More Than Miles: What Happens When Long-Term Motorcycle Travel Ends
Adventure Rider Radio - A Motorcycle Podcast
Canoe West Media
4.9 • 915 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In December 2019, Lisa and Simon Thomas left their motorcycles and gear in the United States, planning to return after a short trip home to the UK. More than six years later, those bikes are still there — and their lives have gone in a very different direction. This episode lives in the space between what was planned and what actually happened. We talk about building a life around long-term travel, what happens when health intervenes, and the emotional cost of stopping after years on the move. Lisa and Simon share what it’s like to lose — and rebuild — identity, confidence, and purpose when the thing that defines you suddenly disappears. And through it all, we explore why motorcycles still matter.
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| 0:00.0 | We've had so many people ask us about t-shirts and hats. |
| 0:02.5 | We now have Adventure Rider Radio t-shirts and hats at our website, adventurer riderradio.com. |
| 0:08.0 | Click on merch. |
| 0:10.8 | What happens when you build your life, your whole life, financially, emotionally, personally, |
| 0:16.8 | around something that is suddenly no longer available to you? |
| 0:21.3 | They have been riding around the world for about 16 years by motorcycle, |
| 0:26.0 | and at the end of 2019, Lisa and Simon Thomas left their bikes and their gear |
| 0:31.1 | with a friend of the United States so they could just zip home to the UK for about eight weeks, |
| 0:36.1 | deal with a medical issue, and then go back to the |
| 0:38.2 | states, pick up their bike, their gear, and continue their trip. That was the plan. More than six |
| 0:45.3 | years later, those bikes are still there. So is all the gear. Lisa and Simon are not and have not. |
| 0:53.8 | The gap between what was planned and what actually happened is really where the conversation |
| 0:57.9 | lives today that you're about to hear. |
| 0:59.7 | We talk about what happens in life when health intervenes with your plans, about losing and |
| 1:05.2 | rebuilding identity when that thing that defines you is suddenly unavailable, about money, |
| 1:10.7 | problem solving, confidence, |
| 1:12.3 | fear. We talk about imposter syndrome, ego, risk, and what long-term travel teaches you about |
| 1:19.2 | dealing with problems on the road and off the road. And we talk about why, after all that, |
| 1:26.1 | motorcycles still matter. |
| 1:28.4 | This is a conversation with Lisa and Simon Thomas after more than 507,000 miles, 816,000 kilometers on the road by motorcycle. |
| 1:40.2 | And what happens after? |
| 1:42.4 | I'm Jim Martin. This is Adventure Rider Radio. Stay with us. We got a good one for you. Hi, I'm Simon McCormick. Ed Simon. Austin, Snell. Simon, Simon, Harvey, Thomas, Lisa Thomas, Graham Jarvis, Presbytech, Nick Fander, Boston Venn, Tiffany Coates, Herbert, Chutz, Ratt, Ratt Tarks, Trent and Smout. I Johnson. Jimmy Lewis. Alston. Graham Jarvis. This bitch. Nick Fander. |
... |
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