Seem to have spent the last few days hopping back and forth between Colorful Colorado and Utah he greatest show on earth - there are big sign posts as you cross the state line and they always proudly announce the state motto. Rode 400 miles from Cody to Vernal in one day. It was strange scenery. You appeared to be whizzing along a flat plain then all of a sudden a big gorge would open up from out of nowhere and steep rocky cliffs would be towering above you e.g. Wind River Gorge with its multi-coloured rocks complete with swirling patterns. Then the gorges would disappear and we were back out on the flat plains with no hint of the scenery we had just passed through. This is real wagon train county and lots of information ... read more

Sorry to be boring but its been another 5 days of riding through stunning scenery on nice twisty roads with no humorous little mishaps to report. The first few hundred miles were through the forested mountains at the southern end of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway and we couldn't move for bears. There were loads of them at the road side including some very cute cubs peaking over the top of the ditch to see if it was safe to cross the road. We got rather too close for comfort to one bear - as we came round one nice sweeping bend a rather large grizzly came dashing out of the bushes on the other side of the road and galloped across the road in front of us. With a lots of hard braking we just managed to ... read more

More vast open countryside with spectacular views round every corner. Another 4 days has passed and we've covered another 1026 spectacular miles - though it would be nice to see a tree without pine needles. Actually that's not really fair as we do go past the occasional stand of aspens in amongst the pine trees. We are still in the land of scenic viewpoints surrounded by trees but it doesn't matter as there is so little traffic on the road you can just pull up and take a photo. All the towns are small one horse places but the locals love it when you stop and they have someone new to chat to. Plus they all have small museums when you can catch up on the local history and culture. The rivers are all enormous and ... read more

To start the journey proper we headed north for 886 miles to get to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay - a 3 day journey; Anchorage to Fairbanks, Fairbanks to Coldfoot Camp, Coldfoot to Deadhorse. Our first exciting moment happened in the car park before we had even left. Edwin took the bike off the centre stand and it immediately toppled over on top of Kevin, the group leader, taking Edwin with it so he was lying on top of the bike with his feet waving in the air unable to get up - I dont have any photographic evidence as I was too busy laughing. Still at least it meant the group set off with a smile on their faces. We travelled the first 100 miles as a group then after coffee set off at ... read more

Way back in the cold, snowy days of Jan we spent two weeks test riding a range of motorcycles (Motoguzzis, KTMs, Hondas, BMWs) taking all of them on a circuit up and over the Pennines round Skipton & Malham on the little twisty back roads. There were a few exciting moments e.g. when it decided to snow really heavily on a particularly hilly, twisty single track road with nowhere to turn round and the only option was to keep climbing higher or when the KTM broke down in the middle of the busiest roundabout on the outskirts of Keighley. Still we survived and in March took possession of a shiny black BMW GS1200, with 3000 miles on the clock. Between March and June a steady stream of parcels kept arriving all containing essential bits and bobs ... read more