Dummy Run was written following the ‘Classic Coastal Sidecar Challenge 2013’ Where two brothers set out to raise money for Diabetes, riding 4000 miles around the coast of mainland Britain on a rickety old motorbike and sidecar.
The book tells the story of Keith and Ian Wathen’s troubled journey and their tested relationship as they fight to succeed in this mighty challenge. The trip soon turns into a mechanical disaster while managing somehow, to renew a faith in human kindness. The discovery of a tatty old ventriloquists dummy in the sidecar and the sequence of events thereafter, leave us with improbable thoughts on just how much we are prepared to believe.
Here’s a little taster from the first chapter.
Chapter one
- A feeling of being enclosed, as I woke to the sound of voices from my childhood, wrapped like a package, tightly packed in an envelope, surrounded by bubble wrap, as if I were to be sent on a journey. Unable to move my arms, I struggled to break free. With sweat forming on my brow, I wriggled about like a madman in a straight jacket, locked in his padded cell.
- “Keith! What are you doing?”
- The sound of Lucy’s voice calmed me, enabling me to realize that the straight jacket was in fact a ‘mummy style’ sleeping bag and the padded cell, a very small two person tent. I had turned over and over in the same direction, causing the sleeping bag to tighten around me like a twisted dishcloth.
- “I know how a mummy feels now!”
- I replied, as I reverse rolled a couple of times, releasing the grip of the sleeping bag and allowing my arms to break free.
- It was the morning of Saturday August 3rd 2013 and I was indeed about to embark on a journey. The two man tent was to be my home for the following three weeks but, rather than share it with my dear wife, I would be sharing it with my younger, but much larger brother, Ian.
- Two male siblings from a brood of seven, aged seven years apart, Ian in his late forties and me, Keith in my middle fifties, had decided to take on the mammoth motorcycling challenge, to ride around the coast of mainland Britain on an old motorcycle and sidecar combination.
- “You must be mad!”
- “Stark raving bonkers!”
- Was the type response we received, don’t get me wrong, most people admired the reason behind our madness, they simply believed we should, perhaps use something a little newer, for such an enormous task. After all it was around four thousand miles, following the coast road from the Humber Bridge in a clockwise direction, until we arrive back at the bridge three weeks later. But it was to be a fundraising event, raising money and awareness for Diabetes.
- It had all begun during a pleasant evening spent at my brother’s house, while enjoying a glass of wine after our evening meal. I had been helping with some building work and decided to stay over to avoid the one hour drive home. Our discussions covered many subjects that evening, before eventually finding their way around to death. We spoke of how Ian’s wife Vicky had lost her brother Andrew to diabetes in the year 2000, aged just thirty five. He had lived with diabetes most of his life before, sadly dying from kidney failure, one of the main complications of long term diabetes. Inevitably conversation found it’s way to my close encounter, which prompted Ian to ask.
- “What is the one thing you would like to achieve before you die?”
- To which I replied.
- “I would like to travel around the coast of Britain on a motorbike, setting off from any given point on the coast and riding until I arrive back where I started.”
- I could see that Ian was impressed by my ambition and I’m sure if I’d have looked closely, I would have seen the cogs beginning to turn inside is head as he replied.
- “Well. do it! You’ve got the bike, get yourself off.”
- The remainder of that evening was spent laughing and joking about the good and bad possibilities that may occur during such a challenge, as well as suggestions of a variety of contraptions one could use as a form of transport to make such a journey. Trying to recall the whole of the conversation that night is difficult as the wine did flow, I do remember something about a pogo stick, but most of all I remember vividly, the point when Ian suggested we attach a sidecar to the bike and do it together, following that came the icing on the cake when he suggested we do it to raise money for Diabetes.
- The following morning, in the cold light of day, we reflected on our conversation the night before and could only agree, it was a cracking idea! Our only problem now was to convince the wives.
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Also available from Amazon & Kindle
k R Wathen 