Motorcycle Explorer November 2016 Issue 14 | Page 48

MEET THE
MAGOWANS
THE PINT SIZE DUO ARE TWO TIME AUTHORS AND GLOBAL RIDERS. IRISH
CHARM AND LUCK GETS THEM THROUGH THE HARD TIMES OUT THERE.
Norman Magowan
take up the challenge of the
Pan-American bike trip.
as Quality Manager for the
highly successful MIRI
I hail from the beautiful city
Instrument programme, one of
of Belfast, Northern Ireland,
Since returning
the four
where I worked in the
from the Americas
instruments that
never
a
dull
aerospace industry for 10
in 2006, I have
will
fly on the
moment on the
years before moving to
written two books,
road,for us it's home James Webb Space
Stevenage in England in 1989 Leprechauns in
Telescope
to take up gainful employment Latin America and
(successor to
in the UK Space industry. In Leprechauns in Alaska, which
Hubble). With MIRI
2003 I decided to quit my role relate the story of that
delivered to NASA, I then
as Quality Manager on a
Pan-American trip. This was
worked on a number of ESA
leading space programme to
followed by a return to work
CHECK THEIR
WEBSITE
programmes, including
Aeolus and EarthCARE,
before deciding to return to
the road for this latest
two-wheeled adventure.
together:
Mags Magowan The first was inspiration from
the book ?Jupiter?s Travels? by
Ted Simon, read by just about
everyone who ever travelled
anywhere on a bike.
I am a native of Holywood,
County Down, and am a
qualified Pilates instructor,
teaching my own classes in
the Herts area (for more
details check out
Magspilates.com). Recently I
have also taken up Yoga,
pursuing the necessary
qualifications to become an
accomplished instructor. I
have been passionate about
travel from an early age and
we have been fortunate that
Norman?s job provided ample
opportunity to live and work
abroad. The second major influence
came in 1981 when we set off,
together on a little single
cylinder Kawasaki Z200, to
undertake a 3,000 mile round
trip from Belfast to the South
of France. It was our first
adventure and left us well and
truly bitten by the travel bug.
Since then motorcycles have
taken us around most of
Europe, across North Africa,
coast to coast across the USA
and of course on that epic
Pan-American journey
spanning some 15-months and
35,500 miles on the road?
We met when we were 17 and
there were two major
influences on our early lives