Many people tour countries on their motorbikes. Some on a whim, or some as a planned break. We want our journey to have a deeper meaning than a simple sightseeing trip, or motorbike getaway. We feel the journey is a large undertaking, and should not be merely for our own desires to ride motorcycles, but it should serve others as well. Sharing an interest in the Chernobyl incident, we count ourselves lucky to be from the UK, both being born in the months before the disaster; those born in Pripyat would not have been so lucky. The site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster may not seem a first choice holiday destination. It is, however, a reminder of how we should learn from the mistakes of the past.

The deserted town of Pripyat stands as a solemn testament to not only man's destructive potent to life on earth, but also to the sacrifice people are capable of in order to save it. While the calamity at the Chernobyl Reactor number 4 claimed many lives, exposed hundreds of thousands to radiation, and left the surrounding area uninhabitable, the actions of the fire-fighters, reactor workers and liquidators who put themselves in danger prevented the situation from becoming far worse.

During the summer of 2011 to raise money for Unicef we are planning to ride a motorcycle each from Durham in the north east of England to Chernobyl, travelling through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland and finishing in the Ukraine.

We are hoping to get support from as many people as we can and start raising money towards the end of 2010. Readers of the blog can help by following us on the left, spreading the word and getting others to read and follow and donate if they want to.

Many thanks from the riders for everyone's support.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Big Earth, Sat Nav and the biking life

With the silly hours ive been in work the last week i have neglected the blog abit and ive decided i should update today. the first main thing is to give a huge shoutout to Big Earth and all the people there who gave us a massive shoutout the other day on twitter, thanks guys.
other things ive thought about this week are to do with sat nav for the trip but i will be keeping after the trip, as far as i can see its between a version of the tomtom rider or a version of the garmin zumo. i have found a site that sells a zumo 500 deluxe with an upgrade to east and west europe maps for a total of 269 quid, i know its a discontinued model but the price is fantastic, i have also heard very good reviews bout the zumo. the only thing that holds me back from getting it, other than having no money after having to renew my car insurance, is that the tomtom comes with a scala rider headset that i was talking about in a previous post, am i saving money by getting these things at the same time? does it have all the connections i want like the mp3 player connection? only time will tell.
i have also been thinking of places we would like to pass through on the trip but havnt yet found and route, if anyone has any ideas id love to hear.
my final thought is about something someone said to me the other day, someone asked me why i got all worked up about motorbikes and the whole motorbike lifestyle, i just talked about it being amazing and the total freedom of it all, to which i got a blank look, i asked if he had ever been on a bike before to which i got a no, i decided after a while of thinking about it that if youve never experienced bikes and riding and everything that goes with it then people would never understand, maybe im just thinking about it all too much, i just like bikes.
Posted by John Bailey at 22:30

1 comment:

  1. Highwaylass6/6/10 11:47 pm

    Hi John, There's a promotion at the moment where non-bikers can get a free one-hour "taste" of riding - it's called Get On. (I declare a small interest, I was working at MCI when it was set up but I'm not involved now). So if you're talking to non-bikers who would like to have a go, send them to www.geton.co.uk

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