Days To Go, All Wrapped & Ready!

To say I’m excited would be like saying I’m a little on the lardy side! With only 3 days to go before the big off, I’m looking all dapper in my glad rags, newly painted lid and freshly wrapped beast. And it’s not just the cosmetics that are coming together either!

Under the help and expert guidance of Amanda Wooders at TravCour(UK) (www.travcour.com), visas are now well under way and several have already been granted. With many more still in the queue ready to present themselves at embassies and consultates all over London & Europe, I’m a long way from easy street, but the first steps have certainly been taken. There are a few tricky ones amongst them, most notably China and Saudi, but with luck on my side and some positive thinking from all you guys, I’m sure we’ll see them through.

Before I get back to everything that’s been going on, I’ll just cover the incredible work that has gone into producing this amazing piece of art you see in the main pic.

The Bike Wrap

I’m lucky to have an incredibly talented mate called Simon Clare who draws pictures for a living. His portfolio includes work for Disney, Warner Bros, Pixar, Looney Tunes, BBC, BMW & Coca Cola, and now ‘TeapotOne’ to name but a few! Si came up with the conceptual design for the bike wrap, and when I asked if he could incorporate everyone’s names into the main fairing logo, I think he was just about ready to knock me out! I’m sure Si has found himself pushed to his very limits within his role as ‘Chief Illustrator’ here at ‘TeapotOne’. He was responsible for my logo and merchandise designs, if you don’t like them….. it’s HIS fault! You can view his website portfolio at www.contact-me.net/simonclare

So once Simon had come up with the conceptual design, it was over to Mark Lumsdon of Thunderline Designs (07860 709236 or mail@thunderline.co.uk) to actually wrap the bike itself. Mark has a long established reputation for quality work and an attention to detail that’s second to none. Anyone in and around London during the olympics is bound to have seen his work as he was part of the team who wrapped all the BMW’s used for the games. He also frequently does work for Dobles of Coulsdon, the South’s busiest Honda motorcycle dealership. But he’d never actually wrapped a whole bike before, until he met me!

But I think you’ll agree he’s done an incredible job. With only a matter of days to get everything printed out, on the bike and ready to go for an impending photoshoot, Mark worked around the clock. Literally actually, starting at 2pm on the Tuesday and finishing at 6:30AM on the Wednesday morning!

I think you’ll agree, both Simon and Mark have done an incredible job. I’m over the moon with the way the bike looks and can’t wait to get going on the 1st!

The Lid

Well it wasn’t just the beast that’s been getting a makeover here at TeapotOne HQ. A month or so ago I was invited along to Ron Haslam’s Race School again as guests of Bridgestone, but this time to complete their ‘Elite’ class on the Honda Fireblades. Whilst there I got fantastic 1-2-1 tuition from none other than BSB racer Tristan Palmer. Whilst chatting with him he put me on to a lad called Lee Fareham of D-ZignUK.com who does custom paint-jobs on helmets, so I dropped Lee a line. Less than 4 weeks later I had a spanking new scheme which looks stunning!

Let’s Catchup…

Ok, now let’s rewind a tad and I’ll get you up to speed with what’s been going on since the last post quite some time ago.

– the carnet

I can only apologise for the delay in updating you guys, it’s been a manic few months with loads and loads going on, not always trip related! I suppose the biggest issue I’ve faced so far was the Carnet de Passage. For those not in the know, the carnet is a bit of paperwork which is required in certain countries around the globe in order to take high value bits of equipment into and out of those countries. Effectively it is put in place to stop people buying a bit of kit, in my case a motorbike, which is worth X-amount in my home country, and then taking it to another country where it is worth 6X-amount, selling it and pocketing the tax due to my home country. Loads more info about them can be found on the RAC website at (http://www.rac.co.uk/travel/driving-abroad/carnet-de-passage/)

I could bore you for about an hour regarding the saga I had getting mine, but in a nutshell it went like this. Almost 3yrs ago I contacted the RAC (they are the carnet issuing authority in the UK) to get advice on cost and application schedules etc. I spoke with a great guy called Paul Gowen who was ‘Mr Carnet’ here in the UK. He was very helpful and knowledgable, listened to everything about TeapotOne, and advised me that I’d qualify for special discounts due to the nature of the trip. As I would be taking in Egypt in my route, which has the highest risk factor in carnet terms, I would be liable for 8 times the value of my goods during the first 12 month period of travel. As my bike was worth £10K, that was an £80K risk!! However with the discounts, I was told I’d need to pay a one-off fee of around £1,900 for the 1st 12 months, then a significantly lower fee for the 2nd 12months. Paul told me he’d be in touch in June this year and that was that.

Well June came and went this year and there was no sign of the RAC, so I gave them a bell. This is where it got interesting as Paul no longer worked for them. The helpful staff told me they’d updated their systems and everything was done online now so just fill it all in and they’d get back to me in a matter of weeks.

July flew by and soon it was the start of August. I was getting nervous as I knew I’d have to start visa applications in a few weeks and I’d need the carnet for these, so I gave the RAC a bell again. Good job I did really as they were just working out my premium, and guess what? It was now at the £80K mark!! I explained once again what I was doing and that I’d been told I qualified for the discounts, only to be told that the RAC no longer offered these discounts and I would have to either stump up the £80K myself, get a business or bank to guarantee it, or I could go down the insurance premium route and I could pay £8K, with a view to getting £4K back when I returned!

To say I was a tad excitable by this point would be a slight understatement and I have to admit, my time in Glasgow wasn’t wasted as some of the more colourful character traits came to the fore in a 5 minute tirade, aimed at nobody in particular! I couldn’t believe they were doing this, not now, not when I was so close, not after I’d checked almost 3yrs previosuly to make sure I wouldn’t be in this situation! No. NO. NO!!!!!

Anyhoo, the long and short of it was this. After many weeks of too-ing and fro-ing I was faced with a phone call from the RAC on the 30th August from a lovely woman called Jess. Now Jess had taken sole charge of my predicament and had been tirelessly fighting my corner and trying to get the price down. Unfortunately, this phone call wasn’t good and she basically told me it wasn’t looking favourable and I’d have to find the money somehow if I wanted the carnet. All along I’d planned on the 1st October as my leaving date as this is my late mum’s birthday and she’s the very reason I’m doing it. But without the carnet I couldn’t apply for some visas the next day, meaning the whole project would be delayed and the start date put back.

But it wasn’t just a case of the project being delayed. If I couldn’t find a minimum of £8K then I wasn’t getting the carnet, meaning I couldn’t go to most of Africa, the Far East, and even some of South America! The whole thing was looking like it was collapsing around me, I couldn’t believe it! I was faced with the fact I may actually have to cancel the whole thing, 3 years of work all gone, so many people let down, so many doubters proven right.

I sat at my computer desk and stared at my email for a few hours, stumped at how the hell I was going to word all this to my sponsors and followers. By about 2:30pm that afternoon I was still in a state of shock when the phone rang. On answering I was met by the familiar voice of Jess from the RAC who sounded remarkably upbeat? “Have you cancelled it yet?” she asked. She then gave me the incredible news that she’d managed to get a huge discount applied to my case and the carnet would be mine for a tad under £2,500. What’s more, it would be in my hands by 8am the following morning! I just about proposed to her over the phone.

So that was that. In the space of about 3hrs I’d gone from almost admitting defeat, facing the prospect of my adventure of a lifetime crumbling in front of me, to complete euphoria firmly back in the driving seat of the TeapotOne juggernaut. Life was good once again. I was back on for the 1st October!!

Full Steam Ahead…

Blimey, I’ll be going around the world then! It sounds weird I know, but I’d almost put this fact to the back of my mind through all these months and years of planning. It was always, “next year”, or “in 6 months”, but all of a sudden it was, “in 3 weeks”!! Crikey I best get a jiggle on eh.

As soon as I had that carnet it was as if a massive green light had been turned on in front of me. It was full steam ahead preparing all the visa applications which had to be completed in advance of my departure. I’ve opted to use a specialist to help with all the various visas I’ll need for the trip, and after a bit of research online I found www.travcour.com They specialise in visa and passport services and have over 25yrs experience in the field. Lovely job.

But I’ve got to say, when I first approached Amanda Wooders about my trip, I could tell she was slightly sceptical and almost dismissive of my attempts to include some of the more problematic countries. I’m sure she thought I didn’t have a hope in hell in getting some of them, and although there are plenty more still to be applied for, we’ve already secured most of West Africa! Just the ever tricky Angolan to go, rarely issued to overlanders for some reason, but I’m feeling good.

Kit…

Today saw the last of the kit arrive so I’m now ready to go. Well almost. There’s just the small matter of figuring out how to pack it all into the Kriega luggage and fit it all on the bike.

That’s something I’ll get going with today and tomorrow, and once I’m on the road I’ll start detailing all the Kit in the ‘Kit’ section of the site. There’s some cracking equipment for me to feature and I’m really looking forward to trying it all out.

Yep, I know I should’ve done all the trial runs already, but you know, things to do and all that!! At the start of the year I learned that lesson when I arrived at Assen race circuit in the pitch black the night before I began my ‘BSB Enduro Ride‘. It was about -6oC and I’d never put the tent up before, how hard could it be?

Well I found out, resulting in me having to be rescued by a bemused marshall who let me stay in her caravan for the night. You got to love the dutch!

So this time I wasn’t going to make the same mistake and set to work erecting the tent I was taking on the trip, the Vango Chinook 200, right there in my living room. Probably not the best move as, although only a 2 man tent and very compact and light when packed, it’s a big old bugger when up!

I’ll not spoil the surprise of what it looks like yet, so you’ll need to wait until I hit the road for all that. But if you like your tents, this one’s a cracker. (God have I turned into one of them already? I’ll come back from this trip with dread’s, a nose piercing, and a fondness for hugging bark!!)

That’ll Do For Now…

Well there’s loads more but to be quite frank I think I’ve bored you enough. So we’ll call it quits for now and I’ll try to get one more update before the big off on Monday.

If you didn’t know, I leave from the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London this Monday (1st October 2012) to begin the TeapotOne adventure. I’ll be there from 8am and will be leaving at 9:30hrs to ride down to Dover for the 12:05hrs ferry to Calais. Come along on your bike and join me in a mass ride out down to the coast, or just come along to see me off at the Cenotaph!

Be great to see you all, I can’t wait.