For the love of bikes!In 2009 Miles Gregory planned to leave New Zealand to take a trip of a lifetime, to travel the length of Africa on the back of his bike. He travelled through 18 countries in 4 months and saw all sorts of landscapes from deserts to huge cities. The thought to start planning this trip was due to his love of speed and travel, and the fact that he was getting tired of feeling like his life was stuck in a rutt. He had bought his 1997 Suzuki XF 650 around ten years before he planned the trip. Miles made all the parts and modifications for the bike he was going to use such as a center stand, a pack frame, crash bars, oil cooler protector and side boxes for luggage to accomodate his belongings for the road. Doing trials with the 650 he knew it would be up to the aduious task of riding the dry desolate landscapes of Africa and therefore chose to ship it out for the trip ahead.BIKE RIDER MAGAZINE AUGUST 201211

“You only have one life and one chance to do the things you want to do.”

CAPE TOWN TO KITZBUHELPEOPLEMiles Gregory

“The thrill of speed has got me in trouble too many times to count!”

“One of the last legs of Africa, boy was it hot!”

“Working on getting my poor bike back up to scratch”

“It was just an unbelievable country full of unbelievable people”

guard smiling away while he pointed an AK-47 at his bike. One of Mile’s aquiantentces Omar told the security guard with a Pistol Grip AK-47 to shoot Mile’s motorbike. When the petrol pump attendant told them there was no petrol Omar told the security guard with the AK to shoot him as well. “The joking and piss taking lasted for about 5 minutes then Omar got down to business.” Omar talked his way into getting enough gas for them for the next 700 kilometres of their journey. This is just one of the many bizarre experiences he encounted on his journey.

Back in New Zealand he has broadened his range of motorbikes, to a KTM off roader and a Honda CBR full fairing road bike. Now, with the bikes he has no problems just zooming off into the distance, whether it be

off road or on. Making the side luggage boxes for his bike have made them very personal to him, with a huge map of Africa on the side, he has lightly marked all the places he went through to finish off the trip.

He now keeps them as a constant reminder of his amazing journey across the plains of Africa to Kitzbuhel.

Miles added a blog entry for every possible stop along the way. This recorded a personal account of both his whereabouts and experiences. Now he has a large printed book of all his blog entries and photographs to keep as memories for the rest of his life. Here Miles was showing me a photo of a security

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“One long journey!”

“I don’t know where I’d be without the freedom of my bikes”