TOTALLY $HITHOUSE

If you’re on Facebook and you love adventure riding, you need to check out The $hithouse ADV Rider page. You won’t find any beautiful sunsets, inspirational outback shots or videos of riders conquering the seemingly impossible on this page, but for anyone who’s crashed an adventure bike – and who hasn’t? – you’ll find plenty of content you can relate to.

A blend of self-deprecating humour mixed with a dose of painful reality seems to have hit a sweet spot with adventure riders from all over the world. We chat with the page’s founder Pete Miller to find out what makes The $hithouse ADV Rider so popular.

What is your background with adventure riding and why did you start the page?

I’m relatively new to adventure riding, only taking it up about three years ago; I had a couple of bikes years ago but sold them and had a break from two wheels. While I was living in regional Victoria in 2019, I bought a secondhand 2007 R 1200 GS and took off exploring the high country. That place is amazing and offers so many different rides; I urge anyone to visit at least once.

I have since moved to Ipswich near Brisbane and am onto my third BMW – my latest is a 2018 R 1200 GSA Rallye X. I love it and it suits the riding I do.

I initially started the page to have a place to share my rides and the moto camping that I do, but soon worked out that there were hundreds of pages that offer the same content. I was not the best rider around, and happy to admit it, and I wondered if there were other people who were also crap at riding and willing to share their offs. 

Riding and moto camping play a big role in my mental health, having been diagnosed with PTSD in 2017, and this has allowed me the space to clear my head and, as most riders will tell you, riding is great for keeping out all the crap in your life and just enjoying the ride.

How long has the page been running?

The page has only been running a short time with our first birthday being celebrated in July. We have arranged a first birthday bash to celebrate (more about that later). We started small with me inviting nearly all my Facebook friends (all six of them, including my mum, now known as ‘Mumma $hithouse’). It was slow to start, but gained momentum once people found it and realised that they wouldn’t get belittled for sharing. 

It has grown massively in a short time. Were you expecting it to get so big?

I still remember hitting 100 members, then 1000, and it just exploded. We were initially a public group but we were experiencing a lot of spam, bots and fake accounts. At that time we were getting about 100-150 new members every day. We have since become a private group and that has reduced the spam by 98 percent. Currently, we are sitting just over 15,500 members!

Why do you think riders like sharing pics and videos of their failures?

I think riders are getting more and more comfortable with sharing their offs and $hithouse moments because that’s what happens in real life – just not many people would admit it. I remember one moto camping trip in the high country over two days when I binned it six times – but there’s nothing bad about that. A lot of other pages have all these experts who think they are the best riders in the world; I’m sure you are mate, well done. But in the $hithouse group we keep it real, we have banter, a laugh, say “get well soon”, or “I hope you heal fast”, we support each other in our $hithouse community. 

Mostly on the page the comments are supportive and positive. Don’t get me wrong, we have had our share of special people that for whatever reason feel the need to belittle, bully or harass our members over tyre choice, boot choice, bike choice or a range of other real Facebook problems, but they are dealt with quickly by myself and our admin team; most of the time it results in being banned from the group.

The page has worldwide appeal. Was that surprise to you?

We have members from all over the globe. It astounds me where our members are from: Estonia, Botswana, Mexico just to name a few. Currently we have a lot of members joining from the United States. If I must guess the worldwide appeal, I would say $hithouse is $hithouse, no matter what country you are from or what language you speak. Now people just want to share their $hithouse moments, whether it’s a pic or a video, and see how other people are falling off as well.

Unlike many other pages, the comments on other riders seem to be mostly positive and supportive. Is that surprising? Is there a lot of admin work involved?

The page is run by a dedicated team of three: my partner Tracee, who doesn’t put up with any sexist crap; Al who has an eagle eye to ensure the rules are followed; and me. Thanks to these two the page runs relatively smoothly; we all talk and discuss any problems from our own three perspectives. We don’t allow random memes, videos, “what tyre should I use?” or just “I went for a great ride, here’s some pics”; there are hundreds of other pages you can ask and post those things, this page is unique and we aim to keep it that way. We do offer a place to share those things not allowed on the main page, it’s called The $hatroom (a very witty page member came up with that name), our very own chatroom where you can post all
you like.

You’re doing a run to Nindigully Pub in July. Are you expecting a big turnout?

As I said earlier, we are holding our first birthday bash. This is not an organised rally: just a bunch of $hithouse riders getting together at the Nindigully Pub in Queensland over 14-16 July. If you want to come it’s up to you to arrange everything yourself; there’s free camping, showers, toilets, great pub food, and as it’s a pub, there may be alcohol available. We will be giving away prizes for the longest distance to get there, the best photographed $hithouse moment on the way to the bash, as well as other random prizes.

What is the nastiest crash you’ve seen on the page?

We have had x-rays of broken toes, feet, legs, hips, ribs, fingers and shoulders, as well as pics of cuts, gashes, broken bikes and equipment. Probably the one that stands out for me was the member who was impaled by a stick in the cheek; it was a one in a million accident with the stick going through the front of the lid. It was a good pic!

What is the funniest crash?

The funniest crash, there has been so many, the ones where it comes out of the blue and the good ol’ Aussie swearing comes out after hitting the deck. These days our members happily grab a pic first before picking up the bike. My last off, I asked Al to hurry up and take the pic so I could share it on the page.

Ride safe…

Words Dean Mellor + Photography $hithouse ADV Rider