Paul writes:
My name is Paul Clark and I work at Hill & Clark Ltd, a property letting and management company in Boston. I am married with 3 children, 2 dogs and a cat!
I have always been interested in motorbikes since my very early teens, working in school holidays and at a weekly cleaning job to save up for my first Suzuki X1 50cc moped, moving onto a Suzuki GSX250 and then a GSX550EF. The GSX550 sold to pay for a garden wall to be built at our new house. With the arrival of children and responsibilities, biking was not an option to be seriously discussed with the good lady! That is until I heard of the idea of doing a sponsored bike ride in memory of Graham Homes.
Firstly I have always wanted to do the challenge of riding to the four furthest compass points of the UK mainland but even more so to do something in memory of Graham. Graham and I both played Euphonium in the Boston Salvation Army band where we sat next to each other for a number of years, we also sat next to each other in Songsters/choir and latterly worked together on a small building committee dealing with the rebuilding of the Boston Salvation Army hall on High Street, Boston. Graham actually repainted the crest which you see on the front of that building and the one inside as well. During my time with Graham we shared many jokes and laughs and he was not one to let anything get in the way if he wanted to do something. So the fact that I had no motorbike, no equipment and I hadn’t ridden for nearly 20 years was a minor issue to be solved – starting with a chat with the good lady!
To my amazement I was given permission to get a bike and the necessary equipment to keep me safe and get me round the British Isles. After much looking and trawling of Ebay I purchased a 59 plate BMW F800GS (see photo), well looked after but located in London. So having got myself fully equipped from Sports Bike Shop in Boston (thanks chaps for your two hours of help, couldn’t have done it without you!) my wife delivered me to London to ride it home. The first time of riding a bike in nearly 20 years being a 130+ mile trip back up the A1, starting off in busy London traffic on a Saturday morning in equipment getting its first outing on a bike I’d never ridden before. Anxious, would be an understatement but I arrived home ok with all those bikers “do’s and don’ts” flooding back into memory.
I am pleased to be doing this challenge in memory of a dear friend and for deserving cancer charities to try and help others who face similar problems as Graham. We are all paying our own way so that all the monies sponsored and pledged will go to the charities. Please, PLEASE sponsor us so that we can meet and hopefully break our target – plus it will help me out no end, this sponsored trip was my justification with the wife of getting the bike!!!
Thanks for looking and reading this.
