Motology’s Adam Riemann is one of the most respected riders in Australian motorcycle media. When it comes to riding, he’s damn good, and on top of that, he can relay a bike’s performance into words with the best of them. After years featuring in various Aussie mags and right here on MotoOnline.com.au, the ambitious Western Australian has extended his career into film making with huge success via the brand’s YouTube channel, but he’s just wrapped up his biggest project yet: MOTONOMAD. A 90-minute adventure movie shot across 7000km through seven countries from Austria to Egypt on board a pair of KTM 500 EXCs with wing man Mark Portbury, Riemann took on the adventure – and challenge – of a lifetime to make this idea a reality. We spoke to Adam about his journey through some of the most amazing, but volatile, areas on the planet, which ultimately resulted in a glorifying wheelie across the front of the Great Pyramid to put a stamp on their defining adventure. And remember, if you’d like to see the awe-inspiring journey in its entirety, click here to visit the secure download link. We laid down the $25.99 and from our perspective, it’s a must-see film that takes motorcycling adventure documentaries to a whole new level.

To start with, how did the idea to create the film initially come about?

Well, In 2012 I rode through the Himalayas with my dad on these little 150cc bikes and pretty much filmed the whole thing to create a DVD. I made a short film, Himalayan Hero, which ran its course as a freebee with Dirt Action mag, but it conjured the idea to go bigger, more extreme and on proper dirt bikes. That’s when I envisaged MOTONOMAD… to ride from the KTM factory in Austria to the Pyramids of Egypt. As much as I’ve always wanted to see the pyramids, I thought it would make a great angle for the film if it was to be the final destination of a motorcycle adventure.

For those unfamiliar with the general gist of the story, explain the route experienced along the way.

Okay, so Austria became the incidental starting point given it’s where the KTM factory is situated, but to get to the pyramids would mean crossing through seven countries: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt. The main issue with this route was obviously the ongoing threat of war in Syria, so I knew it was totally out of the question to ride through there and into Lebanon. Even if we made it through Syria, there is no crossable border to get into Lebanon – they are at war with each other and basically shoot anything that moves along that front. So the only options were to ride a few more thousand kilometres around Syria and come down through Iraq and into Jordan – no chance – or find a ferry across the Mediterranean and into Israel.

Aside from the technicalities of the riding and sheer length of the journey, danger was a very, very real threat throughout, wasn’t it?

Absolutely. More than we ever understood before being there, and more than we realised when we were actually there. Going into the South Eastern part of Turkey towards the border of Syria was a really scary time, because we knew we were heading towards one of the most volatile places on the planet and it was obvious too. All the towns we were passing through had tanks parked on intersections near shopping centres and there was like a thoroughfare of Black Hawk choppers going to and from the direction we were headed.

The organisation to make your ideas a reality must have been mammoth. From what I understand, it was up in the air all the way until you essentially departed…

Yeah, for sure. Weeks before leaving I was still researching a way to cross the Mediterranean by ferry from Turkey to Israel, all of which was dependent on carnets and travel documents needed to get a bike into Middle Eastern countries. I made calls and scrawled the internet for weeks trying to secure some kind of ferry tickets to get to Israel, but with the chemical weapons crisis in Syria happening, all passenger transport had stopped completely. Then a few weeks later the Cairo Massacre happened and all ferries were stopped direct to Egypt too. The whole region had erupted, the world was watching and it seemed like my plan to ride to the pyramids just wasn’t going to happen. I was worried about it, but I figured it should settle by the time we were due to pass through. I thought, ‘I’ll start the journey, head to the south of Turkey and see if I can find a way across the Mediterranean from the coast itself’.

How much support did you have behind you for the project? From KTM or otherwise.

KTM Australia were behind me 100 percent. Greg Chambers was doing all the negotiating with the factory to supply two KTMs for the project, but once all the technicalities of passports, registrations, carnets and licenses came into it, things were proving difficult. Then the crisis in Cairo erupted and KTM basically pulled the pin on the whole deal. The factory didn’t want us to take the bikes out of Europe and even sent some compromised route to head over to Greece or something. Whatever. I was pretty pissed at this point because I’d had the go ahead from KTM Australia weeks prior, I paid for flights, Mark had locked in the time off work and the timing of everything was falling into place. Now three weeks out and we didn’t even have bikes confirmed in Austria. That forced me to initiate a back up plan with Yamaha, so while I was at the YZ450F launch, I had a meeting with Yamaha to let them know the situation and they were basically on standby to get us on a couple of WR450F’s if KTM didn’t have a solution within 24 hours. I told Greg at KTM everything, and he understood, but they hadn’t given up and were going to build up a couple of 500 EXCs in Australia then ship them over. It was a pretty stressful and hectic time, but then Jeff Leisk rang me while he was sitting with someone from KTM’s hierarchy and basically just reaffirmed my initial proposition over the phone… and bang, we had two 500EXCs with 19-litre fuel tanks waiting our arrival at the KTM factory workshop.

So it’s just yourself and Ports, a pair of KTM 500 EXCs and your filming equipment. How much planning went into the production of the film itself before you were actually experiencing it firsthand?

Not as much as you’d expect other than making sure I had all my filming equipment sorted. I had a 300 EXC in Sydney at that time, so I used it to fashion all the tripod brackets and pannier mounts for the 500s at the factory (these models have the same sub-frames). Other than that, I used Google Earth to spot anything that looked extreme to ride or cinematic to film. All we had to do then was try and find these places on the fly and film some action scenes at each place. That was basically my project directive because I knew in trying to do that, the adventure would just write itself. As for Ports, I knew he had zero experience in film making, but it didn’t matter. He was a companion for the whole journey and could sit over my shoulder with a GoPro at any pace, in any terrain.

To me it seems as though for riders it’s no doubt epic to watch you guys take on the challenge from our perspective, but it also has a real appeal for the broader audience. Was that the intention?

For sure. I was adamant in using enduro bikes and finding gnarly action scenes to keep the interest of my core followers, but I wanted the whole story line and cinematography to appeal to anyone. Visually, emotionally, I wanted the finished product to present the experience of two travellers in foreign countries. I know motorcycling in general is not the majority’s interest, but to me the bikes are incidental to the film. MOTONOMAD is a life adventure film.

What kind of camera equipment did you use for the film? The capture of the landscape and riding itself was incredible throughout.

At least 50 percent of the film is captured with my trusty old Canon 5D MkII. That thing has worn roost from the entire Pro class of Australian Off-Road for years, so I know it well enough to get the extreme shots I wanted. The other 40 percent was with the GoPro Hero3’s, which were obviously on both our helmets and I had two attached to the drone to try and maximise usable footage. And finally, about 10 percent of the film was shot with the Canon 7D, which was really just a back up if the 5D shit itself. It was a constant battle of trying to nail the shots and save battery power, because sometimes we’d have to go two or three days without electricity to charge our gear.

At times we obviously see the two of you on the bikes while footage is being shot. How difficult is it to execute those shots considering the distance you’re traveling? They can be time consuming to complete properly.

I had a pretty good system set up where I could rip the tripod out of the sheath on my bike, then Mark would pull up next to me and I’d just extract the 5D from his pack without him taking it off. Then I’d set the frame on the scene I wanted and we do a couple of runs through. That way, at least we’d get to scope the track or scene first, because we’d be fairly hooking when the camera was rolling… we didn’t really think about the danger of getting hurt in remote areas, just focused on nailing the action scenes.

And what about the drone? How’s that work while you’re on the bike below!?

[Laughs] nobody believes I filmed with the drone without a third person. Here, just watch the end of this GoPro promo – it’ll explain everything. But basically I had the remote hanging around my neck and used Velcro tabs to set the thing flying ahead of us.

Security is ultimately very tight within the regions you travelled. How did you go transporting all your equipment across the borders, etc?

Yeah, this was tricky and I was prepared to have a lot of my camera gear confiscated, but my biggest concern was the hard drives with all the footage on them. I basically packed my bags in a way so that when the police or soldiers were searching us, they kinda give up after I’d pull out underwear, toothbrush, bike parts and tools, etc. The biggest concern was of course the drone; I managed to keep the remote control hidden, but had to open the carry case a few times. When it’s disassembled, it looks like a pile of carbon fibre parts, so I’d just tell them it was spares for the bikes. Most of the time though, the soldiers didn’t know where to look because we were so alien. Full-blown moto gear, bright orange bikes: they were too distracted to carry out a proper search I think. My biggest concern was approaching them while they had their fingers on the trigger, but once the goggles were off and I’d make eye contact, they’d hear our voices and just sorta chill.

Was there any particular moment you considered pulling the pin? You know, a moment where you thought ‘this is too risky’?

Yeah, probably getting my bike into the pyramid compound, but we’d come so far and the people were so desperate to help make it happen just so we would pay them. It was confusing though. It was hard to read if they were going to steal the bikes, steal my camera gear… it was pretty intense but I don’t think anyone has ever hung a mono on a 500 in front of the Great Pyramid before. Ever. It paid off, but looking back, if I knew then what I now know of Egypt, Mark and I would probably have avoided going anywhere near the place. The crisis in Cairo was one thing, but the region we had to travel to drop off the bikes was the most life-threatening region we faced on the whole journey – and so ironic that it’s where our KTM handover point was. Everything is explained in the film.

In terms of release, MOTONOMAD is now available to purchase and download online. How can readers get their hands on a copy?

I’m hoping KTM will help support DVD distribution down the track, but right now I’m offering it in HD quality as a digital download. You can purchase it right here (click this link for the secure download platform).

You’ve become a real icon worldwide when it comes to producing off-road YouTube films in recent years, gaining a substantial amount of views for every film. Has it been challenging sorting distribution for a feature-length film such as this?

It has mate. Mainstream distribution is very difficult if you’re not an established film maker or television identity. I’ve sent plenty of previews of my film out to companies and it’s hard to even get a response from them, let alone know if they’ve even considered watching it. And to be honest, that’s why I’ve gone for digital download on an independent platform, because it’s the simplest means to bring my film to the people who want to see it. I know I have an audience who really want to see MOTONOMAD – I was getting messages from all over the world before it’s release – the hard part now though, is getting them to pay for it.

It’s been out for a week now, so how’s the response been? It looks as though everybody who sees it is stoked on the film, including us!

Maybe it’s the nature of online video viewers who’ve been watching my short films for free for years, but so far it’s not generating the revenue I’d hoped in return. It’s early days no doubt, and the trailer has attracted some great attention for my film, but only a small percentage are actually willing to pay for it.

And what’s next? Are there plans for more to come?

Yeah mate, next year I hope to initiate production on MOTONOMAD ASIA, but I won’t start working on that until I feel this existing film has come to fruition. My projects are getting bigger and better, so with some luck, each film I release will help pave the way for the next one to happen.

Thanks for your time mate, great job on the film and best of luck with the distribution. All the accolades are well earned!

Cheers Alex, glad you enjoyed watching it.