Making progress

The new KO2 site is up and running now thanks to the fabulous Li Bromfield of Freak or Geek.

Next stop is the fabulous UnLtd who want to help "unleash my energy .. to transform the world". I hope they do cos 2 years of bureaucracy and waiting around to proceed is doing my head in!

I am forever grateful though for the help I'm given along the way, esp. Ange at Business Link, who despite being shafted by Cameron's cuts in spending, has now been able to throw me a rope with mentoring funding allowing me to sit down with an expert to guide me through the minefields of employment law, risk assessment and working with kids!!

Its just not enough in this mad world to simply be a mother who loves motorbikes??

So .. big week ahead, think I'll make it a little more relaxed by going to meetings on the GSX-R. Chances are i'll get there on time and no need for a suit.

Testing the awesomeness of Posterous

The internet is a myriad of ...I'll say goodbye to the Twitterers now unless you click the short code?

.... a myriad of branches and links going off to all kinds of places. Its hard to get your head around all the autoposting capabilities of publishing apps and its very easy to lose yourself in occurrences such as FriendFeed's double posting possibilities but I'm now trying Posterous "the dead simple place to post everything".
I'm writing this post to try and get my head around how complicated this is going to be. This post is "apparently" going to appear instantaneously all over my rather large and complicated net presence, namely; Twitter, FaceBook, my FB charity page (not the group though???), LinkedIn, Friendfeed (which could then cause infinite duplications), Plurk, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious and both the old AVIF blog and the KO2 blog .. (breeeeeathe) .. but not the main AVIF website. I won't bother putting links to all these "profiles" / places because this article is actually going to be published on each one of them, apparently?
So that means that personal stuff I want to share will go all over the place but AVIF's website articles will still have to be added separately, same with postings for the FB group (annoyingly) which still has more use, in my opinion, than a FaceBook page. Posterous also doesn't allow you to utilise FB's powerful tagging facility whereby sticking an @ sign infront of a name automatically tags the person, group, page, application, service etc. But if I stick hashtags everywhere perhaps I can throw it around #Twitter a bit more e.g. #posterous #facebook #bla bla bla
Let me get this straight? If I want to throw something out wide across the net I use Posterous, right? But then the Twitterers aren't even reading this part unless they click the short link several hundred characters back in this post. Surely the thing that keeps social media buzzing is social i.e. personal i.e. REAL stuff .. which you can't get in 140 characters .. how many Twitterers have actually clicked the short code and are actually reading this?
Do I simply use Posterous from now on? ..which is crazy as the whole point of Posterous is that I'm sending you this by simply writing an email in Gmail??
If I attach a little image too they'll somehow pass that onto you, although via email i've no idea where it'll go (at the end maybe)?
So .. let the learning curve continue ...

Posted via email from alisonlowndes's posterous

I'm so pants

I've not updated this blog in so so long but now I will as I've finally ditched my addiction to flash-based Moonfruit.com and therefore the KO2 website too. A wonderful designer in London, Li, of FreakorGeek, is, as we speak, rustling up a new look site for us but since we're still stalled in process and council ... Yawwwwwn.

I won't bore you with details but we're S-T-I-L-L waiting for a go-ahead from NYCC as to  whether or not we can join forces with their new 40-place BESD School on the Forest Moor site. when things start moving we can too.

Although the waiting around is of course frustrating, while this takes place, Zero Motorcycles are stepping up their presence with the help of the TT Zero event (Year 1) of electric superbike racing on the Isle of Mann. Since KO2 wants to use electric dirtbikes this is all good and will help bring the prices down of the units.

So .. I wait patiently but in the meantime am hoping to go get some valuable experience with Simon "Dakar" Pavey and Charley Boorman over in Wales at his off road skills school.

Route 66 with James Cargo

KO2 have partnered with James Cargo Services, world-wide freight forwarders, to offer a chance in a lifetime ride across the United States of America, by bike. James Cargo will ship your own bike and is donating to us for every bike shipped. There are 2 routes available, one taking in the renowned Sturgis Rally the annual event with races, music, food August 9th – 15th 2010, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Chicago to Sturgis is 937 miles then another 1,363 miles onto LA.

.. or take the Mother Road, the original U.S. highway of 1926 running from Chicago (Illinois) to Los Angeles, passing through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. 2,448 miles (3,940km) in total.

James Cargo have put together a draft pdf Guide, which you can download here or watch their online presentation here.

I'm personally doing the Mother Road as well as catching the end of the Burning Man Festival first week of September, in an RV, with my son and daughter.
Join us.

Technorati Tags: james cargo, KO2, adventure, bikers, route 66, sturgis

Tour d'Afrique in pictures from Simon Gardner

Simon's back, rested and put together all his photos onto Flickr of the amazing Cairo to CapeTown Tour d'Afrique 2009 journey by bicycle. His full blog is here. Simon incredibly fundraised for AVIF, enough to cover another years secondary education for Pius and Norbert, 2 Yala boys, who he met when riding through Kenya March 5.



The images speak their own words and give incredible details to the road conditions so make a coffee and scroll through by clicking here to take you to the full photostream.


Namibia desert



Technorati Tags: simon gardner, AVIF, roads, conditions, africa, tour d'afrique, mountain biking

An engineering specialist school

This morning I went to see Skipton Girls High School, just down the road, about collaboration with KO2. They are an amazing school, dealing with all the normal curriculum as well as encouraging girls to get involved with engineering.

Last year they became TV heroes when they competed on the BBC with Top Gear's James May and others, building an old-style "bogie" or go-kart from a Silver Cross pram. The girls were given only 2 weeks and had to work flat out even at weekend cutting, hammering, bending, drilling, welding and finally painting the go-kart. Local boys school Ermysted also competed but the girls won by average, beating even Silver Cross's own commissioned bogie raced by James May.



SGHS are now interested in taking part in the programmes of KO2, to introduce electric powered dirtbike engineering to their pupils. We're talking with Zero Motorcycles about a franchise with their fab bikes, competing in TTXGP next month.



Hopefully soon we'll be pushing ahead bringing more and more kids into dirtbiking outside and inside school!



Technorati Tags: engineering, dirtbikes, Skipton Girls High School, electric power

Biking for Charity

In less than 2 months a team of motorcycle riders, including lickle me ;-) will ride from the UK, down to France, all around the border and back again covering over 3600 miles in less than seven days to raise funds for St John Ambulance.

We are a volunteer organisation of over 20 members who help other charities raise money to carry out their good work. Since September 2008 One Way Round has attended almost 20 public collection days, motorbike events and various training days.

 

 

We are currently in the progress of organising a charity dinner at the end of 2009 where we hope to have some of the biggest riders in the UK attend.

 

We need your help.

If you can donate a product, service, advertisement or funds it will help us so much.

 

 

St John Ambulance helps not only motorcyclists throughout the UK at race events such as the TT and BSB, but also attends hundreds of public events all over the UK every year to help those who need their help.

 

We are trying to give them back just a little bit of what they give us.

 

Please take five minutes out of your busy schedule to look at our web site www.onewayround.com.

 

If you can donate, please visit the JustGiving site where we can obtain a further 28% on top of any donation via GiftAid.

 

Kindest regards
The One Way Round team

Thompson Suzuki rises again

I've been frequenting the IOMTT Forum since the beginning of the year, having "lively" discussions with bikers and racers alike regarding TTXGP at this years TT road racing event on the Isle of Man.

While talking on there about a friends Thompson Suzuki T20 I was contacted by another classics lover. 2 years ago, at the TT's Centenary Celebrations, Australian racing legend Barry Smith, Multiple TT winner and twice World Champion, paraded the Harrogate bike he first took there 40 years ago.

Barry Smith, on No. 88 in the 1967 TT and No 83 reunited for the Parade of Champions at the Centenary TT

The original Thompson, 1980, photo taken by Shirley, daughter of the late Harry Thompson of Spa Motorcycles, Harrogate.

The "super 6" classic racer today belongs to Mick Oliver (sat on bike in photo above), who still parades the bike and was the very fella who contacted me, interested to know which Thompson Suzuki my friend Lou had .. turns out to be one in the picture above!!

I love it when things like this happen.

If you're going to the Barry Sheene Classic Road Race Festival at Olivers Mount Road Circuit May 23/24, Mick will be parading the Thompson. The pic above is him at Cadwell in 2008.

April 19th marks the opening of the Olivers Road Race Season with the Ian Watson Spring Cup. Friend Dave Clarke is racing up against Guy Martin, Ryan Farquhar, the Dunlop boys, Chris Palmer and many others. Ian Lougher is entering 125, 250, 600 & R1!!.. busy day, see you there.

Technorati Tags: thompson suzuki, TT, harry thompson, mick oliver

One Way Round

While I'm drowning in paperwork I just heard about this wonderful little jaunt. Not sure I'll be able to weasle my way into this one, since their Logo clearly states 12 Guys, 12 Bikes, 4000 miles but it'll be a great ride.
Check their website and donate, its for St Johns Ambulance who keep us safe at most events you can think of.



The event started in 2008 with Rob Lewis organising a ride around Britain’s coast line for the charity covering over 3000 miles in less than 5 days. They now have a host of sponsors including MCN, BikeSafe, Buff, Pirelli, MotorSportVision to cover costs.
Schedule of events is here, based in North Wales.
Good Luck to Everyone and thanks to Jenny Tinmouth for passing on the link.

Technorati Tags: onewayround, french enduro, rob lewis, motorbike, motorcycle, st johns ambulance

Taking a Pitstop with Go Karts and more in Halifax

Well I can truly say I just met my local hero, Mr Adrian Woods, MBE. Sat at his desk in a NZ All Blacks rugby shirt, with one of his fledgling schoolkids, Adrian just gave me some of his valuable time to explain how PitStop 2000 Ltd came to be, how it came to be, and why.

5 minutes into our conversation I realised the true extent of PitStops work. Not just go karting, not just a schoolkids dream day-trip or evening social event .. so so much more.

Started as a short term project to reduce car crime in North Halifax, PitStop is currently renovating the large Bridgefield Mill which sits inbetween the Calder and Hebble rivers, Calderdale, West Yorkshire. Adrian heads a large network of "people from all walks of life" whose common ground is being actively concerned with the well being of struggling local young people. PitStop provide re-education with an element of fun and security. They also provide accreditation for each youngster, which automatically gets the schools interested as credits mean exam results mean funding.

In case you hadn't heard, KO2 are now taking the bread and butter route (chip butties) and are basing their UK core activities in North Yorkshire, hoping to do some of the same but with dirt-bikes, under Adrian's sound advice. We'll be providing activities to kids who simply need a push in the right direction, not a push out the door.

This is Adrian with some of the local youngsters handy work .. a terraced bird house BRILLIANT..! .. only in Yorkshire (and thats coming from a Lancashire lass!)














PitStop also have the kids building the go-karts from scratch, servicing them, there's a fantastic music room with professional mixing equipment and drum sets, a large social kitchen area (soon to be finished) where the kids can cook healthy varieties of home grown dishes, soups etc. There's European exchange trips, camping trips, a carpentary workshop, beehiving, organic farming with even a trackside allotment for growing vegetables that the kids can take home to astounded parents, some of which wouldn't even think to provide their kids vegetables, let alone grow them. Bilberrying locally they even invented the "instant cheesecake; take 1 ginger biscuit, smother in greek yoghurt and then balance as many bilberries on as you can. Eat .. in one go if possible!" All these activities count towards ASDAN and other youth achievement awards including Duke of Edinburgh's.

Partnered with West Yorkshire Police, the European Commission's Youth In Action Programme, Nokia's Life Routes Scheme and many other community initiatives, Adrian is available on 01422 311 299 if you want to get involved.

Right now, in this economic downturned climate, is EXACTLY when to help others.
Every Child Matters .. Worrrrrd !

News of electric bikes and UK initiatives

All's been quiet for a while with lots of boring bureaucratic, governancy type stuff to fill my days with but I'm back with news of bikes like Santa Cruz's Zero, shown here in Jay Leno's ridiculously full garage (.. apologies for the annoying loading ad!!!)

So thats electric bikes .. mainly because I'm working with TTXGP now to help pay the bills, promoting the worlds first electric TT Race.

So far as KO2 goes there's been MUCH MUCH going on behind the scenes with some bread and butter initiatives in planning for the UK, which should help us get the international events secured.

We'll update shortly but keep in touch via the Facebook group and website.

Technorati Tags: electric, TTXGP, zero, KO2, kenya, adventure biking, bike tour

Medical supplies to Kenya

This weekend I was on the Isle of Man with TTXGP, the worlds first zero emissions superbike race, which is creating quite a media frenzy!































(photos courtesy of Dave Collister, Photocycles.com, Isle of Man)

I was also on the island to accept another 9!!! boxes of donated medical goods, surplus from the 101 TT Incident Boxes which Marshals have with them in case of emergency. The Motorsport Medical Services, under the watchful eye of Dr. David Stevens, control all medical support for the TT roadracing events; the TT Festival, and will do so for the TTXGP event.

The goods are for the ArrowWeb Hospital, in the Embakasi division around Nairobi which was established to help the community of an estimated 798,000 people plagued by poor health and living conditions. The project to improve the hospital is being ran online using the Netherlands-based NABUUR "virtual village" system where volunteers can simply log in from home to assist. The Kayole-Soweto project involves, specifically for this project, the input of over 60 professional members (including myself) from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Poland, India, Uganda, Tanzania, Malaysia, South Africa, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Thailand.

This is becoming a reasonably high profile project since we are soon to be assisted by Stanford University's Ken Banks and his Frontline SMS Rural Health Initiative which utilises the power and reach of mobile internet to aid hospitals to monitor and treat rural patients. With donated laptops & recycled cell phones Ken & josh Nesbit are enablingrural health effective SMS-based communications networks for rural medical operations.

When I first contacted Kenya Airways back in 2008 it was to ask them to transport 2 boxes of medical goods. Fortunately we now have 11 boxes of items such as airway devices, bandages, plasters etc. and they are currently negotiating the logistics while TTXGP has already transported all 11 boxes to their warehouse in London, ready for delivery to Heathrow and Kenya Airways handlers. We're nearly there, Bram!

Technorati Tags: takeaction, NABUUR, NPSL, kenya, Frontline SMS, TTXGP, AVIF

Hard Roads

NEC's TT Day, with the TT Marshals Association was my port of call December 6th. We were sharing a stand with the Isle of Man's Tourism Board & Duke Marketing who were being helped by riders passing on videos of the TT Races alongside Long Day Down & Round adventures, Charley Boormans recent epic journey from Ireland to Sydney "By Any Means", Classic Bike videos and much more.



The stand was overpowered by a huge picture of Gary Johnson airborn through Rhencullen during this years TT Race. In only his second ever road race (NW200, 2008 being his first) GaryJohnson topped any newcomer ever with a best TT lap of 122.85mph(Superstock). Apparantly he jumps the furthest and highest at BallaughBridge too!

The stunning photo was the work of renowned photographer Stephen Davison. I had the pleasure of flicking through his new book with him, and sharing his hilarious insider-commentary. "Hard Roads" is an unforgettable testament to the sport& himself, aCounty-Antrim-born roadracing fan & a man MCN call the 'the world'snumber one pure roadracing lensman'.



In the book Stephen "captures the essence of the sport with incredible photographs and accompanying text; the all-consuming passion; the incredible skill and speed; and, always, the spectre of death on the horizon." I don't need to remind you it would make a fantastic Christmas present too!

road racing, TT, KO2

Horizons Unlimited Calendar 2009

The HU 2009 Calendar just arrived at my door and I am totally buzzing from the photography. Bikes are exciting enough but using them to go see the world .. wow!

Horizons Unlimited is ran by Grant & Susan Johnson, London, UK-based Canadians. The site is a hub of motorbike travellers all sharing their journeys & much much more. For pure inspiration drop by, and for daily inspiration buy the calendar, featuring prize winning photography from the members.



(First Prize 2008 Winner: Tyson Brust, Canada; of Jose Rodriguez, riding the rim of Guagua Pichincha volcano, Ecuador)

Horizons Unlimited support KO2 & vice versa .. we're all bikers here!

kenya, enduro, calendar, Horizons Unlimited

LingMAO .. the Bionic Adventure Biker

Check out these mental videos by Adventure Spec's Dave Lomax, "Jasper" and friends, all about getting ready for a trip.

adventure biker, kenya, KO2

Norway also available

We're in the final planning stages of the 2009 Kenya enduro and are now also able to offer Norway tours. Horizons Unlimited founders Grant & susan Johnson have wonderfully offered a link to their 1996 trip if you want to read up on whats on offer, as well as seeing :


This was taken of their bike at midnight at the North Cape.


This is the awesome Frithjof Fure/Fjord, Geiranger, care of the Tourist information site.
Contact us if you'd like to plan a tour.

KO2, motorbike, tour, Norway, Horizons Unlimited

Tour d'Afrique

I'd like to thank Simon for his amazing upcoming contribution, after he cycles from Cairo to Capetown with Tour d'Afrique.


Funds raised will go to the Tour's own foundation as well as to AVIF. Read on about the amazing adventure Simon has ahead of him.


Note: AVIF's own cic. KO2 can offer a slightly less energetic group adventure biking through Kenya (on the noisier, quicker type!)

fundraising, adventure, africa, poverty, bikes, cycling, motorbikes, KO2, AVIF

New steps

As well as recommending SMC, we're now also hoping to start trading in the trusty CG125's as a normal motorcycle but also as a cargo-hauler, as a medivac, and fitted with a pump for fighting fires.



Talking to potential sponsor Loncin (currently supporting 2 x 125cc racers in the MotoGP), about our desire to develop a Chinese team, I think we have realistic & attainable goals.



As well as importing the SMC bikes we will also be introducing instant, FDA approved, test kits, available for any disease prevalent in Africa from Malaria to HIV, mosquito nets & a folding tablet chair; durable yet light enough for kids to put on their back and have for use at both school and home.

Great ideas, great steps forward.

Nick Sanders takes his R1 across 14,000ft Alto Plano, Bolivia

.. its like a painting on glass, almost unreal

Across Kenya

Many thanks to Grant & Julie from Horizons Unlimited for posting .. follow their journey here ...