Book review: The Road Gets Better From Here

Adrian Scott is an Australian. Do not judge all Australians by him or his actions or you will be convinced that they are all nuts. Crazy but they have a lot of fun.

The dream that Mr. Scott had was to ride the ancient spice trade route from the Russian East coast, through China, Mongolia, and a bunch of 'Stans and finally Iran and then finish in Istanbul. Fine you say, lots of guys could make that ride. But Mr. Scott had no backers, no factory support, few spare parts and no mechanical knowledge. Besides that he really couldn't ride a bike all that well. In the first paragraph he crashes, and does a number on his ankle, but that's all of that kind of drama really. The Road of Bones is a tough road, but I guess if you learn to ride on it, you are pretty much good to go.

The stead of choice was the venerable KLR650 Kawasaki. An excellent bike for off roading and on roading an one with a lot of upgrades and farkles available for it. Adrian was not big on farkles, he mentions maps often, but never a GPS so I assume that he did not have one. Speaking of maps it is a good idea to have an atlas handy while reading this. The book has one map in it showing the entire route and its not a very good one, it helps to get a perspective of where he is when various things happen.

Things do happen. Lots of things. Unlike my last book I reviewed Ted Simon's, Jupiter's Travels the bike and the riding do take center stage. As far as that goes this is an excellent book for finding out about adventure riding. he has lots of adventures, and meets a lot of people. Many of these people take him under their wing and help him out for no other reason than human kindness. From very early in Russia, into China and beyond people lend him a hand. People do play a major role and again people shine. He does not run into "bad guys" through the whole travel.

There is some major comedy in Iran of all places. This may be a spoiler, so you may wish to skip this if you intend on reading. Seems as though bikes over 250cc's are illegal in Iran. So no one there has any experience in working on the KLR650. The first town that he visits on the whole trip that has a Kawasaki dealer and they do not want to touch his bike for fear they will screw it up. Funny stuff.

He does have some mechanical difficulties and he is helped out by various people there as well.

All in all this was an excellent, entertaining book. If you are into adventure riding, or even reading about adventure riding this is a book for you.