Free Ride: Heartbreak, Courage, and the 20,000-mile Motorcycle Journey That Changed My Life

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

By the YouTube sensation with three million followers, the inspiring account of a young woman who, in a moment of personal crisis, embarked on an epic, transcontinental motorcycle ride—and along the way found a new sense of purpose.

Noraly Schoenmaker was a thirtysomething geologist living in the Netherlands when she learned that her live-in partner had been having an affair. In desperate need of a new beginning, she decided to quit her job and jet off to India. But her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars of a Royal Enfield, a short tour of the Himalayas quickly morphed into an epic 20,000-mile journey. She would cover remote and utterly unfamiliar territory, break down on impossibly steep mountains, and push too many miles down empty roads. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty and simplicity of the world’s open spaces, the kindness of its people, and a newfound, unshakable belief in her capabilities.

Free Ride is a “no-frill, from-the-heart” (BBC) story of self-discovery and renewal that is filled with unforgettable figures and hilarious disasters, showing what happens when you open your heart and let the world in.

Noraly Schoenmaker is the creator of Itchy Boots, a YouTube channel with three million loyal subscribers. A motorcycling obsessive, her journeys have taken her the length of the American continent, from Argentina to Alaska; from the northernmost point of Europe to the southernmost point of Africa; and to some of the least traveled regions of the globe. Trained as a biologist and geologist, she is based in the Netherlands.