***STOP PRESS: Unsupported motorcycle altitude record set at 5713m on 18th July 2006***
Hello. And welcome to this rather splendid website featuring the most outlandish motorcycle adventure ever half-planned – a continent-crossing journey from the UK to the Himalaya, culminating in an attempt to set some kind of new world altitude record for motorcycles. The riders, British bike journalist Damon I’Anson and Indian climber Pankaj Trivedi, will be providing words and pictures to Bike magazine (the UK’s biggest and best motorcycle publication by some degree), who will be covering the trip in monthly installments. There will also be ongoing diary entries found here, updated by Damon and Pankaj whenever they have the opportunity to log on to the internerd.
Over the course of the journey the pair will be reviewing numerous items of bike and outdoor equipment (see ‘product tests’). Much of their riding kit and accessories have been provided FOC, but they nevertheless promise to give honest appraisals of performance and durability. We expect the chosen equipment to perform well, because with decades of experience in the bike industry it was chosen carefully. But if it doesn’t, then we’ll let you know...
So, the big question: why are these two embarking such an extreme and ambitious two-wheeled adventure? Perhaps it’s something to do with the onset of middle age, or maybe it’s a side-effect of eating too much Encona Hot Pepper Sauce. Or maybe, heaven forbid, it’s simply a ridiculously over elaborate excuse to ride motorbikes, travel to new places and climb mountains…