4th - 6th May - with Brand New Touratech Trophy

Touratech UK’s Flag Ship store, will once again be holding its massively popular Travel Event. This will be the 5th travel event held at this location and it attracts people from all over Europe.

This year the Touratech Travel event will see a big upheaval and its going to be great! They have all the old favourites, talks, workshops off road and on road ride outs (including the famous Walters arena open for riding on Sunday), but they can do better than that... This year you will be able to take part in the Brand New Touratech Trophy. The Touratech trophy is a new idea for this year’s event. A friendly team competition, it will see competitors but into random teams of ten. The teams will then compete over the Saturday and Sunday to be the best team. The genius of Touratech’s idea is that the teams will be picked out of a hat. This encourages the competitors to mix and meet new like minded people while at the same time you don’t get 1 team of top riders that no-one has a hope of beating. This means the best people in the team will have to help the weaker rider improve if they want to win. On the Sunday afternoon the winning team of ten will go into and every man for themselves final. Nick Plumb, MD of Touratech UK says “It’s a great way to have a friendly competition, and it gets rid of any elitism. Most competitions like this cost hundreds to enter but at £30. We are really excited.”

The other main change to this years event is the evening entertainment, Saturday evening starts with main speaker Nick Sanders giving a talk on his many world record breaking trips. Then Graham Hoskins premiering his new live talk show 'The Graham Hoskins Show', a talk show style event with loads of guests and fun.  The evening is rounded off with some great live music from Elk Redemption. On Sunday evening, Austin Vince will be the main speaker followed by the prize giving for the Touratech Trophy and live music from Red Dirt Skinners. For both evenings there will be a Beer tent and Hog Roast.

Attendees can also look around the extended showroom which is three times bigger then last year, hear from new speakers, and browse more stands than ever before. On Saturday and Sunday they will be offering talks, workshops, ride outs and of course some retail therapy all while being able to watch the various rounds of the Touratech Trophy. Sunday will also see the opportunity for people to go up to Walters arena and play off road.

The travel event Starts on Friday evening (03/05/13) with a quiz and open mic night and end on the Bank holiday Monday when there will be a last ride out and a final goodbye before everyone starts heading home at midday.

Tickets to attend including camping is just £10 a person and to enter the Touratech Trophy is just £20 extra (which includes a T-Shirt and Competitor medal). See you there... 

Touratech UK came into the spot light when they kitted out Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s BMW GS bikes for both the Long Way Round and the Long Way Down. They also provided equipment for Charley Boorman’s Race to Dakar. They have also provided equipment for other adventure trips, working with celebrities including comedian Ross Noble and actor Danny John-Jules.

Nick Plumb, Touratech MD has competed in the Dakar Rally 4 times, completing the rally on his first and last attempt. He also features heavily in Race to Dakar.

Recreating the first around the world ride 100 years on.

In Glasgow, Clancy declared the people individuals to a man and the accent almost unintelligible from the red-nosed, bare-kneed women who gathered around them at every stop, rolling their r’s and sounding like Harry Lauder.

Storey was still too nervous to ride through the heavy city traffic, so Clancy gave him a lift to the city limits then went back for his Henderson.

By this time it was almost dark, and before long they were lost in the gathering gloom, made almost infernal by the lurid glare of countless iron foundries, and were forced to stop for the night in the unprepossessing Black Bull in “the dreary town of Stonehouse”.

Still, at least it only cost them $1.15 each for a hearty supper, a big feather bed and breakfast the next morning, during which a clergymen, as Clancy puts it, “told us that although he had been a weekly visitor at The Black Bull for several years, we were the first guests he had met; the bar being the inn’s principal mainstay and pure whiskey its principal staple”.

Naturally, it could only go downhill from there: a peeling monochrome pile on a windy corner, it’s finally been closed because of the inability of its customers to pop in for a small glass of sherry without finishing the bottle then breaking it over their neighbour’s head.

Warmed, fed and watered, we found a hotel and fell gratefully into bed. Gary and I took turns at keeping each other awake by snoring in shifts, and we rose at seven and were on the road at eight, heading for the balmy south.

Indeed, the snow looked ever so slightly warmer as we rode into Northwich in Cheshire, where Clancy and Storey had stayed at the Crown and Anchor, which had closed in 1960 and was now Madison’s Bar and Restaurant, the forthcoming attractions of which included the Playboy Bunny Party on Friday, with free bunny ears and a prize for the best costume.

“I can just see Clancy and Storey rolling up the street on their Hendersons and saying: ‘Playboy Bunny Party? That’ll do us’,” said fellow biker and journalist Peter Murtagh, who was riding with us as far as Spain, and whose hands had gone a funny shade of blue which matched my nose.

It was time to find somewhere warm to stay the night, and after riding around for a bit, we found the Blue Barrel, a pub with rooms and a sign outside advertising a Psychic Evening. Funny, I had a feeling we were going to stay there.

The next morning, we rode between the frozen fields the next morning to stand in the exact spot where Clancy had a century before when he took a photograph looking up St Werburgh Street towards the cathedral. It hadn’t changed in all that time, apart from the large Chrysler parked on the double yellow lines. And the double yellow lines, come to that. Still, at least Clancy would have been pleased that it was an American car.

In Birmingham, we took shelter from a blizzard in the Witton Arms, which turned out to be the worst Irish pub in the world, a cavernous hall occupied by a gloomy Mexican and an inexplicably cheery Jamaican watching the horse racing on a giant screen.

Things got much better in London, where two mornings later we pulled up at the stroke of nine outside the Ace Café, which Clancy didn’t visit for the simple reason that it only opened in 1938, to accommodate traffic on the new North Circular Road. Because it was open 24 hours a day, it started to attract motorcyclists. It then became popular with the Ton Up Boys and girls in the 1950s and the Rockers in the 1960s and many bands and motorcycle enthusiast groups such as the 59 Club formed there.

It was, you’ll be glad to hear, exactly as it should be: down one end was with three Triumphs, a Royal Enfield, a BSA and a Brough Superior; the first time I had seen in the flash the machine favoured by Lawrence of Arabia up to the point where he met his death on one. Down the other was a jukebox on which Mick Jagger was complaining yet again that he couldn’t get no satisfaction, and in the middle, a bunch of grizzled chaps with faraway looks in their eyes were sitting at scrubbed wooden tables, tucking into bacon butties washed down with mugs of tea. In the circumstances, it seemed impolite not to join them, then buy an Ace Café sticker as a memento and a Castrol one because it reminded me of the metal one that once turned in the wind outside my dear old dad’s motorcycle garage. All stickered up, we rode into London, where Clancy and Storey spent several happy days at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall planning their route east.

Clancy had joined the RAC associate organisation the Auto-Cycle Union of England before leaving the States, and called into the RAC, which had only been built the year before, to enlist the help of the RAC's resident experts in getting maps, GB numberplates and international passes, although only after having his riding skills approved by an examiner in the street outside.

He was deeply impressed by the magnificent building and interior, and he had every right to be, for it is a soaring hymn to tasteful opulence, from the richly carpeted reception room in which someone had carelessly parked a Bentley Continental, through the swimming pool, saunas, steam room and gym to the St James’s Room in which we were expected for a press conference; an appropriate venue, since it was named after the saint whose bones had inspired centuries of pilgrims to set off on their own adventures to Santiago de Compostela.

In deep armchairs all around, the descendants of the same chaps who had sat in the same chairs when Clancy was here were busily unscrewing their fountain pens, just as their grandfathers had, to write letters of withering erudition to the Daily Telegraph about the state of the nation’s roads.

Supported by Adelaide Insurance Services and BMW Motorrad

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John McGuinness started the race for the Honda TT Legends and the first few hours saw him, Simon Andrews and Michael Dunlop put in an impressive performance that took them from 28th to third place.

As evening fell on the Magny Cours circuit in France, light rain caused a few incidents for other teams, but the Honda TT Legends settled into a steady fourth place, where they remained through the night until daybreak.     

Just after 8am, Dunlop made an unexpected pit stop and the Honda TT Legends crew set to work, eventually identifying and fixing a problem with the heat exchanger. McGuinness re-joined the race in 13th place but unfortunately the irreparable damage to the engine had already been done and it subsequently overheated. He was forced to dismount and push the bike back to the pits on the first lap and the team retired from the race.

The EWC will continue with the Suzuka 8-hour in Japan on 28 July.

Neil Tuxworth   This is a very disappointing end for the team after all the hard work and effort everyone has put in. It’s unfortunate but we had a problem with the heat exchanger which caused the engine to overheat and fail towards the end of the race. It’s our first incomplete event in seven races and our first ever retirement from a 24 hour race, but it happens to everyone at some point and the main thing is that everyone is ok. We haven’t had any injuries to anybody and although there was some leakage from the bike, it doesn’t look like it caused problems to anybody else as the safety car came out very quickly. Like I say, very disappointing for everyone but we have to move on and look forward to the road races coming up in the next few months.       John McGuinness   We’re just gutted not to have finished. The lads have done so much work on the bike – new electronics, traction control – all sorts of bits and pieces that they’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of hours on. We’ve had a fantastic run of results up to now with seven races completed and we were looking good in the race. We were top five again and chipping away, but unfortunately we had a problem 18 hours in. I’m just speechless really, just gutted, but we’ll try and take the positives out of it. We were running a lot closer to some of our rivals so we can take that to the next round.     

Simon Andrews   It had gone well up until that point. I did a good few stints at the beginning to get us up to fourth and I was happy enough with that. It’s a shame what’s happened for everyone because the guys have worked so hard. The chassis was working well and we had the quickest bike out there at some points, so it just would have been nice to reward everyone with a podium. We were third at one stage so to go from that position to coming away with no points at all is not fun, but that’s endurance racing. We can be happy with the hard work we’ve put in and the way we’ve worked together and we’ll look forward to the next round.     

Michael Dunlop   It’s so disappointing for all the lads after all the hard work they’ve done. I really feel for them because it’s not just about us riders, it’s a massive team effort and they put so much into it. I just got my head down and got on with it, going with the flow really. It was going well up until that point, but we’ll go back and take a look at the bike and come back bigger and stronger next time.

Off-road biking legend, Patsy Quick, will lead a mass motorcycle ride on Saturday 18th May to the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) Show at Peterborough Arena to support Riders for Health.   

Meeting at the Super Sausage Café on the A5 near Towcester from 8am for registration and breakfast, the ride-in will leave at 9.30am taking a scenic, cross-country route to the Peterborough Arena (formerly the East of England Showground) arriving at the BMF Show for 11am. 

The ride-in will be led by Patsy Quick, the first British woman to complete the legendary Dakar Rally. Prior to her achievement in the famous desert endurance race, Patsy was both British and European Women’s Enduro Champion. Now Patsy is supporting Riders for Health to help mobilise health workers in Africa with reliable motorcycles so that they can reach remote communities with lifesaving health care. 

Spaces are limited so participation on the ride-in will be decided on a first come, first served basis and a £5 donation to Riders for Health will be encouraged. Everyone taking part will need to be registered and given a Riders for Health bib to wear. 

The ride-in route will cover approximately 50 miles passing through picturesque towns and villages such as Castlethorpe, Olney, Bozeat, Rushden, Thrapston and Oundle. On arrival at the BMF Show, the group will have a photo opportunity with Patsy, before being directed to the bike parking area. 

www.thebmfshow.co.uk

Riders for Health have teamed up with the BMF in the hope of introducing many more people to the charities’ lifesaving work.

The BMF Show in May is Europe’s largest outdoor motorcycle show, with over 40,000 people expected to attend over the weekend. Riders will have a stand in the new Adventure and Overland Touring area with their off-road fundraising ride to Zambia, Experience Africa.

For your chance to win a free place on this once-in-a-lifetime motorcycle adventure, visit Riders for Health’s stand to buy a ticket for just £1. 

Riders for Health is the official charity of the Fédération Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM) and MotoGP. The organisation provides health workers in Africa with reliable vehicles, enabling them to deliver vital health care to isolated communities on a regular basis. Riders also teaches health workers to ride safely in the difficult terrain and local men and women are trained to maintain the vehicles so that they never break down. 

www.riders.org

If I have a medical problem with my spine, I want someone who understands my vertebrae and of course I wouldn’t dream of calling to see my dentist. It must be the same with motorcycle accident claims. I want someone who understands what I have experienced as a biker!

I want someone who is a biker and not someone who I have try to explain things to time and time again.  

What I really don’t want is to try and explain things to a lifelong car driver who will not only fail to understand what I am trying to say, but may even not sympathize with my dilemma. I want a bike solicitor that deals with motorcycle accident claims and not a non riding lawyer who will deal with it, but not really understand it.  I want a solicitor who has ridden to work and parked his motorbike unashamedly outside the office, and will ride it back home at the end of the day; that’s what I want from a real motorcycle accident claims lawyer.  

When a motorcyclist or scooter rider are injured as the result of a road traffic accident, they will want solicitors that understand the difficulties they have experienced as the direct result of being a minority on the roads. In that, I mean that compared with the number of car drivers, involved in accidents each day, we as motorcyclists make for a very small proportion.  

Motorbike accident claims are becoming more and more sophisticated in their approach to dealing with personal injuries involving motorcyclists who may be completely innocent victims. What we don’t want is the motorcyclist to be a secondary victim of a non riding solicitor who may simply not understand.  

With the ever increasing cost of fuel, we will shortly see a dramatic rise in the number of motorcyclists on the road. That being the case, we will also see a rise in the number of motorcycle injury claims. For many years in many countries throughout the world, the motorcycle has been the staple form of transport for businesses and households.

Many are driven to two wheels by poverty, whilst many do it simply because they are passionate and simply want to. It is this desire to ride on two wheels that drives the majority of people in this country to become motorcyclists.  

As global oil prices rocket, so will the number of motorcyclists and so will the number of motorcycle injury claims that will need specialist knowledge, handing and expertise.  

Don’t lose out on your compensation, pick experience over image. Pick a genuine motorcycle injury claims solicitor; nothing else will do. Remember, passion about motorcycles and legal expertise go hand in hand.  

If you have had a motorbike injury claim, then call us today for free biker to biker legal advice on 0800 622 6517.