I've done some riding around europe in my time but this guy is unreal!

Adventure-spec: off-road motorbike gear, UK, road touring, rally, rallye, RTW

He approached me around 6 months ago and asked me to help sponsor him. I'm paying for his fuel to help cut his costs so I have an interest in how things go, but even so its pretty impressive.

If you can spare 50p for 'Riders For Health' please sponsor him. Once you've ridden in Africa and seen how harsh life can be out there its great to see someone really trying to do something about it.

Ride Safe,

Dave

Yes, impressive.... but why oh why ? Burning up fuel on UK motorways just for the sake of it ? I don't get it...... At least go somewhere. However, he is clearly certifiably insane and he I guess he deserves some credit for that alone

__________________
Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

Sadly Mick has family commitments thats means he cant leave the country for even 1 day. For him this is the only way of riding the distances he loves and seeing remote parts of Scotland and Wales on a limited time budget.

Its all about doing what you can with what you have!

Dave

According to that site, its 5000 in 5 days.

While I personally have trouble understanding the point in doing such ´Ironbutt-rides´, if someone gets their kicks from doing them, then I dont mind, its their own business...

But if someone plans to ride 1600kms per day for 5 days in a row, I think he/she will be a danger to him/herself, as well as other people on the road.

The person must cover (in average) 66,667 kilometres EVERY HOUR of those 4 days in order to succeed. If you take into account that a human must have some rest and sleep every now and then, and must get something to eat/drink, that will also take several hours per day.

If we assume that he/she spends a mere 30minutes per day eating&drinking, and another 30 minutes to refuel the bike, including going to the toilet etc, and sleeps for only 3 hours total per day, then theres 20 hours left for riding.

AND, we all know that would mean one hell of a hurry in every gasoline station - and that 3 hours per day is definitely NOT enough sleep. Even so it would rise the demanded average speed to 80 kms per hour, every hour, for 5 days.

One can clearly see, that it will be impossible to do that thing safely. Good cause or not, but riding a motorcycle when you´re too tired (and whats more, deliberately doing so!) is not a good idea. Taking unnecessary risks never is.

I didn't do the maths, but seeing it put like that is a bit scary. Also, even if he gets 50mpg, thats 100 gallons of fuel - more than £500. And he won't be seeing much scenery keeping that pace up. Its not for me.... Hopefully he completes it safely - good luck.

__________________
Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

Life isnt always about doing the obvious thing, we could all stay at home wrapped up in cotton wool if we wanted. Risk is a sliding scale and all of us choose to accept some risk in our lives at some time, either for our own gratification or out of necessity.

What Mick is doing is the same as travellers everywhere, he is managing risk to ensure that he is as safe as he ever can be whilst trying to challenge himself. He also isnt doing this for fun, he has worked hard to raise sponsorship and awareness for his chosen charities. Without Mick I wouldnt have given money to either of his charities, thanks to Mick I have given him enough money to enable him to have a go at his dream and raise far more cash than I have given him in the first place.

For a managed risk that if done properly will more than likely end safely, people in Africa will now live a better quality of life, and we will probably even help stop suffering and save lives.

Surely this is what makes human beings great, having empathy with other people less fortunate than themsleves and being philanthropic enough to get of their arse and do something about it.

Mick is a very experienced long distance rider. He frequently rides more than 1000 miles in a day and has ridden over 1600 miles in a day before now. He is no speeding cowboy, in his last 17 years of riding he has had no accidents and takes great pride in the quality and safety of his riding ability.

I understand your points of view, we are all entitled to them, but having personally seen the suffering and poverty in parts of Africa for which a 50p drug could have provided a simple and quick cure I know that I'd be prepared to do the same if I thought I could help 10 or twenty villages of people stay healthy and well....Thats why I supported Mick attempt.

If you have 50p spare, please do the same.

Dave

I am not against what he´s doing it FOR, thats surely a good cause.

But I´ve done some long distance rides (while travelling) myself, and I know for a fact, that a human being cannot stay 100% alert, as required to operate a motorcycle, for 5 days non-stop. We are not robots.

Also when I was in the army, we did a voluntary experiment, what no sleep will do to you. Staying awake for 24 hours was ok for most people, but within 36 hours almost everyone was starting to have bad problems (there were tests of your concentration, etc, performed at regular intervals)... and after 48 hours the doctors decided to call it off, as people were talking some real weird things, and could not perform even the simplest of tasks, they were falling asleep while walking, or carrying things, etc.

Ok, sure it was a bit different, when we didnt get to sleep at all. But still, it may be possible to do 1 day, or maximum of 2 days non-stop riding (I mean do it safely) if the guy is really experienced in doing what he does. But 5 days, just forget about it, he will be a riding corpse - or if bad luck strikes, he might even be a real one. I think he´s putting others at risk as well.