Ruminations in Korea

All joking and ribbing aside.  I want to make a few observations and statements about the Dokdo Riders.

I have been very critical of the Dokdo Riders in the past.  My main criticism has been about their stated goal of bringing the message that Dokdo belongs to Korea to the world.  As evidenced by the fact there there has been only a single US newspaper report about them, I feel that they have not been successful in achieving their goal.  I think I have made my point in this regard, and I want to put all of that aside for now.

I am still amazed that they were able to get funding for an around-the-world motorcycle trip.  Whether it is simply for travel or for a serious cause, what they have accomplished in obtaining the funds is truly amazing.  My hat is off to them.

On another note, these guys have shown an incredible amount of courage and guts to go through with their plan.  They are riding their bikes through 25,000 miles or so of completely unknown, unfamiliar territory, people, laws, and customs.  For five relatively naive guys in Korea to suck it up and take the plunge is quite admirable.

It is clear they have a love of motorcycles.  There is no way I can fault them for that.  They could done this tour of theirs by plane, train, automobile, bicycle, foot, bus or horseback, but they chose to do it by motorcycle.  Here in Korea where the motorcycle culture is mostly undeveloped except for a relatively small few that have developed the motorcycle culture in some ways that I find to be really strange, it is a cool thing that these five guys love biking enough that they want to do it around the world.  I don’t think any Koreans have ever done this before.  If so, I have never heard of anyone who has.  With any luck, this will get more Koreans interested in real biking rather than just scrambling through traffic from point “A” to point “B”.

Also, the Dokdo Riders have already had to put up with some difficult circumstances.  There has been a lot of rain since they arrived.  The guy caught in San Francisco and Oakland in a near two-week downpour that was reported to be the wost rain storm in 100 years.  Their plans to traverse the Colorado Rockies and go over the continental divide and then across to Chicago were abandoned due to possible rain, sleet, and lots of snow still in high Rockies. (I’m glad they abandoned the part of their trip because those bikes are set for sea-level riding and it would get ugly for them to be fully loaded with fuel and gear trying to scale the rockies and a mile and more above sea-level.  Motorcycles like that need oxygen to run) They re-routed themselves to Dallas.  They could have given up, the could have taken a different means of transportation.  But whatever else they have done, they have shown perserverance.  I am impressed by that.

You may also recall that I, as well as other people, have mused about the possible outcomes if and when the Dokdo riders meet a motorcycle club.  This has already happened. They met up with a motorcycle club in Oakland.  From all accounts, it was a very pleasant, very satisfying, and very good experience for the Dokdo Riders.  I hope they came away from it with a better understanding of how Americans, regardless of whether they are average joes, business executives, or tattooed bikers, generally act.  I hope they came away with a better understanding of how most Americans really are.  I hope they came away with a better understanding of bikers and biking.  Kudos to the motorcycle club for being seriously cool to the Dokdo Riders.  I plan to have more about this later.

So, as the Dokdo Riders arrive in Dallas and engage in further activities, I did want it make it clear that while I am skeptical of their stated intent and completely underwhelmed by their strategies, I do respect and admire them as Koreans, as people, and as motorcycle enthusiasts.

Shiny side up, boys!