London England-Europe-Russia-America. 26 countries, 19661 riding miles.


England, Wales, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Japan, North America (19 States, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virgina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York) Ireland.
9882 miles (flights/ferries as the crow flies) TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED 29543 Miles/47545 Kilometers

Trip Schedule

Ace Cafe, Stonebridge, London 7pm Mon 21st April-Send off with Riders Digest magazine. http://www.theridersdigest.co.uk/distribution.html
Official start-St. Teresas Hospice, Darlington, Co. Durham 11am Wed 23rd April St Georges Day.
Farleigh Hospice, Chelmsford, Essex 1pm Tues 29th April.
Dover, P&O ferry, 10am Thurs 1st May.
Europe 1 month.
Trabzon, Turkey to Sochi, Russia Tues 3rd June. 90 day visa.
Zarubino, Russia to Sok Cho Korea Mon 28th July.
Incheon, Korea to Seattle USA, via Tokyo, Japan Fri 15th Aug.
JFK New York to Gatwick UK, via Dublin, Ireland Wed 24th Sept
Official finish-Farleigh and St.Teresas Hospices dates TBA.


Many thanks to our sponsors!

I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible.


CitySprint www.citysprint.co.uk/
The Riders Digest www.theridersdigest.co.uk/

A special thankyou to Frank and Liz at http://www.triumph-online.co.uk/ for such generosity. They gave us almost all the spares and tools we needed to keep the bikes running across Russia, just because they were proud of two British guys wanting to ride two British bikes around the world.

A big thankyou to Graham at http://www.bykebitz.co.uk/ for the Airhawk seat cushion. Without a doubt the most comfortable bike seat I've ever had. Much more comfortable than a gel seat!
Thanks to David Gath at http://www.motohaus.com/ for the Ventura headlight guard. It saved my headlight on many occasions on the Amur Highway.
Thanks to http://www.wemoto.com/ for the brake pads.
Thanks to Rick and everyone at Casade Moto Classics, Beaverton, Oregon, for helping me at such short notice. http://www.cascademoto.com/

Thankyou to everyone who has given their time and effort to ensure the trip went smoothly.
It's the small companies who really make the world go round.

Thankyou Mark & Lee for ensuring we had a good send off, Roman for the tyres in Volgograd, Mikail & the Iron Tigers for the use of their shop, Phil & Dot for their friendship & inspiration, Wendy for shipping the bikes from Korea (& buying me dinner 3 nights in a row) Mike & Jo for keeping me sane in Korea, David Janos for amazing hospitality, advice, collecting my bike from Seattle & taking me sailing! Stan Hellmann for showing me the best of Oregon, Greg for air freighting the bike home & of course Geoff, for helping me realise my dream.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

An around the world Triumph.


After spending a long weekend enjoying the scenery with friends in Wiltshire, I paid a visit to Ongar Motorcycles today (Tuesday) to order the necessary parts so I can fix my oil leak. Brian the mechanic showed me the warranty application he'd sent to Triumph after I left last Wednesday, because he thought it was worth a try. Triumph, like most companies, don't usually honour claims without proof of regular services, but after Brian had explained my unusual journey they immediately agreed.

Unfortunately, Brian showed me an email he received from someone I didn't know suggesting that Ongar Triumph had been unhelpful toward me. This person was only trying to help my case but really should've contacted me first to get the facts before dishonouring someones reputation. Triumph had already agreed because of Brian's help. I apologised for the trouble he got from his boss after receiving this email. None of us expected Triumph to do the work, especially me, but I'm very grateful to Brian and everyone else at Ongar Motorcycles for going out of their way to help me.

Please visit their new website to see the full range of Triumph Motorcycles.

www.ongar-motorcycles.co.uk/

I've often been asked why I chose a Triumph instead of the equivalent BMW. I'm a fan of BMW but always loved Triumphs. After careful research the Tiger 955i was better in almost every aspect except off-road ability. Everything taken into consideration, especially the cost, the carrying capacity, the handling and reliability, in my opinion the Tiger is one of the best all round bikes ever made. Any all round bike is a compromise and none are perfect, but for me the Tiger is a perfect compromise. A guy my size carrying a ridiculous amout of kit is testament to how tough the Tiger is. I doubt any other road bike would've survived! Besides, it's British don't you know. Why fly the flag when you can ride it?

1 comment:

'Blue 88' said...

The 'Email' to Ongar was probably my fault. In your Blog, 15th October, you said that Ongar Triumph would not honour the warranty due to the lack of service stamps. I mentioned this on my own Blog, ... it all went from there. People seemed to be insensed (including myself) that Ongar Motorcycles didn't just do the work without question, .. they knew what you had done, where you had been etc., .. a gesture of 'goodwill'
I'm glad that it all got rectified in the end.... Geoff


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