Lyndon Bull, one of our Showroom Brand Managers, has just returned from an 1850-mile charity ride from Bristol to Morocco, on a Honda Monkey Bike.
Lyndon, who works in our scooter/commuter department, chose the pocket-sized 125cc Honda MSX because “riding one of Honda’s finest (and smallest) feats of engineering the bum-numbing distance from Bristol to the bottom of Spain and all the way back again is the ultimate test of engineering, patience, nerves and endurance – a huge challenge on a tiny bike”.
Accompanied by his brother James on a new Vespa GTS300 scooter and cousin Sam on his 2010 Yamaha YBR 125, Lyndon completed the trip in just 11 days, riding from Bristol to Plymouth, taking the ferry to Santander and then motorcycling down through Spain to Cadiz. From there he made the last leg of the journey across the strait of Gibraltar as a foot passenger on the ferry, to avoid the cost and paperwork [visas, carnet de passage, insurance, etc] involved when you take a vehicle into North Africa. After a half a day in Morocco it was time to return, retracing his steps across Spain and the Bay of Biscay back to England.
“On our longest day we covered 350 miles, which is quite something on a 125cc bike with 12″ wheels and a 40-50mph cruising speed!” says Lyndon.
He adds; “It wouldn’t have been possible without the comfort gel seat pad that Fowlers very kindly supplied me, which made hours in the saddle nearly bearable on my backside! The biggest challenge was the endurance of making such high-mileage progress without a comfortable touring seat that any typical adventure bike has!”
So far Lyndon has raised more than £500 towards Help for Heroes and donations can be made on his Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/monkey2morocco.