The Arctic Rider

Hi All, This week it was my wee bro Robbie's 16th birthday. So I thought I'd use this week's blog to talk about Robbie and the charity Cerebra as when its comes down to it that's what my whole adventure to the Arctic is about. Robbie was born just like any other little lad, but unfortunately at the age of 9 months old he was a near miss clot death and spent several months in hospital after lack of oxygen to his brain caused severe brain damage. Robbie has come along way since 1997 when doctors told my mum that he would never see, never talk and would never live a meaningful life again. Yet here we are, 15 years later and Robbie is now a massive chatterbox, has a keen eye for almost every football club badge in the premier league and is the life of every party and family occasion. I guess you can look at it two ways, either my little brother is very unlucky for what happened to him where he was young, or he is very lucky in that he defied doctors predictions and is ...

Hi all, Wow... what an interesting week it has been in the world of Arctic Ride. Lots to chat on about so why not start with my biggest news of the week; my route has been announced! All the details and a lovely little map can be found in the 'The Route' section above. Or you can watch this 45 second clip which tells you all about it. Thanks for this clip must go to Adam Clery for helping to develop it and my wife Kirsty for putting up with my attention to detail. The second big news of the week is that I have been updating the blog and turning it into more a website (yes I might work for the worlds largest technology company but this doesn't mean I'm a tech geek, so I'm pretty proud of myself). There is now a banner across the top where you can find out information about; the ride, the route, who I am, who the charity is, and who my sponsors are going to be. Just to warn y'all this is still under construction so it might be a few weeks until its spick ...

Hi everyone, Thanks again for reading my blog. Its been a rather quiet week on the Arctic Ride front, although I've still been thinking about ideas and the trip in general a lot. The biggest thing that I have been doing this week is putting together a sponsorship prospectus. I'm going to use this as a sort of project plan to present to local companies to try and gain sponsorship both for going towards the Charity and helping to fund my trip. In 2011, I was lucky enough to gain a travel bursary from my university to help fund my trip but my own personal costs were very high so by getting companies involved it gives them a chance to advertise through the media I am doing for the trip but helps me fund the trip also. Its a bit of a difficult one because the costs of doing a trip like this are relativly high but the benefits,i.e. the money raised for the charity, is also very high. It sort of epitomises the phrase 'you've got to spend money to make money' and I fe...

Hello all, Wowza... what a week its been since I last took to the keyboard. No sooner had I announced last Sunday that I was planning my trip to the arctic, I've now purchased a new bike . As discussed in my last post, for the past few months I have been looking for a new bike but it was always my intention to sell the ER5 first and then start 'really looking' rather than the browsing I had been doing. I knew that I wanted something bigger and more powerful than the ER5 but it took me a while to create a shortlist of bikes that were actually realistic for my riding style, budget, and for riding long distance. Over Christmas I went for a look at some bikes on Westgate Road in Newcastle where most of motorbike dealerships are with my biker/navy buddy Bernie (who, for those that followed my last trip, lent me some heated gloves and socks, as well as riding some of the first day with me). During this visit I realised that a super bike most certainly wasn't for me after ...

Hello again, Wow so it’s been 20 months since my last blog, and 20 months since I completed my trip to raise money for the brain injury charity Cerebra . A lot has happened since then; I graduated from university, got a big boy job and, most importantly, got married! Also, I turned from a motorcycle commuter into a boring car owner... work suits and motorbikes don't really mix. This doesn't mean I have lost my bikers spirit, although I certainly haven't been riding as much as I used to. The occasionally trip down to Croft in Yorkshire to see the superbikes and a trip into Northumberland here and there with my buddy Oli have most certainly failed to fulfil my biking needs. In the past 18 months or so I've toyed with a few different ideas to fulfil the need to be on my bike. Firstly I wanted to go to America and do 'Arctic Ride 2 - New York to Prudoe Bay (Alaska)' and even after some months of planning and a presentation to my new colleagues at work, I cam...

Hi everyone, Well after a nights sleep in a real bed and bacon sandwich for breakfast I was ready for the 300 mile trip back home. The weather was great for a ride up with little wind and lots of sun. I fuelled up for the first time back in the UK and it was the cheapest fuel of the trip so far... shame this happened on the final day. After weeks of obeying the Scandinavian speed limits and trying not to get killed on the Autobhan I felt more confident to ride a bit quicker than I had been, and knowing that I was seeing Kirsty that day probably had something to do with it! The route up was fairly boring as 1) I knew the route having driven it plenty of times in the past, 2) the first turn off I had to make was for the A19 some 230 miles in and 3) there were no crazy forgein drivers to contend with. The most noteable incident of the day was when after the first 130 miles I got a cramp in my bum!! Thats what 6,000 miles on and ER5 does to you! Maybe I should get heated seats (or ma...

Hi Everyone, Wow I can't believe its almost over. What a four weeks it has been. This afternoon I said farewell to the continent as I set sail for Dover. Setting off around 10am I went in search of some breakfast, although 3 towns later I still hadn't seen any people let alone any shops open. I did however find a petrol station so I filled up and headed for Calais. Again the wind wasn't on my side. I'm starting to think that Belgium is actually just the EU's idea of a wind tunnel experiment. I had been due to catch a ferry at 7.30pm however I arrived at the port a good 7hours early. Wen I got to the ticket office I was told to go through passport control and then ask if there were any spaces on the earlier ferries. I managed to get on the 3.30 ferry so I only had 2 hours to fill by that time. Luckily I'm quite experienced in filling in time after my 4 days stuck in the far end of Sweden. I got chatting to two Italian guys in the que for the ferry, although we...