Summer 2012

Baltics, Russia, Eastern Europe.

Watch this space.....

 

 

January 2012

ELEFANTENTREFFEN

(The Elephant Rally)

21/11 - We have decided to make this trip in honour of a good friend and fellow biker Steve Edwards, whom sadly lost his battle with Cancer at the tender age of 48. We will be raising funds for St Luke's Hospice in Basildon, where Steve spent his final days.

Steve...

Winter will be looming in a few months and once again I turn to a trip that will involve snow... The winter 2010 trip was good fun in the Pyrenees' but lets face it the roads were gritted perfectly, and although it was cold, all that we really encountered on the road was a bit of slush here and there... Well time to raise the bar... There is a very famous motorcycle camping rally that occurs once a year at Loh/Thurmansbang-Solla in the Bavarian Forest.

Its been running since the 60's and essentially what you do is load up your motorbike and ride and camp for a few days.. Nothing special there you might think... Well at least a 1/4 of this journey will be spent riding through thick snow... I don't mean gritted roads, I mean 2ft deep snow.. temperatures can drop deep into the minus figures.... Roads will be frozen.

How much fun does that sound!!!! The sensible take a side car outfit, the brave and foolhardy or downright stupid take a motorbike.. Guess which one I am, yep the idiot.. I was going to purchase a smaller bike DRZ350 etc for the trip, but due to the current economic climate etc, ill be taking the Versys, at least my feet touch the floor flat when on Ice. Heading up there with Rich, Paul, Mark which will be a nice change, Rich has a realistic idea what to expect, Paul and Mark might be in for a surprise.

Even the Germans think the English are mad for riding all that way, now where did I put that English Flag ??

Check out the preview video here

 

 

 

July 2011


The Great Welsh Escape

Well this is a slightly different tour note, because I am writing after the event for a change.

I had a Pyrenees tour planned for the July/August, but decided to pull out of that sighting "incompatibilities" with the person I was travelling with which in my opinion would have ruined the holiday for me.

So with some time to spare, some cash to burn and a fully serviced bike I was kind of pondering what to do next.

A Couple of people on my Versys forum had just returned from a trip to Wales, the pictures looked fantastic and they had some excellent roads and routes advice, Wales being only 4.5 hours from mine, I slung on my trusty panniers, and headed off to LLandovery in South Wales. I'd booked a campsite for 3 nights, giving me 2 solid days of good fun, hard riding.

I wasn't disappointed either, the roads were fantastic, and you didn't have to look hard to find them.. The valley crossing of Devils Staircase, is now ranked as one of my favourite roads I have ridden on. Baring in mind ridden on some of Europe's finest, so high praise indeed to the little country just "Down the road" from me.

I met a few new people whilst I was away, bikers, wannabe bikers, and ex bikers.. including one couple on a day out on a lovely new Tiger 1050, a local chap that had been exercising his VFR on the roads, and few other people on my campsite.

The weather was scorchio on one day and mild on another day and the camping was great, yes I got a chance to road test some of my new "tenting" goodies.

Oddly enough on this trip compared to the Charity trip, I found travelling on my own enjoyable and liberating, it brings you out your shell. Maybe it was just the comfort of being in my own country who knows.

Certainly its inspired me to visit more of Wales and Scotland and indeed other parts of my wonderful country.

Truly the 3 days I was away left me speechless.

Pictures below, video on video page coming soon.

 

 

 

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April 2011

 

I'd always planned to tour for charity, my trip last year to the Alps started that way, but in the end I decided it was best served as a holiday instead.  However with recent events regarding family and a friend, I decided to revisit the Fund raising for charity aspect of motorcycle touring.  The long term plan will be to do one of these every year until I retire from motorcycling, with each year being more challenging than the last.

I've chosen to do this solo, as that  way Ill have to dig a little deeper to gain the motivation to continue, and also to see how different the experience is on your own.

Cancer Research UK and Cystic Fibrosis trust as being the two I would support, principally because these are both diseases that have had an affect on my life, not directly but through friends and family that have & are suffering.

I Plan to ride non stop from my home in Essex to the South of France to the town of Grenoble,  a distance of some 700 miles, covering a combination of motorway riding and country lane riding, an endurance for me & will involve riding late into the early hours of the morning.

After setting up my tent at Grenoble I then plan to ride "Route Napoleon" from Grenoble to the south coast of France, 140 miles of varied terrain with mountain passes, tight twisty, all sorts, also known as the N85, to make it a little bit more challenging I'm diverting off the route via the D900, which is more mountainous, demanding, and involves cliff face narrow roads, lastly I'll be doing this route 2x in a single day.

Ill then repeat the return journey back from Grenoble, France to Essex, UK as per the journey down, nonstop. Overall I have allowed myself 3 days for the whole trip that would normally take 5-7 days to complete.

For those interested in the history of the route, click here

A Small section of the Route ill be riding is available on you tube, click here

There will be a video on my return, and there will be the usual updates in the live updates section.

26th April - Made it back all safe and sound.... Watch the videos here

 

(Click on any of the Photos to a bigger picture and a small map of where I was when I took it)

(Click here for an overall map of where all pictures were taken)

 

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November 2010

Some might consider November the end of the riding season, but I say no... Why does an adventure always have to be basked in glorious sunshine!... A ride is a ride.. I'd rather ride in 24hr rain or an ice cold crisp day than be in the office ;)

So the end of 2010 approaches, and I decided I wouldn't mind finishing the year on a high.. So the call has been made.. Myself and Jamie are digging out our respective bikes, and heading back across the short pond between the UK and Mainland Europe.. in to the nether regions of France and down to the Pyrenees.

Arriving in Le'Havre at 6am, we plan to ride to Pau, which is not far from the Pyrenees (on the French side), some 582 miles, all this in one day. Some would consider this a feat even in the safe haven of weather that is July/August, but we WILL complete this possibly in Rain, Ice or other adverse conditions.. Why so far in such short time?.. Well I have always been the "testing" type, and here's a chance for me to have ago at an adventure for a change.. at least the more progress we make in the first day, then the more time we will have to relax when there, who knows we may only make it half way and pitch up for the day.. But we do know the further south we go the warmer it will be and that will be our incentive. Once there, we plan to spend a little time in the Pyrenees National park before heading over the border into Spain, and exploring the mountains from the South side...

No great miles per day, short hops, with time to allow for quality riding, and possibly slipping about a bit in the snow..

Camping is the order of the day, with winter kit firmly in place, Exped mattress ordered, and a down sleeping bag that should be good for -25 degree's, and a chance to try out my new Coleman Axior 2x man tent.

Its only going to be a week long...

Small video link, which is our preview taster :)  Click here

Click here for the mini series about the trip

Some Random Photos from the Trip below

(Click on any of the Photos to a bigger picture and a small map of where I was when I took it)

(Click here to show a map of where every picture was taken)

 

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Summer - 2010

Here we go, my first major tour, in fact my first real "tour" of any kind. I've been riding about 7 years now, but its mostly been local trips, commuting to work etc, the most I have ever done in one stint is 150 miles to Gloucestershire which was last year.  That said I also did a small tour with 4 friends to Normandy as well last year, which was excellent, stayed in a chalet and travelled locally to see all the sights of the Normandy beach landings that our brave soldiers went through some 60 years ago.

I've also travelled a lot in my time, so thought this year I would combine my two passions, motorcycling and travelling.

Joining me on this trip is Jamie (check out my links section for his site), he has vastly more experience than me at this sort of thing, although he will always say that he just bumbled through Europe, so think of this trip as a Journey/Bad episode of a Top Gear adventure, minus the extensive camera crew and back up support.

So why have we called it "Strada di torcimento lunga"... Well I wont translate, but lets say there will be many Curves ridden on this journey, I have recently discovered just how many mountain pass's there are in the alps, particularly in Switzerland. Have a look on this site Here to give you idea of what I mean.

Daunting, scary or as Jamie say's "Blissfully exciting".. Not sure what that means, but hey I have issues going round bends, so maybe this will sort it.. Not the place to anchor the front brake, needless to say the options are far and few between and mostly down hill !.

Chosen to mostly camp, I love the idea of packing my home and life on to the back of the motorcycle and hitting the open road so to speak. The Destination is mostly Switzerland, Italy (the lakes) and exploring some more of mid France,

 Stelvio Pass, col de turini and San Bernardino have been added as must rides!.

To put this whole journey into perspective Ill be riding over 2500Miles in 14 days, now to some hardened motorcyclists' that might seem like a walk in the park, to me its quite daunting,  I had three motorcycle accidents last year involving commuting to work, so hoping it will improve my confidence.

Really am hoping that this tour will be the tip of the iceberg, and that future trips will be further afield.

Watch the videos of the trip here

(Below) One of many Passes in Switzerland, But this one is the king of them all, "Stelvio Pass", Umm Daunting,

(Click on any of the Photos to a bigger picture and a small map of where I was when I took it)

(Click here to show an overall map of where pictures were taken)

 

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September 2009

The Normandy Tour 2009

 

This was my first time out of the UK using transport that didn't include wings or rails. Was approaching the end of the biking season, more rain than sunshine etc. One of my friends Rich suggested a Trip to Normandy as it was the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Ally Normandy landings. well how could I decline a trip like that. So with the company of Rich, Abi, Chef and Rob we all set up on toured up Bandits ( and a bright yellow GSXR ), heading off to Normandy via Portsmouth to Le'havre ferry, which for £50.00 return was an absolute bargain.

To summarize this trip, well I cant. It was so many things, moving, enjoyable, humbling. See my pictures below for just a small insight.

You need to go yourself to understand.

 

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