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1,000 Miles, 24 Hours, C90
Blog Date - 12 April 2013
I was standing in Bolton Motorcycle Workshop, sipping tea and admiring a C90. Having watched the exploits of ED MARCH I've gained even more respect for Honda's indestructible small motorcycle and I am coming to the conclusion small, persistent and fun machines like this are the future. This one was slightly different though. It was wearing a big furry seat cover. A pipe leading to the carb from the rear suggested some forthcoming alteration to increase fuel capacity. A large screen, phone and sat-nav mounts all suggested some muppet was planning some devious kind of nonsense.
Russ, the spanner man, informed me this particular fool was going to attempt to ride 1,000 miles in under 24 hours on this very machine. I'm no hard-ass, I struggle with 300 miles on my fast and plush 600. I have a friend who will cover 700 miles in a day but that's on a CBR 600. 1,000 miles is not unheard of but most if not all who take up such an undertaking will choose something like a BMW tourer or a powerful big trailie. It takes a special kind of plonker to choose a 90cc shopper. I was intrigued.
Later that week I met the man in need of therapy. In fact he appears outwardly to be quite normal and well adjusted. He can string coherent sentences together, walks upright, only has one head and I suspect he may be in gainful employment. This must all be a front though, because he seems quite excited about the trip. My suspicions as to his mental wellbeing are confirmed when I realise he's already tried this before.
Last time he managed to complete the 1,000 miles but in just over 25 hours. Now to make a foolish mistake once is fair enough, we all get it wrong sometimes. But to repeat the mistake again is a sign he's just not learning, not developing. Imagine electrocuting yourself by holding onto bare wires, it hurts like hell and leaves you shaking for hours after. Imagine then doing the same thing again an hour later just to be sure, that's plain stupid. It's just not right.
Still, here he is preparing to do it all again. He tells me he gets into the zone, head down and away you go. He just does it. It's like its no big thing to him, just a fun ride out. I can't decide if I'm jealous of his tenacity or thankful of my sanity. He's putting his insane desire to good use by getting sponsorship for a worthy cause, Bolton Hospice. They do some good work there so at least his madcap adventure will be of benefit to society.
His name is Mick Hall. You can find his just giving page at
http://www.justgiving.com/MichaelHall780?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=updates&utm_content=MichaelHall780&utm_campaign=updates-facebook#updates
I'd suggest you'd best sponsor him. Why? Because if you don't and he doesn't raise a heap of cash he's likely to do it again!
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Seriously, I wish Mick all the very best with his journey. He's a far braver man than I am and with a much tougher ass than I have. Good luck fella!
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Extra Details - 13-5-2013
Mick Says...
You can follow progress on via this link
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0VTh6zk7E2K9DNNujd7zzrMts5MVVmg7C
and this is roughly the route I'll be taking, setting off at 10am 21/5/13 riding down to point a to meet up with Jim who's also having a crack at it.
Google Map
Reader's Comments
john said :-
yep. best of luck ter the fella..........................so when does he get locked up again in the cuckoo house ?????????. ;)
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
When I find out John...I'll be sure to let folks know!
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Mick Hall said :-
Cheers Ren
Great write up, I should have a page up and running in the near future were people will be able to follow me real time to see where I am and where I've been, maybe even tag along for a short while if I'm in their area.
I'll post it on here as soon as it's set up and running.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Mick said :-
Completed it in 22hrs 23min, total of 1068 for 24 hrs.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
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