The Arctic Rider

Hi everyone, Thanks for tuning in to my Arctic Ride blog. Just a quick update this week. I've really been pushing the boat out to local companies to try and get some more sponsors on board as getting to the Arctic by bike isn't cheap. Its like an investment and the old mantra of 'You've got to spend money to make money' and that principle applies to my trip. I'm able to offer companies brand exposure by having there logo on the bike, on this website, and through my documentary.  So far this bait has caught quite a few companies, see my sponsors page, and the support I've had from them has been great but so far only two have been able to offer me funds towards the budget of my trip. As a Project Manager by trade, you can imagine that I have managed the hell out of my Arctic project so far so I thought I'd share some of 'management' including the breakdown of the budget for my trip. So you can see I only have 5 different expenses for my...

Hi everyone, Welcome to the Arctic Ride 2014 blog. In May/June of 2014 I'll be riding my motorbike 6,000 miles in 3 weeks to the Arctic Circle and back to raise money for brain-injury charity Cerebra, and to raise awareness for brain-injuries and disability rights in general. The Suzuki I will take to the Arctic in 2014 People with a disability are in a very unique situation when it comes to prejudice and discrimination which a lot of people often forget and something I am very keen to raise awareness for. So why is having a disability unique when it comes to prejudice and discrimination I hear you ask... well let me explain. I'm a white male. Chances are I'll always be a white male therefore, in the future, no one is going to treat me differently for being black, for being Asian, or for being a woman. I don't consider myself disabled... but there is a chance that I could become disabled in the future and thus suffer prejudice and discrimination. That's how ...

Hi everyone, Welcome to another edition of the Arctic Ride 2014 blog. Thanks for tuning in. Regular readers will notice that this blog is being posted later than usual. This is because my work has whisked me off to Johannesburg in South Africa to attend the One Young World Summit.  Usually I post my blog on a Sunday evening ready for all to read on their Monday lunch break but as I’ve been packing and preparing for my trip this blog is being written from 30,000 feet and will be posted when I land and get some Wi-Fi. So this week has been another busy week. All the kit for my GoPro finally arrived so I am now able to vlog on the bike to keep you all up to date about what I have been doing! My first ‘proper’ vlog is below so give it a watch and let me know what you think! I’m using the vlog and filming around Newcastle as a practice for my trip. As I’ve said in previously blogs I’m planning to film my entire adventure to the Arctic next summer so that I can ...

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...