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, 7 July 2010

A new bike, now I need the new License.

A few days ago I finally came into possession of a 16 year old Honda RVF 400, the 3rd love of my life. The fact that this object is, in fact, not human, and I don't have the license to ride it yet doesn't dissuade my use of the word "love".
The little Honda 400s are one of the very few bikes that I like every aspect of. Usually theres something I can pick out about a bike that I don't like the look of, but with the RVF I love everything; the fox-eye lights, the small but strong and racy looking body, the retro styling of the tail. The only thing wrong with this bike is me.
Having spent the money to buy the bike, I'm now trying to wait a while before going for my lessons and tests. This of course means theres a bike sitting in a garage being neglected while the Summer whiles away. Oh well. I've got the bike now, at least I've got that part out of the way. Thing is, I don't want to get rid of this bike in a year's time when we got to Chernobyl. I wonder how my skeleton feels about going across Europe on a sporty little 400.
Posted by Teggert at 19:31

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