Watch this.
BMW Unscripted – Tiffany from DIGITALKITCHEN on Vimeo.
- February 4, 2011
- 62 Comments
MotorcycleDaily.com – Motorcycle News, Editorials, Product Reviews and Bike Reviews
Motorcycle News, Editorials, Product Reviews and Bike Reviews
Motorcycle News, Editorials, Product Reviews and Bike Reviews
©1999-2024 Enhance Partners, LLC
Motorcycle Daily Privacy Policy
Good for her. Safe travels to her, and to everyone out there.
Anytime you throw a leg over and enjoy the ride, its an adventure. Honestly, commuting on a motorbike in Detroit is more dangerous than driving in most third world countries.
And as far as all the class warfare BS and bike judgement going on, what business is that of anybody’s? Who cares where your money comes from? Who cares what kind of bike you ride? I always laugh when the “free spirit / don’t judge me” motorcyclist crowd passes judgement on someone else’s choices. Don’t like that someone else earns a boatload of cash every year? Change your life and beat them at it by earning more than they do (if you can…). Otherwise, just be happy they’re investing their hard-earned money into motorbikes. Helps fund all the cool R&D that makes its way into lots of different models!
Happy riding.
I’ll bet the motorcycle blogosphere is ALIVE with this kind of banter about the ad. Probably tens of thousands of posts, pros and cons.
And Tiffany Coates likely has not read a single one of them. Because she is out riding.
“Might as well carry on.” Indeed, Tiffany. More power to you. You are my heroine.
Envy!!!
What’s wrong with you people? Here’s a gal who likes to ride – a lot – and found a way to get someone to pay for at least part of it. Doubt BMW’s going to be selling many airheads with this ad.
Good on ya, Tiffany.
Fantastic to see a women by herself do this!
You definitely don’t need a trust fund to do this.
It’s all about spending priorities and saving.
Here’s a blog to two guys I know who went on a three month trip form Canada to Ushuaia, Argentina.
It cost them approx. $14,000 each including bikes.
Both guys have mortgages, families and average paying jobs.
It’s all about priorities.
Enjoy the blog and pic’s, especially the ones in when they get to central America.
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/chemoejito/1/tpod.html
Not so much by herself as most of the shots are from another bike or shot from roadside. She was not alone and that’s best.
I am surprised anyone would complain about this
Agreed Johnny but as we all know… some peoples’ day isn’t complete unless they complain about something. Interestingly, rates of complaining are inversely proportional to time spent on motorcycles so go riding everyone… as soon as you can. 😉
All you haters you make the decision to live the way do, living in debt and whatnot. Nobody else to blame but yourselves. Life on the road is cheap, life at home is what is expensive. I’m not a Quaker but I live simply and frugally,expect for motorcycle riding I suppose. What I want to know, is where do I meet a women like this?
Haters? Aren’t you taking this a bit too serious?
One of the better BMW ads that I’ve seen.
I had lunch with Tiffany this past summer. Let me set the record straight on a few things.
First, this was a commercial, not a Charley/Ewan-style travelogue. I’m sure Tiffany was happy for the recognition and the $. Wouldn’t you be?
Second, RTW riders might be old news now, but Tiffany was one of the first women to do it solo. (Lois Pryce is an old school friend, by the way.) She’s every bit as adventurous as Glen Heggstad or any other two-wheeled vagabond.
As far as funding, she works as a social worker in England, lives frugally and saves her money. When she travels she camps everywhere and eats on the cheap. She was recently hired on as a tour guide with Globe Busters.
Her blog is here:
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk/
I’ve been to several seminars/media presentations put on by folks like Tiffany who’ve made the choices necessary to be able to do trips like this. Sure, the local BMW shop hosts them and it costs a few bucks to attend. I’m okay with that. I like to support those who are actually out there riding as opposed to sniveling on the internet about how they’ve accumulated too much stuff and too much debt to even attempt such a ride. Not everyone that does these trips is loaded. Many liquidate everything they own and devise a shoestring budget so that they can afford the ride of their dreams. Some make a little dough by giving these dealership talks, selling books afterward, (that’s getting harder to do as more and more RTW are written). Some get a little help from bike or gear manufacturers but that’s usually the ones who have already completed some other noteworthy ride on their own. Who cares? I don’t care how they finance their trip or their new lifestyle. They’re out there actually doing it.
Like has already been said, one doesn’t have to ride around the world to have an adventure. Grow a pair, take a week or two of vacation and ride somewhere. It’s not hard.
Here’s another epic ADV ride:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=500053&highlight=dragons+arse
Kudos to anyone riding like this, it’s more than I’m capable of right now. Maybe one day I’ll learn not to be a slave to my possessions. Until then, I’ll have to settle for life with a ZRX and chipping away at the debt I owe.
It’s a commercial.
It’s a commercial for what a 20 year old airhead you can’t buy anymore. I enjoyed it even though my modern GS Adv would never be trusted to make this type of trip without mobile support.
“Do you own the stuff you own or does the stuff you own own you?” – John Flynn (singer/songwriter)
Good on you Tiffany; the rest of you whiners – shaddup, you already made your lifestyle decisions!
Does not mean that we’re bound permanently to those decisions. Every day we make choices that can affect the outcome of the rest of our lives.
Put simply, most people are capable of change, in spite of the difficulty involved.
@Butch “…only to become janitors to our possessions.” I love it! Its so true.
It was cheaper for me to teach, live, volunteer and ride an XR250 around S.E.Asia for 6 months (and paid my mortgage) than it was to live at home in Canada. Go figure.
When I came home I felt trapped by all the junk I own. Wtf are we doing?
The richest man isn’t the one with the most, but rather the one who needs the least. I find it hard to “lose” my stuff too.
Hey, Kuzmenko, why don’t you “explain” all of YOUR personal finance details for all of us?
OK, KC.
I get up, work, go home, and repeat.
I pay the bills to survive and pay the taxes to avoid being kicked off my land and into jail.
What’s left ain’t enough to take a trip around the world.
I guess it really doesn’t matter, anyway, because for all I know, it’s probably just an advertisement to sell the bike in the video, as mentioned.
i get it: i owe, i owe, so off to work i go. 🙂
An advertisement maybe, but BMW hasn’t sold that bike for years so the distinction is subtle… not in your face. They’re selling the experience, the freedom, the passion, the lifestyle. I have a lot more respect for a company who chooses to promote their products in such a way. Choose your bike, any bike and get back to why people started riding in the first place. Dis the establishment and see the world… if the chain don’t break.
I enjoy these kinds of stories, I really do, but sometimes when I go for a 50 mile trail ride alone, I feel like I am more “at risk” than some of these people.
Chin up Leo…our government is here to help us.
Lois Pryce, now she’s a two wheel adventurer.
I think it’s cool. So what if others did it already. So what if she’s on a BMW instead of a clapped-out ’76 XL75 and 1/2 of an emergency blanket. A film crew? So what.. the ride is still the ride. Your ass is doing time on the seat. I could’nt keep my job if I took that trip…For that reason alone I will never do something this big. And that means she did something I can not. Bravo sister, I’m inspired…I appreciate your sharing this journey with me. I’m better for having had the opportunity to see it all and hear your thoughts about it.
I feel you Leo and very well put Butch! All of my things…hm-mm.
Where is the adventure is following a chase car with a film crew around the world? Actually what this represents makes me depressed. I have no hope in hell of every attaining freedom such as this. I have a mortgage, kids starting college and sometimes feel I’ll be working until I die. All I can manage are occasional, cheap-o week enders.
I hear ya Leo…..but, take all the cheap-o week enders you can. They always make me feel refreshed, and a little better able to deal with the rigors of “responsible adulthood.” LOL!
We Americans tend to spend the majority of our time creating what we preceive as a comfortable and safe enviroment for our families and our future, only to become janitors to our possesions.
About 4 years ago, @ the age of 57, I sold everything I owned, bought an RV and a dual sport and took off to see the country.
I’m still living that lifestyle, although I’ve accumulated a few more motorcycles, and have no regrets.
Of course being single helps.
I spent almost 40 years dreaming of the day when I could pull this off. My friends and family thought I was crazy ” how can you get rid of all the things you have worked so hard for”? they asked.
Looking back, it was the best thing I ever did for myself.
Amen, brother!e
Just another run of the mill commercial for BMW – someone taking long trips on a cushy GS with their own chase vehicle/camera crew . The ones I like to read about are the ones taken truly alone without a support vehicle . The guy on adv rider with the DR650 on a trip taken through Alaska or KLR 250s/650s taken across country or around the world in the case of the 650 . Those are the real adventure riders – not somebody followed around by a camera crew for a commercial that says buy this expensive bike !
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83480
Did you miss something? Had you actually bothered to look – she’s riding a GS alright. No argument. An R80.
A bike that’s at least 24 years old and ceased production in 1987. So unless BMW is looking to sell outdated equipment as the latest-and-greatest in cushy bikes, I’d say you’ve missed the point entirely.
Isn’t it obvious from watching this that the adventure has damn little to do with the bike involved? Sheesh. I’m not even interested in owning an adventure bike and I ‘get’ that.
Okay so it’s a commercial touting the go anywhere ability of a BMW GS (any BMW GS not necessarily a new one )that is actually titled Unscripted BMW . The rider mentions how great the GS is to ride everywhere and the BMW logo and words BMW on the bike flashed repeatedly in the video . Watch it again , you must have missed it !
No, I saw it all.
“Those are the real adventure riders – not somebody followed around by a camera crew for a commercial that says buy this expensive bike !” – Your words
If you’d looked at who Tiffany Coates is and what she does, the camera doesn’t follow her 24/7. Its very much her Life and not something manufactured for public consumption. She doesn’t own a new, expensive bike and run around saying “buy this bike.”
She happens to ride an ’80s GS. And yes, this is a bit of a commercial for BMW…..So what? That makes her less of an adventure rider because someone wanted to film her and she’s on a BMW and not some ancient-tech DR650 or KLR in Alaska? Heck – her resume’ makes Alaska look like a weekend hike.
She’s on an ancient tech BMW and someone wanted to follow this woman around to chronicle what can be done on a 24 year old bike. If I were BMW – I would to. “Yeah, our bikes are expensive and known throughout the world. Buy one – and 24 years later you can still get parts….if you need them.”
Nathan Millward went from Sydney Australia to London England on a postie bike (CT110).
You can read about it here:
http://www.thepostman.org.uk/
Yes… I don’t know if you noticed… but we BMW riders are a bit of a cult… think of us like harley riders… except we don’t leak oil over the roads… we don’t dress up like pirates… and we actually enjoy riding.
Awesome. I AM jealous of these world adventurers. I wish I had the courage to do something like that, or the temperment to put up with all the hassles that go along with getting the pretty pictures and marvelous stories, but alas, I am not. I worry when it’s 5 PM and I don’t have a motel room yet LOL.
Keep on keeping on Tiffany.
Nathan Millward. That’s real Adventure Riding.
a sort of “true grit” and “i’ve been everywhere, man” rolled into one.
i’ve ridden my friend’s r1150gs – uber easy and comfy.
As a recent magazine editor said “please don’t send me anymore I’m traveling around the world on a GS stories”. I guess he’d seen too many as of late.
Someone told me adventure touring was the “new chopper” craze! Maybe they’re right. As we grow older and look at our lives and how the world has changed around us many (me included) envy the original freedom and adventure that was “simple motorcycling” decades ago. Maybe in a more respectable “born to be wild” way than mimicking outlaw bikers.
Not all of us have the courage, resources and reckless abandon to pursue such a journey of that scale but it seems there is a growing number that do. You can find amazing little adventures within 100s of miles of home if you just take the less traveled route once in a while.
Comparing adventure riding to “choppers” is not fair. Owing a chopper is a not at all like riding a bike thousands of miles. Many people that can afford a cool chopper wound never ride over 60 miles in a day, let alone in the unknown for weeks or longer…
There are a million of these things out there, but this one has great pictures. A guy from Topeka, KS posted it. He travelled alone well up into Alasaka and details his trip. I think you’ll all enjoy seeing it:
http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=38423
Tim – Thanks for the link. Really enjoyed it.
I just spent a couple of hours looking at his blog. Really cool. Thx for posting that.
Now THAT was an adventure story! Looking at stories like this one make me hope I can find the time to do a ride like this some day. Thank you for that link!
Interesting there are two comments so far, and both relate to exactly what I was thinking. I only wish I had the time and financing to do things like this. Hopefully, when I retire, I’ll still be healthy enough to take trips like these.
By the way, is it just me, or are these Captcha word challenges on this site getting harder and harder to read? Sometimes I have to go through 5 or 6 of them just to get to one that I feel confident enough in (that I’m reading them right) to hit submit. I’ve blown a couple of them, and then my comment disappears and I have to start over. I see these on other sites, but the motorcycledaily.com words seem to consistently be the toughest to make out.
no, it’s not you. when not 100% sure of the captcha, i highlight my comment in the event of a future copy/paste. in fact, i did it for this post.
I do the same thing for the same reason.
Typically disappointing. The first two reactions are judgmental and negative. Jealous much?
However she pays for her life – it’s none of my concern. It would be nice to be able to do such things.
I didn’t take them as jealousy, and my comment certainly wasn’t intended as such either. Envious, maybe, but not jealous.
I don’t begrudge people who have the financing to do things like this, but I certainly wish I could do things like this myself. In fact, I suspect many people who do this sort of riding sacrifice in other ways, financially, to be able to do it. They probably retire early, forgo the big house and the nice cars, and then live on a shoestring budget the rest of their lives. I’m married, and even if I wanted to make that kind of sacifice, my wife would never be on board with it. Besides, I like having a couple of german cars and three motorcycles in my garage. I’m not quite at the point in my life where I’m ready to give up nice toys so I have the time to take trips like this, no matter how burned out I am with my job. However, it would be nice if I could have my cake and eat it to!
Uh-uh.
I was asking, in other words, how was the trip paid for in her case?
To me, that’s the first thing I’d think of if I was gonna’ decide to be an adventure rider.
Going around the world must not be that hard in that anybody with the money is doing it.
…..agreed. If you really want to, and you got the time and the jack, you too can climb Everest.
Trustfund Baby
Where does the financing for such a trip come from?
That’s what I’d like explained in detail.
You finance a trip like this by making it a priority. My wife and I are leaving this summer for 16 months rtw. It should cost something less than 50K for the entire trip. No trust fund here, just working, living below our means for several years, not “keeping up with the Joneses”, and making it happen. People don’t blink twice at buying a 50K car or boat, but can’t imagine how you could spend it on the experience of a lifetime. Check out HUBB and see that most people doing this aren’t wealthy and don’t have chase vehicles, they just have a dream and the passion to follow through.
I figured it out when they zoomed in on the BMW Roundel and she said “People all over the world recognize this logo, no matter how they pronounce it”.
need any more detail?
From Tiffany’s website: “I must emphasise that all the costs of the trip are being borne by myself- through saving hard over the last two years.”
Leap to judgement much?
From Tiffany’s website: “In March 2010 BMW flew me to southern Turkey to film my bike travel exploits for a short documentary.”
Yes, I do leap to judgement occasionally, but not this time.
In her own words, BMW paid for this.
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk/