Day 1 (minus 14) - Planning the Event

Well, the thing is, this wasn’t planned haha

Originally, I was going to drive to Hay-on-Wye to do some book shopping (I run an online Antique, Rare and Esoteric Book Shop www.booksthatexpandthemind.co.uk) and then it morphed into a bike ride to Isle of Wight, Somerset and then Hay-On-Wye and then it evolved into a Charity Ride incorporating Bike Nights, Biker Cafes and Biker Meeting Places. It’s been a while since I’ve done a trip of this scale, in the nineties I used to ride from Lancashire on my CB750K (US Import) all over the country and over to France going to gigs, biker rallies, and ride-outs and once a year doing a week long ride-about, usually going to Somerset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and back again - in those days I used to pack a tent, sleeping bag, tool roll and a few clothes. I would have no route planned, no campsites booked just ride and see where the road took me. Absolutely loved it.

I’m a bit older now (57) and in need of a few more home comforts, bed, warm shower, etc after a long(ish) ride. So I’m staying in a few AirB&B’s so I can rest between rides.

The planned route is shown below, but this may have a few tweaks and the actual route may suffer from my lack of GPS and going wherever I feel like it! lol

I’m pretty certain I’ll do over 1000 miles and will avoid motorways as much as I can. I hope to meet some of you wherever I end up.

I’ve got a new set of waterproof’s (the British Summer has been awful so far this year) and I’ve also got some lightweight security locks instead of taking my 4Kg Monster chain.

So, I’m already to go(?) , not quite but almost…..