Preparations start all over again!

Friday 6th of March will see me starting off again. I plan to head off late afternoon and stay overnight in a small guest house outside Bridport called, Eype’s Mouth Hotel, the write up is very nice. Then on Saturday Night I am currently looking for something in the Torbay area, which should then get me to something between Salcombe and Plymouth before I head for home.

Unfortunately the weather forecast is not as good as the previous weekend but I will have to make the best of things and at least take a full change of clothes.

I am hoping to get as far as Lands End before the clocks go forward on the 29th of this month when l hope to start camping in the main. 2 weeks after that it is Easter weekend, unfortunately I am committed to a work related event on the Sunday in Birmingham, I am therefore planning to set off on Thursday to Cornwall and then ride until Saturday evening then head to Birmingham to stay overnight, then Sunday evening head back to where I left off, then take a few extra days off and ride as far as I can which I am hoping will be somewhere in Mid to North Wales.

Before all that however last weekend saw me giving ‘My Baby’ the TLC she deserves. The chain had worn loose and needed adjusting back up, in fact it is getting to the point where it will need to be replaced within the next few thousand miles, a sprocket and chain would normally last between 15-16,000 if looked after correctly, mine is close to 20,000 and if I get it to 24,000 I will definitely be changing it probably just after the Easter weekend. At the same time my front tyre is getting very low on tread and will probably only last me this coming weekend before I have to change it. I can see another round of begging letters coming on for discounted services. The tyre will cost about £75 and the Chain and Sprocket about £120

After doing the chain and adjusting the chain oiler, then had to fix my horn which stopped working last time out. I checked the fuse, then thought it was the horn itself and went and bought a new one, however in the end it was corrosion on the contacts in the switch itself, which was very fiddly to take apart file off the corrosion and then rebuild. Well at least I now have a spare.

I then checked the oil, tyre pressures, fluid levels and brake pads etc. so in the end it was a bit of a mini service but I am pleased I did it ahead of next weekend, finally a quick wash and polish and she was put to bed until Friday.

Take care and as Mick says ‘I started out with nowt and still got most of it left’

Sunday 22nd Feb. - More of the same!

I woke up quite early but lay in bed a bit longer than I had planned, for some reason I didn’t have a great night’s sleep, probably because my mind was very active after the excitement of the day. I went down or I should say along for breakfast just after 8.00 and took some rolls and cheese portions back to my room to make up some lunch for the day along with refilling my flask. I was very sluggish to get going the main reason for this being the weather the beautiful sunny morning of yesterday was just a memory, Sunday dawned grey with the hint of drizzle in the air.

I finally got everything packed and checked out by about 9.15 and back on the bike for the short ride down to Sandbanks and the ferry back over to Studland. The first photo of the day shows some rain off shore down towards Swanage, luckily throughout the whole day it did stay dry.

At this point I have to thank the guys on the Ferry, as soon as they knew why I was riding, they wouldn’t take my fare which was a really nice gesture, thanks again.

I retraced some of the route from the previous day, down through Studland then turned off towards Swanage and along the seafront as the weather was so dull at this stage I didn’t stop and took the B3069 then off through the small villages of Langton Matravers and Worth Matravers before coming back onto the 3069 just before I got to Kingston I looked over to my right and got another view of Corfe Castle. This really showed me how it was sited there to plug the gap in the Purbeck Hills.

After rounding Corfe Castle I took the back road towards Church Knowle and then off via Puddle Mill farm Bradle Farm before coming out at Kimmeridge and then down a very winding road to Kimmeridge Bay the very grey morning was very, very different to the last time I had been here a few years ago in the height of Summer.

There was a small Folly overlooking the bay that intrigued me as well as the sign giving instructions re: compressors well the latter I was informed relates to the oil well that you can see behind the beach. And the Folly has an equally interesting past.

Clavell Tower provides one of the few manmade structures in Kimmeridge Bay.The Tower was built in 1830 by Reverend John Richards Clavell of Smedmore as an observatory and folly, with three storeys and a distinctive Tuscan colonnade. Thomas Hardy courted Eliza Bright Nicols here and used it as a frontispiece for his Wessex Poems. More recently, it inspired P. D. James’s novel, The Black Tower. For almost two hundred years Clavell Tower has provided a point of destination for the many who have walked the cliffs. It had been unused since the 1930s and had fallen into disrepair. In recent years the tower had been perilously close to falling into the sea due to coastal erosion.

Following an appeal in 2004 The tower was dismantled and re-erected 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff face. In addition to moving the building, services such as electricity and water were installed. New stone was carved to replace the missing sections of the parapet in a bankers' (or stonemasons') shed on site and a kitchen and bathroom put in.

After leaving the estate, without evening stopping for a quick cup of coffee, I headed back up the Purbeck Hills, through Steeple and onto the military road through Lulworth Ranges. I had been here before and knew there was a good stopping point at the top pf Povington Hill, which gives you views for miles around on a fine day, it really is worth the trip, on one side you see the targets and the sea and on the other side of the hill you see back towards the tank ranges inland and yes they do throw the shell from one side to the other, I believe when they are on exercise.

After breaking into my coffee and sandwiches I carried on and pushed on through East and West Lulworth, past the Army camp and down to Lulworth Cove. The time was now getting on and I still wasn’t anywhere near Weymouth so I just went down to the turning point in at the bottom of the village and then back up the other road out via, Winfrith Newburgh and the Chaldon’s going through West Chaldon, I also came a cropper as the road goes through a farm yard and you cannot see the tarmac it was just dry mud and gravel so when I came to the bend it was like riding on marbles.

The road took me back up to the A352 Wareham Road, which on turning left takes me all the way into Weymouth via Overcombe, although looking at the map when planning this, there should have been a couple of turnings to the left to a couple of villages they were all dead ends and given the time I decided to avoid them. I then turned on to the A353 which goes down on to the seafront and round to the harbour and Ferry Port. Given how busy all the other resorts had been the day before in the beautiful weather I was slightly surprised at how empty Weymouth was on what was now a very sunny and warm day.
I wasn’t going to hang around for long as it had now taken me over two hours to travel just 37 miles, therefore in hindsight it was a damn good idea I didn’t try and make it to Weymouth the evening before.

After a quick run through town it was out on to the road to Portland as I was heading out on to the peninsular I could see a large transport ship going around the headland I tried my best to catch up with it but by the time I reached Portland Bill it was well on its way towards Plymouth by the look of things.

Heading back up the around the other side of the Peninsular gives you a quick idea on the amount of Portland Stone that has been quarried here over the centuries there are certain parts that resemble a moonscape.

I head back to Portland itself and then turn down the small road that goes to Portland Castle and some of the former military defences. Portland Castle (5th) was built by Henry VIII during his reign of 1540. The fortress was built to protect Weymouth against possible attack from the armies of France and Spain.

Built with Portland stone, this 450 year old Tudor fortress remains intact and is now under the care of English Heritage. The history of Portland Castle stretches back from the reign of Henry VIII to the Civil War Sieges, when it was used as a jail for prisoners and enemies of Oliver Cromwell. During the Victorian era, the castle became a private residence for Captain Charles Mannering, the man who built what has now become known as the largest man-made breakwater harbour in the world.

Portland Castle was also used as a Seaplane Station during WWI and as an embarkation point for the D-Day invasion of Northern Europe during WWII. During the subsequent research I found that I had missed it’s twin, Portland Castle was built as a pair with Sandsfoot Castle on the Weymouth side of Portland Harbour to provide a very secure harbour.

After crossing Portland Beach Road again towards Chesil Beach I then turn off to take the B3157 towards Portesham and eventually Bridport, I have time to take a few more back lanes and hence I head off through Langton Herring, Rodden the Abbotsbury stopping first of all near to the Swannery to take a quick picture of a chapel on the hill side, I don’t know much about it, but like the Swannery was part of the Monastery the area is famous for.
Back on the B3157 it was a fairly quick blast down through Burton Bradstock and into West Bay, where to my pleasant surprise there was a bike meet, in one of the car parks overlooking the estuary. It turns out riders from all over Dorset turn up here on a Sunday lunchtime, admire each others bikes, swap stories then either head off for home of group up for a bit of a ride.
It was now after 2pm and after a stretch of the legs and the last of my coffee and sandwiches, I then had a look at the map and this was an ideal point to break off and head for home. The A35 was close by which would take me to Dorchester and then onto the A31 to Ringwood and eventually the M27 and M3.

I could carry on a little further to Lyme Regis but I would just end up retracting my steps later on and I did have to get back and pack my bags, as I was due to be away all the following week. So the head took over and at 2.30pm I restarted the bike and headed for home. I won’t say how far it is but it took me almost exactly 2 hours of hard riding to get back.

Before you all start thinking I rode like a hooligan, I don’t do that, I do make good progress in overtaking traffic. On top of all that, in the part laden configuration the bike is in at the moment she is not the quickest thing on the planet, the top speed I’ve had out of her was just over 110 mph but you wouldn’t to do that for long as she is not designed for that, she can however comfortably cruise above the legal speed limit all day long.

When I got back home, I didn’t have time to sort her out so she was put away looking worse for wear, Sorry girl! (I was also stiff as a board, my knees refused to bend properly until I had, had a good soak.

Take care and as I say on this occasion ‘I now feel a sense of achievement and can’t wait for two weeks time’

Fabulous!!!!!

Saturday 21st February saw one of the best weekends riding I can ever remember, so good in fact that there were so many memorable views and things to report I am going to split this into two separate chapters. The weather on Saturday was awesome and if you get to look at the video clip once I get it up you can almost sense how good it was, it was almost freaky as it was an early summers day in mid-February. I had initially planned to try and get as far as Swanage and then part way through the day I started to think I could get to Weymouth, in the end I am glad I didn’t try that as I wouldn’t have made it. As planned I arrived at Calshot Castle just after 10 in the morning after a 45min run down the M3 and M27 from home. Calshot castle was built by Henry VIII in 1539, as part of his chain of defences along the English south coast. At the time invasions were feared from either the French or Spanish navies and the Castle was built on a shingle spit close to the deep water channel at the mouth of Southampton Water. Severely damaged by fire in Elizabeth 1st's reign, its repair required 127 New Forest oak trees. For over 400 years the Castle remained a fully manned artillery base and Calshot Naval Air Station opened in 1913, the year when First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill even took his first seaplane flight from Calshot. During the First World War, Calshot provided Channel defence and a training base for pilots. Calshot really shot to the public’s attention when In both 1929 and 1931, it was the venue of the famous Schneider Cup Trophy race and one of the servicemen assigned to help with event was Aircraftsman Shaw, better known today as Lawrence of Arabia. Calshot also played an important role in the Second World War and became home to the Sunderland Flying Boat. After a long, chequered military history, RAF Calshot closed in 1961. The Hangers are still there to this day and the largest is now the home for an indoor cycling track, you can see them behind the Castle.

After taking a couple of photos and having a quick cup of coffee I set off through all the boatyards and sailing clubs and past all the beautifully maintained beach huts, it really must be a gorgeous in the height of the summer, it wasn’t half bad today, good enough for some people to make the effort to come out and do some work on them before the main holiday season. I seriously hope this isn’t a one off. As I have always intended to maintain a route as close to the coast as physically possible therefore my route took me via Lepe Park, again right on the Solent, looking out over to the Isle of Wight, then up to Exbury and Beaulieu and into the New Forrest National Park, to be greeted by 4 donkeys 2 happily grazing on someone’s hedge and the other crossing the road to see what was so good. I was tempted to stop and take a photo, I didn’t and in hindsight I think it was the right move, if I had stopped every time I saw a pony or a donkey in the road, I would still be there now. After Beaulieu it was down to Bucklers Hard and the Sowley Estate, coming out of there I was to come across my favourite cattle grid, NOT, thankfully it was dry, on the previous occasion when I was out doing a recce a couple of years ago it was a bit of wet one, suffice it to say turning a corner over a slippery surface and opening the throttle doesn’t mix and the back end tried to swap ends with the front. You might think I shouldn’t have been so reckless, I promise you I wasn’t, it’s position is really bad, you pull out of a side turning and you have no chance of getting the bike back up straight before you hit it. Through South Baddesley and into Lymington, it was an interesting ride through town as people were out in the their masses and given the way they were dressed it looked more like a Bank Holiday rather than a Saturday Morning in February. On leaving Lymington I encountered my first real U Turn, when I was researching the route I uncovered a Byway and the images on Google Earth clearly show some vehicles on it, you can see what I mean on the post I put up on the 4th of November. Anyway when I got down to the end of the lane it has now been converted to a cycle track only, so it was back up to the Milford Road and to the Village of Everton, what a great name, Then down the back lane from there to Keyhaven and the view out to Hurst Castle.

Hurst Castle was the perfect location to defend the western approach to the Solent. The castle was built by Henry VIII as another one of the chain of coastal fortresses and was completed in 1544. Charles I was imprisoned here in 1648 before being taken to London to his trial and execution. The castle was modernised during the Napoleonic wars and again in the 1870’s when the enormous armoured wings were constructed. Two of the huge 38-ton guns installed in the 1870’s can be viewed in their casemates. During World War II, Hurst was manned with coastal gun batteries and searchlights. I’ve decided to keep a log of all the Castles I’m going to pass on my route around the country, at this rate it must be in the hundreds. Milford on Sea, Barton on Sea past Highcliffe Castle (there’s another one, although this is a 19th century stately home) then through a small housing estate and into Christchurch. The Quay at Christchurch can be a really nice, and busy on a summers day and this wasn’t far behind with the car park full, I had a quick stop to eat my lunch and watch the swans being fed.



Starting off again, I was making really good time and started to think I might get further than Swanage however I thought my best plan would be to get all the way around Poole Harbour and come back over on the Ferry from Studland to Sandbanks. I even had the crazy thought at one point that I might just make Weymouth but more of that in the next post. I left Christchurch by going out through another small housing estate and out on to the Southbourne Coast road, which took me to Boscombe and then Bournemouth, I am going to run out of words on how beautiful the day was I will just let you look at the photos.

It is small wonder that so many people retire to Bournemouth and some of the roads on the way into Bournemouth are full of retirement homes. The only shame is the fact that I had to dodge back into the main part of town on a couple of occasions. Eventually I got on to The Avenue which goes via Canford Hills and on to Shore Road which goes round the southern end of the harbour, I was torn between turning right and heading off around the harbour or take a quick detour down through Sandbanks to the Ferry and finish off my flask of coffee at the small car park there. I met up with a nice couple who were out for a ride from Southampton. It was really nice just sitting there in the warm sun just watching the ferry and I had to tear myself away in the end. I followed the road around the Harbour going through Poole Park, including my second U turn of the day. I missed a turning and I ended up come back down the Blandford Road to Hamworthy and the toll bridge back to Poole Quay, It meant an extra few miles but at least I had gone round one of the other bays in Poole Harbour. Back up the road and then off towards Wareham some of the back lanes to Corfe Castle (4th in one day) Corfe Castle was begun by William the Conqueror soon after his arrival in Britain in 1066. It was served by the surrounding community in return for the use of homes and land, as well as shelter in the Castle in times of trouble. Much of the Isle of Purbeck was a Royal Forest so the hunting of game without royal permission was punishable by death. I decided to take a bit of a different picture of the castle, from the railway society’s yard.



Leaving Corfe Castle I climbed up a hill on the B3351 to Studland at the highest point there is a small car park and viewing area that provided some stunning views back over the harbour, including a view of one of the Oil Wells that dot the area.



Finally it is only a few miles through Studland Village an on to Ferry Rd, to the chain ferry back over to Sandbanks and Poole. It was now getting on and the shadows were lengthening, so I decided it was time to call it a day and head for my overnight stop.



Before which I badly needed some fuel. I took advantage of some rewards points I had saved up over the last couple of years to book myself a room at the Holiday Inn Express in the centre of Poole. I prefer this chain over all the other budget hotels, quite simply you know what you are going to get wherever you go the level of consistency is excellent, some chains do food some don’t and the Poole one seems to be somewhere in between as the only do food during the week, but they do have a good selection of restaurants and takeaways that deliver. So after a couple of bottles of beer at the bar I ordered in a Chinese and spent the evening writing up some notes. The next post will cover Sunday’s ride down to West Bay and then home.

Take care and as Mick says ‘If Carlsberg made great days for riding, this would be one of them’

Calshot Castle and beyond!!

Sorry to all those people that have regularly logged on to read about my progress, basically would could I report on, sitting at home for a week because I was snowed in, there were still remnants of the snow around this Monday, two weeks after it first fell. So here I was planning this major endeavour only for the coldest start to winter for over 30 years and heaviest snow fall in almost 20 years to hit the UK. Murphy’s Law or what. Here are a couple of images of the snow taken the Sunday afternoon, a week after the first fall. Underneath all that snow is sheet ice which meant trying to get the car out of the drive and onto the over half mile track down to the village took me almost an hour and a lot of frayed nerves, especially after the fact that a TNT wagon had come up the lane to deliver to a neighbour on the Friday and skidded off the track into a ditch alongside and then had to be winched out by a recovery truck effectively blocking me in for over 4 hours, even if I had wanted to get out.

Now after all the bad, bad weather and the postponements in the last month this weekend looks good to start the real work, temperature in double figures during the day and NOT freezing overnight, it is looking very promising. I had planned to stay at the Youth Hostel in Swanage on Saturday evening, from a trial run I did 18months ago shortly after the initial idea came to mind I know that would be a bit of a push, but it was worth trying as it would get me beyond the initial target for this weekend of Lyme Regis.

Unfortunately they are fully booked so I have had to use up some of my loyalty points from the Holiday Inn chain instead and have booked myself into the Express by Holiday Inn in Poole. So Lyme Regis maybe as far as I get. I also have to consider my return journey as next week is a very busy one, with back-to-back meetings in London almost all of week, so Sunday night will also include repacking my bags etc, being single means; not only getting away with the Big Ride it also means I have to do all my own ironing and the such like ( for any lady reading, yes I am very domesticated and I can also cook a fair bit)

On that last point I’ve been doing some experimenting over the last couple of months, what sort of food I can pack on the bike and cook when I am camping, without needing to take a huge big camping stove and multiple pots. Well it looks like I am going to be eating loads of stir fry meals, I’ve got myself this nice little Wok and a Trianga Swedish Army, cook kit, a brilliant bit of kit that works on a spirit burner, which when you get it going can boil a pint of water faster than an electric kettle (one of the little tests I tried out).

For anyone interested I am planning to set off from Calshot Castle between 10 and 10.30 on this coming Saturday (21st) morning a couple of friends have suggested they just might come along to accompany me for some of the day.

I have not forgotten about the video clips, I will be trying to put them up shortly, however they will either be posted via YouTube or Google, pressure of work has got in the way of me competing that promise.


Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old; you get riding when the weather gets better! (Sorry that one is awful)

Finally !!!!

I got real lucky yesterday and was able to make it over to the 3 Counties Hospice in Worcester. I got a weather window just long enough, in fact apart from the wind that was a problem at times, the weather was pretty good and the ride back was a great pleasure up until the part when I was washing the bike down and it started to rain again. I would really like to thank Fran Winterbourn, the Fundraising Manager for meeting me there and showing me around.

I did follow the planned route listed below and the first section from my village up to the A339 at Ewhurst did prove to be the tricky part as I expected, I took some footage using the helmet cam and it gives an idea of the conditions, although it is not the best due to riding into the sun, at the same time it has to be viewed with the sound off (noise from the vibration and wind roar is too much), but hey! It was the first time I’ve used it so that first section is an experiment. It does show some of the flooding and mud that had come off the fields with the heavy rain on Friday night and early Saturday morning. It was a pretty uneventful ride to be honest, apart from the gusting wind which reminded me why I didn’t like the A419, it is down to the fact that in places you are quite high up and with the wind yesterday it is quite tough, I did have one occasion when I relaxed a bit only to be caught by a sudden gust that pushed me into the outside lane of the dual carriageway, I had been planning to pull out to overtake a van so I just let it go, thankfully there was no one travelling faster than me coming up on the outside.



The visit to the Hospice was both uplifting and heart rending at the same time, seeing the common area and some of the children playing with their parents, cannot leave you with anything other than warm thoughts about what the staff and volunteers do, then the teenage common room makes you smile, they have put signs up and are very clear that it is theirs and off limits to anyone else. But the most telling part for me and I am not ashamed to say made me well up and proved a real battle for me not to break down completely, were the two rooms they have set aside for after a child dies, they have special bedrooms where the body can stay until the funeral and the family can visit. Even the thought as I write of seeing the small cot and the crib alongside it in one of those rooms is bringing tears to my eyes. That visit alone has made me more determined than ever before.



As the weather was that good I decided to come back using a different route and I am glad I did, it was great fun. Basically the route was, Pershore, Evesham, Broadway, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Burford, Witney, Abingdon and then down the A34 to Newbury, then retracting the morning route along the A339 to Ewhurst then back through the lanes to home.



I set up my other digital camera, a Fuji Finepix S1000 for the ride to Pershore and again it worked pretty well, apart again from the sun and the sound level, due to its design the microphone is on the side and the wind noise on the footage is too much, so next time it goes out with me, I’m going to use some tape to block the mike off, I’ve also worked out the problem I had with the helmet cam was vibration so I got a work around for how it mounts that should make it better next time. I will also look to put the footage up, again without sound.

As I arrived in Pershore the footage will show another guy on an another Africa Twin, again he had added a couple of tweaks to his, if he reads this, sorry I didn’t stop and had to push on as I had someone coming around to collect some old parts during the afternoon. During the whole ride The further I went during the afternoon the nicer the conditions got, It was then that I decided to really take the long way home, by going through the Rissingtons and Barringtons going past the old RAF base at Little Rissington, well really it is at Upper Rissington and now a business park like so many other RAF bases. But first I went through the beautiful village of Broadway and then up to Broadway Tower which is one of England’s outstanding viewpoints and, at 1024 feet (312m) above sea level, it is the second highest point on the Cotswold Ridge. Built in 1799, it is a perfect example of an eighteenth century Gothic folly from which it is possible to survey an area which includes as many as thirteen counties. The views encompass the Vales of Evesham and Gloucester and on a clear day you may also see across the Severn Valley and as far as the Welsh Mountains.







As I got down near Burford the clouds started to build and the sun disappear, straight away I could feel the temperature drop so it was time to really push on, then on the quick blast down the A40 just as I am passing a couple of cars I glance down at the tripmeter to see how far I’ve travelled I think to myself, I’m getting low on fuel, no sooner I start to work out where the next petrol station than the engine starts to miss and I lose speed, a quick fumble around behind my left knee and I located the fuel tap and switch to reserve but in the seconds it takes to do this my speed has dropped from close to 80 down to less than 60 and the cars are coming past me again on the inside. Thankfully as soon as the fuel gets through I’m back up to speed I know of a big Petrol station at a set of lights on the road from Witney towards Abingdon and pull in there to fill up.

The roads were pretty clear and when I got on to the A34 I was really able to open it up, from Abingdon to home in less than 30mins, not bad when you consider it is 32 miles. I’m really glad I got back when I did within 20 mins the wind is picking up again and it completely clouds over, all of which was a pre-cursor for one hell of a storm overnight which took out the power for 2 hrs. Just as I was settling down to watch ‘Match of the Day’ so it was an early night whether I wanted to or not.

As you can see from the final photo, the bike was in a filthy state by the time I got home and I just had time to wash it down before the first of the rain started I even had to push it back into garage so I could dry it off and spray it with some protection treatment. One thing I always try and do at this time of the year is to clean the bike as soon as possible after a ride to ensure I get not only the grime but mainly the salt off.



It feels a bit a strange writing this chapter of the story the roads taken through the Cotswolds are probably some of the furthest from the actual coast this challenge is all about.

I usually sign off with an adaptation of something a friend of mine uses to sign off his emails, one of Mick’s other favourite sayings is ‘I started off with nowt and still got most of it left’ I mention this, as I have been listening to an album by a Blues artist called Seasick Steve, he is an American that was pretty much discovered by Jools Holland, he appeared on Later with Jools Holland and then at Glastonbury, he now lives in Norway and is on tour in the UK at the moment. Well his latest Album is called, ‘I started out with nothing and have got most of it left’ It’s well worth a listen if you have heard him. He also plays a guitar if you can call it that, it is a wreck from a junk store that only has 3 strings but boy can he play it.

Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old, you just enjoy it more!

Finally... Let’s try again

Also the weather is also set to be pretty good, okay it’s going to be wet where I live to start with but it is going to be significantly warmer than it has been so far this year. So it is all systems go for this coming Saturday the 17th of January.

I’ve not been resting on my laurels though, I’ve continued to chase down potential sponsors as well as tinkering with the bike. One of the major challenges is going to be mounting and getting the Mobotix camera working on the bike. I have a few ideas and but getting what is fundamentally a camera designed to be mounted on a building and powered over Ethernet working on a motorbike is going to be an interesting challenge.

On the subject of cameras I will have two others for use on the ride one mounted on the bike handlebars and the other on my helmet.

It is an Oregon Scientific unit that is powered by two AA batteries and uses a SD card to record up to an hour of footage. It’s actually pretty light and I can’t really feel the additional weight on the helmet, the one thing don’t know yet is how the wind resistance will effect it when riding at speed.

One up side of the illness is the fact that it really gave the weight loss an in turn the fitness program a real boost, overall I have now lost over 8kg or 16lb since starting, which in turn has led to approx a couple of inches off the waistline. Part of that is down to no alcohol for the last 2 weeks and I don’t know how long I can keep that up, especially in this industry.

The added benefit of the weight loss is the fact that I can do some light running these days, I’ve had a long term injury on one of my knees, that dates back to when I was playing Rugby but I aggravated it last year playing Cricket and before you laugh I was the leading wicket taker for the club last season, so there! Anyway back to the point I went out for a bit of a run last Sunday morning with my dog and I took my small camera with me, the next picture will so you why, however the best part is when I got back my knee felt fine, so the rest after the cricket season the training in the gym and now the weight loss, has meant my knee while not brand new certainly doesn’t ache the way it used to after exercise.

Until next week when I am hoping to not only get some photos up but also a small video clip.

Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old; you get old when you stop riding!

Well!.... Best Laid Plans and all that jazz

Only hours after I wrote the previous update, I was hit with the dreaded Flu Bug and yes it was Flu and not Man Flu or a Cold, I will keep it simple, I have never shivered so hard in all my life, in fact I shivered so hard it hurt, I even pulled a muscle I was cramping up so much, that was then followed by burning up for the next 3 hours.

I am not going to go into any great detail about spending 3 days in bed, it’s bloody boring.

I have however spoken with the local Fundraising Manager for the area, Fran Winterbourne and arranged for a new date of Saturday 17th of January for the re-start weather permitting, this cold snap has to finish sometime.

Just before Christmas I did an interview for a local newspaper, okay it is only a free one but still they have featured my story on the 2nd page, in fact main pieces in the whole Newspaper and takes up almost the full page. Lisa from our Marketing Department is now sending out another batch of press releases to the West Midlands Press to see if we can get them to take it up as well.



I was talking with John from work yesterday and he was asking me whether I had started etc, he also mentioned that he had been reading the blog and found it rather interesting so rather than end this with the shortest update so far, for obvious reasons, I thought I would give you a little insight into what we discussed as it covers one of the instances that stimulated the idea in the first place.

I had always wanted to do a big ride but was stuck on things like a long trip down through Europe to Greece to give an example however each one would require a fairly major amount of time off work, so obviously they kept on being put off. I had been watching the first series of Coast and found it really interesting, so the inklings of an idea started to gel.

Then one Bank Holiday my ex- wife asked me to take my 12 year old son up to her parents so he could spend half-term there, after a lot of discussion and persuasion shall we say, she agreed I could take him up on the bike and give him a bit of a boys adventure with his Dad.

We set off on the Saturday morning early and I dropped him off near Chester with the Grand Parents late afternoon, after we had taken a non-motorway trip up the country, sticking to more interesting riding roads etc, mainly taking in the Welsh Borders around Craven Arms and Shrewsbury etc. Yes the Long Way Up (okay, sorry about the pun).

After going to see my Father on The Wirral and then spending Saturday Night with some old friends in Chester, I was left with the ride back home and a couple of free days to do it, so I decided I would ride down the North Wales coastline to Mid Wales and try and see what it would be like to re-create the Coast programme but on my own and on a Motorbike, after that I was hooked on the idea. It is not just the riding, it is the scenery, the history and even some of the quirky little facts you come across on the way, as an example of what you may find going forward with the blog.

Do you know where the title of the Beatles song Nowhere Man comes from? Well, here’s the answer and a photo to back it up. In the late 50’s John Lennon was sent to stay with his Auntie who ran a famous pub in Chester called the Bear and Billet, it did become infamous during the 70’s and 80’s as the place in Chester to get your ‘gear’ if you know what I mean. Anyway I digress in the 50’s it was one of a large number of watering holes inside the City Walls of Chester up Watergate St. However she used to live just over the bridge in Handbridge down by the River Dee in a little white cottage called ‘Nowhere’, okay it’s changed a lot over the years and is now a very desirable property.

So there you are Trivia No 1, get ready for many more as I travel around the country.


Take care and as Mick says 'You don’t stop riding when you get old; you only stop riding when you get confined to bed!'