Sorry Andy, no, there isn't an evenings-only rate. Never has been and no plans to introduce one.

With just a week to go, I thought it was about time to post a reminder of all the great stuff there is to look forward to at the Ripley meeting.

For the complete list of presenters, the downloadable presentation schedule, plus general event info including how to register if you haven't already, see the main Ripley page here.

Presentations:

- We have nearly 50 presenters, a quarter of whom are presenting for the very first time.

- With only a few exceptions, ALL the presentations are brand new this year. They include an updated version of Dave Lomax's ever-popular "Underweight is Underprepared", Austin Vince's show-stopping Saturday night gig, and Ted Simon giving a new talk about his journeys around the world and the Foundation created in his name.

- All the presentations will start promptly on the hour. Most will last about 40 minutes, although there are a few double-sessions including Sjaak Lucassen, Scooters in the Sahara, Tim Cullis on GPS navigation and Morocco, and another brand new session from Austin Vince about how to film your adventures.

- Some of the sessions in the main "Africa" room are going to filmed (and streamed to the big screen in the marquee). If you want to attend a presentation, please avoid interrupting the presenter and any filming by getting to the room before the session starts.

- A favour please.... if you have questions for the presenters at the end of a session, please take them outside to the bar, the marquee or the "South America" room. This really helps the changeover from one presentation to the next.

- In the same way as the last two years, we'll be operating a strict one-way system in and out of both the "Africa" and "Asia" presentation rooms to make movement around the narrow corridors much easier. Please don't be the one person who always thinks they're exempt - it's all done to make everyone's life easier.

- As requested after last year's event, we've made sure that as many sessions are repeated as possible so that there's less chance of you having to miss something you really want to see.

- Kindly standing-in for Grant, Graham Matcham from Continental Tyres will give a 2+ hour tyre changing demo from 2pm in the marquee on the Friday afternoon.

- Danny Taylor and Fil Schiannini are back again with another RoadKill Cookout around the bonfire from 3pm on Saturday - this year with some Thai Green Curry surprises!

Competitions:

- The Slow Bike Race, which proved really popular last year, is back again with bikes supplied by Reiju Motorcycles. It's taking place at 10am on the Saturday in the lower camping field. The first 27 people to register for it will get to take part.

- The Bike Show will be in the main car park from 12pm on the Saturday. See the event page for details of categories.

- Starting at 1pm in the marquee on Saturday, Ed March will be doing a live engine rebuild on his famous Honda C90. It'll be against the clock to help raise money for Motorcycle Outreach. You'll be able to buy a ticket and guess how long the rebuild will take. The closest guess will win a special prize!

- All competition prizes will be presented in the 9pm session on the Saturday night in the "Africa" room (also streamed to the marquee). This session will include a live web chat with Grant and Susan in Canada.

Charity Raffle:

- All funds from raffle ticket sales and car parking will be going to Motorcycle Outreach

- Raffle prizes already include a £200 voucher from Brittany Ferries, 12 month subscriptions to RiDE and MCN, a voucher for a pair of tyres from Continental Tyres, the hire of a Suzuki V-Strom DL650 with topbox for 3 days and 2 nights from Saltire Suzuki in Edinburgh, signed copies of all four of Sam Manicom's books and Adventures in Yellow by Norman Magowan, plus two motorcycle jackets and a scarf from Turcano Urbano. Many more will be added to the pile during the event.

- The main raffle draw will take place in the marquee at 5pm on the Saturday, with a second draw for any unclaimed prizes at 10am on the Sunday.

Rideouts:

- We have some planned - details to follow shortly!

Saturday Night:

- Stevie Simpson - "one man and his mandolin" - will be providing the musical entertainment around the bonfire from 11pm. See the main event page for a video sample of Stevie doing his thing.

Vendors and Travel Authors:

- As well as Rieju Motorcycles and AJP Motos (with their new prototype bike), Suzuki's event truck will be there with some V-Stroms to test ride.

- Traveldri-Plus, Touratech, Metal Mule, James Cargo, Adventure-Spec and many others will be there to tempt you with shiny new stuff.

- Ted Simon, Sam Manicom, Austin Vince, Sjaak Lucassen, Paddy Tyson, Graham Field, Rollo Turner, Jerome Bullard and maybe one or two other travel authors will all be in the marquee to sign copies of their books (and Ted Simon's new book will be available too).

That's probably more than enough info for now. See you all next week.

Details now available on the Ripley event page here of all the trail rides planned for next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

yes, read the pdf but feel you could be missing out on trade for people who cannot get there for all day, like us 3?

Surely there is a rate for this?

Cheers Andy

OH WELL, WHAT A SHAME

You are missing a trick but heho what do I know..........

Apologies again Andy, but we're not able to offer an evenings-only rate.

Hi all

I'm already booked for Ripley, but after a chat with Sam at a recent bike show, I'd like to volunteer. He asked me to put my name down on the site in advance of the event but I can't work out how.

Any advice, anyone?

Cheers

Richard

Hi Richard,

That's great - many thanks - all help very welcome. Just complete this page with details of what you'd be interested in doing and Sam will get back to you.

See you there next week.

PS. Good to see someone else from Hitchin on the HUBB

Thanks Iain. See you there.

Online booking for Ripley is now closed.

If you were planning to attend and haven't already registered, you can still just turn up and pay cash on the gate.

Full details here....

Hi Richard, apologies for not getting back to you myself. Somehow I missed your post with all that's going on. So glad Iain is more on the ball than I am and has got back to you already. Looking forward to seeing you again. And thanks for volunteering to help - much appreciated!!!!

Just a couple of days to go. Have to say that the big kid is coming out in me now. Smiles and excitement this end. Going to be brilliant to link up with friends old and new!

Hiya All, Going to be my first meet to get some inspiration.

Riding up from Folkestone, Kent about 9-10ish Thurs. would love to meet up with others en-route, if your interested pls. PM me.

M20, M25, M11, A1, etc.

Best wishes
Zeb

Hi -this year I have to use my small VW Camper to come to the event instead of my bike and tent. I would have my bike on a trailer - is there room for this? Also where exactly on site are Campers going to be? It says at the top of the bottom field but which one do you mean by that?
Cheers, looking forward to yet another great event.

Hi Angelo,

No problem at all - when you arrive the gate crew will explain where you can park.

See you soon.

__________________
http://www.sam-manicom.com

A quick update....

We've made some great progress with the set up since yesterday afternoon - all the presentations rooms are ready, the marquee is being constructed, registration and gate tents are up, and the AV gear is being sorted out.

Quite a few people are already here and the volunteers are doing a fantastic job getting everything organised.

And the weather... is actually looking pretty promising. We've had some light showers this morning, but it's nice and warm and the sun has even been making some appearances. The forecast seems to be improving for the weekend - fingers crossed

We'll be putting some photos up on the HU Facebook page later on.

Think the bar's open....

__________________
http://www.sam-manicom.com