Hi and thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Back in October 2011 my mate Howard and I came up with an idea for a challenge for us in 2012 and to also raise money for macmillans nurses. We both have close relatives who have benefited from their help and we believe they do a fantastic job for the community.

As we are both into motorbikes it seemed appropriate to set a bike based challenge. We decided to buy small japanese bikes of less than 125cc that were due for the scrapman. The challenge being to rebuild them and then ride them from the North sea across to the Irish sea and back again. The total distance being approximately 200 miles over minor roads and across the pennines. The run to be completed over 2 days to allow for minor problems en route. We mentioned this run to members of the Teesside Yesteryear Car Club and a number of members are joining us on british motorbikes or 1940 s cars. Howard,myself and all the participants are  covering all our own costs so all money raised will go straight to Macmillans nurses.

On the bike front Howard has succesfully finished his but I cant say the same! The little B120 will not start due to the absence of a spark and after getting the little gp100 more or less sorted I fell off it yesterday doing minor damage. I may well be using a 1971 MZ instead. I did also resurrect a kawasaki but that manged to blow a large hole in its silencer. I now realise why I like MZ s and BMWs

The run will start at Saltburn on the 25th April we are leaving the cafe at the bottom of saltburn bank at 10 am and we finish day 1 in Arnside hopefully that evening. We are overnighting at Crooklands On the 26th we do the return leg finishing in saltburn. The weather forecast is awful so our water proofs will get some use.

Please support the charity so they can continue to improve the quality of life for cancer sufferers.

Well things didnt go exactly as planned! Apart from the weather.

 

Howards Suzuki wouldnt start so he had to use his BSA. It meant the combined age of riders and bikes was 206 years. After about the first 30 miles or so the heavens opened and we had rain on and off. A strong wind developed too which caused us to get blown from side to side. It was a tough ride and we were wet and cold. We got to Arnside about 5 hours after setting off. We didnt stay long there as we got a message saying that our back up car had broken down and was half blocking a road under the railway bridge. We turned back and with the TYMC folk the car was repaired. We got back to our hotel and managed to dry our gear overnight. The following day it rained from the off and it was torrential at times turning the roads into streams. Fortunately the wind had gone. Howards bike started to give problems culminating in an electrical fire just short of our final destination. He managed to fix the wiring and we got back to saltburn albeit extremely wet. Howard deserves a lot of credit for battling on to the end.

When we saw how much has been donated it made all the effort well worthwhile and we would like to thank everyone for their donations and also the lads and lasses of the TYMC who accompanied us. This meant that we didnt have to carry our gear on the bikes and that it remained dry.

Thanks again to everyone involved.

John and Howard