Who Are
Moto Momentum?
As in all good teams each member has his skills, and in our momentum-team it is James being responsible for the bikes (mechanics) and Steffi for this blog’s written content, articles and photography.
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Born and grew up in Solingen, Germany. During my youth, all my passion was Icelandic horses, which I shared with my parents. Motorbikes have never been an issue in my entire family; nobody even had a driving licence or a motorbike. However, when it came to getting my driving licence, my father encouraged me to do also the one for motorbikes like "you never know what the future brings, like that you got it". Since then I never touched a motorbike again for another 20 years.
Living in the Algarve, Portugal, one day one of my working colleagues pitched up at work with a chunky cool yellow bike. That was the start of my passion for motorbikes. I managed to find a chunky old Yamaha TW125 to start again, which was in my possession for about 2 years. As I did my driving licence on a BMW and my boyfriend by the time had a BMW 1200GS it was more than logical that I fancied to get a BMW now; the beat was still in my heart. So in 2016 I got my brand new BMW F700GS (instead of a used bike to learn on) called Schimmelchen (German for white horse).
What a change from the light 125 to the "big" 700! Every day is a school day! This bike taught me a lot, and I am still learning with/through it.In 2020 met my soulmate James and he seeded the bug for us wishing to become overlander, to go around the world on our bikes, simply by showing me the famous videos from Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman "The long way round".
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I grew up in the south of England. I didn’t get my first bike until I was 23, a Honda XL 125 Varadero. This was my only transport for 3 years until I got my car licence and full bike licence. I then got my first big bike, a Honda Hornet 600.
Fast forward some years and at the age of 32 and sold the Hornet and moved to Portugal and inherited my fathers old Yamaha XTZ 750 Super Tenere. This was the bike that kick started my love for off road riding and combining travel. I also bought a Yamaha XT 600E as a spare bike of which I’ve travelled with just as much. 6 years later I met Stefanie and realised she shared the same dreams and passion as me. So this is where our story starts.
The Bikes