Daydreaming about (I prefer the term "planning") the Big Stupid Trip of a Lifetime is all well and good, but there's plenty that still needs to be done in the meantime – the pressing day-to-day business of trying to earn a living now I'm not on a magazine's payroll. There's a heap of stuff to do on the website, but I'm not happy with the quality of the video I've been shooting so I'm looking into alternative ways to get a better result to make the Basecamp Bootcamp easier to follow.
But there's other stuff to do as well. Arguably more important, as it has a very real deadline. I have to get the proofs for the second edition of Bikers' Britain checked and returned to the AA for the end of the month. That's in four days…
I was really pleased with the original Bikers' Britain – it took a bunch of routes I'd created for RiDE, some great single roads that readers had recommended and we'd tied together into a series of regionalised supplements, then added a heap of fresh routes. It was a great success: it's been reprinted multiple times (though I get a flat fee so it's my vanity, not my bank balance, that benefits).
For this second edition we've replaced those single roads with proper routes that include them and added a heap of fresh stuff to address some gaps in the original. For instance, there weren't that many routes in the Midlands in the first edition: now there are plenty, including an all-new Midlands 300 (which was one of the most-fun routes to research and put together – a great long-day in the saddle ride or a relaxed weekend-break type ride).
There's so much great riding in the UK and drawing it together for this book has been hugely rewarding. The team at the AA have done a great job with the design and, especially, the maps so hopefully you'll have as much fun riding these routes yourself as I had researching them. That's assuming I can clamber over the mountain of proofreading before the end of the month.
Better get on with it...