Motorcycle Explorer Issue 6
I put it to Charley that there is in fact a swirl of negative comment about his trip . He looked a little taken aback , ‘ I hadn ’ t realised there was any as it ’ s not something that anyone else has brought up , but I suppose I shouldn ’ t be surprised because that ’ s the way of things isn ’ t it ; anyone who has a bit of success is going to take a bit of knocking aren ’ t they . You know , before we set off I felt a bit guilty about the amount of high tech equipment we had to help us . Ted Simon with his amazing book Jupiter ’ s Travels was a major inspiration to us , and his trip was probably the thing that actually made us realise that we might be able to do it . We met Ted en route and I commented to him about our equipment . He put my mind at rest by telling us that when he ’ d set off , he too had done what any sensible person would do ; take every bit of logical equipment that would give the trip the chance of success . Ted said that had a GPS been available in the 70 ’ s when he did his trip he would have taken it . I felt better after that . Ted went on to say that I shouldn ’ t forget that regardless of the equipment , it was us who had ridden the miles and that that was what counted , if anyone was in fact counting .’
Charley explained that he and Ewan ’ s aims for the trip were twofold . ‘ First of all we just wanted to ride motorcycles around the world , but we also wanted to meet people . Neither of us realised that this was in fact going to be the main highlight of the trip ; the people we met really made it .’ His greatest pre trip fear was falling off big time . He was really conscious that it could be a very painful life threatening event which would more than likely happen in the middle of nowhere . ‘ You know , the sort of accident that bikers don ’ t like to talk about .’ He went on to explain that his biggest worry about a major fall off was what would happen to his family . He said that for him one of the reasons why the decision was made to do the trip in such a short time span was that he didn ’ t feel it was fair to his family to add additional months of worry for them ; he has a wife and two daughters . ‘ You know , when you have a wife and children you depend on them and when the road got really tough in Mongolia it very much brought that home to me .’ He went on to say , ‘ I am really fortunate that my wife Olly understands me so well , and that this was something Ewan and I just had to do ; the time was right . You know , when we were trying to get the trip together and things so often went wrong , it was my wife and children that were coming up with ideas how to make it happen !’
Charley explained that the prep stage had in many ways been harder than the trip itself . ‘ It was a whole new world and nothing seemed to go smoothly . For example , I ’ d wanted to do the trip on KTM ’ s because they are both light and poky , but KTM backed out on us ; they didn ’ t think we ’ d make it . BMW were great though . I ’ d thought that their bikes were going to be too heavy and well , they always had ‘ that ’ reputation for being staid . Not so though , and the BMW team were brilliant ; they knew there was a chance we wouldn ’ t make it but the point for them was that we should be encouraged to try .’
I asked Charley how it felt as they actually set off . ‘ The strange thing was that there ’ d been so much going on that it wasn ’ t until we got to where the bikes were stored that it sunk in ; an awful sensation and it really got to me . So much so that I dropped my bike in front of everyone ; I ’ d lost all of my energy and I could hardly ride the bike . It wasn ’ t until we got to Hammersmith roundabout and some blokes in a van yelled out wanting to know when we were going on the trip that their enthusiasm pulled me back together . Ewan was feeling pretty much the same up until that moment and that was part of the closeness between us that developed phenomenally during the trip . I ’ ll tell you what , when we were in the Channel tunnel and knew that this was going to be the last public transport we ’ d be on until the Bering Straits , we were elated .’