UK Mainland Team. Russ’ pre ride Diary

Ireland Team :

Mike:

Hi all;

9th April 2010

This is taking a long time to sort, more than I expected. To date I have been sorting routes and talking to celebrities and their agents trying to raise support for the project.

For the past two full days I have been emailing hotels & B&B’s at our overnight stopovers, Russ is trying to encourage me to camp, to old and set in my ways chum, I like my comfort. By enlarge the response from Ireland accommodations has been positive, I didn’t expect anything less, but due to this time of year being the height of the tourist season I have only 2 more nights to sort.

Russ is very encouraging and extremely excited about this trip, as am I.

I have still a lot of things to do on my very long list, so watch this space!

16th April 2010

Joe coming up for our 1st proper meeting.
All importants are awaiting; notepad, pencil, Budwieser and lots of it.

All accomodation for Ireland now confirmed, and a big thank you to you all.
Fine tuning the route and start media launch.

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1st May 2010

The clock is ticking:

I decided on stripping my bike down and rewiring in my “hard wired” comms system. I have found this system extremely useful in past European tours. It will be bike to bike with a number of other useful bits.

I remember one such European tour, in Switzerland flying through the Alps heading to our hotel, my friend Paul was racing ahead of me on his BMW RS1200 Sport Tourer, (& this boy can handle a bike), we were both 2 up and hadn’t seen any traffic for miles, I became a little complacent and was taking corners at a ridiculous angle, on the approach to a bend Paul came over the comms system telling me of an accident around a bend, this gave me the precious seconds I needed to wise up and slow down. If it wasn’t for this, I would have been straight into an 18 wheeler. With the system I am using we can take the walkie-talkie’s out and use hand held; this was useful when we had become seperated in Paris during the final day of the Tour-De-France, got lost and couldnt find our bikes or each other, so many people.

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1st June 2010

Got a parcel in the post from Russ with lots of goodies from sponsors, THANK YOU SPONSORS.

I have been in touch with all the local media and we have been getting some good coverage. TV, Radio & Papers.

Been in touch with Linda Keating, Ronan is still very busy but we are hopeful of his involvment.

Been in touch with many bike clubs in Ireland, North & South, looking good for a big send off and a bigger return. We are even expecting a few hundred scooters on the 1st day, courtesy of “The Moving Targets” scooter club from Bangor, run by my old friend  Robert “Wobble”.

Still awaiting with baited breath to see if Joe got his new bike, he had probs with his Pan European.

Adapted mobile phone holder for my phone/sat-nav and fitted to bike, looks ok and working well, pictures to follow.

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1st July 2010

Getting closer.

Joe has informed me he has received his new bike, phew; I am feeling pretty guilty as he sold his beautiful BMW car to finance this bike and this trip, he has just became a father recently to a beautiful baby boy. Last thing he needed now was all this expense. Good on Ye Joe.

10/07/2010

Bike now cleaned and polished for the trip, oops just exhausts to polish up, don’t know why, probably gona piss down on us, negative vibes here.

Long Way Home 2010 decals starting to go on.

Starting to think about packing now.

All this is very difficult as i am short staffed at work, the preps for my daughters wedding and the demands of our centre (world of Owls) and house work, as my wife is getting hit with crazy hours at work, she’s a nurse.

DVD cam corder has arrived for documenting the trip, courtesy of my father, although he doesn’t know I have borrowed it, lol.

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