If you have stumbled across this for the first time, then I’ll just say that this blog is about my experiences on two-wheels – a BMW F800GS and a Honda Goldwing 1800. These are very different bikes and designed to do different things but I enjoy both more or less equally.

Well, I survived another bout of off-roading. This was certainly an experience and totally unlike the BMW course last weekend. I have to say that the BMW course was in my view much better value and far more professionally run. To be fair, the BMW course advertised itself as skills building whereas the Honda offering is labelled an “experience”. There was no instruction to speak of and the environment – a motocross track – didn’t lend itself to the more structured tuition I should have liked. Instead we were just left to get on with it and to ask questions if we wanted although this wasn’t always easy as the instructors were hurtling round the track themselves half the time, ostensibly to check on the guests but it meant that they couldn’t easily be questioned.

Motocross is supremely tiring and I found it difficult to maintain the necessary concentration for very long before my jumps and cornering got sloppy. Still I am glad that I went although I sincerely hope that riding in Patagonia will be easier going and more like the enduro/trail type riding in Wales.

I managed to test my new Alpinestars Tech 7 boot which worked very well albeit they were a bit stiff to start with but are definitely more broken in now!