Motorcycle traveler: Virginie, Vidadventures biker

Exploring the world on a motorcycle: what a vast undertaking. What excites us most? Meeting the travelers and adventurers who have taken it upon themselves to discover the most remote corners of the world. As each of them has their own vision of travel, we give them the floor in a series of interviews.

In this article, Virginie, the female half of ViDadventures, tells us about their travel adventures, mostly off-road. She and David are also very active in the biker community.

----> We recommend you follow their adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Polarsteps and Youtube.

Hello Virginie. What is ViDadventures? When did it start? Can you also introduce us to your sidekick David?

ViDadventures is a contraction of Virginie and David.

We met in 2020 via a motorcycle travel Facebook group. At the time, David was on a solo roadtrip in Morocco, and the photos and videos he posted every day made me dream! We started chatting privately and realized thatwe had a lot in common. In particular, our vision of travel and our love of bivouacs.

One thing led to another and we talked about the idea of setting off together one day... But first we had to meet in person. I suggested we stop off at home on the way back from Morocco, but Covid got in the way! Just as he was about to start his ascent, confinement was imposed in France and the borders suddenly closed. We spent 2 months at home, 1,000km apart. We continued to get to know each other on Messenger!

When we were finally released, we met for real and 2 weeks later we left for a week in Lozère to test our "compatibility"... 3 nights in a bivouac under a tarp and 3,000km sealed our agreement! The following month we set off on a month-long roadtrip through the Balkans and Romania to the Black Sea.

We've been together ever since, and our travel plans are multiplying.

What bike has taken you on all these adventures? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Well, we understand you're changing bikes. What's your new bike and why this model?

Our 1st trip was on the bike I had at the time: a Yamaha FZ6N. Not a very comfortable roadster, and not really suited to this kind of roadtrip. No matter, it did the job and carried me 8,000km through 14 countries! (Incidentally, I've never had a single problem with this bike, which I've owned for ten years. On the other hand, every evening when we had to leave the road to find a place to bivouac, we thought that a trail bike would be more suitable!

So we bought an old 1992 KLE 500 Kawa and set off on our 1st off-road roadtrip. 25 days on the Trans Euro Trail, which took us from Nantes to the Pyrenees, to the Calanques and back via the Lubéron, Verdon, Lozère etc... Riding off-road was a real revelation for me! I'd been drawn to it for years, and it was a real "coup de coeur".

A few months later, we decided to do a winter tour of Spain. And that's when we came face to face with the hazards of a carbureted bike... Between changes in altitude and variations in temperature, we had a few problems!

Then my KLE gave us the worst of it and caused us quite a few setbacks, notably by leaving us stranded in the middle of a mountain in Greece 1? years ago. A great friend restored it for us, but we still started thinking about buying a new bike. Our choice fell on a KTM 790 Adventure.

How did you get into motorcycling? Where does this love of 2-wheelers come from?

For as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of 2-wheelers. There are a lot of bikers in my family.

I rode a lot when I was young, and it was only natural that at the age of 14 I wanted a moped. My mom wouldn't hear of it, so I saved every penny until I could afford an old Ciao Piaggio, and freedom was mine! Then, in 2000, I took my big cube driving test in Lozère, the ideal playground for me to go all over the place on a DR 800 Suzuki. The bike was far too high and heavy for me, but it didn't matter, the passion was there!

How do you prepare your motorcycle trips? Do you organize them down to the last detail, or do you improvise?

Most of the time we set off in total improvisation! We do have a route and a few points on the map to give us a general idea, but the rest is up to us, depending on the weather, the people we meet, the national parks, etc. We don't plan much of anything, not even our accommodation. In any case, we bivouac in the wilderness most of the time, and if we want to sleep rough we always find a small hotel or a room with a local.

The fact that we don't plan anything certainly means we miss out on well-known sites classified as "must-sees", but it gives us a great deal of freedom of action and leaves plenty of room for surprises and impromptu encounters. In any case, we're more the type to avoid cities and tourist spots!

What equipment do you use to travel? Are you happy with your choices? Are there any in particular you'd recommend?

• Road helmet: LS2 Storm II - the shape suits me and it's not very expensive.
• Adventure helmet : LS2 Pioneer Evo. Lightweight and inexpensive

• Intercom: Sena 60S Dual it's essential for us to be able to communicate while riding. We've been using Sena intercoms for a few years now, and we're delighted with them. The new ones we've just bought really impressed us with their high sound quality, even at high speeds, and their ease of connection! And the Mesh system is just great for group communication.

• Jacket and pants: KLIM Artemis. They cost a fortune, but I waited until the end of the line to buy them at 50% off! I'm absolutely delighted with them, as the laminated gore tex allows me to ride in all weatherswithout having to remove or replace a waterproof liner. The only drawback, in my opinion, is the extra thickness at the wrist. In winter, it's quite complicated to put on the cuff of a thick, battery-powered heated glove.

• Boots: Sidi Adventure 2 Gore Tex. They protect me well off-road and remain flexible enough to walk a little with them on.

• Gloves: in summer, I only ride with Five, a brand that specializes in gloves and that I've been wearing for years. In winter, I ride with VQuattro. A mid-season pair of Gore Tex and a pair of heated V-4HEAT. The big difficulty I find with gloves is finding ones that are REALLY tactile! I always have at least 2 or 3 pairs of gloves with me to ward off the elements.

• Underwear : Merino in summer and winter. There are different qualities and densities to suit the season. Short- and long-sleeved T-shirt, long underpants, socks. In case of extreme cold, I add a thin fleece and a compact down jacket. And I always carry 2 or 3 chokers in my luggage. For cold-weather bivouacs, I also have down socks to wear over my yak-hair socks (my Mongolian socks).

What type of luggage do you have? Are you more of the soft or hard team (eternal question)?

Now that's a vast debate that I'd put on the same level as the one about tires! And clearly, in my opinion, there's no right answer. It just depends on how you feel, or sometimes where you're going.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm more of a fan of soft luggage when I'm on an off-road trip, because I'm too afraid of injuring myself in the event of a fall with hard luggage. On the other hand, the problem with soft suitcases is that you can't secure the contents. For us, this isn't really a problem, as we avoid cities as much as possible. And if we have to go shopping, one of us stays close to the bikes.

Rigid cases are handy for leaving your helmet in the top case, so you can go for a ride without having to carry all your gear, and best of all, they lock! The new bikes are equipped with them. In fact, I think we'll be using them on our next trip.

How is your gear organized on the bike?

It's pretty pragmatic really. In the right rear suitcase, I have all my bivouac gear with my chair on top, accessible if I need it during the day. Left rear suitcase: clothes, toiletries, rain gear, spare gloves. Right front bag, first-aid kit, swimming shoes and swimsuits. Left front bag: sneakers and flip-flops. The saddle bag is just for my comforter, which is quite bulky, and any shopping we do at the end of the day. I also have a tank bag in which I recharge the GoPro batteries, and where I keep various things like my papers, sunglasses, lipstick, etc. And finally a backpack with my camelbak, piss-debout, visor cleaner etc...

What kind of roads do you ride on? Are you more into asphalt or dirt tracks?

Clearly, I'm a dirt track rider, but I also like to ride on small, winding roads.

Tent, youth hostel or hotel... what type of accommodation do you prefer?

Most of the time we sleep under a tarp. This is a light tarpaulin measuring 3x3m. If it's hot, we stretch it between two trees to put our hammocks underneath, and if it's cold, we stretch it between our 2 bikes and sleep on the ground. The great advantage of this system is thatwe're as close to nature as possible, we can see the sun rise without getting out of the comforter and sometimes we're lucky enough to see animals passing by (foxes, wild boar, hares etc...) and above all we have much less condensation than in a tent.

Every 3-4 days, we'll spend a night camping or in a gite to charge all our batteries and take a hot shower.

A motorcycle trip is often intense, both great and trying. What are the small difficulties of everyday life and, on the other hand, the small/great pleasures?

The difficulties for me are just the weather. Clearly, if it's too hot day and night, you'll quickly get tired, and similarly, if it rains every day and you can't dry off, it'll quickly become exhausting. So if you have the time or the means, take a break at a hotel to have the air-conditioning or heating on. Otherwise, you have to learn to manage your fatigue, and that's not always easy, I find. On the other hand, it gives a great flavor to the simplest pleasures!

I remember a very windy day in Spain in February, in the middle of the high plains of Aragon, I think. We stop off at a bar-restaurant for a coffee and a little warmth. The owner, also a biker and speaking a little French, suggests a soup instead. The best soup of my life, I think! In any case, it gave me so much comfort at the time that I remember it as a precious moment...

Great pleasures are many! In fact, if I could, I'd spend my life traveling by motorcycle. I marvel at everything, so as soon as we're on a roadtrip I spend my time raving into the intercom lol. And it's even worse now that I've got my new bike! My favorite thing to do is to write my travel diary every morning while drinking my coffee and watching the sunrise.

Can you tell us about your happiest moments, your favorite country/region and one or two memorable encounters?

My favorite country is without a doubt Montenegro! In fact, I can't wait to go back and explore it off-road on the TET (Trans Euro Trail). But when it comes to wild and grandiose landscapes, Romania is not to be outdone! And its inhabitants are very welcoming. In fact, it was on a beach south of the mouth of the Danube, on the shores of the Black Sea, that we had a wonderful encounter. We had settled on the beach for 2 nights and our neighbors, a couple from Bucharest on vacation, practically fed us for 2 days. We had everything we needed, but they shared their meals with us and we had a great time chatting over grilled meats. Their vision of the Ceausescu era amazed us...

Another memorable encounter was in Greece when I broke down with my KLE. The owner of the bar where we had stopped to find a solution told us she knew someone who had a van. She called him and 2 hours later he was there with his pick-up. We loaded up my bike and I climbed in with him while David followed us. He didn't speak English so we couldn't communicate. I could see that he wanted to tell me and ask me lots of things, but we couldn't understand each other. It was very frustrating for both of us, but the most important thing was said with the eyes!

Have you ever experienced any major problems or mechanical glitches?

Yes, in Greece. My bike broke down for the 1st time, and the guy took us back to the campsite in a pickup, then David towed me to the garage. We set off again a few days later and I broke down again. This time it was the end of the trip. Assistance, a tow truck, getting on the ferry towed by a strap, etc... It was really frustrating at the time, and I cried because the disappointment was so intense. Looking back, however, I can see that in spite of our misfortune, we always come out on top, and it still leaves us with some good memories.

Adventures have been rather limited lately due to injuries.... What's your next travel project? Can you tell us more, or is it top secret?

Indeed, we've just had a complicated year... David with a broken fibula and me with a fractured wrist. 2 surgeries each and 1 year of convalescence and reeducation, we're back more or less operational, but in any case super impatient to get going again.

If all goes well, we'll be heading for Greece in early March. This summer we don't know yet, maybe Morocco. And in 2026, we'll be heading for Mongolia!

Many thanks to Virginie for taking the time to answer their questions. We wish her all the best for her adventures with her sidekick David.

If this exchange has inspired you, you should know that we give a voice to other adventurers in our blog.