Monkey Meet and 6 days to go

Good day folks,

Welcome to the latest instalment of the Arctic Ride 2014 blog! It's now only 6 days until I set off my mammoth charity ride to the Arctic Circle.

Donations have been coming in thick and fast so thank you to everyone who has donated so far! I'm getting so close to my £2,500 target that I might actually break it before I depart next Saturday.

If you want to donate visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/arcticride2014

Now one would think that the weekend before a 6,000 mile ride to the Arctic Circle you would use it for trip prep or get ting the last few item arranged... Well not me! I decided to do a test day and ride my bike 410 miles in 12 hours so I could meet up with the best and worst of the UKs (and beyond) moto vloggers in Nortingham at the annual monkey meet.

On a beautiful May morning I set off just after 6.30 am and headed to Teeside to meet up with my mate Paul before the 160 mile ride to Nottingham.

A few hours later we arrived in Nottingham and met up with nearly 100 bikers ready for a ride out around the countryside and a few stops along the way.

Not only did I meet some of the legends of the moto vlogging community ( and there were lots) but I was also lucky enough to have the support of te organisers for my trip with cakes made to be sold for my fund for Cerebra.

Massive thanks to @PicklePoo, @Mrs_Rudder and the rest of the folks for all your help and the money raised!

I've spend my Sunday cleaning the bike ready for the big off on Saturday and a practice run putting up my tent (8.04 is the current record which needs to be improved if I'm not to get wet in Norway).

Thanks for reading and please keep sharing and supporting my ride.

Ride safe.

Gordon

Suzuki GSX650F review

Hello there, And welcome to another edition of the Arctic Ride blog! My trip might be a distant memory (last year in fact) but there is still plenty to come from me both for Arctic Ride 2014 post trip (like this blog) and future adventures. I'm pleased to announce that earlier this week my blog reached 45,000 views which I am both pleased and humbled about. So with this blog I wanted to share my thoughts on the bike I rode on my ride to the Arctic this year, the Suzuki GSX650F. I've had many people ask me to review the bike and, well, here it is. My GSX 650F and I at the Arctic Circle in Norway As a background in my 9 years of riding I've ridden a smallish cross section of bikes, but I feel it has been enough for me to put some context behind my views on the GSX650F. An example of some of the bikes I have ridden include my first bike, Suzuki Marauder 125, a Yamaha Virago 535, Kawasaki ER5, SV650S, BMW LT 1200, Harley Davidson Street Glide 1800, and a Kawasaki ...

Why is the Dalton so dangerous?

Welcome to The Arctic Rider blog, Its now less than a year until I start my quest to conquer The Dalton Highway in Alaska, one of the worlds' most dangerous roads. The new 'Arctic Ride Alaska' poster I've still got a lot of planing to do and I've been working away in the background to get a lot of things firmed up, but I probably won't know the key parts of the trip, such as the exact dates I'll be going and the bike I'll be riding, until the Autumn. Anything I know before then I'll be staring with all you loyal readers of my blog. In this blog, I'll be covering why The Dalton Highway is so dangerous , and why I'm hoping you will share some of your very hard earned Pounds (and other currencies for non-UK readers) in exchange for the danger and suffering I'll be putting myself in next year. Firstly though, I must say a huge thanks to an unnamed Devitt Insurance employee who very kindly donated their employee-of-the month priz...

Looking back: Arctic Ride Iceland

Hello, Thanks for tuning into another edition of the Arctic Rider blog. Wow, so its been a week and a half since I returned from my epic trip to Arctic Iceland. The dust has settled and I'm back at work.. it almost feels as thought it never happened, a long and distant memory but luckily I have lots of photos to remind me it was real :) Day 12 - Southern Iceland The weather in Iceland completely battered me and I feel lucky to have got through this ride in one piece, having met other bikers who been blown off their bikes in the wind, dropped them on gravel roads, and been soaked to the skin by the rain. The battle against the elements was 100% worth it though to raise so much money for two amazing charities in Tiny Lives Trust and Cerebra. At the time of writing, Team Arctic Ride has raised OVER £5,000 for this ride. I'm honoured and humbled to have had such amazing support from so many dedicated supporters! I will be closing my donation page at midnight 31st July...

The Arctic Rider

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