Check in..

Just a quick check in to show we've not totally hibernated over the winter. We've got 90% of the house move done, just a few more weeks of unpacking and DIY and we'll be back concentrating fully on the bikes and touring again.

Been back commuting on the bikes this week which has been great, just to get some of the rust and winter crud off my bike and dust off some wobbly skills after pretty much 6 weeks or so without riding. Bloody chilly out, but feels great on dry roads again today.

Kit wise, we picked up a couple of 5L petrol cans from Aldi this week at just £2.99 each. Knock ourselves up some Touratech style racks and we'll be sorted! ..

We signed up to the Adventure Bike Rider - Nature Rally 2011 too, see if we can't get to a few of the National Parks this year before the government sells them all off. Should be good practice for the tour and get to see some fantastic parts of the countryside at the same time. - Mark

.. oh and well done Si Pavey on another Dakar finish! Good job. Jenny and Craig too, amazing effort all.

Moving on..

Thoroughly enjoying the dakar rally at the moment, only a couple of stages left to go and Simon Pavey is still in there. Get well soon to Craig and Jenny, brilliant effort by both of them and great to be able to follow them on the ADV rider forum.

We are bang in the middle of moving this week, decorating every night and with needing the car to shift things back and forwards my bike is still sitting in a bit of a sorry state awaiting its first ride of the year. Once the house is sorted then it will be next in line for some attention and love, might even get round to some riding too! Still not had a chance to test my video camera onboard yet, so looking forwards to that.

Kit purchases have also been put on hold for a bit, but I did get my signed Sam Manicom book, a handy little survival kit and a posh Union flag sticker for the bike for Christmas. I also credit carded a pair of 80 litre security nets while they were in a half price sale (much less than half the price they were at Motorcycle Live) and some small union flag sew on patched off eBay too.

Another good Morocco trip blog - http://jonnybgood11.wordpress.com/

ps. Finally uploaded a swanky title logo thing too for your viewing pleasure.

Happy New Year

Well it's already 2011, the last few months of 2010 seemed to pass in a flash and Morocco is now only 8 months away! Happy new year to everyone, lets hope it's a good one.

Not much bike action lately, even though it's warmed up a bit lately we've been busy decorating through every scrap of daylight, so not had a chance to get the bike checked, charged, oiled, inflated and running again yet, but hopefully soon.

I have however been following the Dakar rally as much as possible:

Lots of Eurosport coverage being streamed live and archived here.. http://www.freewebs.com/chrizzzie/Dakar.htm

the main Eurosport website has regular video uploads too.. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/motorsport/video/

there are regular audio recordings from the race at Rally Radio.. http://www.rallyraidio.net/

and of course the official site... http://www.dakar.com/index_DAKus.html

For updates on the individual Brit (and resident Aussie) riders:

Si Pavey - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simon-Pavey/242186883825

Jenny Morgan - http://www.facebook.com/pages/JMo-Racing-Jenny-Morgan-Dakar/173711529317544?v=wall

Craig Bounds - http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=647686

Good luck to them all!