The Arctic Rider

Hallo. God Dag. Hvordan g å r det? I've just practicing my Norwegian! Although at the moment saying 'hello' and 'how are you?' is as far as I have got. Luckily English is very widely spoken in Norway so I should be alright, although I do want to try and learn some key phrases before I go out of politeness. The kind of things I am thinking of are: Hello. Do you Speak English? Can I camp for one night? Two beers please! (One for me and one for Brian) These phrases tend to be the limit to my vocabulary in most languages that I dabble in  which is mainly French, Belgian, Swiss, Luxembourgian.. OK just French! and a small bit of German, and Spanish. Anyway moving away from my cultural naivety its been another action packed week in the build up to my Arctic adventure. I've been working away on several aspects of the project, none of which have come to fruition yet, but in the middle of the work I came across something rather surprising. Basically, s...

Hello! Welcome to the latest Arctic Ride blog! Thanks again for tuning in to the latest update on the preparation for my 6,000 mile solo endurance charity motorbike ride to the Arctic Circle. For those of you who are new to the blog and what I am doing I have a short promo video (just over 2 minutes) which tells you all about what I am doing. See below or click on this LINK So what have I been up to this week? Well its been a pretty quiet one to be honest. I've spend most of the time taking stock of what has happened over the last 6 months since I announced that I was heading to the Arctic to raise money for Cerebra. I'm pleased to say that I think I've come a long way in 6 months. I've managed to get a new motorbike, several companies on-board, raise £375 for Cerebra already, and I've acquired a base of followers and companies who are keeping me motivated and on track to make it to the Arctic Circle in May & June of next year. For all of this I ...

Hi everyone. Summer is nearly over so I've been trying to cram in as much biking and Arctic Ride stuff before the weather turns. As you can see from this week's blog title its all been about filming! The first exciting news it that I have ordered my GoPro helmet camera, some memory cards, and a helmet mic, all of which I will need for my trip if I am going to document it and turn it into a film. They should all arrive this week so I can't wait to test them out! My first lot of filming happened on Tuesday when I went to see Neil at Newcastle Rider Training. The idea of visiting was to get some tips on biking from a professional instructor and share those tips with all my readers and viewers on YouTube. As a biker there is always room for improvement. Filming at Newcastle Rider Training The topics we covered included; Braking, Riding Abroad, Overtaking, and positioning. We managed to get a lot of footage on the day which is all still to be processed, edited, and...

Hello! Welcome to the latest Arctic Ride 2014 blog! For the regular readers of the blog you will notice that its been a few weeks since I have posted and this is because I moved house and I've been without the internet (which makes blogging somewhat difficult). The good news is I am back online and even though it was my birthday on Friday and my wedding anniversary today I've managed to squeeze in a blog to give everyone an update of what I've been up to. Even though I've been busy moving house I haven't let it get in the way of my preparation for my 6,000 mile solo charity motorbike ride to the Arctic Circle. As ever I've been rather busy and I have two major updates to tell you about. The first was my photo shoot with Allinson's Photography. The aim of this session was to produce some professional photos that I could use as publicity shots for both press releases/media articles and for my social media network. At Whitley Bay Lighthouse where I wi...

Hello there, Welcome to the Arctic Ride 2014 blog. In May and June of 2014 I will ride my motorbike solo, 6,000 miles from my home town of Whitley Bay in the North of England to Nordkapp, Norway the most Northerly point in Europe and 500 miles North of the Arctic Circle. Its going to be an epic journey which I very excited yet very nervous about. Now I know in the tagline I say that it's a solo motorbike ride but that's not strictly true. I will have an accomplice.. Gordon and Cerebra Bear (A.K.A. ???) As you can see from the photo I will be taking my Cerebra Bear with me on my Arctic Ride as my mascot. I was presented with him as a thank you after my trip in 2011. However when I decided he was going to come to the Arctic with me I knew he needed to have a real name. Big thanks to those who suggested names and voted (as I couldn't decide by myself with all the great suggestions). So here are the results.... In 5th place with 6% of the vote was... Pads. In ...

Hi Everyone, Welcome to another edition of the Arctic Ride 2014 blog! This week's blog is all about my trip to the BikeWise show in Durham on the 27th July. BikeWise is an annual motorbike show held at the Durham Constabulary Police Headquarters. The event sees thousands of bikers flock to Durham to see stalls from local bike clubs, clothing and helmet stalls, dealers, and anything BIKE related. I was lucky enough to be asked by the NEMCRC to attend with them and be on their stand. NEMCRC  have recently become a sponsor of Arctic Ride 2014 ( click for blog on this ) and it was a pleasure to attend with them and represent them at the show. Being at the show allowed me to get out there what I am I doing and why to a large biker community audience. To help promote the Arcic Ride 2014 brand I got the bike logo'd up with my sponsors and the charity's logo. I also got some literature printed off and my wife Kirsty baked some motorbike related cakes and we popped them on th...

Good day! Welcome to the Arctic Ride 2014 blog! In May and June of 2014 I will be riding my motorbike solo 6,000 miles in only 3 weeks to the top of Europe and through one of nature's most barren and un-populated landscapes... the Arctic Circle. This challenge is all in aid of raising funds and awareness for brain injury charity Cerebra . In planning my Arctic trip over the past 6 months, and on my previous motorbike endeavors, I've come across plenty of bikers and travelers. One thing I have noticed is that both solo travelers and groups often have a mascot or good luck charm travelling with them along the way. I realised that when I set of for the Arctic next May I'm going to be on my own for a good few weeks and after the back luck of my 2011 trip (see my blog post the day after my accident) I thought I could do with a good luck charm to come along on the ride with me. Cerebra Bear chilling on his Suzuki My immediate thought came to my Cerebra Bear which was g...