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. ...