1st Stage Target

Big Thanks

I would like to thank every one who has donated to our fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy Campagain so far, and if you haven't then why not??

Yesterday evening thanks to a very generous off line donation from Liz's mum, Madeline Momtazi we reached and passed our Target of £1000. however no point resting on our laurels we want £2000, this will fund staff with specialist knowledge of muscle disease - including occupational therapy, support and expert medical advice at one of the Muscular Dsytrophy Campaigns specialist centre for on week or  66 hours of research into treatments for Muscle disease.

I guess now I will have to have that bright Orange Mo hawk that I promised I would if we reached target before we set off.

So donate now on my Just Giving Page

Even More Thanks

As friday's departure day draws near i would like to thank some of the many organisations and people who have helped me get this far and ready to go.

Kickstart Motorcycle Training

Kickstart were the training provider who got me originally through my bike license, I would recomend them to anyone wishing to take their motorcycle license.

Since passing my test I have now become friends with some of the instuctors and back in October 2009 it was with Kickstart and a "Club Run" that I went on my first organised Dirt bike ride.

KL Motorsport

KL Motorsport have been a great supplier of Parts for MT's over the 2 years i have owned my bike. Steve (the company director) is a top bloke and has always been helpful on the end of the phone.

KL motorsport is always my first choice for MT parts and they ar almost always delivered next day.

Zen Overland

 Zen overland is run by a friend of mine who i met through Horizons unlimited (see below). Gabriel has been very useful in terms of emergency parts and extra kit for this trip. Suppliing much of my upgrades and additions. (I highly recomend the ridgid industries spotlights he sells). Helping me Pirate, and Paul in diffent ways to prep for this trip he has been indispensable as a font of knowledge.

The MT Riders Club

 

The MT Riders Club is the essential members club for anyone with or thinking about geting an MT it is estential to be a member of this club. Me an Pirate met through this owners club.

Horizons Unlimited

Horizons unlimited is the number one information source for would be motorcycle travellers and and overland expeditions, it was through this forum I met Geoff and Paul.

So now back to the process of packing and preping for our adventure!!

The Bikes

Well 2 weeks to depature now, It's getting close now so it's time to do some final fundraising and get packed and ready. I thought I'd write a little about the bikes that are coming on the trip.

My Harley Davidson MT 350e

The MT350e was a development of it's predecessor (the  Armstrong MT500). It was built in america by Harley Davidson unlike the predecessor which was built by CCM Armstrong.

It was never available to civilians to buy from new, however since 2000, they have been available for the public to aquire from milatry disposal agencies such as withams- sv.

My MT350e was aquired from ebay locally it had been bought from Withams by a local farmer to ride around the farm, but the height of the bike was prohibitive for him, so he sold it on. I had to road register it on purchase, as it hadn't been registered since leaving the milatry.

This MT350e is a great all terrain machine - it was built to be durable and withstand hostile enivorments. For an enduro machine it is very confortable on the road.

More information about the MT350e can be found here or at The MT Riders Club, Both pirate and I are members of this great owners club.

Pirate's MT500e

Pirate's Mt500e is a converted MT350e with a larger 500e engine. Pirate aquired it from a mutual friend of ours who had done the conversion before Pirate bought it.

The 500e engine gives that little bit extra power on the road when required, but is esentially the same bike that the British Milatry had in service between 1993 and 2007. The US milatry used a version of the MT500e in service.

The photo (right) was taken by Stuart Raynor on location in north wales.

Geoff's BMW R1200GS

The R1200GS adventure was made famous by Ewan Mcgregor and Charley Boorman on their tour of Africa in 2006 - Long Way Down. Previously they had done a trip accross Europe, Kazakstan, Mongolia, Siberia, and North America - Long Way Round where they used the R1150GS, the predcessor to Geoffs bike.

This will be the most comfortable bike for the long road leg accross Europe but once the tarmac runs out the weight of the R1200GS will count aganist him.

Geoff is a professional camera man and runs a his own company Moving Art. Geoffs bike is loaded with loads of cameras and will film some of our exploits on the road.

To find out more about the BMW R1200GS adventure go to BMW's website.

Paul's Honda XR650 Enduro
Paul was riding the BMW F650GS Dakar until he came for a ride with me and a mutual friend Gabriel Bolton. After riding Gabe's bike on the Fosse way he decided that for an adventure the XR650 was a much more all terrain machine.

Gabriel had been on a round the world trip with his bike and his partner was selling her bike, which Paul managed to buy. Soon after the purchase we went out for a ride in the Mendips in the video is on the right.

The XR650 is a lightweight enduro bike with Honda's 4 valve air cooled engine, more info on the bike can be seen here.

It's worth noting that Paul is a big wimp and is cutting out some of the hard riding accross Europe by taking the Plymouth - Santander Ferry.

Only 2 weeks to go now it's going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

Planning Get Together

Well the 4 of us got  together today to talk about the route and paperwork, we all brought our bikes that we are using for the trip to Bristol Harbour. We took a few photos and and a couple of video pieces talking about how excited we are for this once in a lifetime trip.

A quick reminder for you all to give me a donation at www.justgiving.com/FMFox we are raising money for The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign who do wonderful things for people suffering from degenerative muscle disorders.

During the course of today we got our temporary vehicle import documents filled in so we can get our bikes into Morocco and made sure we all had the correct insurance.

The route we are taking sees us leave Bristol on the 17th June (less than 4 Weeks away) and ride to Dover catching and early ferry the following morning. We then have 1800 miles in the next three days to get Algeciras In Spain. We meet Paul en route as the big wet pants is getting the Santander Ferry.

The next day we cross the straights of Gibraltar and enter Morocco at Tanger Med port.and then make our way down to Midelt. It gets hard from there with very little tarmac until we arrive in Marrakech 7 days later. Having crossed my personal goals of The Todra and Dades Gorge then heading south to the Sahara by Zagora.
 We stop in Ouarzazate to deliver a package to Peter at Bikers Home. Then  north to Marrakech crossing one of the Highest passes in the atlas. From Marrakech we'll make the long trip back to Bristol.

www.justgiving.com/FMFox

Finishing Touches

In 6 weeks time myself and my 3 fellow adventurers will be well on our way to Morocco hopefully having crossed the Spanish border and close to setting up camp near Valladolid.

So today I spent some time in my garage fitting the last few finishing touches to the Harley Davidson MT350 that I shall be riding for the trip. The upgrades that I have done for this trip include:

Removing the air box and fitting a K&N air filter

 Some replica MT 500 pannier frames

A large fuel tank from a Yamaha XT 500

A stage one tune on the carburettor and a new chain & spocket kit.

Last month a friend helped me change the clutch and do an oil change

I have intsalled some brilliant Ridgid Industry spot lights (available from www.zenoverland.com)

A front mudguard support and kreiga US 5 dry pack for carrying tools, an electrical socket for power for my GPS, communication units and cameras and

finally a scotoiler to reduce wear on the chain.

The scotoiler was difficult to fit as it e=involved removing the inlet manifold and the silicon sealant to the manifold is setting as I type.

It's worth noting that as much as this is going to be a fantatastic adventure. I am rasing money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campagin. This is a charity that is funding research for the treatment of muscular dystrophies and improves the quality of life for those that suffer from them too. This week research funded by this charity has made a significant breakthrough in the fight against this disease.
TThe story can be veiwed here

Please help me raise as much money as I can for this brilliant charity please visit my just giving page

The Challenge

I have set up this page to promote my adventure to Morocco in June 2011. I will be using this to post updates of our preparations and progress when our journey begins (where i can get a computer). A full trip report will also be posted here.

I hope to use this challenge to raise awareness and money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. It is a charity that both my wife Liz and I are very passionate about as she is a genetic carrier of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and has recently been diagnosed as a Manifesting Carrier of DMD. So please donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox

Here are some details about our challenge:

On the 17th June 2011 four of us (myself and 3 friends: Geoff, Paul and Simon) will leave the United Kingdom on dual sport motorbikes heading to the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert. We will have to endure long days in the saddle (covering 1800 miles in the first 3 days), searing heat (up to 50 degrees in the Moroccan summer) and most dangerous of all border customs.

Our journey of almost 6000 miles in 3 weeks begins in Bristol, from there we will ride to Dover before catching a ferry to Calais. From Calais we have 3 very long days (600 miles each day) to get to Algericas in the south of Spain. When we arrive in Spain we have a little time to carry out emergency repairs then we board the ferry in Morocco. We have allow a full day to get through the border.

From the border we continue south to the town of Midelt from where we cross the Atlas Mountains for the first time. Over the next 7 days we will ride 1000 miles dirt road and piste.

Experiencing the culture and hospitality of rural Morocco will be a once in lifetime experience.

Why the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign?

More than 70,000 people in the UK have muscle disease; it can affect anyone and conditions can be inherited or occur out of the blue where there is no family history. There are currently no cures for any of these conditions.

I am very lucky to be married to a very special lady, who is a genetic carrier of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and has recently been diagnosed as a Manifesting Carrier of DMD. This means that she has some of the symptoms of DMD in a much milder form than people suffering from the disease. The quality of life for a child with DMD is far from normal and they will have a short life expectancy.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Please visit http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox to donate.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.