QuadEPIC Eve

It’s the night before we begin this crazy journey, and everyone is very excited. Not too much has been happening lately (hence the lack of blogs), however that is sure to change. We have been heading out on the bike a lot, and working out small kinks. We’re all almost packed, and ready to leave early tomorrow morning.

Mel arrived late Tuesday night, and joined us in the QuadEPIC team command centre (Paul’s mum’s house J ). She will be riding with us all the way through to Milan, and is very excited to get started, as are we all.

The website has undergone a big facelift, making it a lot easier to navigate around. The satellite tracker page is now up (thanks to our sponsor Viewranger), and anyone will be able to watch our progress from tomorrow. We plan to leave at approximately 8am BST.

We have also added a guestbook to the site, so please leave us a message or two along the way J

After the anticlimactic first attempt at a ride, we set about replacing the chains with better quality ones, and making a few other small adjustments. The next day we once again prepared to take off, this time successfully breaking the previous 1cm distance record!

The ride was great, we ended up traveling a little over 20km, through a mix of busy roads and country lanes. Since I was steering this time, we didn’t cut off traffic or blast through roundabouts, unlike a certain Canadian driver who I won’t name!

Today, we are all trying to prepare for a big media event in York tomorrow. One major part of this is the implication of a ‘swear jar’, to try and force us to clean up our rather prolific language problem. Surprisingly, Paul is leading the tally, closely followed by Neil. The stereotypical foul-mouthed Australian is doing the best so far, although I have been trying very hard!

All going to plan, we will appear on BBC Look North sometime this week (possibly Tuesday night), and on various radio stations throughout NE England. Keep an eye out for that J

Dan.

New Sponsor

It has been an incredible week for QuadEPIC. Myself, Paul and Dan have all arrived in Grimsby and have taken the bike out for a proper ride at 20km. The trip feels so real right now. We just can’t wait to be on the road for good. This Tuesday we have a media event in York with one of our sponsors, ViewRanger, so we’re all nervously preparing ourselves for the cameras.

In other exciting news, we would like to announce a major supporter of our expedition. I had the privilege, back in the day, of attending a unique boarding school which placed priority on outdoor adventure as a component of youth education. This school no doubt fueled my desire for adventure travel and made me want to seek out something as crazy as QuadEPIC. The school, St. John’s School of Alberta, has since established a trust fund to support endeavours which reflect the values of the school itself.

One of the mandates of this trust fund is to support groups and individuals involved in outdoor expeditions that promote adventure and protection of our environment. This objective mirrors our purpose and we are so fortunate that they have pledged their support to our cause.

More information about St. John’s Schol of Alberta and the St. John’s School of Alberta trust fund can be found at their website: www.sjsa.ab.ca

Bye for now.

Neil

The start of the Epic.

QuadEPIC is slowly starting to come together, both Dan and Neil arrived in London, England on the 6^th April. I had the pleasure of picking them up from Heathrow and Stansted airports and bringing them up to the sunny delight that is Great Grimsby. Grimsby will be their home till we venture out on the bike to Hull to catch the ferry.

Since their arrival we have been sorting out some last minutes details that need attending. As well, the three of us have been testing out the bike and finding some slight teething problems that have needed to be attended to that I hadn’t noticed. It’s been good to have a fresh pair of eyes on the project to notice these faults and also to work as a team fixing them. It gives Dan and Neil a chance to see how the bike operates just in case we break down along the way.

Again we owe APT Marine Engineering (http://www.aptengineering.co.uk/) a huge thank you for helping us out with some more last minute welding.

We have also been doing some filming, as well as a photo shoot with the bike and trailer while we attached the sponsors logos.  I've been waiting weeks and weeks to attach them, it’s been driving me crazy not being able to do so. When we haven’t been doing bike related stuff, I've been giving the boys a tour around Grimsby and all its desired pleasure spots and tourist attractions.

Paul.

It’s been three lovely days so far here in Grimsby. We three amigos have been finally able to put our heads together and work out the final kinks.

We were so excited to finally take the 4-wheeled monster out for a spin. With the cameras running and our spirits high, we clambered into the comfy seats for our first test ride together. With a hearty ‘’Away we go’’ we pushed off. We made it maybe a half-centimetre before a faulty chain snapped on us and were forced to postpone our maiden voyage. It was encouraging how we didn’t miss a beat in repairing what needed adjusting.

We’ve spent the days firing off emails, driving around town for bike parts and equipment, brainstorming more crazy ideas plus the odd trip to the pub for good measure. First impressions indicate that we’ve all got QuadEPIC and its success at the top of our minds.

The various errands we’ve been running have been a good opportunity to get familiar with one another and to see the charming sights of Grimsby. Paul and Dan seem to be old friends yet I'm still getting to know these jokers.  Like the bike itself, we as a team are looking pretty sharp with a few things that still need figuring out, but as far as I see it, we’ll surely be running at 100% by launch date.

It’s been a big week and next week promises to be even bigger. A media event in York with our newest sponsor, ViewRanger has us all very excited, plus we’ve just secured some significant support which we’ll be announcing soon. It’s all very exciting, yet I can’t wait until we launch and the real fun can begin.

Neil