The idea of a transcontinental motorcycle trip came up when Carl Tricke, a 41-year-old Belgian, was drinking beer with his biker friend and fellow countryman Johan Cole, 43, in Singapore in April last year.
They first planned to ride from Singapore, where they were living at that time, to Belgium, but changed the route because they realized paperwork such as visas, vehicle permits, letters of invitation and insurance would have been really difficult, especially for countries like Laos, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
"I wanted to take a bike trip. It didn't matter where. But we bought new Yamaha bikes, so we decided to travel where they are made," said Tricke, a loyal customer of Yamaha Motor Co. Tricke's Japanese wife, Keiko, helped arrange the Japan portion of the trip.