The Arctic Rider

Hi all, So..day 9.. I will be in the Arctic circle and continuing to travel north. I've had a look at the temperatures and as I'm getting further north its getting colder. The average temperature for May..which is supposed to be summer, is 4.5 degrees Celsius! I have been chatting to a few #bikerbuddies about ways to keep warm and thanks to some of u for getting back to me from the last blog, I have some links now and will have a think about what might be the best products to buy. if anyone else has any suggestions, I would be more then happy to hear them! :) I also have to make sure that my bike can take the power of all the heated equipment I would like to take with me, and of course the fact that, as I am going to be alone, I have to pack smart. I said before that I will be leaving the large towns and cities behind and will be stopping at more villages which could be quite worrying. However, I am now eating my words because I have just realised that today, once I have se...

Hi all, So day 8 is an exciting day.. I will officially be within the arctic circle from today for around the next 10 days, depending on my actual route back... :) I will have reached my first big hurdle and will actually within the ARCTIC CIRCLE...woop Will be a great day and a great achievement. I must say that it will take me 60 miles to reach the arctic circle...but u get the point..its going to be an exciting day! :) Day 8 will see me leave Mosjoen, a city and finish the day around 147 miles later in a village called Rognan, Norway.   I've put a map which also contains Nordkapp so that you can see how close I am getting to my final stop (on the way there anyway). Rognan is a 3km village with a population of 2,526..but hopefully it will have a McDonald's for me to stop off at and have a quick munch! It looks like a small place but magical and very Norwegian. There doesn't seem to be much there apart from some shops, a train station, a church and a m...

Hi all, So..I will now be one third of the way through my trip..and probably run out of fresh food and relying more on Mcdonald's or Burger King again. One thing I did find strange on my last trip was the lack of Ikea's in Sweden. (not that I'm on Sweden on this date but I was just thinking about it.) I do love a good plate of meatballs and was hoping to get some authentic ones! I will see what happens on next years trip and see if I can find one. And now back to Norway and day 6 where I left my last blog. Day 6 will see me leave Trondheim and passing through a lot of nice looking roads. One thing to note is that after I leave Trondheim, I will  not be going to any cities for around 5 days. I will be travelling around 244 miles or so to my destination of Mosjoen. I have had a quick look at a potential route I could use for this date and have discovered that I will be driving through a place with..possibly..a better name then Middelfart in Germany.. It's Hell.....

Hi all, So hopefully by now you are getting the gist of what I am doing and you are following me day by day as I head north towards Nordkapp, my exciting final destination. If all goes to plan, day 5 will be spent chilling out with my buddy and being a bit touristy in and around Oslo as a 'rest day.' If not, it will be me scrambling to get to Ski to get me back on track. :) Day 6 will see me refreshed and ready to go around another 320 miles to end up in the City of Trondheim. This is different to previous stops because I will be camping and staying in a City rather than a village or tiny place that is not really for tourists. ha ha I have briefly been to Trondheim during Arctic Ride 2011..as I reminisce again.. :) Like a lot of Norway, it was very beautiful and I enjoyed looking round it because it's so different to what I'm used to over in the UK. The other thing that I haven't really mentioned yet is another problem that I had as I travelled n...

Hi all, So..this time next year it will be Day 5 of Arctic Ride 2014. If you haven't read where I will be for the previous days, please check out my other blog posts and if you would like to see my full route..please click on this link.. http://www.arcticride.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-route.html  There is also a wee video you can watch to give you more info. I have also been working on an interactive map to make it even more fun...if that's possible..ha ha So.. as in the previous blog post..day 5 sees me in Ski, Norway.. a town near to Oslo. When I was here during Arctic Ride 2011, I stayed the night at my friends house, Hans and, as said before I am hoping I am able to do this again. Also, on my way back, I had a few rest days in Oslo and Moss and my wife, then Fiancee was able to come out to see me and we spent a few days being tourists and being ripped off in the process. I do love Scandinavia but compared to the prices in the UK, it can be a bit scary. She's not t...

Hello readers, Thanks again for logging in and reading my blog. Wow its been such a busy week. I've got lots and lots to chat about so lets get started. The big news of this week is that I have had my first radio interview about my trip! The lovely folk at BBC Radio Newcastle invited me into the studio to have a chat with Saturday morning Breakfast show host Helen Richardson. So on Monday morning I leather'ed up (bike leathers that is) and headed the 6 miles into Newcastle on my Suzuki for my interview. At this point I should say that I should have had a film of me riding up there to show you however when I reviewed the footage it turns out my camera what pointing to the sky (EPIC FAIL) so you'll have to wait to see the streets of Newcastle from my bike another time. Now I've never been on the radio before so it was very exciting. I did a 15 minutes interview explaining all about my trip and then had a general natter. The interview was air...

Hi all, I had had a massive response to my blog post yesterday so thanks all for reading it and hope you are enjoying following me on my future journey. So..day four already.. :) I will set off from Landskrona, Sweden  and cross another border (my 7th) and enter Norway. I will ride past Gothenburg and Moss. The last time I rode this way on Arctic Ride 2011 they were building a new motorway so I ended up spending a lot of time overtaking caravanettes...not the most fun you can have on a bike! ha ha Hopefully,now that it will be 3 years later, the motorway will be built..although if it was in England we couldnt guarantee that! I will keep you posted on this..I'm sure you are all gripped.. After around 312 miles, I will end my day at Ski in Norway..(thats not an activity by the way..its the town) :) I have been to Ski before and it is a commuter town for Oslo. The day that I was there on Arctic Ride 2011, I stayed at a fellow motorbike buddies house in Krakstad, a vil...

Hi all, So day three.. time flies when ur sat on ur bum all day.. on this day in the future (365 days in the future to be exact).. anywho..day three will see me travel from Ottersberg in Germany across my next border into Sweden through Denmark. For all u factlets out there this will be my 6th country in 3 days. Blimey! I have thought about this route a bit and decided that one thing I must not miss is this: The Oresund Bridge which connects Copenhagen in Denmark to Malmo in Sweden. It was incredible, 5 miles long and I rode over it on Arctic Ride 2011. The main thing I remember was how windy it was..I also missed the viewing point because I was concentrating on finding my junction..but not this time.. :) For all of those who are immature, like me, I will also be going past the most exciting place I have been to before... Tee he he ... I do love Middelfart Anyway..back to the proper stuff.. Another fun thing is that I will be travelling through another countr...

Hi all, I am once again reminiscing..no that's not the right word..looking into the future..like some sort of Mystic Meg..but without the scarf.. and want to tell you about what I will be doing one year today. If you haven't read day 1, please do.. its a good read..ha ha Day Two will see me cross the Channel from Dover to Calais, France on the Ferry. This is a pic of me on the ferry during Arctic Ride 2011 :) It was a bit rough but had plenty of training from being at sea on this little beast when in the University Royal Naval Unit: For any extra keen beans.. (and nerds) this is not my actual ship because that would be impossible to take a pic of a ship whilst on it.. lol but it is a ship of the same class that we were travelling with..but just to prove my wife and I were both on said ship..ta'da: OK..ok.. back to the future..wait thats a film...anyway..Day two, once I land on French soil will see me doing around 420 miles through France and into Germany ...

Hi all, I have some exciting news to share with you all...the countdown is officially on and its 365 days to go until I leave Newcastle and head towards the Arctic Circle.. I am not sure what time I will be leaving as yet but I hope to leave from Whitley Bay Lighthouse in the morning. The picture below is of me leaving from the Lighthouse on my ER-5 for Arctic Ride 2011.     Oh and yes I did leave in May last time too...it may look like the Winter with coats on and yes it was freezing, but do remember this is the North of England! ha ha I was lucky enough to have some friends, family and a local MP, Alan Campbell wave me off from Whitley Bay. My brother even made a banner for me leaving ( I think he meant to put good riddance on it but decided that 'Good luck Gord Love Robbie' was better.  If you want to know the route I will take, its here.. http://arcticride.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-route.html  :) It will be a j...

Greetings, The week ahead is looking very busy in the world of Arctic Ride. First of all, I am taking the morning off work on Monday to go in to chat to Helen Richardson at BBC radio Newcastle about my trip. Helen presents the Saturday Breakfast Show  and she will be interviewing me about my preparation for heading to the Arctic and what Arctic Ride is about. I'm not sure when this will be aired yet, but once I find out I will let you all know so you can listen in. Secondly, on Wednesday evening I am doing a skype interview with Durham today who are going to be running an article about my trip. Also, I will be recording the interview and I will upload if for all on youtube to view. So watch out for that one. Also in the Arctic Ride news this week, Arctic Ride Merchandise is officially available to buy! On sale are embroidered Polo shirts, neck warmers, and motorbike patches. Please visit the merchandise tab for more information including prices, s...

Good morning everyone, Gordon is at work today and so I, Kirsty, his wife have taken over this blog for the morning to share some important news. Just as you thought that the man that is Colin Brewer couldn't do anything worse..he goes and does it again. In our last blog we spoke about how there was a protest at the Council buildings which was successful and a meeting had been set up with Colin to allow him to hear from the campaigners and the Council. However, he was 'signed off' and so could not attend this meeting. However, an article has now been published in the Huffington Post to say that he has now compared disabled children to disformed lambs. I was astounded to see that a man who has been so heavily criticised by the community and beyond already has now gone even further, confirming that he is not sorry for previous comments and appears to have no remorse. In the article he is concerned that he has appeared to be an 'ogre' but then goes on to state th...

Hi Everyone, Welcome to the latest edition of the Arctic Ride 2014 blog. During the week my wife Kirsty and I wrote a blog  about Cornish local councillor Colin Brewer who made some very derogatory comments about disabled children at a County Hall event in Truro in October 2011. "disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down" - Colin Brewer I thank all who read the article and who signed the petition which is asking for Colin Brewer to stand-down as local councillor. Your support is truly appreciated and its great to know that there are plenty of people out there who care about and are willing to stick up for disabled children like my little brother Robbie. If you haven't yet read the blog post please click HERE to view. To sign the petition please visit the following link: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46463 This week I have again been again working hard to get the word out about Arctic Ride 2014 and get...

Hey all, I know that it's not a Sunday, but if any of you have seen me chatting on twitter (@arcticride2014) or read my previous blog post, you will be aware that I have been looking into a situation which has caused outrage in Cornwall. Now, I know that some of you are probably thinking.. 'but you don't live in Cornwall', but this is something which affects any family that has a sibling or child with special needs or in fact anyone who has a heart! The facts - According to press, an independent councillor by the name of Colin Brewer said to Theresa Court, a lady who works for Disability Cornwall, whilst manning a stall at the County Hall in Truro in October 2011 and I quote: "disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down" This is a disgusting comment which was said with disabled children and their families within earshot. He was the elected local councillor at the time and in charge of budgets, including those that affect...

Good day, To those of you in the UK, I hope you are enjoying / did enjoy your bank holiday weekend. The weather here in the North East has been rather lovely and I hope the bikers among you managed to get out for a wee ride. In the Arctic Ride news this week, I had the amazing news that I now have my first official corporate sponsor in Newcastle Rider Training. Newcastle Rider Training are a rather excellent motorbike training school based in Lemmington just outside my hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne. After an email conversation spanning the past few weeks I went to meet owner Neil on Wednesday. We spent an hour or so discussing my trip and all of my ideas and Neil and Newcastle Rider Training signed on to sponsor me, and Arctic Ride, until July 2014. I am very proud to be associated with Newcastle Rider Training and I am so please that I have found a local company with the same ideas and passion to back my challenge to the Arctic. Over the coming months you will...