Three old men doing what old men do!

Prior to the pandemic all three were regularly to be found on continent-busting adventures on their Ducati Multistrada motorcycles, but all that stopped with travel restrictions. So, the trio reverted to the UK for their motorcycle miles, formalising their plan to ride the entire UK coastline in three legs.

The first of these was to start in Cumbria, going around the Scottish coast, including Arran, Mull, Sky and the Orkneys, seven ferries and 1,330 miles in 10 days. No problem on the Ducati, but that was too easy; the motorcycles of choice for this trip would be three 30 year-old Honda Super Cub 50cc motorcycles. With less than 5hp, a top speed of 37 mph flat out with a tail wind, but with around 100 mpg achievable they can eek out the 1,1 gallon fuel tank, filled with 98 octane petrol for extra power.

With zero trepidation the Super Cubs were fired up and the journey began with an escort out of Carlisle by members of the Blood Bikes team to the sounds of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.

This first leg will end on Holy Island, when the trio will return to their normal day jobs, Messrs Walker and Monkhouse back at Complete Engineering Services and Mr Addison out on the golf course. The second and third legs will take the total mileage to 4,700 and will be undertaken at a later date and will see them heading south down the east coast of England, along the south coast ending up at Land’s End.

The third leg will get them back home to Carlisle, via Wales and possibly a lap of the TT course on the Isle of Man. Plans are already afoot to add a fourth leg around Ireland.

“Both my wife and I were hospitalised with COVID back in January and we couldn’t have been better looked after,” says Mr Monkhouse. “So this opportunity to mix great banter with friends, with three old blokes on bikes that are more at home running to the shops, with raising money for the Infirmary and Blood Bikes Cumbria was too good to miss.”

As they were going to do this anyway – at some point – the trio are covering all of their costs for fuel and accommodation themselves, meaning any sponsorship raised from individuals, and companies, such as Ceratizit UK & Ireland will go directly to the Infirmary and Blood Bikes Cumbria.

Anyone wishing to support the intrepid fundraisers can donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/thee-old-men-and-50-cubs?qid=136e6b30221da1a63f588f2fdfe1c9bf.

Ceratizit UK & Ireland sponsorship brings added incentive as the company will donate £1.00/mile on a daily basis to keep the total ticking over.

“Andrew and Alan, as well as being Ceratizit customers, have also become friends of ours over the years we have worked together, so when we heard about their ‘adventure’ we were happy to get involved.

As a company we have supported manufacturing initiatives such as the VentilatorChallengeUK, but this is a more personal endeavour,” says Tony Pennington, managing director, Ceratizit UK & Ireland. “Hopefully it marks a return to some more normal times as we continue to recover as from the pandemic.”

Ceratizit UK & Ireland www.ceratizit.com