Progress Report 3 - w/c 15.09.08

Some good news and some more good news, though it could be bad, just depends how you look at it! Today I am booked into the Wellington Hostpital for a knee arthroscopy to remove some damaged cartilage. After two years of putting up with the pain, I went to see my physio who quickly referred me to a knee specialist, had an MRI scan, then consultation, surgery date booked and within 16 days I will have had the job done, that's private health cover for you! It will hower, mean that for the next few weeks I will be trying to rehabilitate my knee and get back up to full fitness.

Over the past 8 weeks, I have been running a couple of times a week, between 15 and 30 mins, not a long time, but as fast as possible. I have combined this with cycling now that I can tow Chobe to work in a bicycle dog trailer! Maximum load is meant to be 34kg, but Chobe at 40kg seems to be fine. So a 50 minute cycle to work, with 50kg of towing weight, gives me a good workout.....you might think that it is strange towing the bitch, when the bitch should be towing me!!...all in good time, all in good time ; )

Chobe in tow!



I cycle along the tow path all the way through Battersea Park with Chobe running alongside and tow her along the embankment, over Vauxhall Bridge, along the tow path/ pavement, then along The Cut, up between the Tate Modern and The Blue Fin building to Southwark Bridge, then straight up through the City to my office. I love it, it is a great way to see London, people, stay fit and it is as fast if not faster than driving in, not to mention the saving in petrol etc. The reality is that I alternate the journey between car and bike, so drive in to work in the morning, then cycle home, cycle to work and then drive home that night and so on, seems to work quite well, although Chobe is not that thrilled about it :( Anyway, until my knee is repaired and working again, I may well be driving in all the time!

Chobe in Battersea Park!


The mechanic course is brilliant! In the first theory session I learned the basic process of an internal combustion engine and the difference between a 2 stroke and 4 stroke. On the first practical, having been issued with steel toe-capped boots and a blue boiler suit and armed with an instruction manual, we were asked to remove the rear wheel, remove it, replace it, remove it again and the shocks and the breaks (drum not disc). The set up is amazing; a large, brightly lit and heated workshop; 10 or so hydraulic working platforms, each with a bike to work on; large, tool box on wheels with everything you need to strip and re-build the bike (I believe?), perfect! very different to working outside on the pavement, on a cold, damp evening, relying on he street lighting and a head torch. The 4 hours are pretty intense and these included the inductions, so they were only a taster of what is to come, this is going to be an exciting challenge! Got to run, got a knee op to go to ; )

Progress Report 2 - w/c 01.09.08

....two weeks has flown by, it is proving hard to fit everything in at the moment that is for sure!

Since my last report I have enrolled onto the Motorcycle Servicing and Repair course I mentioned and this past weekend I completed a 'day in the dirt' with Simon Pavey's crew in South Wales, which was awesome fun to say the least!!

So, as of 9th September I will start my basic mechanic training, down at the Vauxhall Centre on Wandsworth Road. It is 4 hours per night, two nights a week across 3 terms of 6-8 weeks. Tuesday nights will be theory and Thursday nights will be practical and although the sessions run from 5 - 9pm I understand that there is some flexibility, which is a relief as it will be quite a commitment in addition to working at Moving Brands and looking after Chobe - my Rhodesian Ridgeback; I wonder if they will let me bring her along? It was great to meet three of the tutors running the course, Sholto Downs, Tommy Coogan as well as the course tutor John Ryan. They came across as passionate about bikes and passionate about teaching, which bodes well seeing that we have to cram a week's work into 8 hours!! I also have to say that for £370 this seemed an absolute bargain, I will potentially save that each time I carry out my own service....at least I hope so, as there is the risk that I cause more damage and expense ; ) Since I am being thrown into Level 2, I have been advised to start reading the Motorcycle Maintenance Techbook (Haynes Service and Repair Manual) and bible according to the tutors, can't wait! It was also exciting to realise that my network of motorbike enthusiasts opening up and that the information I seek with regard to anything and everything about bikes is only a question away, from tyre choices to rally raids, so many people have already done so much it is inspiring.

On Saturday morning I left the cottage at about 0645hrs heading out towards the Brecons for a 'day in the dirt', the follow up to my Level 1 Advanced Off-road Skills course that I completed at the end of July. Back on the X-Challenge (Number 7), I volunteered when the course instructor asked "who wants to go on an extreme, fast paced day" and only 3 others did the same....and within minutes I was sweating like a badger and continued to do so for the rest of the day. It was hard, it was persistent, it was wet, very muddy, the course torn up by the previous week's Dawn To Dusk Enduro event - 500 bikes racing round a 15 mile circuit for 12 hours - but it was bloody brilliant, I was grinning from ear to ear all the way back to the Cotswolds! Met some great guys and hope to hook up with them for some green laning and Enduro racing events in the future, the Hafren perhaps? I have included some photos, but only a few as we were riding so hard for so long I did not have the energy to consider taking any photos, I am going to need to sort that out for the future though!



Our instructor asking for volunteers!



My partners in crime!



Steve smiling wrily as one of my colleagues took a wrong turn and lost his bike.....



......and found it again!



We were all laughing, as we had turned round to watch him come down the hill and all we saw was his bike sliding into the undergrowth as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do!! Bike and rider all fine and dandy. The last laugh was on me when we all set off only to find my gear lever was pointing south! They bend well though, (I was praying that it did not snap), I was flying through 2 feet of muddy water, awesome!

It was a brilliant day and our instructor Steve was fantastic, as he managed our skill levels perfectly. We were all being pushed to our limits of skill, ability, agaility and fitness. We were all shattered, but exhilerated as we knew we had been seriously challenged. They grade their routes like ski resorts; black, red, blue, green and we had been riding all the red routes and some black, all day. But, according to Steve, since these grades are set in dry conditions, the fact that the routes we rode on were so muddy and some were so churned up by the Enduro race I mentioned, we had been riding equivalent to black runs and even some black+, so that felt like a real achievement.....bring it on! All I had to worry about was making it home without falling asleep, well I it hardly a worry as I was stoked man!!

I thought I would throw in some random clips of a little convoy I joined back in April with Mr Boorman, you might just see me in his new series ‘By Any Means’ vying for a space at the front of the 500 bike entourage that followed him down from Banbury Services to the Ace Café in London. I had never been involved in such an event, it was very sensible madness!


Charlie with his fans before the start of the convoy



Charlie's bike for the first leg of the journey



A marshall and his dog, awesome!



Convoy!



At the Ace Cafe



Charlie's team



On his way!

I just heard that a friend of mine, Helen Ellery is embarking on Enduro Africa, the charity event held in South Africa each year, so best wishes to you...I'll sponsor you if you sponsor me! I have to take a certain amount of responsibility for Helen's motorbike interest after she rode pillion on the back my LC4 Supermoto about 5 years ago and her subsequent purchase of one, go Helen go!!!!!!

Oh and my bro is flying helicopters in Florida on his bid to earn himself a helicopter pilot’s licence, absolutely brilliant.

Finally, showed the Haute Route edit I produced (well, I assisted the direction of it with master editor and director Jack Laurance!) to one of my buddies on the route, Kieran Doherty. It is 56mins long so unfortunately I cannot post it up on my blog : (

Stay positive and as the Sage, Anthony Dale, would put it, “Live the dream!”