New bike, new forum , new adventure

Hi all,

Newbie here from Derbyshire. Proud owner of new R1200GS Triple Black. Traded life savings for...well, a bit more life!

Bit about me...

- biker for 40 years
- first BM was a 2007 R1200R a few years back (loved that bike)
- first GS was a 2011 GS650 . Bought as a second bike. Didn't get on with it. (bad vibe problem I couldn't fix)
- My little bro has a bike shop (always handy)
- was volunteer (and Trustee) for Motorcycle Outreach for 5 years. Now left MoR but still support the cause, plus a new bike charity project in Tanzania,
- enjoyed last 6 years on Tiger 800XC & XCX. Active member on forum - started the annual rallies (Mega Meets) and ran international photo competition and calendars for 3 years (raised £4k for Motorcycle Outreach)
- Buying the triple black is a dream come true. What a fabulous motorcycle.
- Next trip - taking wife for her first visit to the west coast of Scotland next week. Want her to see the sunset from the Applecross Inn beer garden!
- Looking forward to the new adventure , and being part of this fantastic forum.

Cheers guys

The new steed ( running-in trip to Wales)....

IMG_0899_LI by Ron Common, on Flickr

Welcome

Great intro...welcome!

Welcome to the House of Fun!

Nice bike too...

What oil do you use?






Welcome

fatal said:

What oil do you use?






Welcome

Click to expand...

It was one of the first twin spark (chinese ?) engines. After 7000 miles, it rode like a knackered LIFAN . Decided to sell after my fillings fell out.

Hi Kingfisher, welcome and nice ride mate. Tell us more about the charity in Tanzania please.

Welcome mate. Come and visit some of us at Hogroast North 30/6 to 2/7 in Buxton. www.hogroastnorth,com Not far from you

speedofile said:

Hi Kingfisher, welcome and nice ride mate. Tell us more about the charity in Tanzania please.

Click to expand...

A good friend (and previous co-Trustee with Motorcycle Outreach) , Claire Elsdon packed in her well paid London job to start a new charity venture called "Pikilily" in Mwanza, Tanzania last year.

Previous to that, Claire and I worked together on an earlier pilot project for Motorcycle Outreach. I raised £20K for the project in Songea and Claire went out for the launch. We funded an NGO to buy 3 bikes to enable health workers to provide essential health care to remote villages. After 6 months we had to terminate the contract due to suspicions of corruption in the NGO. Fortunately, we held back some money and retrieved 2 of the 3 bikes.

Claire then moved out to TZ to set up her own Pikilily venture to provide motorcycle maintenance, rider training and, crucially, an emergency motorcycle ambulance service to remote villages.

We both left MoR but our previous colleagues have agreed to provide a grant to Claire's project (using the unspent funds from my original fund-raising campaign).

So, the original Motorcycle Outreach vision of setting up a humanitarian project in Tanzania is about to be launched , albeit under the Pikilily charity banner, but at least now we have a trusted person in charge and things are progressing well.

Claire has just built a workshop and hired some apprentices. The charity registration in the UK is almost sorted and the MoR grant is about to finalised. Claire has an agreement with the local health authority to refurbish 4 eRanger motorcycle ambulances and will be providing an emergency service to villages in the region when they are done. We have the support of the eRanger manufacturer for spares, and Claire has a website set up for people here to track progress.

Claire is an amazing women and very determined to make a success of Pikilily. She is a good friend and I am just glad to see my original vision for a Motorcycle Outreach- style project get off the ground in TZ.

Greetings & welcome to the forum.....enjoy your new bike