(Motorcycle) Groups ... comments, contacts, home pages - people met along the way.

Here are a couple of pics from my presentation in Florianopolis, south coast of Brazil, 7 November 2003.

Mucho thanks to Cicero (shown on right) who put me up at the Toca. This is a room he has specially prepared for travelling motorcyclists to spend a night or two. The presentation was attended by a representative of AMO-SC, the newly founded state motorcycle association.

  For Churches

Simon's was baptised as a Christian after 18 months out, More...

Auction of Quilts made from T-Shirts donated

Lu in Iowa USA is making some quilts for auction to raise funds. They will feature the Millennium Ride logo and the main images of T shirts donated to me during my USA tour. These are very special items and if you want to make a bid you can email Lu at [email protected]

"We auctioned the first quilt at Iowa STEAM, November 9. It brought $330 US funds. We will send a money order to Motorcycle Outreach tomorrow. The winning bid was by Gene Braaksma, from Linnville, Iowa. He said he talked to you for quite a while at MoTM in Lansing, MI. this past September. He said to tell you he really appreciates what you are doing, and really admires your spirit for taking on such a venture. Attached are 2 pictures, one of the quilt, and one of Gene with the quilt.

"....as I finish each quilt (I'm estimating there will be 2 more from the shirts I currently have) I will take a picture of it, and post on the website.

"From there, I can take bids for a set amount of time by email. Then, when the winning bid is decided, I can mail the quilt to the winner.

"Judy Frimml from Kellogg, IA is helping me with the quilts....she supplies the room to work on them and the machine. She also helps with the measuring, basting, etc, etc.....

Lu "

$1300 was raised at California BMW Saturday 7th Sept 2002

Pics by Don.

California BMW, 2490 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043 www.calbmwtriumph.com

Rainman (left) and Pacoman (right) at Rolling Thunder

Simon bumped into Jay Leno at the Rock Store in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Los Angeles. Leno hosts the Tonight Show on NBC.

pic by Ken Karagozian [email protected]

Photos of Simon at Wing Ding, July 4 - click for bigger images (125 - 484K)

And a Certificate of Appreciation from the GWRRA

Louisville BMW Riders - July Meeting and Speaker

Around 50 souls showed up at the River Road Kingfish for the monthly LBMWR meeting on July 9th, 2002, possibly breaking an attendance record for the club....
Jeff Cooke showed up wearing his arm in a sling again. ...
Mr. Jacobs finally tore himself away from socializing about 6:55 p.m....
Del reported that the monthly ride that will take place on Sunday ...
Jeff Sauer gave a short report about the Summer Solstice Ride to Abingdon Virginia. ...
Mr. Cooke was asked to report on the mysterious Spartanburg BMW plant event. ...
...

Which brought us to our speaker. Jeff Cooke introduced Simon Milward, a Briton who has been motorcycling around the world, and whose adventures have been noted in Cycle World, Rider and other important periodicals. For seven years, from 1992 to 1999, Simon was the Secretary of a European Union motorcycle organization that represented half-a-million EU riders, lobbying and fighting for motorcycle rights. After 7 years of doing battle with politicians and bureaucrats, is it any wonder that Simon fled the EU for an around the world trip?

Simon was riding his motorcycle to do some lobbying in Brussels, the new center of the EU, when he was sideswiped, putting him in the hospital. As he was promptly treated and admitted to the hospital, he found he had time to reflect on his life, as well as how lucky he was to live where good medical treatment was taken for granted, as opposed to so many countries and areas of the globe where medical help is almost non-existent. Simon decided to do something to help the international community. It took the form of Milward's Millennium Motorcycle Journey to benefit two charities providing needed international medical care.

He had an English bike builder build a custom motorcycle, using a 600 cc Rotax engine, a handmade mild steel frame that could be repaired easily in foreign countries, and an Italian fuel tank that held 11 -1/2 gallons of petrol. Parts from 8 other countries were eventually used to craft this one-of-a-kind bike that weighed 640 pounds loaded with fuel.

Mr. Milward spoke for well over an hour with dozens of slides, and a brief summary of the high point of his talk were as follows. [Note, I did not take the time to check the spelling of various foreign cities and regions, so there may be some odd spellings, and I am a little short on time, so forgive any grammar gaffes].

Leaving the EU, Libya would not let him into the country, so he had to take the alternate route through Italy, Greece, Turkey (Istanbul), and south to Jordan and the Dead Sea, whose salt content is so high the human body floats very high in the water, and whose banks have a black mud that is used for beauty treatments. He visited the site on the Jordan River where Jesus Christ was baptized, wondered into a Bedouin's tent, rode up mount Nebo where Moses once stood, and went south to Petra, a 3,000 year old city carved into cliff walls.

Taking a boat to Egypt to view that country's museums and the Pyramids, Simon met a young woman who after two hours proposed marriage to him. Politely declining, he headed across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) and on to the east coast to a compound of western oil workers where each house came with it's own alcohol distilling equipment (as beverage alcohol is not available legally in Saudi Arabia)

Next stop Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, a clean, cosmopolitan and vibrant city, a stark contrast to the following stop, the dirty, dangerous town of Karachi, Pakistan, where a river of garbage flows through the center of town. Form her to the city of Islamabad, the seat of government for Pakistan, and a secret journey to sneak in to the smuggler's market at Peshawar, where opium, AK47's, rocket launchers were visibly displayed for sale, and where their lives were in danger and they were told to leave quickly.

From there to India - Agra and the Taj Mahal - interestingly enough just after Bill Clinton had left. Simon boycotted the Taj Mahal as the entry fee was $15 for non-Indians, but 15 cents for Indians, and the bulk of the $15 dollars went to the rich and corrupt, and did not benefit the Indian people. Simon met the Dalai Lama, and saw the most holy place on the Ganges River where many come to cremate their deceased loved ones. While that sounds wonderful, the remains are then pushed into the river, and the government has introduced turtles to the Ganges to try and eat the many scorched, decomposing body parts floating in the river. The temperature was 110 degrees with oppressive humidity.

North to Nepal, where he met a Sadu (Sadoo?), a sort of chief of the Hindu faith who has no worldly possessions and is reported to eat human remains in midnight ceremonies (Simon was threatened by Hindus if he did not retract e-mailed statements to that point.) Katmandu was beautiful with its intricate architecture, and in a different way so were the mountain villages with thatched roof huts. Unable to cross Myanmar because the borders have been closed, Simon then flew to Sumatra and Indonesia. On Java Island, he visited active volcanoes, lava pools and volcanic lakes that changed colors over the course of the day.

On to Timor, which was a civil war zone. West Timor was still part of Indonesia, and the UN troops there would not provide the needed letter of authorization to visit the newly independent East Timor. It turned out that was probably just as well as just two days later several westerners were executed.

An airplane flight brought Simon to Darwin Australia, where he met the aboriginal people, saw termite mounds and drank a lot of beer. On to Sydney coincidentally just as the Olympics were beginning, and a bit of furor in the local press about whether the USA had treated it's Native American Indians worse that the Aussies had treated the aborigines. On to the outback and a large rock promontory known to the aborigines as Uluru, before tackling 1200 miles of sand and gravel through the Great Victoria Desert. This road was like riding a corrugated washboard, alternating with patches of deep sand. Simon noted that by riding at 55 mph or above, one could skim the tops of the corrugated surface, smoothing out the ride somewhat. However, twice on this leg of the journey, the sand caused him to crash. Other hazards include Emu's, large fast running land birds that seemed to want to run toward the sound of his motorcycle, and kangaroos, who like deer would make sudden turns directly into ones intended path.

With one final crash in a sandy section, Simon had to get a lift to Perth, where it took a week to repair the damage to the bike. Then there was a two-week ride back to Sydney. On to Singapore, where he participated with the local Singapore Harley group in a toys for tots run. North to Malaysia, which while Muslim, is more relaxed in its standards and even has beauty pageants. On through Thailand to Laos, riding jungle trails, circumventing rice paddies, and eventually riding directly into Laotian troops participating in yet another civil war.

It was here that a local girl on a bicycle rode directly into Simon, breaking her leg. The local authorities took his bike, and contacted the girl's father. Simon later noted the authorities riding his bike in their compound, and worried about his future. The girl's father demanded $75 in compensation, and Simon was happy to give him a crisp $100 dollar bill. He got his bike back and got the Hell out of there before another daughter threw herself under his wheel.

Next was Viet Nam, with people he found very energetic, then Cambodia with the scenic temples of Ankar Wat balanced by the other side of Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge tortured and exterminated one-third of the people of that country in the killing fields. It was here that his shocks broke and he replace them with a fixed piece of steel, creating a non-Harley hardtail motorcycle of sorts. The bike was then shipped to Japan, while Simon made a stop in the Philippines to support local groups trying to overturn prohibitions from riding motorcycles in tunnels or on expressways.

Tokyo he found so packed with people and building that gas was dispensed from hoses dangling from overhead devices to save the room it would have taken for traditional pump islands. After talking with Japanese motorcycle manufacturers about the need for them to stand up and rally together against EU restrictions on motorcycles, it was a boat to Vladivostok, known as the San Francisco of Russia, and Lake Baikal, which holds one-fifth of the fresh water in the world. Russians do indeed drink a lot of Vodka, with a liter sized bottle selling for about 25 cents. One woman tried to trade her daughter to him for a night for some cigarettes, but he declined. The next morning, the same daughter came back and tried to trade him her mother for some cigarettes, but he again declined.

The Trans Siberian Railway took Simon and his bike to Yakutsk, where friendly Russians repeatedly helped him repair his motorcycle frame, which was repeatedly breaking because of the hardtail conversion. In Siberia, he rode the Road of Bones, Stalin's road where the bones of those who died in the Gulags were ground up to make the road surface. Here the roads were terrible, the mosquitoes huge, and a number of nasty water crossings slowed travel as the bike repeatedly became mired down. The fuel here was the worst - 76 octane, but the Rotax handled it well.

By boat to British Columbia, Canada and then Seattle, where his bike blew up and was rebuilt, and where Simon was, in a way, rebuilt as well. Simon was baptized as a Christian. He is on his second lap around the United States, before leaving this November to chase summer down into Mexico, Central and South America, then on to Africa, heading North to Scandinavia before returning to Britain in 2004.

Simon is dedicating this trip to collect donations for Doctors Without Borders (Medicins sans Frontieres) as well as Health for All, a group that purchases small motorcycles to deliver medicines to remote areas in various countries. All donations go to these charities - Simon is paying for his trip by using his $25,000 in life savings.

An enjoyable evening with a most unique adventurer. There being no further business of any importance, the meeting was adjourned.

Your Scrivener, Jerry Irwin

 

Thanks from the Shore Riders in Easton, MD Thursday, May 26, 2002 in the parking lot of Wawa's by the Bay Bridge From: Randy Schiera "Everyone really enjoyed meeting you, hearing and seeing first hand your trip around the world ... " I hope that our efforts at fund raising paid off for you, especially for such worthwhile charities. After seeing exactly what you are doing, it's inspired me to be more aware of the people I can't see, and pay more attention to them. ... "Good luck during your travels, we all look forward to your updates, ... Randy Schiera Shore Riders Motorcycle Club Easton, MD

Patch © Shore Riders

American Motorcyclist Association

Feature Article on Simon's Trip

Marcia Wills and Jean (Comtois) Hogan. Simon is lucky to have such dynamos working for the Ride in the USA along with ABATE of Illinois South Suburban Chapter.

This is a cover letter from a sponsor - Harley Davidson of Saudi Arabia:

Dear Mr Milward

First of all we would like to welcome you in Saudi Arabia during your world trip and we are so glad your cross in Saudi Arabia from West to East was so successful. We take this oportunity to expose you to our Arab Islamic Culture in this part of the world so you can convey this experience to others. As you know media become more or less commercial and lose the truthfulness but you have lived and experienced this part of the world life yourself. In the last but not least the only think we encourage you for what you are doing and we wish you all the success in your rest of trip and
CHARITY FUNDRAISING FOR HUMANITARIAN AID.

Good luck

Monther M Al-Mutlaq
Managing Director
Al-Mutlaq Establishment for Trading

Jul 21, 1999

Hello Simon.
[...]
The September issue of Cybercyclemag.com is focused on World Travelers and will feature your ride amongst several stories of motorcyclists individual takes on world travel. I will send you the link to the feature once it is posted. I would like to do a follow-up email interview with you once you are on the road and a story of your completed trip.
You will be added to the calendar page for 2000, and have already appeared on our newsbox.

Ciao!
Kim

Kim Brittenham
Editor
Cybercycle Magazine
http://www.cybercyclemag.com
New online racer resume service: http://www.racer-resumes.com

Come take a look at Kashmir: Jammu & Kashmir

September 1999, Ecuador

Dear Simon:
I cannot begin to tell you how happy I felt when I received the information about the Millennium Round the World Motorcycle Ride. I had your December 1997 FEM letter on my desk to remind me to write to you with the info about Alrededor del Mundo por la PAZ - Around the World for PEACE.
Please check my web site at: www.andesmoto-tours.com

It is really amazing how similar both events are!
The motivation seems to be the same and the objectives are similar. The presentation of your Millennium ride is fantastic, so is your web site. I will send my contribuition soon.

I will be honoured to be of your assistance in my country.
I allready called the president of the Ecuadorian Motorcycle Federation to let him know about you and I will him send copies of the panphlet. I will put toghether a list of people and places for you, if you need to contact them beforehand.

Mi casa es su casa, meaning, My home is your home.
Anything you need in Ecuador please let me know. The Ecuadorian Motorcycle Federation e-mail is: [email protected] and the president is Jaime Morillo.

Hoping that you will find Around the World for PEACE as interesting as the Millennium ride is and that we will keep in contact for further developments I say good bye for know. I'll be waiting for your answer.

Ricardo Rocco

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