About Fat Boys Adventures
Fat Boys Adventures grew out of the simple habit of both solo riding and two mates heading out on motorcycles and gradually pushing those rides further and further from home. What started as the occasional trip turned into longer journeys, bigger routes and eventually multi-week rides across Europe, where the aim was never really about ticking destinations off a list but simply about following good roads and seeing where they lead.
Engineering Background
Between the two of us there is an engineering background that probably explains a lot about the way these trips are approached. One of us works as an electrical engineer and the other as a mechanical engineer, which means there is always a certain amount of curiosity about machines, reliability, route planning and the practical side of travelling long distances on motorcycles. Bikes tend to be maintained properly, routes are usually researched in detail, and when things go wrong — which they occasionally do — there is normally a way of figuring it out and getting moving again.
Motorcycles Through the Years
Motorcycles themselves have always been at the centre of these journeys, and over the years a wide variety of machines have passed through the garage. Earlier bikes included machines such as the BMW R1200GS Adventure, Honda VFR750, Honda VFR800, BMW K1600, BMW K1300 and the Triumph Tiger 900 Rally, all of which have carried us across thousands of miles of European roads and helped shape the type of riding we enjoy most.
Those bikes were brilliant for covering distance and crossing countries quickly, but over time the trips gradually shifted more towards adventure riding, where the roads become smaller, the surfaces become rougher and the routes often lead far away from the main highways and tourist areas. Riding in places like the Pyrenees, rural Spain and Portugal tends to encourage that shift naturally, as the best riding is often found well away from the busy routes.
The Current Bikes
The current collection of bikes reflects that change in direction. Today the garage includes a Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports ES, which was purchased from Church Street Motorcycles, a KTM 890 Adventure R, a Husqvarna 701 and a Suzuki DR650, each of which serves a slightly different role depending on the type of ride ahead. Some are better suited to long distance touring, others are happier on rough trails, and a few are ideal for exploring the kind of remote routes that sit somewhere between road riding and proper off-road travel.
Navigation, Technology and Riding Gear
As engineers we also tend to enjoy the technical side of motorcycles and the equipment that goes with them. Navigation systems, communication gear, cameras and mapping tools all play a part in making long adventure rides both safer and easier to manage when you are travelling across unfamiliar terrain for days or weeks at a time.
Over the years we have experimented with a range of navigation setups. On the Triumph Tiger we previously ran a Garmin Zumo alongside a Garmin Monterra, both of which proved extremely capable for long distance touring and off-road navigation. More recently the KTM 890 Adventure R has been running the DMD2 (Drive Mode Dashboard 2) navigation system, which offers a highly adaptable Android-based dashboard and mapping platform that works particularly well for adventure riding and route navigation.
Route Planning and Preparation
Route planning itself tends to involve a fair bit of preparation before a trip ever begins. Off-road routes are usually built and organised in Garmin BaseCamp, where tracks are carefully split into daily sections so they can be followed easily on the road or trail. Alongside that we spend a lot of time researching terrain and possible routes using tools such as Google Earth, satellite imagery and online mapping resources to understand what the ground actually looks like before riding it.
Communication between bikes is handled through Sena intercom systems, which we have used for many years and found to be consistently reliable over long distances. We have experimented with Cardo units in the past, but overall the Sena systems have proved to work better for the way we ride and communicate while travelling.
Recording the Adventures
For recording the trips themselves we tend to rely heavily on Insta360 cameras, which allow rides to be captured from multiple angles while still being simple enough to use on long journeys. They are particularly useful when riding off-road routes, as they allow footage to be reframed later rather than worrying about camera direction while riding difficult terrain.
We also carry Garmin inReach Mini satellite communicators on longer trips, which provide a useful safety layer when travelling through remote areas where mobile phone coverage disappears. Being able to send messages or emergency signals via satellite adds a level of reassurance when riding deep into mountain regions or isolated parts of Europe.
Adventure Country Tracks and European Riding
Many of the rides now revolve around routes such as the Adventure Country Tracks (ACT) network across Europe, which link together mountain roads, forestry tracks and remote trails into long adventure routes across entire regions. These rides have taken us through the Pyrenees, across Spain and Portugal, and through some of the most incredible landscapes you can reach on two wheels.
Beer, Food and Wine
Of course, the riding itself is only part of the story. One of the things we enjoy just as much as the roads and trails is discovering the food and drink that each country has to offer once the bikes are parked for the evening. After a long day riding through mountains, forests or dusty tracks, sitting down somewhere local with good food and a cold drink becomes one of the real highlights of travelling.
Every country seems to bring something different to the table. In Spain there are tapas bars and late evening meals that stretch long into the night, in Portugal there are grilled meats, seafood and local wines that somehow always taste better after a hot day on the bike, and in France you are never far from excellent bread, cheese and a decent glass of wine. Even the smaller villages often have simple cafés or restaurants where the food is honest, well cooked and far more memorable than anything you might find on a motorway service stop.
Beer also tends to become part of the ritual at the end of the day. Whether it is a cold Spanish lager, a Portuguese Super Bock or Sagres, or a local French beer in a small bar somewhere in the countryside, that first drink after a long ride always seems to taste far better than it would at home. The food, the drink and the atmosphere of those evenings often become just as memorable as the riding itself, and they are very much part of what makes travelling by motorcycle such a brilliant way to experience different countries.
No Social Media Noise
One thing that probably stands out compared with many modern travel or adventure websites is that neither of us has any interest in social media platforms. There are no Facebook pages, no Instagram feeds, no TikTok clips and no endless streams of posts designed to chase likes or followers. Both of us watch the occasional YouTube video like most riders do, but beyond that we have never felt the need to build our trips around social media or constantly document everything in real time.
To be blunt, we have always felt that the endless cycle of chasing likes, comments and followers is largely a waste of time and often turns into an unhealthy distraction rather than something that genuinely improves the experience of travelling. Too many people end up riding for the camera instead of riding for the journey, and that was never the point of these trips in the first place.
Instead the focus has always been on the rides themselves. The bikes, the roads, the planning, the places we pass through and the experiences that come with travelling long distances on motorcycles are the parts that matter. This website simply exists as a place to write about those journeys properly, without worrying about algorithms, hashtags or the endless noise that tends to surround social media platforms today.
Why Fat Boys Adventures Exists
Fat Boys Adventures exists mainly as a way of documenting those journeys. The rides, the routes, the roads, the bikes and the places we pass through all become part of the story, along with the weather, the mechanical challenges and the unexpected moments that seem to happen on almost every long trip.
If someone reading about these rides ends up discovering a new road, planning their own adventure or simply remembering why motorcycles are such a brilliant way to travel, then the whole thing has served its purpose.
Take the long road home — miles today, stories tomorrow.