Cheeky first post

[srj999]

...and a long one, too...

Hello all,

I thought I'd join this forum, as I enjoy the banter that most forums offer (plus it's NOT Facebook, which gets hugely tiresome).
I will apologise for this inordinately long first message, though.

Along with my other half, I am planning a ride to raise awareness and funds for SERV (an out-of-hours blood courier service) and the Aplastic Anaemia Trust. More of each of the charities in a moment. We will be doing the ride in September 2012.

The plan will be to follow the coast of England and Wales, or as much as I can cope with, given the time, a journey of about 2200 miles. We will start from Kings College Hospital in Denmark Hill, London then follow a clockwise route round the country. We had planned to include Scotland but felt that would double the time needed and hike the costs too much.

We're hoping to complete the ride in ten days, stopping where we can at suitable BBC/Independent radio or TV studios to plug the causes. I think an average of 200 miles a day on B roads will be about all Cheryl (and probably I) will cope with.

I have approached the two charities already and they are very keen to help where they can. My local bike shop has said they will see what they can do to support; I'm hoping they will offer a cheap/free service before setting off. I have also approached Premier Inn to try and blag cheap/free accommodation in exchange for publicity. I considered camping but I think there'll be some days when all we want to do at the end of a day's ride is collapse into bed. Plus, I want to travel as light as possible.

I've set up a website (www.gpfuture.com/fjcoastalride) for people to visit and donate online to the charity of their choice. I need to come up with some ideas for pre-ride fund-raisers and would welcome suggestions. The website will be used to log our progress and to create a photo album and blog of the journey. We'll take along a camcorder, camera and netbook to keep it up to date (hopefully).

The bike, a 1988 FJ1200, is pretty tatty just now, so I am considering a respray to make the bike stand out more. At the very least, it'll need a decent service. I'll also be replacing the brakes and lines before we go.

The provisional daily itineraries have been worked out (and shown on the website). I have tried to keep to about 200-250 miles a day for Cheryl's sake as much as anything. Whilst I may be prepared to go further, I have to consider her in this.

I am also making very rough estimates for the costs but have come up with the following:

Fuel: £400
Tyres: £200
Hotels: £400 (if we can't do any deals)
Food: £250
Oil: £50
Stuff we forgot: £200

This gives a conservatively estimated cost for the trip of £1500. We want to be able to clear £1000 minimum for each charity, so that's a lot of extra funding we'll need to find. I will be putting my hand in my pocket for much of the running costs but will still seek any financial support I can get.

As for the charities, I'll start with the Aplastic Anaemia Trust (www.theaat.org.uk). Aplastic Anaemia is a very rare blood disorder that results in bone marrow failure. The only cure is a bone marrow transplant but this is not suitable for all sufferers and even when applied is a hugely risky, one-way street operation. If a patient's body rejects the transplant, that's it; game over. The AAT exists to support sufferers and their families and to raise funds for further research. Cheryl was diagnosed in 1985 and at the time was given 3 months to live. She was not suitable for bone marrow transplant but, with the aid of drugs, has beaten the odds and has the condition relatively under control.

I cannot give blood but I came across SERV (www.serv.org.uk) and their blood courier work. I decided that I could do that much at least and there was even a chance that one day, I might be transporting blood for Cheryl. SERV runs every day of the year from 7 in the evening until 6 in the morning and all day at weekends, taking blood and blood products (platelets, plasma), or X-rays to and from St Georges hospital in Tooting to hospitals in the home counties. It is growing and more SERV units are staring up across the country. All riders a volunteers, earning nothing for their time, not even the petrol money.

So, there we have it. Please check out our website and donate if you can. However, I really need suggestions for stop off places (bike shops, biker cafes, photo opportunity locations, etc.) so if anyone can advise, I'd be grateful.

Sorry for the huge length of this post. I'll stop now. Thanks for reading.

Steve[/b]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Must be Spring - Skudd's a courier now, I saw my first bee by the garage this morning, smelled fresh mown grass on the commute in and the "fund a jolly" posts have started.
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[TheDonUK]

I don't get it? why would i donate to your trip rather than directly to the charity concerned?

Surely donate the 1500, work your day job for a week or two and each charity gets a grand?
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[pepperami]

[Alpha-9]

Who wants to sponsor me to masturbate for 24 hours solid?
All proceeds go to my dealer


Also, Hi. A cheeky first post indeed
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Fzr-600 1999

[srj999]

Cheers guys. While I appreciate the replies, I won't waste your time any further. Both SERV & AAT are supportive of the ride, which I guess is the important thing. Cheryl & I will be covering a good deal of the costs ourselves, although we have had offers from a couple of hotels and people offering accommodation.

Doing the ride gives us an opportunity to tell people at the way points about the charities to help raise their profile. I'm sorry that you consider this to be an attempt to fleece people for a jolly.

Suffice to say that Cheryl, who still lives with aplastic anaemia, has a considerably less charitable view of your opinions. We all have pet charities; these are ours. I'll just live with the smugness of knowing that at night, I *AM* potentially saving someone's life. That may be Cheryl one day. I just thought that other riders may have considered it worthwhile.

[parkmoy]

[TheDonUK]

Don't get me wrong, you can't be knocked for wanting to help out a charity, its just if the stated end goal is to raise one thousand for each charity and the trip is costing 1500+ it seems to me if the charity element is the overriding factor then donate the trip money to charity, and go for a little ride to the seaside with your missus.

I don't see how a man and his wife(?) riding a motorcycle a few hundred miles a day has any relevance to anything charity related.

I am a miserable bastard though, good luck to you sir.
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[G]

You're budgeting £400 for hotels because you might be a bit tired at the end of a day's riding which isn't far off what some people commute?

If you want to actually make some money for charities, why not wild camp and make a thing of the fact you're not wasting money on luxuries?

Similarly - £250 on food?
There will be supermarkets on your route, they will sell the same food you'd presumably normally eat. Buy it from them, eat it.

You could probably eek out a set of race scrubs to do 2200 miles if ridden gently; Get a set of part worn touring tyres and total amount used on the tyres should be maybe £40 as that's a quarter of the life of some long-life tyres.`

[srj999]

Right:

The costs put up are what we are using as the details for a business plan being sent to organisations who have shown an interest in supporting us. In order for them to support, they want to know what we need and how much it would cost us.

Originally, I had planned to ride alone and was going to camp but it's no longer just me doing the ride. Cheryl is now coming, as she feels that taking part as an aplastic anaemia sufferer would better promote the charities. Her condition, whilst it doesn't stop her from riding the bike, does restrict how much she can do in any given day. The illness will ultimate kill her, of course, so she tends to live for the day.

90% of our route is on minor A & B roads. I think any 100 mile commute is more likely to be on motorways, not tight B roads. Lugging a loaded FJ1200 is going to take it out of me after ten days; it's not a particularly light or nimble machine.

If the weather turns after we'd done 8-10 hours on minor roads, the last thing I will want to subject her to is making/breaking camp in the rain. I budgetted £400 for hotels, which I may well get for a lot less. I've approached Premier Inn and Travelodge, both of whom wouild be considerably cheaper anyway.

Comments on tyres are more constructive and I'll certainly see what I can find. The same applies to food. We'll be eating light and not looking to use any classy restaurants but we will be seeking bike-friendly cafes.

We also want to stop at local TV and radio stations, as well as bike shops along the way, to chat to people and promote the charities and awareness. If people offer or send a donation to either of the charities as a result of that chat, all the better. We hope to exceed the targets, of course but whatever we raise will at least help.

[TheDonUK]

I don't think you're missus would like David Mitchell either

[pepperami]

[foggysdad]

Good luck mate, I kind of agree with the bloke who thought it would be better to save the cost in order to donate more but dont agree with tw*ts being rude, hope its fun

[sidewinder]

Good luck for the ride buddy hope its a good un
And i'm feeling generous so will donate a little on friday..

[MaybeGuy]

[Alpha-9]

Nice pointless bump

the lol of OP paying a grand in costs for this when he probably raised much less than that. £400 on hotels, really? Get a tent faggot.
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Fzr-600 1999