They've gotta be R. Soles !

Ever since I moved back to London, I've always loved an extra cool shop on the Kings Road and some time ago bought a pair of their amazing boots.  The idea of taking a new pair with me on the trip - gorgeous, luxury, soft Mexican leather, beautifully crafted with unique designs seen on the international cat walks, has definately been on the list of "luxury" items to take but totally unrealistic.  But today I biked down there, talked about what I was going to do and said that the one pair of boots I want to take on the road trip is a pair of R.Soles.

Well unbelievably, Paul the R.Soles Manager couldn't have been more accommodating and agreed to "help" saying with a smile ...

"Great boots, great name, great fit for a great trip!" ...

and you know what ?  The exact ones I wanted, the Eagle inlay biker boots, were there for me in the right colour and size - unbelievable or made to be ?

These will be my bike boots for the trip ... wow !

And for a real trip, Gotta have a sponsor or two !

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to tie up a couple of really cool and prestigious supporters to the trip which makes me feel good. They definitely needed to be British to go with me and my bike! Even posted them and hot linked them to my homepage below!
Wanted to find a really new, cool, cutting edge designer which compliments the freedom of the trip. Oily Rag Clothing is a British company that loves the feel, ride, look and smell of old motorcycles. British bikes are their first love (which fits well with my Triumph Bonneville) but if its old and has an engine with oil in it then they still love it! Love the cafe racing and 50’s and 60’s shirt designs.
“Your trip will be fantastic, we were actually thinking of riding across the states this year too.!”, says David
So there you go, I’ll be wearing some cool t-shirts ... / www.oilyragclothing.com

Then amazingly, Dave from Triumph / Dave Lilley replies -
“Great to hear your trips a goer! We can certainly help/advise on basic maintenance & may be able to arrange for a tech to show you. Let me know when you are around”. (oh that will be chain obviously ha ha!) / www.jacklilley.com
Thank you.

p.s. and obviously I'm not saying no to any cool, boho jeans, boots etc. who want to travel with me !

Don't Stop Me Now

Thanks to my Dad, the ever adventurous one, and who gave me the bug to explore, I've pasted over the past few months on my kitchen wall old, old 1970's National Geographic maps (with my Michelin up to date road map) that he and I used to look at and dream about travelling somewhere "unknown".
Thanks to these maps I've discovered places not even mentioned in modern travel books which I'm going to find along the way. Like Okmulgee’s in Oklahoma Annual Pionner – Pow Wow and Rodeo event in July – is that politically correct or even still happening ?

Also this weekend started putting together my “visual” list of things to get and organize.
Finally got the French Shark helmet which has lots of ventilation, a safe good choice but also cool in matt black! Mustn't forget the essentials but the secret has gotta be to pack light ..

Mmm, the lodger handed her notice in on Friday so got to go through all the stuff of getting a new one as I still need that for the budget – it will happen ..

So much help at hand in that big world out there !

I have to say, that since the last posting, I’ve had some incredible feedback, help and support from friends and people I don’t even (yet) know. 

Out of the blue I was contacted by Chris at Jupiters Motorcycles in New York, who I’d contacted previously about sourcing a Bonnie but who also just happens to be one of the co-founders of the Ted Simon Foundation (Jupiters Travels) -  
http://jupiterstravellers.org  - “We believe that individuals of good will, moving among foreign cultures and making themselves vulnerable to the beliefs and customs of strangers, have great importance in promoting world understanding, and even more so when they can distill the essence of their experiences into a form that can be absorbed by many.
The books written by Ted Simon following his solo motorcycle journeys continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure.
The purpose of the Foundation is to encourage and assist travellers in making an extra effort to develop their observations and insights into something of value for the rest of the world to share, whatever their medium of expression might be. Our tendency will be to favour those who travel alone, since this removes barriers to communication …”     

This makes me feel I should continue the blog with this thought in mind.  I can definitely confirm that my travels and extraordinary experiences alone to places like Brazil, China. Kenya and Morocco were incredibly enriching to my soul and those I met.
I'm still seriously looking to take a GOPRO to film the trip.  And hey, my good friends, Seb and Cat, in Cornwall cooly said they'd love to offer it to me to be "part of the trip".  I was most flattered.  Thanks guys.                                                                                                 

Even better news (if I take the plunge) is that the new GOPRO Hero 2 Motorsports edition (although sold out in Europe) is getting a remote control combo kit which means it can be managed more easily as well as a new WI-FI which means the pictures can potentially be sent to the i-phone for immediate downloading.  Hey, who said I wasn’t a techie (not!).

And Margo from The Doctors Inn in Galax, the centre of bluegrass country music and famous for the Rex Theatre’ live radio shows emailed me saying -
  "How very exciting of your adventure here in the States!!  We have a garage that you can keep your bike in overnight if you like.  Yes, there will be music at the Rex that Friday night unless something changes and your bike will be the highlight of the "Cruisin & Groovin" event ... what fun!"
Yes, there's a special Car and Bike event that day in the little town of Galax in the Blue Ridge Mountains - better make sure I (and the bike) look presentable! :)  

Also, I was having real problems knowing how to figure out leaving Asheville from the Blue Ridge Parkway  and get to do the Tail of the Dragon route and Cherohola Skyway – I’ve looked at maps  to figure out but due to the stories I've heard of the dangers of driving Tail of the Dragon, I don’t mind not doing it all (the experience of doing just a bit of it will suffice me !) – I also need to get to Nashville that same day ... so I contacted Ron and Nancy from the Tail of the Dragon Store and hey this is what they said ...

“The Dragon is not that dangerous. Thousands ride it each week in the summer and have no problem. It would be a shame to come as far as you are and not do most of the 11 miles. You can cut it short by turning around at the Overlook (mile marker 8.8). The Overlook is a wide paved pull-off where many riders gather. This will expose you to the best of the Dragon.

Experienced, smart riders will have no problem on this road.
Coming from London you need to make the most of each mile!

Be sure to stop and say hello at our Tail of the Dragon Store at the Dragon. Look for the big tail.” Ron and Nancy www.tailofthedragon.com

Thank you everyone – it gives me even more courage even though I’m already having palpatations!

I’ve also started sourcing some of the special travel items I’ll be taking for the trip.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’m going to take and how it will be packed and carried on the bike.  I need durability, water resistance and something easily fittable on the back of the bike.  Now that I know I’m definitely going to have panniers fitted on the side the issue is the bag.  The original idea was to get a Ortlieb roll closing packsack but they seemed either too small or too big for the bike so finally got a 72 litre The North Face Base Camp bag.  In the sales so got it cheaper and of course black to match the bike!

Went over to the MCN Motorcycle Show yesterday and finally sourced the right straps for the bag – decided on the American Rokstraps “Strap It” adjustable which will be tough enough and can adjust to if the bag gets bigger with all those things I may be tempted to buy but probably will be dirty clothes!   Also Swiss brand Exped do Fold Dry Bags to keep gear waterproof or maybe I’ll just pack the dirty gear to contain the pong!                                                                                                                     And for practicality and bit of fun couldn’t resist buying some sexy microfibre underwear no seams more comfortable to ride www.microfibreboxers.com.

Also met up with Tim at the show from the Lost Adventure who’s helping me with the trip – paranoia set in again when he said the only real thing I should know to do is adjusting the chain! 

Oh my god, I don’t know why, but ever since I got the Bonneville that has been my paranoia!  Don’t know why – got all the spanners but the bike’s heavy to get on the middle stand – well got a few more months to practice!                                                                                                                                 As he cooly said, “don’t trust the Harley dealers over there to know about tightening a chain – they may find it difficult”  mmm – yes communication will be essential even if it’s just showing them the Bonneville’s handbook !  .....  

Winter blues (planning everything I still need to do for the trip!) have just disappeared !

Maps all over the floor this weekend, calculating the crazy distances of all the places along the route and still needing to budget for essentials like getting a new phone (mine went down the loo!) to take pictures and blog along the way and of course while I'm at it why not the new GoPro Hero 2 to film the trip .... keep on dreaming !

Steve McQueen, the true King of Cool and James Dean, Rebel without a Cause ...
Iconic heros of mine on their Triumphs ...  Winter blues have just disappeared ! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZw-wsCK5w

And yes, why the link? Well love the music, the cool dudes and I also took part in the 50th Triumph Bonneville Anniversary spectacle up at the Heritage Motor Museum in Warwickshire with friends - lots of fun ...

New Year Wishes – happiness, health, music and adventures

The trip will definitely have music and these 3 amazing American artists I’ve recently discovered will definitely be part of the mix tape/i-pod under the helmet ...

Aloe Blacc -  wow ... what a soul singer, rapper & musician from California 


and ....

Gregory Porter – Grammy award nominated jazz vocalist with blues, gospel and soul influences      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAC8UMMeSQo

Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three - From St. Louis, Missouri, their creative mix of early jazz, string ragtime, country blues and western swing rings  makes them among the most innovative of all the purists performing American roots music today. It’s wonderfully infectious, and all laid down in front of a big, big swingin’ beat.  Thanks Jools!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzmOZQdcYY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveLErNJvJE&feature=player_embedded

And adventures ... just read this amazing book of a trip across America in the 60's ....

"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch.  When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age.  In middle age I was assured that greater age could calm my fever.  Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship’s whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping.  The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of the stomach high up under the rib cage.                                                                                                                                          

In other words, I don’t improve; in further words, once a bum always a bum.  I fear the disease is incurable.  I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself.

When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going.  This to the practical bum is not difficult.  He has a built-in garden of reasons to choose from. 
Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination.  And last he must implement the journey.  How to go, what to take, how long to stay.  This  part of the process in invariable and immortal.  I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teen-agers in new-hatched sin, will not think they invented it.

Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process; a new factor enters and takes over.  A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys.  It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness.  A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.  And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. 
We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.  Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip.  Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-grass bum relax and go along with it.  Only then do the frustrations fall away.  In this a journey is like marriage.  The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it.”     John Steinbeck – Travels with Charley (not forgetting...The Grapes of Wrath / East of Eden - Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1962)