Reading back through all the posts in this blog brings back so many memories, I’m really glad we did it. I mean, for me personally I look back fondly on that 2,500 mile ride on a gorgeous Harley Davidson that had been lent to me, fulfiling more than one ambition in those nine days.

We did this trip to raise money for The Salvation Army in Boston and Macmillan Cancer Support in Lincolnshire, two causes which are very worthwhile.

And now I can reveal the final total we raised…

£2317.66

That’s a massive £1158.83 to each charity.

Wow!

Page 4 in Lincolnshire Life, August 2009

On behalf of Allister, Bradley, Graham, Rick and myself I would like to say thank you VERY much to everyone who helped us reach this amazing total. You really helped make this trip of a lifetime more than just a journey.

Zoe

Thank you so very much to everyone who has sponsored us for this motorbike trip.  We raised £867.30 via the website and the offline donations are still coming in. The overall total currently stands at £1745.30 which is just amazing, and we know of one or two more donations still to come… watch this space for the final total in the next few days!

We have been raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support in Lincolnshire and The Salvation Army in Boston.  Each charity will benefit from half the money we have raised.

The bikes in the Dales

So, if you haven’t already sponsored our Charity motorbike ride and would like to, please visit www.justgiving.co.uk/biketopdown now to make a donation!

We are so pleased to have raised so much already but it would be great to get a few more pounds to give to Macmillan Cancer Support and The Salvation Army.

Thank you very much to those who have already donated.

Well, we’ve been back for a couple of weeks now, so I have had time to rest and recuperate and reflect on our Top Down trip.  Most of the memorable moments of the trip are either good roads, or bad weather.  I guess we had no control over the weather, but everyone helped us to get the best out of the trip with the planning of the routes.  Zoe did a great job of summarising our activities, but my abridged version would be something like this:

Day 1

The good: sunshine (pretty much) all the way

The bad: a lot of motorway miles

The ugly:  the traffic around Gateshead

Day 2

The good: curry in front of the open fire at the end of the day

The bad: a lot of miles in the rain

The ugly:  riding through thick fog and rain

Day 3

The good: riding through Glen Coe

The bad: rain just as we were coming into Falkirk (after a dry day)

The ugly: not being able to find our Travelodge

Day 4

The good: the great roads in the Lake District

The bad: realising I still had £80 in Scottish notes

The ugly: traffic around Carlisle

Day 5

The good: the view over Home Firth

The bad: the twisty road to get up the top of the hill overlooking Holme Firth

The ugly: sheep jumping out in front of the bikes

Day 6

The good: Taking in a bit of history around Uffington and Amesbury

The bad: missing out on Cheddar Gorge due to the horrible weather

The ugly:  heavy rain for the last hour AGAIN!

Day 7

The good: making it to Land’s End (in the sunshine!)

The bad: 1:4 hills on tight bends

The ugly: some of the worst weather I have ever ridden in

Day 8

The good: the wilderness of Dartmoor

The bad: cattle grids

The ugly: Graham’s bike deciding to stop on a busy dual carriageway

Day 9

The good: only 80 miles to go

The bad: only 80 miles to go

The ugly: Traffic on the M4/M25

All in all, it was a great trip.  It was very fulfilling personally, and it was amazing to see so much money rolling in while we were on the road.  Thank you everyone!

My personal highlights included riding through Glen Coe and the Lake District – good roads and fantastic scenery; the views on the east coast of Scotland, from Broadway Tower and above Holme Firth; meeting Liz at Glastonbury – we first met at the festival a year ago; making it through treacherous weather conditions – thick fog, driving rain and winds that threatened to blow us over the edge of bridges; everyone making it in one piece; helping to raise nearly £2,000.

Bradley and Liz at Land's End

Bradley in the Dales

What a great week!

We covered every type of road  from the great flowing bends in Scotland to the 1 in 4 tight bends in Devon.

My favourite was the early evening  ride on the third day through the ever changing countryside of Glen Coe.

The weather threw everything thing it could at us and we soon realised that the first spots of rain meant that we had to put our wet weather gear on.  The problem then was because it was waterproof it didn’t let any air in so you sweated quite a lot.  You finished up feeling damp from the inside!

We were very aware of the support from everybody at home and  for that we thank you.

To the rest of the gang thanks for putting up with an old fellow who really did enjoy himself.

Rick

Rick and Allister in the rain

Stopping for fuel

Rick and his BMW at Land's End

Article in the Boston Target 29th July 2009

This is Boston Report

You can view the report here: http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/boston/news/Bikers-long-way-round-charity/article-1202297-detail/article.html (or click on the screen shot above).

If you haven’t donated yet there is still time!  Click on the image below to visit our JustGiving page to sponsor us online.

Visit our Fundraising Page

Up until that point I was going to be sharing the riding with my husband, Allister, as we share a bike – a Suzuki SV650s.  He would ride some with me as pillion, and I would ride some with Allister going pillion on one of the other bikes (as I’m not strong enough to hold him on the back!).  But all that changed when Eddie from Lincoln Harley phoned me at work to say yes, they would lend me a bike! 

Lincoln Harley-Davidson

I had emailed them just a couple of days before to tell them about what we were doing.  I thought it was worth a try, but wasn’t expecting anything.  A couple of months before that I had written to some of the manufacturers but had either got a negative or no response.  But that was ok, as the trip was going to be great anyway.  Looking back now the fact that I had a bike to ride made it a whole lot better, the opportunity to ride such a bike over that distance through some of the best scenery I’ve ever ridden in was just amazing. 

I don’t think Lincoln Harley realised, but riding a Harley has been a dream of mine ever since I was very young.  When we lived in Devonport (Plymouth), my friend’s mum had a Harley that lived outside their house at the bottom of the road… all I knew at the time was it was purple and chrome and big and noisy and gorgeous and I wanted one!  So the very fact that I was being lent a Harley-Davidson made it even better than if I was being lent any other bike.

We picked the bike up the day before the trip.  Allister and I work in Lincoln so we took his bike so we could ride home together.  After filling in the necessary paperwork and being shown the indicators and dipstick we were away… and I was riding a Harley-Davidson for the first time ever.  The bike I was riding was a Sportster Nightster 1200cc, a lovely looking bike that sounded good and would be just perfect for this trip.

It would be fair to say that I was quite nervous to start with and it did take me a good few miles to get used to the riding position and style (it’s very different to the SV), but once I relaxed into it and understood how the bike rode I really enjoyed it.  I definitely got more used to the bike as the trip went on, and my confidence as a rider is now much improved.

Me and the Harley at John o'Groats

We certainly gave the Harley some challenges along the route to test it out and it really is an all-round bike.  It loves trundling along the highways, as you would expect coming from the land of the straight road, but we didn’t really do too much of that.  Thankfully it also loved the twisty A roads you find lots of in Scotland and England – coping very well as they got tighter and more frequent, especially on the east coast road from Wick to Inverness and the “Atlantic Highway” along the north coast of Devon and into Cornwall – or at least as well as the rider!  It even managed 1:4 climbs and descents.  It was exactly the right sort of bike to take across Glen Coe and was right at home over the hills of Dartmoor National Park… and it looked just the part in the sunshine on the sea front at Penzance.

One of the best things about this Sportster Nighster was the riding position.  I have recently had problems with my shoulders and neck, and there was absolutely no pressure in those areas at all.  I am also quite short and could get my boots down on the floor very comfortably, which makes a big difference to your confidence when riding (and stopping!).  The seat was excellent too… after over 2,000 miles in the saddle at least one of the other riders was complaining their seat was too hard, but not mine, I reckon I could have ridden double the distance before my behind started to hurt!

The Harley-Davidson Sportster Nightster, with our SV650s behind

It wouldn’t be fair to miss out a couple of niggles I had with the bike; this is a review after all.  I found that the clutch was a bit heavy.  With this being the only Harley I’ve ridden I’ve got no idea if this is to be expected, but it did make getting stuck in traffic through town centres even more of an annoyance than it would have been normally.  I also found that in first gear it ticked over at around 15mph which again made traffic jams a challenge.  Obviously the bike is designed for the open road and not for commuting through cities, and this didn’t cause any problem apart from when there was a jam.  However, I think it would have benefited from a lower first gear!

But those things aside I still enjoyed the bike.  I liked the way I was sat, the sound that it made, and the presence it had on the road.  I also appreciated features such as self cancelling indicators and an automatic alarm/immobiliser that was linked to the key fob.  Overall the bike performed very well and was an excellent tool for the job it was given.

I will be forever grateful to Lincoln Harley-Davidson for making this trip special and memorable for me personally as well as being a fantastic opportunity to raise money for two very worthwhile charities.  They helped me tick off two things of my “list of things to do”… completing the iconic John o’Groats to Land’s End journey AND riding a Harley-Davidson.  Thank you!!

The Harley in the sunshine

You can visit Lincoln Harley-Davidson on the web here.

I thought I would share a few photographs from the journey with you…

The five of us at Newcastle

At the Scottish Border

Which way is North?!

The bikes in the barn

The mist over the Scottish hills

At John o'Groats

Loch Ness... can you see the monster?!

Glen Coe

The Harley in the Dales

Ice cream - the fuel of bikers!

Exmoor in the rain

At Land's End

Land's End

The four bikes from Lincolnshire made it home

At the moment the total raised stands in excess of £1,600 which is absolutely brilliant.  But we haven’t finished raising money yet… if you would like to sponsor us for this trip there is still time.  Visit our JustGiving page to donate online, or contact us to donate in a different way.

Visit our Fundraising Page

 

 

 

It took us just over four hours to finish the journey which was pretty dull motorway riding with a bit of rain thrown in, but quick. Bradley went straight home from Reading (he lives in Kent) but the rest of us rode north together, stopping at the services in Sleaford for a photo before going our different ways in Lincolnshire.

Thanks to whoever it was who decorated the front of our house! It was definitely a surprise!

Today’s route:

Reading (to Orpington for Bradley)
South Mimms
Peterborough
Ancaster
Sleaford/Spilsby/Boston

Total mileage: 2225

There will be more blog posts once I’ve sorted out the photos and remembered anything else we were going to share. But first there’s a small matter of a bath and rest to be had!

Today we started by exploring some more of Cornwall and Devon. We went from Roche where we were staying down to St Austell (about 7 miles south) before taking the scenic route through Liskeard and Tavistock.

The weather did threaten but we decided we didn’t want to miss the ride across Dartmoor so we took the road right across the National Park. This took us across cattle grids, over little stone bridges, up and down steep hills and through some stunning scenery. We rode slowly passed sheep, cows and ponies with foals. As we rode across the mist came down quickly over the hills making the TV mast disappear before our eyes – glad we weren’t out walking.

From there we still had 160 or so miles to go but it was main road all the way so quite quick. But it wasn’t without it’s issues… Allister and I lost the others then got stuck in traffic for an accident and watched the recovery trucks at work after filtering past a mile or two of cars; Graham’s bike had a funny turn and he had to fix it in a layby; we lost Bradley for a bit; and got soaked yet again. But eventually we got here, all of us, and have been able to eat and relax this evening.

Today’s route:

Roche
Victoria
St Austell
Liskeard
Tavistock
Dartmoor National Park
Lots of main roads past lots of towns!
Reading

Total mileage so far: 2056

So tomorrow we go home. I for one am ready for my own bath and bed but have had a really great time. The bike that Lincoln Harley-Davidson lent me has been really comfy and has coped with all the roads the route has thrown at it. It will need a very good wash before it goes back, and I will be sorry to hand over the keys!

Stay tuned for more posts and ‘proper’ photos to come, but this is the last ‘on the road’ entry. Thanks for all your messages of support, and for sponsoring us too. And of course it’s not too late to sponsor us if you haven’t… Go to www.justgiving.com/biketopdown to donate online.

Night!