Tag Archives: Royal Enfield

Aussie Motorcycle Expo 2012

Volty at the front of the pack! (front, left) at the Australian Motorcycle Expo 2012

Well here I am at the Australian Motorcycle Expo in Melbourne. I’ve just rolled up on Volty to find an array of KTMs, BMWs, Harley Davidsons and other generally very large flash motorbikes parked outside. It’s ok – a couple of Harley blokes give me an appreciative nod as I park up my modest 250cc retro-style Suzuki, throw the side stand down, and try not to notice that the bike next to me (a BMW GS 1200 laden with Touratech luggage) utterly dwarfs my own ride!

Love the Bonnie – but purple paintwork?

Inside, the place is absolutely heaving. I make a beeline for my favourite marques – Triumph, Royal Enfield and Moto Guzzi. There’s a Bonneville T100, gleaming and beautiful – though I can’t decide if the metallic purple paintwork is stylish or just a bit tacky. There’s a sturdy old Enfield C5, army green, beautiful design – and I have a pang of wishing our UNICEF India trip hadn’t been cancelled earlier this year: how I would love to ride one of those Enfields.

Moto Guzzi V7 – the object of my affection (till I saw the price tag!)

But all bets are off when I hit the Moto Guzzi stand – there’s a gorgeous red and white V7 Special, shiny and new, right there on display. I can’t resist and throw a leg over: aw, the seat’s so incredibly comfortable, the handlebars and footpegs just the right height…

I hop off before an over-eager salesperson swoops to get me talking about putting down a deposit (I wish!). That’s the trouble with these expos – too many temptations!

Volty – my pride and joy

After a couple of hours’ ogling, I’m all motorbiked out. Volty‘s sitting in the sunshine outside, metallic bronze paintwork gleaming, chrome all glinting…reminding me that I already have a perfectly decent ride! A quick burst on the throttle and we’re off – skimming through the city streets of Melbourne, taking some well-practised shortcuts, dodging the traffic, beating the lights, then heading out along the coast road. It’s a beautiful day for a ride: the sun is warm and Volty’s humming.

Who needs a Guzzi when I’ve got my Suzuki?

Love my bike. 🙂

Long Way Across India: Our Route

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Route-planning for our Classic India Adventure

This week, in addition to wrangling filming kit for our India trip, I’ve been sizing up the route we’ll be taking across this vast country. There’s nothing quite like poring over maps to get the adventurous juices flowing!

Our journey will take us through more than 1,000km of South India, across three of the country’s most spectacular regions – Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. We’ll be skirting inland lagoons and lakes, traversing reserves teeming with tigers, and tackling the steep jungle ascents of the Western Ghat mountain range. Descriptions of our route conjure up magical images – elephants, monkeys and bears, beautiful wetlands and backwaters, ancient monuments and temples, gorgeous sweeping mountain vistas, and hot, dusty plains. Even the place names have a mystique about them – Bandipur, Mudumallai, Kodaikanal, Masinagudi, Ooty…

Our intended route through South India

South India’s going to be a really exciting and unpredictable place to travel through, especially in the way we have chosen – using classic motorbikes and cars synonymous with travel in India. We’ve already been warned about the changeable weather, unforeseen roadblocks and numerous other obstacles that may force us to veer off our intended route. Throw in erratic road rules and towns and villages teeming with chaotic activity – people and animals everywhere! – and it’s certainly going to be an expedition that will require all our stamina and sense of humour.

Thinking about filming, I’m excited at the prospect of shooting in such a diverse and colourful country. It looks like there’ll be no shortage of extraordinary places to capture on film – not to mention the exploits of our intrepid team as we encounter daily adventures. I’m also looking forward to visiting the UNICEF project in Mysore – a chance to see how the money we’ve fundraised is being used to help kids in need.

As Charley says: “There’ll be long days on the road and we’ll be pushed to our limits on some sections. But we’ll have lots of time to take in the fantastic journey and experience all India has to offer.”

Yup Charley, I can’t wait to be on the road tackling everything India has to throw at us – bring it on!

Ambassadors & Royal Enfields

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With preps and fundraising for our UNICEF India Adventure well underway, this weekend I’ve been reading up about the cars and bikes we’ll be using on our epic 1,000-km roadtrip. As both a car and bike enthusiast, one of the key drawcards of this particular adventure was the chance to be part of a rally of classic motorbikes and motor cars – and by all accounts, the Enfields and Ambassadors are as classic as they come.

Cruising India astride a Royal Enfield Bullet

Some of the team, including Charley and Marc, will be riding 350cc Royal Enfield Bullets. Originally launched in the UK in 1949, the Bullet came to be used by the Indian government from 1955 as a bike for its police and army to patrol its country’s rugged border areas. Now based in Chennai, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorbike brand in the world still in production. The Bullet’s excellent pedigree bodes well for some of the more challenging parts of our route across Southern India – and for Charley, it will certainly be a very different kind of ride from his more customary 1200 Beemer GS!

The trusty Ambassador on the road in India

The rest of the team will be driving 1950s-style Hindustan Ambassadors. Originally based on the British Morris Oxford III model (1948), the “Ambi” (as it’s fondly known) is now considered a quintessentially Indian car, dubbed “the king of Indian roads”. Although they look quite sturdy, their engines are only apparently capable of 37 horsepower and their handling is generally thought to be “temperamental” at best – so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare in some of the mountainous and unpredictable terrain we’ll encounter in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Reading up about these brilliant cars and bikes, I can’t wait to be on the road in India to see how these classic vehicles – not to mention their riders/drivers – hold up! It seems pretty inevitable that we’re going to have some challenges along the way, given the ever-changing terrain and the unique handling styles needed for these cars and bikes – but hey, that’s all part of the adventure!

Gearing Up For India

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Filming the UNICEF Sahara Trek in 2010

As you’ll know from my last post, I had a great time in London and I’ve returned to Melbourne with lots of excitement about our India Adventure. This has been tempered by the inevitable anecdotes from people about how crazy the roads are in India – not to mention tales of near-misses or crashes in cars and on bikes that seem to be par for the course in that part of the world. So I’m approaching our roadtrip with a healthy mix of anticipation and trepidation – well it is an adventure, after all!

After get-togethers with Charley and UNICEF in the UK, I’ve realised there’s actually quite a lot of prep – not to mention fundraising! – to do in the next few months. So I’m making the most of a long weekend here in Oz to start hatching plans for wrangling gear for the trip and getting support from companies who may be able to help me out with the things that we need.

Right now I’m compiling a kit list – potential equipment, including camera (video and stills), tripods, GoProsⓇ and so on for filming and otherwise documenting the adventure. During my rendezvous with Charley, we compared notes about various filming techniques and ideas – including using Spot Tracker GPS or similar on the trip, so that people can follow our journey as it unfolds on the ground in India.

It’s always a trade-off between taking enough gear to properly cover the event and not getting bogged down with stacks of fancy kit. I’ll be stowing it all in the back of an old Ambassador, which isn’t renowned for its huge luggage space, so I’ll need to be clever about what I end up taking.

Setting up for a shot of Team UNICEF tackling a steep ridge in Morocco (as my trusty porter Mohamed looks on!)

Plus, there are particular challenges on this trip that didn’t come up when I filmed our last UNICEF adventure in the Sahara Desert. On that trip, with everyone trekking on foot within a relatively short distance, it wasn’t too tricky to film – I could see the entire group and catch up with particular individuals and happenings at any given moment. This time, we’ll be a convoy of cars and motorbikes potentially strung out over a fair distance (albeit contained by a leader vehicle, sweepers, support crew etc) – and, of course, moving vehicles always require particular tricks and techniques when it comes to filming. I just need to make sure I’ve got a plan of action and the kit to cover it all, so I don’t miss all the good stuff!

So, lots to plan – but it’s all good. Half the fun of any adventure is the preparation, eh? 🙂

London Calling

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Union Jacks flying over Covent Garden Market – London’s awash with them right now!

Well it’s been an exciting week here in London! With just seven days in the UK capital, it’s been a whirlwind visit combining catching up with old friends, soaking up some of the pre-Jubilee vibe, and having meetings to kick off plans for my upcoming India Adventure with Charley Boorman and UNICEF – which I’ve already dubbed Long Way Across India!

It was great to meet Alyrene and Francesca at the UNICEF UK HQ in Farringdon this week. I’m liaising with them on how I’ll cover the India trip, and we got very excited talking about possibilities for filming, photographing, blogging and Tweeting at various stages of the adventure. As I heard more about what the trip would involve – the challenging terrain across Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, details about how the Royal Enfield bikes and Ambassador cars will handle on the road, and the wide variety of people who will make up the team – I felt myself getting that familiar buzz: the buzz of a new adventure just beginning!

That buzz grew still more when I met up with the lovely Charley Boorman at his SW London home. At the kitchen table, over a nice cup of tea and biscuits (thank you Ollie!), we started hatching plans for filming the adventure. We agreed that we really want to capture everything that happens as fully as we possibly can, not just for those taking part but for everyone who’s sponsoring and supporting our trip and will be keen to see how it unfolds. Although it’s still six months away, there’s a lot to think about in terms of logistics and equipment and it was great to get Charley’s input at this early stage and feel his enthusiasm about the trip itself.

As my London stint comes to an end, I’ve just been over to Stanfords Travel Bookshop in Long Acre and stocked up on a little light reading for my long plane journey back to Melbourne – road maps and books about South India that I know will render my excitement complete.

The trip may still be six months away, but preparation is half the fun of it and there’s lots to do. So stay tuned for more very soon about our preps and other news about the adventure.

Classic Indian Adventure with Charley Boorman

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Jeanie Davison, Producer
Sahara Trek, 2010

Back in 2010, Long Way Round producer Russ Malkin and I took part in a trek across the Sahara Desert on the Morocco-Algeria border to raise money for UNICEF. I filmed, photographed and blogged about the adventure for the charity and had a brilliant time doing it.

So more than a year on, I’m excited to announce my next UNICEF adventure. On 30^th November 2012, I’ll be undertaking a 1,000-km journey across Southern India. There’ll be a group of us, including the indefatigable Charley Boorman (Long Way Round, By Any Means, Extreme Frontiers) and Motor Cycle News editor Marc Potter, riding Royal Enfield motorbikes and driving classic 1950s Ambassador motor cars.

Starting in Port Kochi, we’ll head north along Kerala’s coast and then inland to Mysore on a challenging route that will see us tackling everything from dense tiger-infested jungle, hairy switchback mountain roads, chaotic villages, and incredible tropical backwaters. We’ll also be visiting a UNICEF project or two along the way, to see how the money we raise is being put to good use delivering life-saving projects for children in India.

Once again, I’ll be filming, photographing, blogging and Tweeting about the adventure for UNICEF, including plenty of updates and insights from Charley and Marc. For me, this is a huge undertaking – not just to plan the coverage and wrangle kit for the event, but also to find sponsors, both individual and corporate. This time, I’ve pledged to raise around £4,500 before we set off.

Looking forward to sharing this adventure with you all. India awaits!

Jeanie