House!

Shane Prater's generous donation takes us to £1,500 - so everything we can raise now is above and beyond. Thanks Shane! And thanks again to everyone who has donated so far and given their support in all sorts of ways.
Keep logging on as we give you a better idea of what that money can do for people with bowel cancer.
Chap contacted the Chris Evans show this morning, adamant that an Indian summer was on the cards. He was emailing from Mumbai...

A cheeky warning

This is a timely reminder of why we're doing this - enjoy!
http://www.beatingbowelcancer.org/CheekyWarning/


Big Bank Holiday thank-yous to our latest sponsors: Sue and Mike Slack, Gill, Abi and Ros, Sharon Williams, Geoff and Kath, and Stuart, Jen, and the Diesel gang.
For our part, we enjoyed a gentle run over to Swindon, for the purchase of some (hopefully) waterproof trousers, and to drool over Mr Honda's wares. Can't make up my mind about the Honda Deauville - is it dull? Would I prefer a Pan European? Will I ever afford either? Would I rather have a BMW R1200 RT? Does anyone care?

The target is in sight - let's see how far we can break it by!

An offer you can't refuse

We'd hate to think that the good people who have sponsored us and followed our blog are getting nowt back, apart from maybe the rosy glow that comes with supporting a great charity like Beating Bowel Cancer. So to make it a truly interactive user experience, the first person to post a comment on the blog will get a souvenir from the trip. It maybe a leprachaun key fob, a Welsh cake, a purchase from Keele Service Station on the M6,  or even a wee hairy Highlander bought in a gift shop nowhere near the Highlands. Who can say. But you have to be in it to win it. Innit.
Big Saturday morning thank-yous go to our latest sponsors, Ted and Rita Bradley (in Geneva), Geoff and Kath, Sara Bartlett (who is also providing long-range weather forecasting via Frank!) and Emma Herring.  Current total: £1,340.

Just £300 away from target

Exactly two weeks to go before we hit the road and we are now tantalisingly close to the £1,500 target we've set for ourselves. Big thanks to our latest sponsors, Garry Poulson, and to Gerry Hill, who handed me a tenner this morning to hit the £1,200 mark.
Please do make a donation, if you haven't done so already. Beating Bowel Cancer do a fantastic job both for patients with the condition, and also in raising awareness among the general public.
The only concern remains the weather. It has been unceasingly wet all week, nay all month. But September can be fine - I've known Newbury Show weekend to be warm and sunny. Trouble is I've also known it to bear an uncanny likeness to the Battle of the Somme, but with cattle. So fingers crossed that this September will be a fine one.
My cunning plan to fit a tall touring screen to the bike to deflect a bit more wind off us looks like being a non-starter - they have to be made to order, which takes two weeks, and I don't really fancy the expense of an MRA Vario Touring Screen, nice though they are. So the bike can stay in bog standard form - it's served us pretty well thus far.

Hold The Front Page

In the 22 years in which I have been involved in the newspaper industry, I have never once heard anyone yell "Hold the front page". I've heard all sorts of other things yelled, mainly by the late, great Lou Cummins, mostly unrepeatable, but even he never came out with that phrase.
That doesn't stop it being the name of the newspaper industry's own online trade paper, who have picked up on what we're doing and kindly run a story on it. See the link here:
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/charity/100826bikeride.shtml

This weekend will see a trip back to George White Superbikes in Swindon, to return the waterproof trousers I bought there recently, which I discovered were anything but. There's nothing like moisture in your areas to spoil your ride home.
Big thanks to our most recent sponsor, Ian Fisher from the Yamaha Diversion Club.

Twitter!

Stephen Fry does it, Charley Boorman has nearly 20,000 followers, and now Bikers for Beating Bowel Cancer give you our very own Twitter feed, so you can follow just how wet, stiff and saddlesore we're getting in return for your generous sponsorship.
http://twitter.com/richmayn
There is also a Twitter feed (as I think that's what it's called) to the Virgin Giving page - just click the 'Donate here' link to the right of this page.
I believe this is what you call a learning curve...
Wednesday thanks go to our latest sponsor, Emma Bell.

Two Little Boys

No, not the two little boys in the Rolf Harris song. Classic though it was. No, these two little boys spent their Christmas holidays in about 1975 or 1976 building a go-kart. A corker, too. Radical steering system, 'brakes', and it even had a 'registration number' - CEA 41R. which stood for 'Combined Efforts At' the address where we built it. So thanks, Dave, for your generous donation - I like to think that our mothers are looking on approvingly, relieved that we're staying out of mischief! Now 1,000 miles on a go-kart, that really would be a challenge...
Thanks also to our latest sponsors, Judy and Steve Down (I've come a long was since Steve let his irritating, specky 14-year-old second cousin ride his motorbike round the field!) and Karen Marshall.

Happy Mondays!

No, not a reference to 'Madchester' baggy band of the 1990s, more a general statement as more people support our ride. So, Monday's big thank you goes to our most recent donors: Peter and Jo Brunsden, Simon and Jen, Clare Hardy, Adriana Hubbard, Adrian Martin,  Newbury News Group Ltd and Karen Cameron Taylor.
Thanks also to the good folk on the Yamaha Diversion Club website. A posting on their forum stirred up a lively debate about whether or not 1,000 miles was a challenge or not, (consensus seems to be 'yes') and, most importantly, lots of support for what we're doing. At the end of the day, it's about raising awareness, as well as money, so thanks for that guys and gals.
Thanks also to John Plumb, who forwarded me a link about a ride from Moscow in Ayrshire to Moscow in Russia, also for a cancer charity. Now that is hardcore...
In terms of our preparation, the only thing we did over the weekend was acquire some reflective 'smiley face' stickers from Mark and Rosie to brighten up the panniers. My only concern is whether the Garda, PSNI or Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary might think we're  flogging something dodgy. (You have to remember the late 1980s to understand that gag...)

More publicity on the big wide world wide web

Check out http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=14323

or maybe you'd prefer
http://www.newburybusinesstoday.co.uk/news/business/929/nbt-hits-the-road-for-a-good-cause

Thanks also to our latest sponsor, Geoff Fletcher.

TGI Friday

Many thanks go to our latest sponsors: Cordell Ray, Nick Eyles, Bob Manley, Colin Bridgman, Simon, Lynne Trenery, Simon, and last but not least, Pat Perry, Suzanne Murphy and Mia, aka 'The Ladies In Accounts'.
Currently working on a plan to get the bike liveried up 'on the hoof' with the national flags of all the countries we'll be going through. After the World Cup debacle, I'm told England decals are now half price, but you have to buy them in a plain brown envelope...

Newbury Business Today

From the website Newbury Business Today - check this out!
http://www.newburybusinesstoday.co.uk/news/business/929/nbt-hits-the-road-for-a-good-cause

Gloucestershire Echo

Coverage from today's Gloucestershire Echo.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Biker-rides-memory-mother/article-2544137-detail/article.html

The word spreads

Those of you in the Cheltenham area may like to check out tomorrow's edition of the Gloucestershire Echo (Thursday, August 19) - they've promised to run an article about us on their Charlton Kings district page. It's a good piece, I know - I wrote it! (Their assistant news editor  was impressed by the 'pitch perfect' copy. I ought to do it for a living!)
It will also be in the Newbury Weekly News this week as well, also published on August 19.
Less supportive was a certain ferry operator, whose name sounds uncannily like a brand of incontinence pad. Having initially failed to respond to my messages, asking only for any support they could offer, they finally came back a week after we had booked our crossings. We could have a free crossing, they said, but we'd have to cancel our existing booking. For which there would be no refund. So not really free then. At all.
But no matter, the support that matters comes from the good people who have sponsored us, so, since the last update, big thanks go to: Cheryl Evans, Carole and Claudio, Christine and David, Claire Alderton, Sarah, Jane and Ray, Jackie Markham, Pam Webb, John, Clare and Alex, and Brie, Mike and William Beharrell.
Keep watching this space...

Improving the bike's sat-nav system

I was worried about the robustness of our sat-nav system, so I looked for something a bit less sophisticated. I came up with this - I think you'll agree it's rather clever.

The Sunday Supplement

A little jaunt of 130 miles yesterday over to the Forest of Dean, to a) get our rear ends hardened up, and b) test our kit. Oh, and c) for Clare to get me my birthday present at the Heine Gericke motorcycle accessories shop in Cheltenham.
So what have we learned? That as far as we can tell, our kit is fairly waterproof (for the first time ever I was willing it to rain. It didn't let us down, even on the flooded road through Marcham.) That the sat nav works quite well. That base layers, the new big thing, are brilliant as they stop you getting all sweaty under your heavy bike kit (yuk!). And that we're hardier than we thought, as we're not too stiff today.
Big thanks go to our latest sponsors Gary Cleland, Tanya Haji, Carole O'Connor, and of course to Clare for sponsoring me!

Birthdays

It's Richard's birthday today!   So what are we doing?  Are we going out for a nice meal? A film perhaps? Oh no, we're going to celebrate by pulling on masses of layers, braving the rain and heading off to Cheltenham so we can get a bit more practice in - deep joy!  Richard says my leaning is OK but I still feel a bit rusty as I only reclaimed my place on the pillion after an absence of two years (post accident) a couple of weeks ago.  It was harder than I thought getting on and off the bike now that there's a topbox on it so we're practising this technique where R leans the bike over and I can get off it without bringing the whole bike down on his ankle again. I'm overwhelmed by so many people's generosity from my friend Al, to R's friends at work, to Penny, Harold and, of course, Russell (R's Dad).  As everyone knows, the first birthday without a loved one is never easy.   So inbetween wrapping paper, and phone calls, and a sip of prosecco later, we raise a glass to you dear Kath. Clare

Friday the 13th 'Thank-you spot'

Wow! Only a couple of days since we launched, and already the sponsors are coming forward on Virgin Giving. So, Friday thank-yous to Harry Campbell, Helen White, Rachel Horner, the very generous anonymous donor (thank you, whoever you are!), David Hatton, Carol James and Julian May.
Thanks also to Maureen Rouse, the receptionist at the NWN, whose computer went into meltdown when she tried to donate online, so very kindly thrust hard cash in my hand as I went up the stairs! We take cash, cheques, anything really as long as it's legal tender. (Does anyone else miss the Eurocheque? What a shame they phased those out!)
We'll add more sponsors as they come in, (hint hint!)
Thanks also to Keith Burr at Recognition Express Newbury. Keith has agreed to print two rather natty high-vis jackets with the Beating Bowel logo and our website address, to wear on the trip. Most companies have a minimum order limit of 25, so not only is it great that he can do just two, but he's not charging for the printing! (Look, if Ewan and Charley can have bespoke kit, so can we!)
Fitted an anti-glare screen to the sat-nav, which seems to work well. A dull fact, I know, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

A sponsor!

We've had our first sponsor - thanks Jools! Fellow veteran of the Beating Bowel Cancer parachute jump!
Now all we need is a few more...

Preparing

First preparation
We've just done our first bit of preparation - we've watched Long Way Round on DVD, back to back. Not many bears in County Wexford...
Actually we've spent the whole weekend preparing, starting with yesterday, when we rode down to Newbury so that Phil Cannings could take the rather wonderful picture of us with the bike at the top of the page - thanks for that Phil!

Time to blog..

The bike is ready, the sat nav is set and now it feels real!   One problem, I can hardly get on and off the bike - it's too big.  Here follow thirty days of practising!! Clare