Thought I'd do a proper ride report for this as it was such good fun and may provide some entertainment for those that sponsored me and may encourage a few more...
Day 1 , Adventure time:
Alarm goes off at 4:30 am it's trying to snow and there is a fair amount of wind. I sneak around trying not to wake the wife or my daughter whislt pulling on thermals.
I've got 275 miles to do to get to the Y Giler Arms in North Wales from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
Whilst having a black coffee and some cereal I text my wingman Kerry who I'm planning to meet in Dartford. He's not the most reliable when it comes to an early start so I've told him to meet me at 6 with the expectation he'll be there about 6:30.
The bike was already packed apart from a few essentials a check of the list and double check the tickets were in my wallet I was ready for the off.
Bike rolled out onto the drive ,phone plugged in with Google maps, bottle of water on handle bars (with sippy cap so I can flip up helmet and drink at lights) keys in, ignition on, switch on the led spotlight so I can actually see and pull the cable tie that's attached to the choke on the carb and it starts first kick , brilliant adventure time
Nearly forgot , photo of my start miles:
As mentioned I live on an island the bridge to get off is fairly high and with the wind, sleet and it still being pitch black made the first few miles interesting.
All part of the adventure, straight onto the m2 and to Dartford, by now I'm getting used to the weight of the luggage versus the wind and the buffeting from the trucks passing also worth noting that although the thermometer on the handlebars was reading 2 degrees with all my layers and cheap thermal jacket I was warm and dry.
Made Dartford for 6:15 and headed into McDonald's to get a black coffee - it's about the only thing I'll consume in one.
Kerry arrives at 6:45 and I give his bike a look over. It's a Varedo 125 he brought it 2 days before the trip and 'borrowed' some cable ties shoved all his gear in a rucksack and then strapped it to the seat. It's been dropped he's not checked anything but it's running and is probably in better condition than the Bandit he brought last year and at least the two are a bit more matched.
He has breakfast as the sun comes up and we kit up and head for the crossing. It's still chucking it down and luckily the traffic is moving at slow pace so the 50mph we are doing isn't causing people to act too stupid.
Things cheer up a bit by the time we are on the M1 it's fully daylight and it's stopped raining , I'm counting down the miles until the A5 as the plan is to get the motorways done before our first stop. Note Kerry's "feet condoms"
More black coffee in another McDonald's and a pasty in the farm shop opposite before we shed a few layers fuel up and carry on up the A5. It was a fairly uneventful ride up apart from randomly meeting someone from Sheppey at one of the services , we stopped around every 80 - 100 miles for coffee , food and petrol and arrived at the Bruce Pollard rally around 5pm.
Information on Bruce Pollard (interesting gent):
http://www.realclassic.co.uk/opinionfil ... llard.html
By the time we'd sorted out the tents and chatted to people snapped a few photos etc it was dark so we headed to the pub and had a pie and a pint.
We were both feeling a bit knackered and Kerry was fighting off the last of his man flu so after 3 pints we called it a night and went back to the tents.
It was a lovely clear night with a beautiful starry sky and all the tents were sparking with frost, I checked the thermometer before calling it a night - 1.4 !