The Arctic Rider

Greetings, The great news this week is that my Arctic Ride 2014 stash has now arrived! Thanks go to Herby at A Stitch In Thyme  who did a very professional and thorough job on my garments. He even managed to embroider my logo on my leather jacket! As shown below: As you can see above, I've had some items made up with my logo embroidered on including a regatta jacket, a neck warmer and a polo shirt (below).   In the near future these items will be available for sale with all profits going to Cerebra. Along with those shown above other items can be made up depending on what you would like including tshirts and hoodies as well as motorbike patches to sew on to your bike gear. Watch this space and look out for new page on the site for ordering.   After the success of the last week's blog and videos, my little brother Robbie has been hitting the streets of his home town of Whitley Bay drumming up support and sponsorship for A...

Hi everyone, Welcome to this week's Arctic Ride blog about my 6,000 mile motorbike challenge to the Arctic Circle in 2014. First of all I must say a massive thanks to my donators this week. Be assured that you all will be getting an invite to my Arctic Ride after party which will be held when I return next year. The total is now up to £100 which is 4% of my target of £2,500. Still a long way to go but this is an excellent start. The big news of this week is that I've been pressing ahead with getting the message out about Arctic Ride 2014. This has been in the form of getting some merchandise for my trip. I was a able to find a local embroidery company based in North Shields called A Stitch In Thyme run by a canny chap called Herby. Herby was kind enough to send me a complementary sample of my logo embroided on to a piece of material, and I must say its looks rather good (see picture below). As the sample looked so good I went for a meeting with Herby yesterday a...

Hi All, Wowza... its been another busy busy week in world of Arctic Ride. First of all I am able to announce that my donations/sponsorship page for Arctic Ride 2014 is now OPEN! Please follow this link and donate: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/arcticride2014 Not only is it now open but I've also had my first donation from my mummy-in-law Marion. She's certainly set the bar high with a generous donation of £50. I understand however that not everyone will be able to provide such a donation but please give what you can to help brain injured children. Also this week I have been in conversation with the charity Cerebra about some of my ideas for the trip and to get the OK from them to open up the virgin money giving page. Whilst on the phone I received the wonderful off to become an ambassador for Cerebra which I gladly excepted. I must admit that I am very honoured and privileged to be asked to do such a role and its one that will be a true pleasure...

Hi all I know that its not sunday (my normal blogging day) but I have an exciting announcement.. I signed up to a new gym and when I went on day one, they held a mini music quiz and the long and short of it is that I won TWO TICKETS to see MCFLY at the O2 academy in NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE on THURSDAY 25TH APRIL 2013. These tickets are SOLD OUT on the website   and currently being sold on sites for over £100. The face value of the tickets is £27.50 each :) Now, I do actually like Mcfly but I figured that this would be a great way to open my fundraising page. If you are a fan or know someone that is, then please read on... The plan is that I will hold a silent auction. This means that people can either DM me on twitter @arcticride2014 or email me gordon_stuart1@hotmail.com  or fill out the form below with their bid between the dates of  Thursday 11th April and midnight on Friday 19th April 2013 . The highest bid will be announced on Saturday 13th ...

Hi everyone! Thanks very much for logging on to read this week's Arctic Ride blog. As always there has been lots going on in the Arctic Ride world this week. The week started with a 300 mile car drive back up from The South after visiting my wife Kirsty's mum. As the 6 hour drive went on I got more and more jealous of seeing all the bikers out on road and I thought 'I've gotta get my bike out on the road this week'. Luckily for me the weather took a turn for the better (no ice and no rain) which allowed me to take the new bike out for a few short rides. Even with the cold North East air streaming into my visor, every time I ride my GSX650f I think more and more that this bike is going to be ideal for the 6,000 trip to the Arctic Circle. I was fortunate enough to inherit the bike with an upgraded and very comfy seat which is going to come in handy doing plenty 300 mile days next May. In addition, the power of the bike is perfect for sitting at the speed limit...

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 ...