The Arctic Rider

Hello! Its been a few weeks since I announced that I will be heading to Alaska in 2018 to take on the notorious Dalton Highway to raise funds for Cerebra and Tiny Lives. I've been working flat out on lots of different items including; a sponsorship prospectus, project plan, contacting airlines to try and get sponsorship for my travel across the Atlantic, as well as designing a new logo for the ride (see below). The new Arctic Ride Alaska logo Arctic Ride Alaska is going to be by far my most difficult charity challenge yet for a few reasons. First of all I'm going to be on the other side of the planet, very far away from my support network and a full 9 hours behind UK time. This means I'll only have a short window to report back to my sponsors, media, and most importantly my wife and children.  Secondly I'm not going to be riding my own bike. The cost of transporting my bike to Alaska and back was going to be more than I paid for the thing, and a sports to...

Hi Everyone! Thanks for tuning in. For those who didn't see my announcements on social media last week, I've finally made public my plans for my next charity motorbike challenge.... I'm going to ALASKA   in 2018 to take on the DALTON HIGHYWAY! I created a 2 minute promo video about my challenge which you can view below or on my YouTube channel . In summary, 'Arctic Ride Alaska' will see me fly across the Atlantic to Anchorage in Southern Alaska to then ride to Prudhoe Bay, the most northerly town in Alaska, deep inside the Arctic Circle. The route is via the deadly Dalton Highway, one of the worlds most dangerous road. The total mileage of the ride is 2,000 miles with about half of that on the notoriously dangers Dalton Highway. I will be required to do a substantial amount of off-road riding. What the experts say - "Every year motorcyclists are killed on the Dalton Highway. Almost half of the highway is paved or chip sealed. The other half ca...

Welcome from The Arctic Rider! Thank you for joining to read my latest blog. Its been 3 months / 14 weeks / 100 days since I last took to the keyboard to write a blog post... I need to get my act together right? Thanks to everyone who has continued to visit my website in the meantime (no less than 10,000 views last month) and support my charity motorbike project. While its been a long time since I have blogged I've still been working very hard on my next adventure which is going to be my biggest and most challenging yet! While I'm not quite able to tell you where and when I'm going, what I can tell you is that I'm currently in talks with a global motorcycle manufacturer about using one of their bikes for the next trip, and I'm also in talks with a major UK motorcycle magazine about doing a feature too.  Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement in the next few weeks on my Facebook page and on YouTube. Iron Butt badge - Available to members only Alongsi...

Greetings from The Arctic Rider, Its now 5 months since I completed my Iron Butt challenge raising over £1,600 for The Tiny Lives Trust. Again, massive thanks to all of those who donated! My charity motorbike adventures would be nothing without you all, I'm just the middleman. Its taken me a while but I've finally completed my video editing of the Iron Butt ride. Its now available to watch on The Arctic Rider YouTube channel and in the below link . Its a 9 minute video so make sure you grab yourself a cuppa and biscuit to buckle down for the ride. I'm also creating a shorter 2 minute version which will become a permanent feature on the main page of The Arctic Rider website / blog . As its winter and I've been doing less riding I'm using my time to do more video editing, including creating a 2 minute clip of my Arctic Ride 2014. Watch out for that in 2017. Even though I've been bad at keeping everyone up to date with my blog, my Facebook and Twitt...

Hello! Welcome to The Arctic Rider blog. Its been a few weeks now since I completed my Iron Butt challenge to raise money for the charity  Tiny Lives Trust . Back in my usual routine, I've found myself thinking back quite a lot and thought I better get blogging to let you all know about it. The first thing I would say is that looking back, I'm immensely proud of not only completing the Iron Butt but doing it in 18.5 hours. I got lucky with the weather, the road conditions, and traffic, which really helped. I also need to say a MASSIVE thanks to everyone who donated and supported me. Top job everyone. Even though I'm proud, over the last few weeks I've been asked (and asked myself) if I would do it again and I think the answer is no... And here is why. Stopped at Gretna, Scotland - 10 hours and 493/875 It wasn't fun . I mean it really wasn't fun. I love love love riding my motorbike... Whether its on twisty mountain roads, nipping past towns and...

Greeting from The Arctic Rider! For those of you who follow me on facebook or twitter will know that at around 2315 on Tuesday 5th of July I completed my Iron Butt challenge!!!! It was an amazing feeling to do this on behalf of Tiny Lives but boy was it tough and my body wouldn't thank me after. Here's a first look at my adventure. Day '0' - Getting there Journey - Newcastle to Lands End  Mileage - 500  In order to do the Iron Butt I needed to get myself down to Lands End to start. So I set off on Monday morning from Newcastle around 0830 for the 500 mile ride down. My previous longest days ride has been on the way home from the Arctic in 2014 when I rode 550 miles through Denmark, Germany, and Netherlands  so this was going to be a very big day for me. Fully loaded and ready to go  The ride down was pretty uneventful. Apart from a few mobile speed cameras keeping me on my toes it was a solid days ride down the motorways with a few stops for fuel a...

Hi everyone, Thanks for tuning in to my latest Arctic Rider blog! Its now just 3 days to go until I take on the UK Iron Butt challenge.. riding from Lands End to John O'Groats in 24 hours. While I've been planning this ride for around the last 18 months, I'm feeling a little unprepared. When I rode to the Arctic in 2014 that ride was pretty much my sole focus. Every day was Arctic Ride prep. Now 2 years later... my life having a toddler and a more demanding job has meant I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would have liked planning and preparing. Luckily, while this trip is going to be a big challenge, I'm only going to be away from home for 4 days rather than 4 weeks. This week I picked my bike up from its big service at M&S motorcycles in Newcastle. To get the bike ready the team did an oil and filter change, spark plug refresh, air filter change, and a general check of the bike. Also I got two brand new Bridgestone  Battleaxe tyres put ...