use of my international
contacts, this plan was thwarted
when the tourist boat on which
she booked passage for her
and the motorcycle said that
approval had to be granted from
the International Association of Antarctica
Tour Operators. The IAATO said “no” to
her plan.
There ensued a long crying jag with the
much-pursued fame and perceived fortune
seen as slipping from her grasp. This was
when her physical endowments acquired a
role in the motorcycle adventure.
Having been to Ushuaia, Argentina before,
I knew that numerous tourist boats took
on customers in Ushuaia. I told her to
complete her trip to Ushuaia, take a few
days’ rest while searching along the docks
for a tourist boat going to Antarctica, but
one that did not play by the rules of the
IAATO. I said something like: “When you
find one, take off your riding jacket, wear
a tight- fitting shirt and go to the captain.
Tell him what you want to do and let your
large assets be the hook.”
She followed my advice. The captain rose to
the bait and not only agreed to her proposal
but did not ask for the $2000 or more the
other tour operator
wanted for passage
for the motorcycle,
thus saving her that
considerable expense.
Upon arriving in
Antarctica, the ship’s
crew off-loaded her
motorcycle from the ship onto a small
inflatable craft, then ferried it to a rocky
shore where the other 100 or so of the ship’s
passengers were walking as their Antarctica
adventure. The crew manhandled the
motorcycle off the inflatable onto the
beach. The woman then purportedly
climbed on, started the engine, put it in
first gear and drove less than 50 feet in the
loose rocks, then shut the motorcycle off.
Then the ship’s crew loaded the motorcycle
back onto the inflatable and returned
her and the motorcycle to the tour ship,
where it was hoisted back aboard. She then
claimed to have been the first woman to
ride a motorcycle in Antarctica and the
much-sought fame followed.
Recounting the tale as I knew it found
Cunanan nodding his head in agreement.
When I asked him how he knew it to be
true, he told me his side of the event.
He was employed on a tourist ship, the
MS Disco, one of several Philippine service
workers on the ship that ferried the woman
and her motorcycle to and from Antarctica.
I can’t remember
her name, but
she had big …
He said he and the other male workers
were falling over themselves to spend time
with the woman and her big… (here he
extended his hands
in front of his chest
again). He was one of
the crew who helped
load and manhandle
the motorcycle, though
it was not part of
his job description.
He explained that the crew spent most of
their time on board the ship and seldom
had female travelers they could get caught
looking at or possibly touching.
Days after meeting Cunanan and realizing
how small the world had become, I received
an inquiry from a motorcyclist wanting
to know whether I had crossed to Russia
by motorcycle, after reading about my
motorcycle adventures out of Nome, Alaska.
The inquirer described an attempt to cross
the Bering Sea when it was frozen, wanting
to become the first to do so on a motorcycle.
My immediate response was to write back
saying that it could not be done because the
ice in winter was not smooth, but had steep
up-and-down hills that would make travel
on two wheels difficult. But then I thought
about Shinji Kazama and his assisted trip
to the North and South Poles, using gas
dropped ahead and snow-machine support.
I then thought about the snow machines that
likely could drive across to Russia from the
far North and started to believe that maybe a
crossing on the ice could be done.
The easiest way would be to find a snowmachine
company, pay the big money
to break ground across the Bering Sea
and follow the machine’s tracks on a
motorcycle. It would be expensive but
could be done. I wrote back, “It would be
tough, and I suspect it may already have
been done.” But first I pondered writing
back: “Do you have big headlights?”
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(Dr. Gregory Frazier says, “I’m no chauvinist,
I am a realist. As a motorcycling economist I
admit to being conservative. If guilty of a slant,
it would be towards bait that catches fish versus
fishing with some that does not.”His latest
book, Motorcycle Adventurer, can be found at
motorcycleadventurer.com)
March 2012 | 22 | CityBike.com
March 2012 | 23 | CityBike.com