Andorra

by KeithroutePosted on 2 Comments

We have left Toulouse and are now in Andorra but before moving on many thanks must go to Ann Claire and her Mother for having us and being such great hosts. Thanks also to Vince, Elodie and François for a great dinner and an excellent evening. Elodie and Vince you guys must make London when I get back! I owe ya loads.

While in Toulouse I also had my Scotts steering damper fitted by the folks at KM Racing. This should keep me upright a bit more when off-road. Thanks go to Arnaud and Francois. Great guys!

In Andorra there´s snow on the slopes and as luck would have it heavy snow is wildly falling down. This is the second time I´ve been boarding with Jeremy and last time the weather took exactly the same turn. What can I say? he´s got his faults but the man´s a lucky talisman when it comes to snow. We´ve kitted out with two Burton twin-tipped free-style boards. Jeremy is riding a 164 and I´m on a slightly smaller 159. Mine should be good for a bit a messin around.

Fallen bike score now stands at Keith 6 Jeremy 2.

The beginning

by KeithroutePosted on 2 Comments

The first two days have flashed by and we are now in Toulouse. While here we’re going to take two days out to spend time with friends before hitting Andorra for a few days of boarding.

The beginning has been fun but not without its own dramas. Thus far Jeremy, while filtering, was T-Boned by a modped rider in London (what a great start). Thankfully both riders and bikes survived intact and without insult or injury.

I ran out of fuel not once but twice. My carb is leaking again and my bike’s fuel indicator is broken meaning I don’t receive any indication that I’m running low or empty. Embarrassingly I called the AA as I didn’t think it was a fuel problem. The AA guy just flipped my reserve switch! I looked and felt so silly. The only indication I get is my bike completely loses its power while I’m riding. This is not a great feeling when you’re on the speed lane of a motorway or on Paris’ peripherique, there is no breakdown lane. On both occasions Jeremy was on front which resulted in us losing each other and a lot of long and drawn out faffing around in order to find each other again.

We’ve now come 1100 kilometers down. That’s half of the European leg! Yipeee! We’ve decided we’ll take the east coast of Spain down to Gibralter as opposed to going around the north and west coasts of Spain and then on through Portugal.

Along the way we’ve met quite a few really cool people. A total stranger pulled up on the motorway to see if I needed any help. He was also a biker. The guy, Joe, waited around chatting with me until I was totally sorted out. We also had an old French man and his wife who helped me pick up my bike after it had fallen. Again not once but twice. I don’t believe in ones. The current fallen bike score is Keith 4 Jeremy 2.

setting off

setting off twoFrench dude from story above

On the eve of our departure

by JeremypreparationPosted on 2 Comments

You know the feeling – you just left the house to catch a train or a flight and you have that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something back at home! Well I’m about to embark on the biggest trip of my life and I feel completely nervous thinking about what Keith and I are about to embark on. It’s one thing to have a dream but it really is another thing to actually act on it! I feel like I’m now falling into a new more dangerous category, as you can see from one of my favourite quotes:

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.” – T. E. Lawrence

Well we have read the books, watched the dvds, bought the bikes, packed up our lives, sorted a million and one things, spent way too much money on kit, had the leaving party and now tomorrow Keith and I will be making our departure from this cold and wintry country and start heading south! I wish I could say that I feel we are ready, but I would just be kidding myself! I’ve only just completed the last few bits and pieces on my bike today and Keith’s didn’t even start this evening! (He had left his heated grips on and the battery was flat!) So there’s going to be a mad panic tomorrow morning as we sort out the last few things on our lists before we head off.

We have cut it fine, but I guess for there is only so much you can do for a trip like this and then you just have to go for it! I’m sure that as we go along we will find out a lot more about ourselves, each other, the bikes and the world, what an adventure! Still you guys who are reading this are all our great friends and I would love it if you did even one small thing to step out of yourself this coming week as an act of solidarity with us, act on a dream or start training for that marathon you always said you would do, be a dreamer of the day!

I’ve uploaded some pictures taken at our leaving party in London, however the camera came out a bit late so not everyone who came was captured.

  • Leaving London Party
Leaving London Party
Leaving London Party

Our leaving cocktail party in London, the camera came out a bit late though so I'm sorry if you don't see yourself in the pics.

17 Photos

On the admin side of things I’ve updated the sponsorship pages with details of how to sponsor Dignity, one of the projects we are raising money for, however charity: water still haven’t been able to get registered with JustGiving so as soon as they have that I will start pushing the sponsorship side of things a whole lot more!

Heavy Vibrations!

by Jeremybike, preparationPosted on One Comment

The KTM 640 Adventure has a 625 cc single cylinder engine, what this means in the real world is that it has huge amounts of low down torque and it vibrates everything to bits. No wonder these bikes area called big thumpers! The bike is really capable off road and on the dirt tracks that we will be facing in Africa, however the vibrations have a few disadvantages!

Last Saturday I went down to Bristol and back on the bike to see friends and get some stuff, on the way back I noticed that when the engine was at a certain amount of revs there was an almighty rattle and vibration in the whole bike coming from the bottom of the engine.

When I stopped to take a look I noticed that my rally bash plate was really loose and on closer inspection it seemed that the four screws that hold it in place under the engine had all come loose and fallen out! There were only two bolts on the front holding it on and the vibes had actually broken the bracket that these bolts were attached to!

img_1824.jpg
The bracket that was broken.

Thankfully it held together the last few miles back, I just made sure I didn’t site anywhere near 3000 RPM!

For those of you that don’t know, the bash plate is there to protect the bike and engine from any bangs from underneath, mine is a rally bash plate which means it has two built in tool boxes on either side for handy access and to keep weight low down. I don’t think mine will be doing much protecting till I get it all fixed up though!

The pictures below show the bike with the bash plate on and then the engine without the bash plate as it is now while I wait for a new bracket from Germany!

Jeremy KTM Front Sideimg_1825.jpgimg_1826.jpg

Last day of work!

by JeremyUncategorizedPosted on One Comment

So Friday was our last day of work, a bitter sweet thing for us both I think as we had worked pretty hard on the project and there was a great bunch of people that we were leaving behind. Still it was also great to be walking out the door knowing that in less than a month we will be on the road to Cape Town… and then who knows what adventures will happen.

For a bit of fun I’ve included parts of my leaving email and some of the funny responses I got from the office after the jump below. Enjoy the laughs at my expense!

Read more “Last day of work!”