Idea 9: Crowdsource the knowledge to ride solo with a motorcycle from London to Cape Town

It has been something I wanted to do for a very long time - a solo trip from London to Cape Town on a motorcycle.


In April 2011, I bought an Africa Twin and is currently using it to commute around London - a bit of an insult to the motorcycle, given what it is capable of.

It is always easy to find excuses for not doing the things we dream of. Finding excuses not to ride the length of Africa on your own, maybe even easier.

The excuses can be broadly categorised into:

1. Money - "It's too expensive"/ "Do you know how much it will cost?!" 

2. Time - "How can you get 6 months off work?"

3. Danger - "Half of African countries have some kind of conflict" / "Are you crazy?!" 

4. Capability - "What do you know about riding?" / "What happens if it breaks?"

The first two I can plan for, the third I can shrug of with a philosophical "we are all going to die" but the 4th will need a bit more effort. Given that I know nothing about motorcycle mechanics and little about adventure riding, I will address this problem as follows:

Idea 9 - Crowdsourcing the knowledge needed:

Start a blog to capture everything I learn. This can then be used by other enthusiasts wanting to do the same, help document my story and serve as a guide to keep me focused.

The information contained in the blog will be completely crowdsourced from individuals that have more knowledge on the topic than I do. These individuals can be found on motorcycle forums like http://www.xrv.org.uk and http://www.advrider.com/. Forums like these are treasure troves of knowledge and advice.

The blog will mainly be a "how-to" guide, broken down into a series of episodes. Each episode covering a very specific topic e.g., learning to get the bike onto the centre stand, changing a tyre, all the way through to sorting out visas and getting insurance.

I hope to find voluntary "mentors" on-line, willing to teach me specific skills. The format of each episode will be these "mentors", teaching me this skill and maybe ending with a story they have related to riding.

There is a lot of information scattered about on the topic of motorcycle travel but I wish to tell my story like every story should be told - from the beginning.




Update 1 Feb 2012
I did a basic Motorcycle maintenance course with Oval Motorcycle Centre last night.
They were absolutely brilliant and just the advice I got over the two tea breaks, were probably worth more than the £35 I paid for the course. It just got me excited again about pulling my finger in regards to my motorcycling. 

Why such a dry spell?

Funny thing, making your ideas public. As I said in my first post, I had no idea where this blog will lead me or how long it will last. It just felt right at the time and it still feels right. I had positive feedback from friends and one guy is now writing three songs a day! What a compliment.


I have been beating myself up a bit for being "out of ideas" to put on this blog until a friend remarked that it might be all for a good reason. I am working on two ideas that I think might have legs and it is strange, but it feels that the part of your brain thinking about ideas and the part actioning ideas are mutually exclusive.


Given that my "give away idea" part of thinking is now wrestling with my "doing stuff" part , I'll also be including posts on the latter as time goes by.


The next post is something I have been dreaming about for a very long time. The dreaming stops now.