The Arctic Rider

Hi everyone, Welcome to this week's blog. This week I went to visit my sponsor Newcastle Rider Training to have a chat with them about the kind of things we will be collaborating on as part of Arctic Ride. Rather than you all having to read what I was up to I made a vlog (video log). Also, this was meant to be a bike vlog but the car had to do after I had some bike issues (see video for details). I hope you enjoyed that wee video and seeing my face for a few minutes :) If you are thinking "wow that jacket looks awesome... I wonder if I can get it in a polo shirt, neck warmer or motorbike patch?!" well you are in luck, as you can buy them direct from my website (see the merchandise page ) with all profits going to Cerebra. Also this week I finally managed to get my panniers fitted and I managed to fix the indicator issue all by myself (2 man points for Gordon). Needless to say I'm a very happy biker and that almost all the mods done to the bike reading for t...

Hi all, I thought I would go against tradition and blog on a day that's not a Sunday. And the reason... well I'm excited, that's why. So over the past few weeks I've been stalking gumtree and ebay trying to find a bargain on some hard panniers to carry all my gear for my trip. I've got some throw-over soft panniers that I've had since I first started riding (2004) and as ace as they have been, its time to upgrade. I think I came to this realisation on my 2011 when the contents of the left pannier fell out on to the campsite grass where the bottom had split open. Needless to say the Ray Mears in me soon used some cable ties and string to patch it up but, in all honesty, I'm getting to old (lazy) for that shizz and need to get some hard panniers. Also the benefit of hard panniers is that your spare gloves don't get wet inside your panniers when its been peeing it down with rain in Norway for 8 hours straight (I'm only just realising now how much ...

Hi everyone, Wow... has it really been a week since I last blogged? Its been busy busy as always at my end and not only with Arctic Ride stuff but I've also been changing jobs at work (which means I have been doing double work) and its my wife's birthday on Tuesday (25th June) so I've been buying presents and hosting a party. Anyway, back to what you are all here to read about... ARCTIC RIDE 2014. Thanks to all those who have been viewing my blogs over the past months and to all of you who voted on my route over the past week, the response has unprecedented with 146 voters. It really motivates me to know that so many people are following and backing my challenge to the Arctic Circle. I had voters from all over the UK as well as France and the USA :) So... the results are in . Those of you who managed to tune in to last weeks blog will know there were two questions asked, which route should I take home? and which route would you like to take.? So for questi...

Good morning all, Once again I, Kirsty, have taken the blogger reigns from hubby Gordon to express some more thoughts on the latest development with Colin Brewer. If you haven't read the previous two blog posts about this, they are here: 8th May 2013 - http://www.arcticride.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/colin-brewer-local-councillor.html 13thMay 2013 - http://www.arcticride.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/colin-brewer-and-so-battle-continues.html The first one explains what we are discussing here and the second is an update on more recent events involving Brewer. It seemed that after saying those now famous words 'all disabled children should be put down' he then went on to compare them to 'deformed lambs' justifying his words. I know from everyone that I speak to about this issue that it is outraging a lot of people and the last I had heard he was 'off sick' and the Council were waiting to speak to him. They were also saying that they have no powers to sack him...

Hi everyone, Thanks for tuning in to my Arctic Ride 2014 blog. So now you should have seen all my route home options from Nordkapp;  Sweden , Finland , & Norway . If you haven't managed to read them all click on the country names or the pictures below to find out more about them. I really appreciate everyone who is reading my blog and I would love to hear your opinion on which route you think I should take home. So I've set up a vote form below where you can tell me which route you think I should take. Once I have the results I will publish them in one of my up and coming blogs and it will pretty much decide my route home :)  Option #1 - Sweden Option #2 - Finland    Option #3 - Norway Loading... Thanks for voting on my route. Your opinion is much appreciated. Also in the Arctic Ride news this week; Merchandise sales are really picking up and I have send out a few orders already this week. If you wo...

Hi all, Welcome back to the Arctic Ride 2014 blog. With the 'This time next year...' blogs over the past few weeks I feel like I've been blogging loads which has been so fun. I've done my first two potential routes home; Sweden  and Finland and today I will talk about my final option home through Norway. Now I'm not going to be boring and do the exact route back that I took to get me to Nordkapp. I've designed a slightly altered route which will see me stop at different places along the way home and take some slight detours. As with all routes, it depends on my progress up to Nordkapp, if I'm behind on my schedule I'll have to take the quickest route back, if I'm doing better than expected then I can take some more detours :)     As with all my routes home I will start in Honningsvag. I will ride 265miles through the mountain roads to a 'town' called Olderdalen which has a small ferry port. As well as a ferry port it has 261 i...

Hi everyone, So on Sunday I attached my flip HD camera and got the bike out to enjoy the unusually warm June weather. I decided after I got home to make it into a Vlog about what I'm doing on my trip. I've got a few mentions for my YouTube and Twitter biker buddies so watch out for those. The music on the video is by Nick Gladdish. If you like it, please check him out at www.nickgladdish.com There will be plenty more videos to come over summer while the weather is good, including some riding tips from my sponsor and North East motorbike school Newcastle Rider Training Newcastle Rider Training Tomorrow I'll be blogging about the route home #3 so look out for that! Finally today I want to say happy birthday to my cat Cleo... she's 3 today :) Happy Birthday Cleo Thanks again for reading and please keep spreading the word and following me on my social networks and if its just been payday and you can spare some cash please donate to a great cause. ...

Hi everyone, Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. Wow... what a beautiful week its been in Newcastle. The sun has been out everyday and so has my Suzuki :) So much so that my back tyre is getting very close to the legal limit so before I do any more big runs out I will definitely need a new one. I think its got just enough in it to get me around the doors for another few weeks so more biking for me. I hope you have been able to keep up with my 'This time next year...' blogs. If you haven't seen them yet they go over where I will be and what I will be doing for each day of my trip next year from Day 1 leaving home, to Day 13 arriving in Nordkapp. Click on the links or see the Blog Archive on the right hand side of the page. Also, I have been blogging about 'The Route Home' as I haven't quite decided which route I will take to get me home for my trip next year. This is partly because I want to experience as many places as I can and also that it ...

Hi all, Thanks for tuning in. So yesterday I blogged about my route home #1 through Sweden via Finland before heading into Norway and Denmark. Up for discussion today is the potential route #2 heading through lots more of Finland and riding through no less than 8 different countries :) My initial thought is that the guy at the post office is going to be pretty annoyed with me when I go asking for 8 different currencies... haha. This route will see me ride south through Norway heading into Finland's Lapland region (I'm doing my best to locate Santa and his Mrs to give them my list). This route into Finland lies slightly further East than my potential route through Sweden as discussed yesterday. I will then travel the length of Finland until I finally arrive in capital Helsinki 4 days later. I will then catch the overnight ferry to Tallinn in Estonia which, after 2 weeks of camping in Scandinavia with their mosquitoes , I'm sure I will be pretty glad of. Helsi...

Hi Everyone, I hope you have all been enjoying reading my 'This time next year...' blogs all about my route to the Arctic Circle & Nordkapp. Its been really fun to write and learn about all the places I am going and I feel good that I have my route planned there already. Now I have the task of figuring out which way I'm going to go to get home :) Over the next few days I will be exploring the route home and all the different options availble to me in the timeframe. Today's route option is: Sweden. This will see me leave Honningsvag (A) and the North Cape and then head south, rather than back west from where I came from Alta and Tromso. This route will take me of the E6 which is the main road up the west coast of Norway. I will continue to head south through Northern Norway (B) until I get to Finland. From here I will travel due south along the Swesish/Finnish border until I hit the baltic sea at Tornio (C) in Finland. From here I will follow the ...

Hi all, So this is the big one..my exciting news for today is that I will be at Nordkapp today in 365 days! So it seems that the number 13 is not unlucky for some! This will be (hopefully) the best day of my trip so far. Its the place I didn't get to on my last attempt and where I can say I will be at the most northerly point in Europe and one of the most northerly points in the world! I may well be cheesy as well and scream 'I'm on top of the world...almost' ha ha If I do though, I will film it..of course. :) My plan is to set off from Alta and travel to the North Cape, pose on the edge of the cliff and then come back and stay in Honningsvag, the closest town to Nordkapp, and I hear there is a good campsite there too. On the way to Nordkapp, you have to go through a tunnel and luckily for me they have just got rid of the toll for this :) This tunnel cuts through the mountains and under a lake which will be amazing. I have been looking at the road...

Hi again all, So hopefully after my rest day in Tromso, I will be fully refreshed and ready to head off again on my journey! :) The other positive is that because I am only going to be the maximum of one time zone ahead, it wont affect me on my adventure. :) Its funny writing this blog post when it is sunny outside and thinking about how cold it will be up in Alta. Day 12 will see me head further North for around another 192 miles to the town of Alta. Alta is the northernmost city in the world over a population of 10,000. Alta, like a lot of Norway is great for activities like skiing and is surrounded by mountains. Because of the temperatures and the period of time it is chilly through the year, Alta is able to have something we could never have in the UK, an igloo hotel! I have always wanted to go to one but unfortunately it will not be there in May when I go and is only open from Mid January to Mid April. But then again this just means that I will have to go ...

Greetings, Thanks again for logging on and reading my blog. Robbie and Gordon How quickly are the weeks going at the moment? It only seems yesterday since I started planning the trip and now it's less than a year to go until lift off. I hope you have been able to keep up with my 'This time next year...' blogs. As this time next year I will be on my adventure, I thought I would give you a taster of my plans  and where I will be visiting. If you haven't had a chance to read them yet you can use the 'Blog Archive' links on the right hand panel of the site. So this week I was lucky enough to be asked for another interview to talk about my trip. This time it was from Garrison and Ralph at Those Diner and Motorcycle Guys . As they are based across the pond I spoke with Garrison on Thursday evening (midday for Garrison) via Skype to record my interview before it was aired on Saturday morning on BlogTalkRadio in the live Those Diner and Motorcycle Guys show. ...

Hi all, So the reason why I am combining these two is because of them will be a rest day. Like with my other rest day, if I am behind with my miles for any reason, I will push on and keep going. On my whole trip, I have three rest days which is not many but I am hoping I will be able to keep on track and use them to positive effect. I would like to be able to show people the trip through my eyes and explore Norway. I think about my little brother and the other children like him who are never going to be able to experience something as special as this trip and will never be able to have a driving license and I want to be able to show Robbie, my little brother what its like. Day 10 sees me leaving Narvik and heading around 155 miles or so, all going to plan to Tromso, another place that I have never been to. :) Tromso is the capital of the arctic and the second largest city and urban area north of the Arctic Circle in Sapmi (following Murmansk - Russia.) It also c...