I thought I'd post these few video clips from my 2011 adventure of circumnavigating mainland Great Britain on 'L' plates, purely for posterity.

In a nut shell, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and lost both her boobs in May 2010. Feeling very sorry for ourselves, and not knowing what the future might bring, I was inspired by the Vietnam Special Top Gear whereby Clarkson - a self proclaimed bike hater - admitted to actually enjoying the trip. I decided I could do something along those lines, albeit a little closer to home, so I came up wight he idea of circumnavigating mainland Britain, sticking as close to the coast as seemed reasonable.

I'd never been on a bike before in my life.

As a taster, I organised a little trip around the circumference of Norfolk.



A few peeps came along too. I was on my Honda Pantheon, Kev on is 50 Pig, Aaron on a 50 thing and Tina on a Suzuki VanVan



A few other riders from the village and hospital, also joined us.



My wife caught the moment we pulled into the pub car park'

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Well done mate few of us did lands end John o groats last year .

Initially I had 7 people who were up for the round Britain trip. By the time it started to get into serious planning, there was just myself and Kev. Least of all it kept things easier to organise. A recently retired mate of mine, Roger, volunteered to drive the support vehicle and his wife got to work contacting B&B's along our route for accommodation (she done such a good job, we ended up not paying a penny for any accommodation.)

On June 25th 2011 we were ready to go. I was on my Honda Pantheon, Kevin on a Honda Psi, the bike that I had bought for my wife The press were there to recored the event even thought he sun wasn't shining.

As I was from Essex, I wanted to go anti clockwise round otherwise it would be day 3 and I'd still be in familiar surroundings. The plan of the route was thus;







Day 1 went uneventfully and on day 2 we met up with our support driver




Robin Hoods Bay


Whitby


At the end of day two, we ran into a spot of bother. I decided to redesign the front of my Pantheon by going into the back of Kev on a roundabout in Middlesborough. He was braking hard for some lights. I wasn't. DOH!




Kev injured his back, me my left shoulder. My Pantheon was taken away on the back of a recovery truck, never to be seen again, the PS seemed to be in perfect working order. Unlike me and Kev. Come the next morning Kev was still in agony with his back, me with my shoulder. Kev decided to go home by train, I decided to push on to Edinburgh to see how I was. Funnily enough, my shoulder was a lot better while it was resting on the handle bar.

As far as I knew the bike was working fine although the exhaust sounded a bit loud and in the wet and cold, I was really missing my heated grips. It was great to have a hot bath that evening.

We then carried on working around the fabulous Scottish coast line (recommended folks) and I'll let the pics do the talking from now on


Roger in a place where they make those rigs.


The things you see!




The sign where you get charged a lot of money to have your pic taken with it...


...and the one you don't.
I can also vouch that if you go via the coastal route it adds exactly another 1,000 miles




Phone box in the middle of no where


Near Tongue


The beach in the top left of Scotland




Big sky


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Eilean Donan Castle




Ferry ramp


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Stranraer


Stranraer sunset






Leaving Scotland


Blackpool sea front under the tower


My brief foray off the mainland to see the Menai bridges




This guy read about my trip and was the head of MAG in Aberystwyth and rode shotgun with a few others for a part of a leg. Top man.


St David's Cathederal


Tenby weather


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The Severn Bridge. As it's a motorway and I was on 'L's, the authorities allowed me to use the footbridge provided I didn't exceed 15mph


North Devon, near Porlock


Lynmouth


Called in to see Doc Martin


Selfie at Lands End








Goonhilly




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Lowestoft sea front, the furthest point East on the mainland


Yarmouth sea front on the final day, I was joined by a few other bikers who were going to brave the weather.
















The full story can be found here http://www.fatblokeonamoped.com

Who's up for a lap of honour?

total respect, what a great story, and trip. well done. Who says you need bigger than a 125 eh??

Good pics. Well done!
Shame about the prang.

Well, there's an adventure you'll never forget! Nice one

horobags wrote:
total respect, what a great story, and trip. well done. Who says you need bigger than a 125 eh??

Chippie said.

Inspiring post, very interesting. Good adventure which I would think was made more exciting using a 125.

VOZZA wrote:Inspiring post, very interesting. Good adventure which I would think was made more exciting using a 125.

very well put pete.

VOZZA wrote:Inspiring post, very interesting. Good adventure which I would think was made more exciting using a 125.

I didn't really know any different but it was widely acknowledged that a 50 wouldn't have been up the the task. Covered 3,705 miles and changed the oil once in Newport, Wales.