Riding for charity!

We did it! On 16th September 2019, Philip and I, we rode an SS1000 for the Veritable Poppy Project. The aim of the project is and was to install a ceramic poppy at every war grave in the Municipality of Gennep. This project is run by Bianca, my better half! We did it, by the end of October they were all sponsored, thank you all who supported this great cause! 

As you might know, I have a special interest in the 2nd World War. This by trying to understand what happened near my hometown Gennep. I like to know who are buried here, help the families left behind and spread the information. But also I like to understand the bigger picture on why it happened and what the impact of the war was and is.

Going to ride the Gentlemens Ride requires some preparation, at least for me… 😊. First, since I ride my Street Triple a fair bit, I needed a new front tyre. For some reason, the rear tyre seems to last longer. And yes I am a careful rider. Where else to change this than at Brabant Motors. https://brabantmotors.nl/

It’s that time of year again. The Gentlemen’s ride of 30th September is coming. And as last year I am going to take part.

Sunday morning at Squires Cafe, Yorkshire, I am having an old fashioned instant coffee at the café and thinking about the weekend I had.

After some great events, the Remembrance Run and the Opening of the new workshop of Brabant Motors, you gave me quite some  money to be donated to the Donna Louise Childrens Hospice. Yesterday, 11-June, was the day I passes on that money to the initiator of the 50/50 challenge, John Young.

Whilst riding in Britain and doing a lot a the challenges here I realised the words of John Young. The challenge is more than just raising money. I went to places I usually would never visit. Who would go to the Industrial Estate of Small Heath to experience the downfall of British industry? Or visit the lovely Braunston Marina? In former visits I never really rode around the Birmingham area. On the Michelin maps there were no green roads, it had no hill, let alone mountains. But it was really great to ride around the canals, the marinas, and riding the twisty roads. Realising that these roads could have been used to test ride all those famous bikes.

Like in an earlier blog I wrote about crossing boundaries and borders to get ready physically.

The one challenge of the 50 I longed for to fulfill was the challenge for the SS1000, the 1000 miles in 24 hours. Also, there were others that would make into nice tours, day or weekend trips. The point was looking over my shoulder was getting harder, and my arms were getting heavy after 8 hours of riding.  Is it safe to ride those long distances and hours? I thought I was getting too old for those rides.

Na een succesvolle Remembrance Run op 5 mei waarbij ook het oranje varkentje weer rijkelijk bedeeld is, gaat hij binnenkort weer op tour. Op 19 mei viert Brabant Motors de uitbreiding van hun mooie winkel. En het oranje varkentje is er dan ook weer.

One of the challenges of the 50/50 challenge is to ride a SS1000. A Saddle Sore 1000 is a challenge to ride 1000 miles (= 1600 km) within 24 hours. That is some challenge. I am used to ride long distances but 1600 km in one go is quite something. There is one great SS1000 to go for and that is the RBLR1000 in June in the UK. This is a charity run to raise money for the Royal British Legion, a charity that takes care of ex-servicemen in the UK. So that will be a charity run within a charity challenge.

One of the challenges is to ride 50 50 miles dayrides. In practice for me this is just to think about taking photos at the start of the ride and at the end. Thinking about it, I am used to just riding a big ride around the block, but it has become more. Usually I have a goal when I do so. Simple goals like taking photos of war cemeteries, go to work, visit a bike rally. But now it is also for the infamous Challenge 5E. (and getting an expert in taking photos of cockpits.....)