Snow! ........ SNOW?!

Like a lot of the country I woke with a bit of a surprise this morning and it made me think, starting this escapade on January 1st may not be a good idea if we have a bad winter on the way. I can wrap up against the cold and I have fitted heated grips to the bike. But it is the icy road conditions I am not looking forward to even riding as safely as you can it is still a major task staying upright, as I can tell you from a previous experience in the Italian Alps, when we came upon a stretch of about 1km of mountain pass that was blocked to cars due to a small avalanche but was passable on the bike but the frozen slush was lethal and even riding with my feet off the pegs like outriggers I still dropped the bike in slow motion 3 times before I got through.

The Snow also made me think that the work I have been doing over the weekend on route planning will come into it's own in months to come. I have a bit of a conundrum here and it could be really helpful if someone out there knows more about programming a GPS from my computer. I understand the basics, however the amount of detail I am going into means it may prove to be too big a task and may be simpler to use good old Ordnance Survey Maps with the GPS for back up and checking.

It is not like the 'simple' way most people use their GPS in their car, which I have to say in my opinion has led to more accidents on the road due to wrong directions than you can imagine. I even heard one woman talking to her friend in the supermarket some months ago, about how she had programmed in the best route to get her beloved children to school, for Pete's sake, some people should not be let out on their own.

What I am trying to do is trace out the route on a map on my PC then upload it to the GPS however it is proving to be far from straightforward and downright fiddly.

With this in mind I spent a lot of time at the weekend going through my maps and in the end, I decided to have a look at Google Maps, which turned out to be somewhat inspired. I have been able print out large sections of the route I plan to use. This has proved to be another area where paper wins over electronics, maybe it's just me or the version of MapSource software for the GPS I am using but it just doesn't seem to go down into the detail I would like to see which means I lose some of the spatial awareness I am used to when looking at a Map. I am certain I will find a way around this, but all hints and tips are most welcome.

I've even thought about investing in a Road Book, which is basically a small box with a roll of paper in it, driven by small electric motors. Used by the guys that compete on the Paris-Dakar, similar to what Rally co-Drivers use it takes a bit of time to set up but once you do, they are pretty good, one downside, THE PRICE, having had a looking on the Touratech site recently when ordering some bits the first decent one starts at £260 and then you have to add the cost of the roll of paper and if you might like to ride at night, or at least after dark, which is a distinct possibility in the first few months, you have to buy a lighting kit, basically two bits of wire and a 12v bulb with instructions but Touratech still want to charge you the earth for it. I swear all their prices went up as soon as Ewan and Charlie used some of their kit. Great Kit, shame about the Price and the Customer Service. I am even thinking of making my own, I have some sheet Aluminium in the garage, I'm quite good with the soldering iron and I have a Maplins 20 minutes away. We'll see but £260 is an awful lot of fuel for the bike, in fact about 10-11 tankfulls. The Africa Twin has a 23 litre tank and at today's prices of around a £1 per litre. The paper map is winning again.

For those that like statistics I will comprise some details for the next edition of the Blog, when I will outline the specifications of the bike. And therefore how many times I will have to refill and how much it will cost me to do the route, excluding camping and accommodation at Youth Hostels on the way round. I can also give an estimate on the amount of tyres I will go through and I will use at least one set of Sprockets and Chains.

Take care and as Mick says 'You don't stop riding when you grow old; you grow old when you stop riding!'

Extreme Gardening

Now the bike is starting to look pretty good, last weekend was spent doing some basic test fitting of the panniers and the complete removal of the old and redundant graphics on them and the bike to make room for all the potential sponsors, it may seem like wishful thinking but if all those that have said they will do something actually come across, it will make a huge dent in the target.

I didn't get to do as much work done on the bike as I had planned at the weekend I will have to do some catching up in the evenings now, as each week goes by the start date gets ever closer, obviously.

Now for the reason for the title, I had read somewhere that chopping wood and heavy gardening was a good way of getting fit, well it turns out I live in an old gamekeepers cottage surrounded by a copse and over the last year or so some of the trees have got rather out of hand as well as some of the older and more diseased ones need to be felled. With this in mind Saturday morning saw my good friend Jay come around to help me with chopping down a couple of trees and trim back a couple of others, as I would have to lop some of the branches 25-30 feet up, I needed some safety cover. When a major branch decided to twist back and knocked me off the ladder it proved a very good idea, thankfully I had a safety harness and had strapped myself to the tree, so rather than falling 20 feet, I just dangled there for a moment before Jay got the ladder back in the right place for me to climb down. I got off very lightly in the end, with just a couple of bruises, far better than the broken bones that might have stopped this project before it even started.

By Sunday evening at about 6.30pm whilst standing looking at the glowing embers of the bonfire, I knew I had been in a very tough workout, parts of me were aching that I had long forgotten existed. My shoulders and arms ached right through until Tuesday night, carrying round 20kg lumps of wood and raking leaves generated a good sweat a got the blood pumping. It was certainly an interesting option to a visit to the gym. To give an idea on the amount of work that went in, there is an image of one area part way through the felling and before the bonfire was lit, the other indicator is the fact that I have had to go out and buy a new chain for my chain saw, it wore out, I couldn't sharpen it anymore without it losing teeth. This coming weekend will be some more of the same, to clear up the last couple of trees that have been felled but not cleared up. The added benefit apart from getting fit, is when the wood dries out properly in 6-12 months time I'm going to have between 2 and 3 years of wood available for my fires.

I still have the new Cockpit Dash to paint and fit, the dash will allow met to fit a couple of additional gadgets to the bike including an additional power outlet so I can recharge my laptop batteries whilst I am on the move. The next item to source is a RAM mount for my camera, I've seen a couple but it's going to a bit of task finding the right place to fit it, to make sure that I get the right line of vision, as with most digital cameras these days, it give the option to take some movie files, so it will be nice to see what it can do.

On the subject of Cameras, that good friend of mine who came around at the weekend rides in Enduro competitions, it turns out he is about to invest in a new Helmet Cam and is going to let me have his old one for the duration of the ride so I will be able to provide even more footage than I originally planned.

The Press release has now been fully signed off and Sanjay of Acorns has just let us know that he has been speaking with BBC Radio WM and they are talking about doing a weekly piece on my travels around the UK. This is getting serious no turning back now.

I will now start sending out the Press Release along with a covering email to all those companies and individuals that have said they will support the fund raising and gain their commitment as well as any logos they want to mount on the bike. One of the organisations I will be sending the info through to is The YHA, who have said they will post it on their website. Given the time of year I am starting this endeavour Youth Hostels are going to come in handy. And any additional publicity as I go round them will be useful.

Now where's that damn list, there must be something I can cross off ---- more later! and in the words of a good mate of mine. 'You don't stop riding when you grow old, you grow old when you stop riding!'

Some Statistics

Just to clear up a few points, some statistics on just what this ride is going to entail:

The UK's coastline is long in comparison to the UK's area and to the coasts of some other, similar sized countries; - the length of the UK coastline is around 12,500kms or 7,760 miles. We estimate (piece of string!) that it is about 5000 miles around the coast of mainland Britain - excluding all islands.

Around 60% of our coastline is located in Scotland and the off-shore islands.

It is around one and a half times longer than the coast of Italy - 7,600 kms.

It is more than three and a half times longer than the coastline of Spain - 4,964 kms.

It is more than five times longer than the coastline of France - 3427 kms

The coastline of China is 15,273 kms long.

The coastline of Greece is even longer than the UK's at around 13,600 kms. The reason being that in common with the UK, Greece is made up of many islands.

(stats taken from Wikipedia)

Starting Point

It is now one week since the meeting with Acorns and the enormity of the challenge is starting to sink in.

From what started as the simple task of adding a bit of meaning to a long held ambition, the whole project has started to gain a life of it’s own something like trying to hold on to a wild animal by the tail. Okay over the last couple of years I’ve ridden sections of the coastline and realised how big the end task could be. That was done over Bank Holiday weekends etc, when it was a relaxed case of ride as far as I can get before heading home. It is now something with an end goal and Acorns or more importantly the children are in some way relying on me to complete the task.

The meeting with Sanjay of Acorns brought a couple of key points into perspective. Firstly how much it actually costs to run one of the Hospices just for one day as well as how much they rely on volunteers. It is almost criminal how little funding comes from Central Government. The other point was the fact that to date, out of the all the children that have been an Acorns Hospice, none have lived long enough to enjoy the experience of leaving home to go to University or College an added reason for visiting all the Universities that are close to my route.

I now have a major checklist over my desk at home, some of the items relate to me and some relate to the bike and the rest include things like route planning, getting the right maps etc.

To Do List

1. Service Bike
2. Check Camping Equipment
3. Renew YHA Membership
4. Remove old Graphics from Panniers and Bike
5. Arrange new Graphics
6. Complete Press Release
7. Review, Donation Website
8. Arrange Doctors Appt
9. Arrange Dentist Appt
10. Arrange Opticians Appt
11. Update GPS info
12. Check Personal Clothing & Boots
13. Prep and paint dashboard plate.
14. Fit dashboard plate to bike.

This is just a brief snap shot and is certain to be developed further.

I intend to camp wherever possible but as I am starting in January, I thought it wise to renew my YHA membership as they have the majority of their lodges and camping barns around the coast and I can use them to get a shower, a warm bed and dry my gear when needed.

Last weekend saw me working on the bike in beautiful sunshine outside my cottage, is the weather just teasing me? As soon as I need to get riding in earnest we are going to having the wettest and coldest period in the Uk’s history. The images show that quite a bit of work has been done to the bike and thanks to Nick Robinson Motorcycles in Turgis Green near Basingstoke it is in tip top condition.

This coming weekend will be about fitting some additional equipment to the bike so I can keep this Blog running even when I am huddled up in my tent. The dashplate will allow me to fit additional power outlets and mount a couple of extra switches.

Don’t expect major works of prose each and every week, however I will be reporting on my progress in as much detail as I can, having ridden huge amounts of the UK, there are areas of staggering beauty out there. If anyone wants to join me out there for sections of the run as I go round just give me a call or check on my progress map to see where I am going to be next.

-Paul