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Category: Other
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From March 25 to June 24, 2013, author, adventurer and Sunday Times motorcycle columnist Geoff Hill and former road racer Gary Walker will recreate the journey of American writer Carl Stearns Clancy, the first person to take a motorbike around the world 100 years ago.
Since Clancy’s father was Irish, he started the ride in Dublin with colleague Walter Storey and rode through Ireland and the UK, then on through Holland and Belgium to Paris. Storey, who had never ridden a motorbike before the trip and had been badly shaken after being hit by a Dublin tram on the very first day, then returned home, and with incredible courage, 22-year-old Clancy continued alone, riding down through Europe and across Algeria and Tunisia.
When he found he couldn’t get petrol in India, he shipped the bike to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, rode around there and part of Malaysia, then hopped up through Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai to Nagasaki, rode around Japan, shipped to San Francisco and rode home to New York.
The main sponsor is motorcycle insurance broker, Adelaide Insurance Services, supported by BMW Motorrad, which will be providing the motorbikes for the trip: R1200GS Adventures which would probably seem like spaceships to Clancy compared to the 1912 Henderson he used – a 934cc inline four with one gear and no front brake which made 7bhp and was advertised at the time as the fastest motorcycle in the world.
Dr Gregory W Frazier, the American author and bike adventurer who wrote Motorcycle Adventurer after 16 years of research into Clancy’s original articles and pictures in the American magazine The Bicycling World and Motorcycle Review, is organising a major series of PR events across the United States in June 2013 which Geoff and Gary will be joining and which will add to the critical mass of publicity.
Rather wonderfully, Geoff and Gary will be taking Clancy’s original boots on their second journey around the world 100 years after they did it the first time.
When Clancy died in Virginia in 1971, his housekeeper gave the boots to 16-year-old neighbour Liam O’Connor. Now a Professor in Western Australia, Liam has donated them to Geoff and Gary to pass on to Dr Frazier for donation to a museum, along with some of Clancy’s original notebooks and other travel documents from the trip.
During our journey, as well as producing stories and pictures for several newspapers, Geoff and Gary will be blogging on www.adelaideadventures.com, linked to other websites such as BMW Motorrad, Horizons Unlimited and facebook, along with blogging weekly to the Times Online motoring site.
The book on the adventure has already been commissioned by Blackstaff Press, which has published all of Geoff’s best-selling books, including several on previous motorbike adventures such as Delhi to Belfast, Route 66, Chile to Alaska and around Australia.
Gary, a former actor as well as top road racer, starred with Joey and Robert Dunlop in the iconic 1992 documentary Between the Hedges.
His career highlights so far include being chatted up by Lena Zavaroni, minding Julie Christie and riding his race bike sideways along a dry stone wall at 140mph, although not all in the same weekend.
See Amazon for the book
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Thousands of bikers are now emerging from winter hibernation and to coincide with the start of the biking season proper, Somerset Road Safety is launching a local Think Bike, Think Biker publicity campaign.
The four-week long “Professionals” campaign will feature actual motorcyclists from Somerset and highlight the work that they each do for the local community, including a fire-fighter, a nurse and a doctor. The hope is that this will cause other road users to look out for moped, scooter and motorcycle riders if they can associate with a real person beneath the crash helmet.
Head of Road Safety for Somerset, Terry Beale, explains; “Research for the Department for Transport has shown that road users who personally know bikers – as friends, relatives, or work colleagues for example, are much more likely to be respectful and watching out for motorcyclists in general. We want to remove the anonymity of motorcyclists and to try and reduce the number of collisions in which they are involved. ‘Sorry Mate, I didn’t see you’, isn’t an excuse when you put someone else in danger; nor is ‘Sorry Mate, I didn’t know you“.
The campaign starts on the 26th of March and will use bus back advertising on Somerset roads, where higher than average numbers of collisions involving bikers have occurred in recent years. It is also timed to follow on from the national ‘Think Bike, Think Biker’ campaign that is using television, radio and outdoor media to highlight the same message.
Free campaign posters are available to any business, college or other organisation in Somerset that wishes to display them. Please contact Jim Newman at Somerset Road Safety on (01823) 423 430 or email [email protected]
For more information about the work of Somerset Road Safety, go to www.somersetroadsafety.org
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On Thursday 7 March 2013 the Royal Automobile Club awarded the historic Segrave Trophy to John Surtees OBE.
The 2012 Segrave Trophy citation reads: For his outstanding career in two and four wheeled motorsport, including seven motorcycle world championship titles, culminating in the unique achievement of being the only man to win a motorcycle World Championship and the Formula One World Championship.
Speaking at the awards Tom Purves, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, said: "John is one of the most accomplished and versatile sportsmen of all time, winning seven motorcycle world championships and then victory in the 1964 Formula One World Championship. He is the only person in history to have won world championships on both two wheels and four yet, until today, John’s name was not on the distinguished list of Segrave Trophy winners. This award is made to John not as recognition of a lifetime of achievement, but as a, somewhat overdue, recognition of a unique sporting triumph that would, doubtlessly, have been recognised at the time had it not been for Donald Campbell who broke the land and water speed records simultaneously the same year. It is therefore our great honour to salute John’s successes, albeit perhaps a little later than we should have done”.
Upon receiving the trophy, Surtees said “Donald Campbell achieved his success on land and water in the same year which perhaps overshadowed my having taken 4 years to put two and four wheel titles together. I am honoured, as I approach the fiftieth anniversary of my Formula One World Championship title, to receive this prestigious Trophy on behalf of not only myself but also the world of two and four wheel motorsport.”
John started out his racing career as a passenger for his father – a top sidecar racer – and although they finished first the Surtees duo was disqualified when it was discovered that John was too young to compete within the rules. Undeterred, he began competing on motorbikes in road races, and at just 19 years old, he joined the celebrated Norton works team. Two years later he was given his break with the MV Agusta team and duly won the 500cc World Championship – the first of seven world titles he secured in just five years and which resulted in the award of an MBE.
In 1960, Surtees mixed two wheels with four by driving in Formula Junior, F1 as well as for MV Agusta. Despite an offer in 1961 to drive for Lotus in F1, Surtees opted for a Cooper run by Reg Parnell. He moved to Ferrari in 1963 and took his first Grand Prix victory, and went on to win the F1 World Championship the next season. Surtees became the only 'Grand Master' of both two and four wheels.
John’s career continued beyond his Formula One Championship year and in 1966, he was second in the World Championship. He has raced motor cycles and just about every type of car with remarkable success in almost every discipline: Formula One, Can-Am Championship, F2, F5000 to Le Mans. As an engineer it is widely recognized that his input was a key part of bringing success to Ferrari in 1964.
As Vice President of the British Racing Drivers' Club and a consultant to Buckmore Park Kart Circuit, Surtees has worked tirelessly to encourage British racing talent, and was team principal for A1 Team Great Britain. In 2008 Surtees was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for 'services to motorsport and charity'. He set up the Henry Surtees Foundation in memory of his son who was tragically killed in a freak accident while driving in a Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch in 2009.
The Foundation aims 'to give more young people from the community at large an opportunity to experience the emotion, disciplines and learning that the world of motorsport can offer'.
John lives in Surrey, England.
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...to raise awareness and funding for Nomad Sports Academy for Orphans and Underprivileged Youth in Zambia.
The journey will start in Livingstone, Zambia at the Victoria Falls, in December 2013 and head towards Tanzania, then Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, cross Europe all the way to NordKapp, Norway, then head east to Russia, across the great country to Vladivostok, jump on a ferry to Japan, cross the country of the rising Sun, fly with the bike over the Berring Strait to Vancouver, Canada, head South on the West Coast of US, Central America, cross the Darien Gap to Colombia, then head towards the great Patagonia in Chile, then North to Argentina, and Brazil to Sao Paolo, where we ship the bike to Cape Town, South Africa for our last leg to Zambia.
The journey will take almost 2 years, with no support car, or crew, but us and our bike.
Complete reports of our whereabouts and our stories will be uploaded to the website, our twitter account: @johnnomad1, on Horizons Unlimited and on various newspapers and websites that have shown kindness in helping create awareness for this amazing project.
Nomad Sports Academy for Orphans is a unique community of orphans that offers the children a great chance to become professional athletes and develop their characters and personalities for many other skills in life.
For more info contact John @
[email protected]
[email protected]
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The off-road motorcycle racer, most famous for being the first British woman to complete the gruelling Dakar Rally, is supporting Riders for Health at the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) Show 18th – 19th May at the Peterborough Arena (formerly east of England Showground).
Patsy Quick became the first British woman to complete the legendary desert endurance race, the Dakar Rally, in 2006. Her incredible achievement came after three unsuccessful attempts, one of which cost Patsy her spleen. Prior to the Dakar, Patsy was both British and European Women’s Enduro Champion.
Now Patsy is supporting other women who are achieving incredible feats with motorcycles. In Africa, Riders for Health trains female health workers to ride confidently and safely in the difficult terrain to deliver life-saving health care to remote rural villages. Riders also trains and employs local people as technicians to service the bikes on a regular basis so that they never break down, no matter how harsh the conditions.
Patsy will lead a ride-in on behalf of Riders for Health to the BMF Show at Peterborough Arena (formerly the East of England Showground) on Saturday 18th May.
There will be the opportunity for members of the public to join the ride en-route. Further details on how to book tickets and the route will be released nearer the time on the BMF and Riders for Health websites.
‘I think that the work Riders for Health does is vital to the continued health of people in developing countries,’ explained Patsy. ‘It’s amazing to think how many lives in Africa have been saved by a motorcycle.’ At the May BMF Show, Patsy will be helping Riders for Health to promote their off-road fundraising ride to Zambia, Experience Africa.
Experience Africa is more than an off-road motorcycle tour. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the inspiring work being done in Zambia by Riders for Health and see how motorcycles are saving lives in Africa. What’s more, the money raised from the ride helps to support their humanitarian work.
Riders for Health are running a raffle at all of the events that they are attending this year to give away a free place on one of the 2014 Experience Africa rides. For your chance to win this incredible prize worth £4,800, visit Riders for Health’s stand in the NEW Adventure and Overland area at the May BMF Show or at the BMF Tailend Show (14th – 15th September) and buy a ticket for just £1.
You can also buy tickets at The BMF Kelso Bikefest, British Superbikes races, Day of Champions and the British MotoGP and World Superbike races at Silverstone. The winning ticket will be drawn at the Tailend Show on Sunday 15th September at Peterborough Arena.
Show organisers, The Mulberry Group’s, Managing Director Martin Chick commented “We are really excited about having Patsy at the Show and we hope as many people as possible will be able to join her on the ride-in”. The New Adventure and Overland Touring area at the show will give everyone the opportunity to meet Patsy and the Experience Africa team as well as seeing some great presentations”.
Riders for Health is the official charity of MotoGP™ and the Fédération Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM). The organisation provides health workers in Africa with motorcycles so that they can reach remote villages with vital health care.
Patsy now runs her own off-road motorcycle school, Desert Rose Racing, helping other riders to achieve their rally dreams.
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