Sunday, March 22, 2015

Day in The Dirt 2015


Went to the annual Day in The Dirt at Ellesmere Speedway yesterday but it got rained out. We went last year and raced our bikes, but this year I didn't wanna risk getting hurt and not being able to go ride around the USA in 3 weeks! So I decided I'd go and film Joe and Bad racing instead. We got up early, drove all the way there, fucked about for a while, and then drive home. Pretty uneventful, but I wanted to try and do something with the footage because I'm still trying to suss out this Go Pro thang!? Filmed in glorious Shake-O-Vision... of course. (Soundtrack borrowed from the one and only Andre Williams – 'Bacon Fat', 1956)

Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Elusive Third Bike


Here then we have the third and final DR for our trip. James Tucker got this sorted for us in the weekend. He was slightly worried about it cause the guy selling it was some young punk, but hey it was cheap! And I'm pretty sure if SeƱor Tucker bought it it's gonna be ok cause methinks he has some pretty high standards? Higher than ours anyway!

This will be Joe's bike for the trip, I'm riding what James affectionately calls the 'Garage Queen', and Malcolm's on the dirty old dirtbike one. Apart from color they'll actually all look fairly similar once our mods, esp large tank on my one, have been done anyway. Here they all are together at James' place:


Pretty exciting seeing them sitting there waiting for us! Can't wait to hit the ground in LA and get to James and Colleen's place!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Our American Steeds (DR 650s... two down, one to go)


This USA/Baja trip is getting close and we have recently purchased two DR 650s via an agent of sorts in LA. A Mr James Tucker is our man on the ground over there, and he's been a real blessing in terms of getting our shit together for this trip. Funnily enough some guy I was emailing via Craigslist about buying his bike put me onto James, who I found through the ADVRider forum. It was kinda nerve-wrecking sending all our money to some guy we'd never met, but we'd checked his credentials (as much as you can from the other side of the world!) and he seemed legit! Actually he's more than legit, he's a god-send! He knows his DRs inside and out as him and his missus have a couple that they rode down to Argentina.

So yeah these are our first two bikes. The stock-standard white one will be getting a bigger 5.3 gallon desert tank, and we're looking at other bits and pieces now like luggage racks. I was keen to chuck an aftermarket muffler on mine, but just discovered the one I was looking at would have to be repacked fairly often given the type of riding we'll be doing, so fuck that!

Anyway the search is on for the third and final bike. All going well James Tucker will have our paperwork in hand when we get off the plane in LA! So excited I'm having trouble sleeping, it's like being a little kid again...

HFoS in Amsterdam!


Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum in Amsterdam is stocking/selling Head Full of Snakes! See their website here (and tell me what it says if you can read Dutch!?). If you're in this part of the world (and I know I've sent a few to Holland in the past) go get copies from them!

Also they interviewed me about the project. Interview is here.