My name is Jonathan. I am the guy behind “everywherevirtually.com”. In the summer of 2007 I was visiting a friend in Italy. I had arrived from a cold and rainy England. On the way from the airport to Bergamo I noticed lots of people on motorcycles and scooters dressed with such style that the Italians pull off so well. it was October, the air was warm, the light a mellow amber. That was the trigger for me. That was the spark. I had grown tired of travelling cocooned in aircraft, buses and air conditioned cars.
I wanted to experience the world of travel with a greater sense of interaction. By November 2007 I had a helmet. I didn’t have a bike or any other piece of equipment. The helmet was an expensive enough talisman to ensure I would move forward and take my wish to ride further and not consign it to the heap of ideas that never quite made it. by December the CBT (Compulsory Basic Test) was booked for January. I had bought a blue Honda Varadero 125 to practice on and I was all set.
I remember the morning of the CBT training. There was a 17year old who was learning to ride a scooter. A husband and wife team, myself and another guy. Each had a bike allocated to them but I didn’t. They kept saying to me “where is your bike?” I smiled with a knowing look that it would arrive any minute. Sure enough the Hunts Honda van turned up with my Varadero 125 and they wheeled it out of the back of the van. Compared to the CG125′s it looked huge. Because I had such a clear picture of what I wanted to achieve I was not worried or intimidated by it.
There have been many great days riding over the last two and a half years but getting out on the road for the first time ranks up there as one of the most smile inducing moments.
By May 2008 I had passed the full test and in the June I had the BMW F800GS. The 2009 recession bit hard and I had to let the bike go in the end. Undeterred I picked up another bike. A 500cc Honda. So the journey continues. The important thing is not so much the type of bike but the act of riding, exploring, discovering new places and meeting great people all over the world. You certainly do not need a flashy BMW. I was seduced by the BMW image for sure, but no more. My flat black, post apocalyptic, over-landing, adventure, rat bike will do just fine for now.
You might want to check out my Adventure Motorcycling photos on Flickr and of course my burgeoning foray into Video. I used to do YouTube but it has become a bit too mainstream and over burdened by irritating pop-up adverts now that the bean counters have taken over so now my video vehicle of choice is the rather luscious Vimeo!
7 responses so far ↓
1 Carlos // Jun 27, 2009 at 16:04
Hi! I like your GS, i`m have another 800gs and i like know where buy the lateral spoilers and the superior spoiler in TT windshield. Regards and thanks
2 Jonathan // Oct 13, 2009 at 04:29
The spoiler is made by a company called MRA. It is screwed into the TT windshield but does not come with the TT windshield. Hope this helps Carlos. Best regards, Jonathan
3 Mike // Feb 11, 2010 at 17:43
Hi
I just stumbled on to your site and am having a great time watching the videos and reading ride reports laying on the couch recovering from gall bladder surgery.
Since I’m a gear head could you maybe include what type of video cameras are used for the videos?
Thanks
Mike
4 Jonathan // Feb 11, 2010 at 18:08
Hi Mike,
I hope the surgery recovery goes well and is swift. I need to do so much more to the website and include many more ride reports. I’ve done 30,000 miles of riding in the last year and a half. For the filming I use a Canon HF100 camera. Sometimes with a Nikura 0.5x wide angle lens. For editing I now use Final Cut Express on a Mac. I used to use iMovie but nothing beats the quality of FCE or FCP.
Cheers
Jonathan
5 Mark // Mar 10, 2010 at 21:00
Hi Jon.
Been browsing the web and stumbled upon your web site by chance. I was always impressed with your trips, when I first saw you of FB via Andre’s site, but now having just read your above bio am even more amazed by your exploits and learning cycle, givn you have only been riding a short time. Well done!!!.
)) when you next over this way, but if you’d like some UK IAM road riding input, I’ll trade that for your off road words of wisdom. Take care and glad you enjoyed the April UK version of Visor Down and the F 800/650 GS item. Tschüs!
I know that we have agreed to meet up for coffee and cakes (your treat don’t forget
6 Ros & John Gowers // Mar 25, 2010 at 17:53
Hi there – glad to see you on our fb page. Looks like you are a man after our own heart! Hope to welcome you and the bike at our place one day!
7 Jonathan // Apr 2, 2010 at 15:09
Hi Elaine,
The flag tool is provided by Flag Counter. I only initially listed a maximum of 30 countries to save on space and I’ve just checked to see if it dropped off the end of the list. With Family in the UK, Ireland and Northern Ireland I agree with you. Unfortunately it is flag counter who feed the data back to my site in the form of flags.
I looked up flagcounter and they are based in Indiana and this is what they have to say on their contact page:
“Please do not contact us about factual information we have listed for a specific country. Our country information is sourced from the CIA’s public domain The World Factbook publication. We will only update our site with Factbook information and maps.”
Not very helpful but let us hope the CIA update their records soon.
Incidentally you have a great website and some great riding up on the North coast and Antrim! I was up there back in November and loved it.
Jonathan
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