About us
ABOUT US | FREE RIDER
FREE RIDER Motorcycle Adventure is an international motorcycle travel agency founded in 2020 by Benoit, aka Ben.
Specialised in On and Off road adventures trips, FREE RIDER was born from the desire to transmit an authentic vision of the motorcycle road trip.
FREE RIDER is today more than a basic agency, it is a real state of mind where values of adventure, simplicity, freedom and sharing are combined.
ABOUT US | BEN
Ben is the founder of FREE RIDER Motorcycle Adventure. He is first and foremost a seasoned traveler motivated by a desire for discovery and freedom. Motorcycle tour guide since 2017, 34 years old, and native of the French Alps. This is where his passion for nature and his desire to explore was born.
10 QUESTIONS ABOUT HIM
MOTORCYCLE OR TRAVEL LOVER?
Both of course!
Travelling is discovery, it’s life.
And a motorcycle is a wonderful tool for discovery. It’s the most authentic, the most economical, and of course the most fun!
On a motorcycle, you are closer to people, to reality, to smells, to sounds… Through my many trips, I have realised that motorcycling is a real spirit, a real community. Everywhere I have been, I have noticed a universal benevolence for motorcycle travelers.
WHERE DID THIS TRAVEL PASSION STEM FROM?
I have been traveling since I was very young.
As soon as I was 6 years old, my parents made me travel abroad and very quickly, I got a taste for cultural diversity, and for learning different ways of life and languages.
WHAT DOES TRAVEL MEAN TO YOU?
It’s discovery, exploration. It’s also about getting out of your comfort zone. It’s the simplicity and authenticity, meeting people. And of course, it’s about riding through beautiful landscapes.
There is a word that sums up the motorcycle trip for me, which I like to remind the definition: adventure.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DESTINATION?
I have often been asked this question but I never knew how to answer it…
Each destination has its attractions. For some it is the culture, for others it is the landscapes, the food, for others the authenticity of its people…
I must admit that I have a little crush on South Africa because for me, this destination is of an incomparable richness as well on the level of the landscapes, as of the culture.
I also like Asia a lot, for the people… and the food!
New Zealand is a magnificent destination too, I like to say that its landscapes provoke a ” crack of the retina “.
And then, of course, there is Alaska: my first real adventure.
With hindsight, I realize that I was not prepared at all! I left alone, at 27 years old, with an unequipped city motorcycle, a Honda 599 Hornet, I didn’t know how to load a motorcycle properly. A real madness, but what an experience! I keep memorable memories of it, and I think that it is this adventure which really confirmed my will to continue in this way of the motorcycle trip.
From Vancouver to Fairbanks, Anchorage and back, I rode 10,000 km in 21 days, sometimes by 4 degrees, under a heavy rain or in a thick smoke during the huge forest fires in Canada.
You learn fast, I can tell you.But what I saw there is unequalled: glaciers, bears, bisons, a wild nature where humans adapt and not the opposite. I also met a lot of people there, each one more authentic than the other…
Each continent is magical, each destination has its own charm and its own surprises, whether it be these distant lands or the neighboring Alpine passes.
A STORY YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?
I could tell stories for hours!
There are several that have particularly impressed me.
I think for instance of that time, in the Canadian Rockies, when I met a bear cub in the middle of the road at the bend of the road, and we both startled each other.
I often think about the people I met during my travels, those who hosted me in exchange for some travel stories…
There was this one time, for example, when I simply came to change a tyre in a small motorcycle garage in California. Finally, I spent the evening with the team, around a barbecue, admiring the mechanic doing wheelies on a Harley. It was amazing!
I slept on the sofa in the workshop, surrounded by motorcycles: the best hotel of my life!
WHEN DID YOU START BEING A MOTORCYCLE TOUR GUIDE?
In 2017, I moved to Canada. When I got there, I applied to many agencies, and one of them gave me my chance. That’s how I started with my first groups, crossing the 4500km of Route 66 and the parks of the American West.
Three years later, I returned to Europe, where I continued to work as a tour guide with several agencies, in Europe, Asia, South Africa and the United States.
In 2020, I officially qualified as a motorcycle guide with the French Motorcycle Federation.
FOR WHAT REASON DID YOU OPEN YOUR OWN TRAVEL AGENCY?
My ambition is to share my passion for travel, while transmitting an authentic vision of the motorcycle road trip, with the values that go with it.
WHO ARE YOUR TRIPS FOR?
To everyone … as long as you have a motorcycle license!
More seriously, my trips are for anyone who wants to discover the world on a motorcycle and in all authenticity.
Whether you want simplicity or luxury, it is possible to adapt a trip to all expectations, while keeping adventure and discovery as a guideline.
WHAT VALUES DO YOU LIKE TO CONVEY?
Authenticity, discovery, sharing, benevolence.
My intention is that each person who travels with me has a smile on their face when they get back on their motorcycle each morning, no matter the time or the weather.
WHY COME TRAVEL WITH YOU?
They say I’m passionate.
In fact, I just want people to be able to experience for themselves what I have experienced through their own eyes and not just through anecdotes.
Where do you want me to take you?