In complete contrast to the tranquility of Nancy, Linz has been buzzing with Samba, street theatre and a profusion of creative outpourings. The weather has not been kind to the performers this year but this has in no way detracted from their enthusiasm.

With 1 minute of storage space left on my SD card and 1 minute of battery left on my camcorder I managed to catch the last of the Samba as it headed down the Landstrasse towards Taubenmarkt tonight.

Makes me want to rush out and buy a snare drum. Brings back memories of my air cadet carnival days

The relentless procession of doom laden news is never ending. Whether it is the suppression of peoples rights, stock market crashes, job losses or natural disasters it really is enough to give anyone a permanent case of the blues. If you have your health though and can appreciate the birds singing as I can whilst I write here at 4am then it ain’t all bad.

I am currently self unemployed shall we say at the moment but as Charlie Sheen said last week “you can’t fire a man with plans” and I have plans. In true Gemini fashion I think I have too many plans all going off at once. You all know about the DRZ plan. I had an idea about that or should I say an evolution on the initial idea. It’s my 40th Birthday next year and according to some 2012 is also the end of the world. Some would say hitting 40 is the end of the world but we shall see. So I got to thinking that maybe I should ride my bike “to” the end of the world as in Tiego Del Fuego. The thing is these days I am struggling to identify the reasons for doing such a thing. It has been done many times before and has been well documented in print and film. Am I doing it for ego or to escape the rat race? Is the pull stronger than the push? I still haven’t found the answer or the motivation yet.

What I have done though is committed to a second bike. Or perhaps it is the first bike as the DRZ is not in my possession yet? Anyway I have been selling bits and bobs on ebay in order to raise some cash for a road trip across Europe in just over a week. I had a projector screen I wanted to get rid of. It was surplus to requirements and in the end it was just annoying me due to the space it was taking up. So I sold it to a guy who ran an Air Cadet Squadron. “Great”, I thought, I used to be a cadet so I felt I was giving something back. I met the guy and did the deal and we had a coffee and a chat. As we parted he said you could do worse than have an R1100GS or perhaps an R850GS if you can find one.

I didn’t think much of it until later when I did a quick search on Google. I find a thread on a blog that is advertising the rarer 850. Not only that but it belongs to a friend and he’s been trying to sell it since October last year! NO WAY! So I make a few enquiries, pull a few strings and before I know it I have laid claim to another GS. I can tell you now I don’t have the money for it yet and I won’t borrow the money. Thankfully my friend is not in a hurry and all being well the hand over will be at the Horizons Unlimited event in May.

It’s funny how things work out. All I need to do now is work like a madman, somewhere, anywhere, anyhow.

This has been in the pipeline for a while but 2011 is the year it all kicks off. I am very much looking forward to this.

Before I write another thing I would like to thank Grant & Susan Johnson and Chris Colling & Dave Lomax at adventure-Spec for making my attendance possible this year. Without them it would not have happened.

the 2010 10th anniversary event was much bigger than previous years. As I rode up the driveway to Lumb Farm I said to myself “Oh Wow”. They had pulled out all the stops. There were more vendors, more bikes, biggest tents, a video screen. It was all together an impressive event.

The campfire was blazing, the road kill cookout was in full swing but most importantly the people made the event special. Old faces, new faces, adventurers to be and adventurers with many years and locations under their belts.

In addition to the great setup the weather was perfect. It was consistently warm and sunny for the entire event. 28C and wall to wall sunshine. You could not have asked for better.

Attendees included Austin Vince and Lois Pryce, Jenny Furneaux, Simon Gandolfi, Walter Colebatch, Jenny Morgen, Peter & Kay Forward and many many more that can be found here

This year I was of course without my F800GS and arrived on my 1994 CB500. I guessed I would be the only attendee on a CB500 but by some strange quirk of the universe two guys arrived on loaded up CB500′s. Not only that but they plan to ride around the world over 80 months on these machines. I was heartened by their story and impressed at their low tech approach to luggage and increasing comfort. They were good guys, with a good sense of humour and I reckon they will go far and I personally will be looking forward to reading their story.

To find more photos of the event have a look here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/everywherevirtually/sets/72157624238859917/with/4736800180/

Or click on the gallery above.

Many of us say we would die to go riding on a sunny day when stuck at work yet there is nobody out there quite like David Morales Colón.

Think the internet can no longer surprise you? Think again. David Morales Colón, a 22-year-old Puerto Rican man who was shot dead last Thursday has made the headlines after his untimely demise because the funeral directors at Marin Funeral Home in San Juan’s Hato Rey neighborhood have a unique spin on what you would consider a normal wake.

Callers who paid their final respects to the late Mr. Colón were surprised to see Mr. Colón’s corpse, dressed casually and wearing shades, atop his Repsol Honda CBR600. According to Puerto Rico’s Primera Hora newspaper, the motorcycle was given to the victim by his uncle. Family members delivered the bike to the funeral home specifically for this unusual wake.

Think I’m making this stuff up then checkout the original link. This is not a one off either, the same funeral home did a similar setup last year with another young man who was the last man standing in his mothers living room during the multi day wake. You’ve got to give it to the funeral home they definitely score points for originality!

I spotted this article from Mike Werner about a legitimate protest by French bikers in a number of cities across France. It is something many bikers across the world will identify with.

Mike says French motorcycle riders had their day in the news this weekend. Organized by the FFMCFederation Francaise des Motards en Colere – Angry French Biker Association, an association of bikers fighting for the rights of motorcycle riders, a call went out to all bikers to ride in protest parades in some 40 cities throughout France. The main protest reasons are that the government is planning to make illegal to split lanes (currently it’s tolerated), but also for better and safer road infrastructure for motorcycles, reduced taxes on security accessories (like helmets), etc.

Many cities within striking distance of Paris had a local assembly point, followed by a ride-out to Paris, where they joined the main protest.

Motorcycle Protest Paris Organized entry into the ring road. © Y.Picard/Motomag.com

Despite the miserable weather, 10,000 bikers went on the Parisian protest ride, first to the Parisian ring-road (the famous and notorious Peripherique). There, all incoming traffic was stopped by the police to let all the bikers in.

Motorcycle Protest Paris 1 motorcycle = 1 car spot. © N.Gumel/Motomag.com

The bikers were told to ride 100% legally, in other words, everyone stays in their own lane, respecting the security distance between vehicles.

Motorcycle Protest Paris, 10,000 Bikers on the Parisian ring-road © AFP Joel Saget

This of course meant that all the traffic suddenly was slowed down on one of Paris’ main arteries, since having 10,000 bikers on a ring-road, riding like cars, meant that traffic was saturated.

This exercise was to point out to the government that if motorcycles are not allowed to split lanes legally, traffic will come to a standstill in any city in France.

Afterwards, a large number of bikes went and blocked a metro station, since public transport is not a viable solution to the congested traffic problems.

The other cities in France were not spared the wrath of the French bikers:

* Lille 3,000,
* Bordeaux 2,000,
* Nantes 1,000,
* Orleans 550,
* Royan 1,000,
* Toulouse 1,200,
* Clermont-Ferrand 1,500

and many more cities, 40 in total.

Despite what you may think, car drivers support our movement. They know it’s in their own interest, and during the protest, many cars applauded the protest!

Now let’s hope that all this was not in vain, and that the government finally starts listening. But somehow, I doubt it…

I have been rather remiss of late in updating this blog. I’ve been annoyed at myself because there has been a lot going on. A lot of good stuff going on… a lot of adventure motorcycling goodness

I recently attended the Horizons Unlimited UK summer meeting at Ripley in Derbyshire. This is an event that draws people from all over the world. That phrase is often used for events and it’s always a little hollow but on this occasion it was true. We had Canadians, Americans, Dutch, Germans, Greeks, French, Irish, Spanish, Australian. Then there were the bikes. Not shiny, immaculate machines but battle hardened adventure motorcycles that had travelled the world. Sometimes many times over.

They bore the scars and stickers of many places around the globe and it was a delight to see. These bikes take on an almost mythical aura and are more than the sum of their parts. They tell a story of themselves and of their owners.

The welcome at Lumb farm was fantastic. I had ridden the 50 or so miles to Ripley straight after work in Manchester. Not long after leaving home I spotted another 800GS in front of me and assumed he was also off to the meeting. As it transpired he wasn’t and lived locally. nevertheless I made a new friend and had made a promise to share a brew in the future and talk bikes

I pressed on and arrived at Lumb Farm by 8pm. I had a very friendly welcome. I was given a map of the campsite, a bottle of water and some stickers. This was great because I’d been at thsi place the previous year for another event and the welcome was non existent. In fact it was bordering on rude. So I was setup for a great weekend.

I met Chris & Dave from Adventure-Spec. Despite me bringing a tent it would transpire that I would crash on the floor of their marquee shop. Although after one night of my snoring Dave decided to upgrade to the hotel “Volkswagon Van”.

The weekend was packed full of talks from adventurers that included Austin Vince, Sam Manicom, Ted Simon, Nick Sanders and many others. There was a roaring camp fire that was burning the whole weekend. A road kill cook out, workshops on how to change a tyre out in the wilds, yoga and many more events too numerous to mention.

It was a great event and not dominated by BMW GS’s wannabe travellers (I say that as a BMW GS owner myself). The people who attended were the real deal and hadn’t just bought into the image of adventure motorcycling. Most of these folks made their own luggage for Gods sake. They are hardcore!

The guys at Horizons Unlimited are the real deal. They are just regular people who share their knowledge and expertise with other motorcycle travelers. I will be attending the lumb farm meet organised by HU in June this year and I also had the pleasure of staying with the head of HU Belgium this year.

The YouTube trailer below is for a HU DVD you can buy on how to do such a trip. Especially inspiring was Donna Rae Polk who at 62 and with Parkinsons set off on a round the world trip.

On Sunday February 8th I rode down from Manchester to London to attend the Horizons Unlimited Overland Travel Event at the Ace cafe. I did it in less than 3 hours and despite a lot of snow laying on the land the roads were dry and clear.

I rolled into London and made my way to the North Circular road. It was a breeze to find as it’s straight off the M1. The area was a buzz with giant trailies and enduro suit clad riders.

All the usual suspects were there as well as some familiar faces from previous events. despite HU, Touratech, KTM, Metal Mule, The Mondo Enduro gang and other names being there it was less of an event and more of a casual meet at Ace Corner for a coffee, a bacon sarnie and a bit of tire kicking.

Most of us compared farkles and put faces to the various avatar names of the main forums. It was nice to finally see the legendary Ace Cafe and get a few souvenirs from the day.

People began to head off around 3pm and I suspect I was the only person to have come from so far North although I’m ready to stand corrected. The ride home was when the true overland adventure began as I rode the last 125 miles through a snow storm.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and will look forward to the next one.