Trip Blog & Members Section

July 2009

A Rookie’s Tale

Tuesday, July 7th - 2009

Some of you may have noticed Tyler’s announcement in the What’s New section earlier this year regarding two new UK investors in RMMH. I’m one of them and as well as “coughing up some of my ill gotten gains”…sorry, I meant investing hard earned cash, for some unexplainable reason, I find myself spending the 2009 season as a rookie guide, trying hard to remember Brandon and Jarvis’ expert advice and learning from their years of experience.

This blog is to introduce myself to those of you who may not have met me on a previous RMMH tour. Many of you may have already seen me, stylishly leading the way in a well used photo taken on the first California Sea to Sky trip back in ‘03. I failed to negotiate a royalty deal with RMMH, so I’ll be happy to autograph any copies for a couple of bucks!

I’ve spent the best part of 30 years working in the construction industry as a Quantity Surveyor, in London, U.K. I’ve been into bikes from my teens and had a number of machines including, more recently, Speed and Street Triples. My Laverda Jota takes pride of place in the rear living room of my house!. It will run again one day, I promise. I’ve made numerous journeys to Europe since the mid-80’s to watch endurance, superbike and GP racing. Early in the new millennium, I decided to broaden my horizons and after a trip to New Zealand for a guided bike tour of South Island, I came across RMMH. After four fantastic holidays with them between ‘01 and ‘05, including helping Brandon scout the Pacific Rim Adventure, I spent the next few years’ holidays biking in South America. I kept in touch with the RMMH team during this time and met up with them at the London Bike shows in 2007 and 2008. During these visits, I gave them my own unique and well researched guided tours of some of London’s most famous drinking emporiums, which, on both occasions ended up in the legendary curry house that is the Agra Tandoori….God, I miss that place already!

I’d had the idea of approaching RMMH for a number of years, to see if they would be interested in having a Limey/Pommie/Brit on board. After some discussion with Brandon, he also persuaded me to invest (that man could sell sand to an Arab, ice to an Eskimo etc, etc). Once I became a partner in RMMH, I had a difficult decision to make….quantity surveying or motorcycle touring. Less than one nanosecond later my application for a work permit was winging it’s way to the Canadian High Commission. After a mere 4 month wait, the permit finally arrived, and here I am in “Beautiful BC” ready for action.

I now have the first trip (Best of the West) under my belt. I’m sure this belt will need loosening several notches by the end of Summer. I keep trying to kid myself….. Caesar Salad has the word salad in it, so it must be healthy, right?.

Life on the road is really good, a pleasurable mix of eating, drinking and schmoozing with the guests, along with intensive bouts of bike washing, visor cleaning, distribution of cold beverages/candies (that’ll be sweets to us Brits) and bag carrying. I’m also learning the art of truck and trailer driving. I think I’m doing OK, but my parking possibly needs some fine tuning…..

We were really lucky on the BOTW trip, hardly any rain, and blue skies for most of the ten days, which has resulted in my “truckers tan” coming along nicely.