Wrong Way Round

2008-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday. Drove to Cullompton, Devon, about 230 miles. Had a few spots of rain on the way. Had some trouble finding a campsite, and then the facilities left rather a lot to be desired.

Wednesday. Made it to St Ives and booked into an hotel! All four riders rode to Lands End together, a rather bleak place, and rode away again.

Thursday. Rode all the way home.

2008-05-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Monday. Drove to Porthmadog near the west coast of Wales, arriving about 1pm, and set up camp. Then all 4 bikers enjoyed a magnificent sight-seeing ride around Snowdonia. The weather is still being amazingly kind. The owner of the campsite, Robert, is a classic bike enthusiast and is very kindly letting the lads stay for free. Tomorrow they are heading for Bristol and the forecast is for the weather to break later in the week. By Wednesday night they aim to be staying in a hotel in southern Cornwall, so that all 4 can ride to Land's End together. By Thursday night they hope to be in Weymouth, and on Friday, after a visit to Sammy Miller's Bike Museum, they will make the final leg back to Eastbourne.

2008-05-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday. While we cooked here in the South East in temperatures of nearly 30 degrees, our adventurers soldiered on through torential rain. Leaving Carlisle, they managed to take a wrong turn which took them through miles of stunning mountain scenery, but returned them to where they started! It was an endurance test for the bikes too, negotiating a 50% gradient hill at one point. Having lost time, they opted for the M6 to by-pass Manchester and Liverpool and then slipped into North Wales. Camping at Llangollen tonight, and looking forward to riding through Snowdonia tomorrow.

2008-05-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hello again at last. So much for modern technology; Bill has be unable to update the blog via his laptop and dongle, so we must resort to the old fashioned method of phoning home so I can do it!
Since the last post, the lads have had a great ride. Bill forgot to mention that on Monday morning he was interviewed, by phone, on the BBC Radio Humber breakfast show, and they phoned him again later in the day for an update on the group's progress.

After leaving Frodingham in Yorkshire, they headed north through stunning scenery, bathed in glorious sunshine. Bill had a slight problem with his bike which turned out to be due to the accelerator cable touching a spark plug. 8 hours riding took them 200 miles where they camped 10 miles into Scotland, without any signs of habitation in sight.

Wednesday dawned yet another beautiful day. The night had been somewhat strange in that it didn't get completely dark but had been twilight all night. In the late afternoon they stopped and set up camp just 100 miles from John O'Groats.

Thursday, and guess what. More sunshine. But a cold wind. The 100 miles to John O'Groats was covered by 2pm. Celebratory photos were taken, and then a hotel found for hot baths all round.

Friday. A little overcast. Riding west over the highlands, they had imaged it would be quite desolate, but the scenery was still breath-taking. Heather covered moors, craggy hills, and Aberdeen Angus's watching these strange, noisy beasts disturb their serenity. They followed the A82 along the length of Loch Ness which was as still as a mill pond. Nessy was keeping a low profile. Ben Nevis was the target for the day, and they camped at the foot of it.

Saturday. Caught in a thunderstorm, but dispite some rain, made it the 200+ miles to Carlisle. Had some difficulty finding a campsite and were eventually, and very kindly, offered a field adjacent to Clea Hall Holiday Park, for free. A long day's riding, marking a week in the saddles, called for a beer at the site's clubhouse. To their suprise and delight, the landlord had organised a whip-round, and £44 was handed over for Children in Need. Thank you, Graham and Amanda and the people of Wigton, Cumbria!

2008-05-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hello again, well we had an amazing send off from the western lawns at Eastbourne, the Mayor Mary Pooley sent us off with a wave of our National flag the Union Jack and as we started engines and pulled away the crowd cheered and clapped as we rode off.

Our first stop was at Frank Mace's place in Diss approx 160miles and trouble free so far, Frank and Sandra made us very welcome by putting us up, fed and watered us and even made a donation then Frank rode a few miles with us the following morning.

We then made our way up country to Rob Andrews at Frodingham another 160 or so miles, who also gave us food and shelter for the night, it appears that we will have to wing it on Tuesday night and pitch up tents unless another offer of shelter finds its way to us.

To Be continued.....................

2008-05-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in bringing this blog up to date. It is now less than 48 hours before we set off. We will be leaving from the Western Lawns, Eastbourne, at 11.30am on Sunday 4th May. The Mayor, Mary Pooley, will be waving us off from the Magnificent Motors display. Hopefully, some local vintage and veteran bike riders will accompany us for the first few miles. Our destination for the first night is Diss in Norfolk. On Monday 5th we will be heading for Yorkshire. We have been invited to take part in a live radio interview at 8.15am on Monday with BBC radio Humber, who will also report on our progress later that day. We aim to update this blog every evening, and hopefully to include some photos of our progress. We are hoping to exceed £1000 in sponsorship and there is a list at the end of this blog of companies who have sponsored us. -We are especially grateful to Kit Print for making signs for our back-up vehicle and printing our tabards free of charge.

Anyone can send donations to us: please send cheques payable to 'the Wrong Way Round' to 144 Brodrick Road, Eastbourne, BN22 9RF.

List of sponsors:
Sussex Sharpening Services (01323 871008)
TPS Motorcycles Ltd (01323 488388)
Park Motorcycles (01323 502187)
Fort Lane Garage (01323 727444)
Stuart Bray Motorcycles Ltd (http://www.stuart-braymotorcycles.co.uk/)
NP Veteran Engineering (01435 813811)
Kit Print (http://www.kitprint.co.uk/)

2008-02-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hello again, Have now managed to upload pictures and here is some info on the bikes we will be riding.

My self ( Bill ) Will be riding a 1937 BSA M21 600cc Hand gear change.

Ken is riding a 1940s BSA M20 500cc

Dave is riding a 1930 Norton / Jap 780cc Vee Twin also hand gear change

John is riding a 1940 Norton 500cc 16H.

Details to follow shortly on where to send your donations,

Wrong Way Round

2008-01-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to my Blog. My name is Bill and this is my first attempt at a Blog. This is to announce a charity bike run in aid of Children in Need, by four classic bike enthusiasts on four pre-war bikes. We will be travelling around the UK , in an anti-clockwise direction more or less following the coastline north to John O'Groats, then west and then heading south to Lands End and back to Eastbourne. Hence the name 'The Wrong Way Round'. The event begins on the 4th May when we will be starting from the Western Lawns, Eastbourne, East Sussex at 11am. We are endebted to the Sunbeam Motorcycle Club (of which we are all members) who are giving us full support with maps, tabards, advice, publicity etc. They are contacting the local radio stations and classic bike magazines to try and get some media coverage. All are welcome to come and view the start, and any bikers (especially classic bikers) are welcome to come along and support us and ride part of the way with us. We are financing this trip entirely from our own pockets and all money received from sponsers/donations etc. will go to the charity. More information will follow, as it is gathered. Pictures will begin to be posted early next week. If anybody living near the coast in the UK could offer a large garden or field for us to camp in along the way, it would be greatly appreciated.