Giant Loop has been creating innovative motorcycle luggage since 2008 when they hit the trail with their original horseshoe-shaped bag. Beginning with the Great Basin model, GL has used Rugged Bomb Shell vinyl-coated polyester with great success. The 8-liter Fandango tank bag and Pannier Pockets reviewed here are both constructed from it. As you’ll see,…
Why You Should Apply for the #GetOutDoStuff Travel Grants
British explorer and author John Blashford-Snell speaking at the 2023 Armchair Adventure Festival. The #GetOutDoStuff grants are available thanks to the event’s fundraising efforts. Applications are now open for the #GetOutDoStuff adventure travel grants. The beauty of these grants is that anyone getting out and doing stuff can apply. A round-the-world trip need not be…
Spomeniks :: An Overland Quest Through the Balkans
Photography by Enrique Pacheco Western Europe is not exactly a paradise for overlanders due to restrictive laws regarding off-roading and free camping. In turn, countries on the continent’s Eastern side, especially those in the Balkans, abound in what their occidental counterparts lack: looser regulations and fewer off-pavement prohibitions, with vast areas of stunning nature still…
Interview with Kim Musau: The Kenyan Overland Explorer
Kim Musau is an accomplished Kenyan: he is a finance graduate, a CEO, and a successful entrepreneur. In 2016, Kim decided to drive from Cape Town to Cairo with his 1998 Land Rover Defender 110 TDi. He completed the first leg of the journey, driving from Kenya to Cape Town and back, passing through Tanzania,…
Better Safe Than Sorry: Transitioning Toward Moto Rider Safety
When I began adventuring through some of the 700,000 kilometers of dirt roads in South Africa, it’s safe to say I didn’t have the right kit for the job. Transitioning into dirt riding, I made do with what I had at the time with gear used for my 1994 Harley Dyna. My first true off-road…
Overland News of the Week
Wrangler Introduces All Terrain Gear In Overland News of the Week, we’re excited to introduce a new line from Wrangler. Dipping their well-known toes into the overland market, the Wrangler brand recently unveiled an extension of its outdoor clothing range, namely All Terrain Gear (ATG) by Wrangler, a selection of state-of-the-art outdoor garments. Featuring everyday…
Lost in the Pacific with a Motorbike :: Video of the Week
When the road ends in Panama, overland travelers typically work around the conundrum of the Darién Gap by shipping trucks and cars or strapping motos to the deck of sailboats bound for Colombia. Dylan Wickrama, however, had another idea: to build a raft out of his motorcycle and sail 700 kilometers across the Pacific. As…
Next Meridian Land Rover Defender Puma :: Feature Vehicle
The oldest-known wild bird is an albatross named Wisdom, now 71 years old. Given her age, biologists estimate this avian has flown more than three million miles in her lifetime. As extraordinary as this seems, it takes on greater significance once one understands the taxing nature of an albatross’ travel. An albatross can go years…
2024 Stelvio from Moto Guzzi
Stelvio Pass is famous as a challenging Italian road over the Eastern Alps. The 2024 Moto Guzzi Stelvio is a new, tech-laden adventure motorcycle that looks to be an excellent mount for carving the pass’s 48 tight turns and cresting its 9,045-foot summit. It features Guzzi’s latest liquid-cooled 90-degree, transverse V-twin motor, which delivers a…
Craghoppers Winter Gear
I stood on the Arctic Ocean in March between two pingos, my beard frozen and a smile on my lips. I monitored my body for cold and found that only the exposed skin on my face was cold, as I had recently removed my fleece garter to drink a rapidly cooling cup of coffee poured…
We Almost Won the 2023 Land Rover Media TReK!
I touched down in Austin, Texas, after two taxi rides and two flights from my home base in Mexico, where I had left my family and my Classic Land Rover Defender 130 waiting. For the last week, I had been preparing for the Land Rover TReK Media event, refreshing my handheld compass, winch, and recovery…
How to Prepare for and Survive Inclement Weather While Overlanding
Lead photograph by Michnus Olivier, Piki Piki Overland More than a decade ago, we camped in a large wooded campsite in Punta del Este, a coastal town in Uruguay. Despite extensive overland travel in Africa, we were relative rookies. It was our first night in South America, the Defender had been released from the port…
Be Old Later’s 1997 Mitsubishi Delica L400 :: Feature Vehicle
Photography by Richard Giordano During the summer of 2017, Candice Ciesla and Jordan Schilling summited Wyoming’s Grand Teton to exchange wedding vows. With a headpiece made of taffeta and feathers, Candice looped a climbing rope through Jordan’s harness, and he tied the knot, literally, to hers. The ceremony was officiated by a guide who took…
Overland Routes :: Chile’s Atacama Desert
Photography by Coen Wubbels Unless you fly in, you will have seen a fair share of the Atacama Desert by the time you reach Iquique, whether your Pan-American overland journey takes you southbound or northbound through Chile. No matter how smooth the asphalt that cuts straight through the driest non-polar desert in the world, 995…
Toyo Tires Trailpass 2023 :: Big Fun in Big Bear
It was a six-hour drive from Arizona and a seventeen-minute search for the Holcomb Valley Ranch. The destination: Toyo Tires Trailpass 2023 in the mountains of Big Bear, California. As I drove southwest from my home in Prescott, Arizona, I passed the Grand Canyon State’s small, sparsely populated rural towns—places that most people have never…
New Products Showcased at Overland Expo East
The Overland Expo events, held nationally in the US, continue to grow from strength and have become the event of choice for manufacturers to launch and showcase new products. From top-tier vehicle manufacturers to up-and-coming gear and overland-related producers, the thousands of attendees of each event can expect to find the cutting edge of what’s…
Ducati DesertX Rally
Ducati’s DesertX Rally motorcycle is their most hardcore adventure bike yet. With any more capability, it would have to be considered a race machine. Coming on the heels of the 2023 DesertX, the 2024 Rally is a beefed up version of an already capable machine. Desmo Power At the Rally’s heart is the same DVT…
Survivors: Nigeria, Murder, and Mayhem
A shot rang out, followed by a scream, loud and very close—too close. Our new Nigerian friends scattered as one without hesitation, cowering as they ran as if expecting a hail of bullets. They disappeared into the building beside which we were camped, leaving us bewildered, on our feet, and alarmed. There had been a…
The Drums of Tonkin :: Frank and Helen Schreider’s Indonesian Expedition by Amphibious Jeep
Photography by Frank and Helen Schreider Frank and Helen Schreider were preparing to leave for the island of Flores, Indonesia, when the village chief in Komodo brought bad news. “There is no road at Labuhan Badjo,” he said, running a calloused thumb eastward over their map. “It starts here, at Reo.” Their map of Flores…
10 Things to Know About Overlanding Botswana
Photography by Expedition Overland Botswana offers the ingredients of a wild adventure. Hundreds of unpaved tracks made of thick sand and bone-wrenching washboard could keep an overland traveler busy for many months, if not years. Add fuel logistics and range considerations, regional raw meat restrictions, and the systematic destruction of your vehicle to the mix,…