Sometimes life gets in the way of adventurous ambitions, but it doesn’t have to…
It’s a fact of life that many of us can’t pursue our dreams because of the limitations of our circumstances. For myself, and for many of you reading this, a ride around the world with no set time limit is the fantasy, but I’m in the position where real life gets in the way.
A job that I’m happy with, financial commitments and limitations, and family ambitions all form an impassable roadblock for the types of adventures that would require me to pack it all in and leave the country for months, maybe even years.
As of February (when we went to print) the leaderboard stands as follows:
1st James: 1,732 miles
2nd Bryn: 1,117 miles
3rd Julian: 198 miles
4th Will: 110 miles
Where am I going with this? Well, I’m not unique at Adventure Bike Rider magazine – anyone who works here turns up to work five days a week and puts in the hard yards, otherwise, how would we publish a magazine?
With that in mind, over a beer one day, myself (editor), Will (advertising sales), James (staff writer), and Julian (bike tester) decided that we’d set ourselves a little challenge. A challenge that you can join in with, too.
Throughout 2019 we’re aiming to ride the equivalent distance of an around the world ride, as measured by the Guinness Book of Records, which means that by 31 December 2019, we want to have ridden 18,000 miles.
Doing the maths, this means (given that we started on 1 February) we need to be covering an average of 54 miles per day to achieve our target. Personally, my commute is a paltry 18 miles in total, so I’m going to have to look elsewhere when racking up the figures. It could be tougher, though.
Both Will and James will struggle to top four miles on their commutes, while Julian works from home! Of course, we are fortunate enough to work for a motorcycle magazine, which means we do have to ride routes and bikes in the name of work, but still, 18,000 miles is a fair old distance to travel in a year.
With this in mind, and this is one of the driving forces behind this challenge, we’ll have to start looking to get out on the bikes a lot more when time allows. I’m already plotting weekends away with my partner, Naomi, and this can only be a good thing.
Mileages will also increase as the days get longer and we can start taking the longer routes home, and boy, am I looking forward to it! So, what do you have to do to join in? It’s quite simple really. Record your starting mileage (photo evidence is preferable) and get riding!
Join Us
Why don’t you join us in our mission to ride 18,020 miles this year? Simply make a note of your starting mileage (a photo of your odometer would be ideal) and take it from there. If you’re getting involved, we’d love to hear from you to see how you’ve been racking up the miles.
Drop us an email at bryn@adventurebikerider.com, and if we use your photo or story in the next issue you’ll get a free year’s subscription to the magazine.