Richard Dover    Alan Hill    Jim Harley (Day 1)

Richard Dover

Bike: BMW R1200GS Adventure

Home: Giffnock near Glasgow

Experience: Been riding for almost 15 years and has owned about 20 bikes including ratty old Bonnevilles and Nortons to a Yamaha YZF750, TRX850 TDM850/900 and 1200 Bandit.

Average mileage: 8,000 miles per year, all year round

Good habits: Observation and steady pace

Bad habits: Likes mugging cars and baiting sports bikes

Longest single ride: 1000.5 miles in 18 hours and 41 minutes round the coast of Scotland in April 2005

Alan Hill

Alan will be joined by his wife, Karen, from Brighton onwards.

Bike: Yamaha Fazer 1000

Home: Dumbarton

Experience: Been riding for about 12 years and owned a Diversion 600 an old style 600 Fazer or 2, followed by the Daddy Fazer

Average mileage: 15,000 miles per year, all year round. Almost every day to work and back.

Good habits: Anticipation, observation and pillion friendly

Bad habits: Filtering like a demon and crashing Richard's bikes

Best trip: 2 weeks in Europe, 2 up, with luggage, on a worn out, battered 600cc commuter bike

Jim Harley

Jim is joining us for the first day and also hoping to join the IBA

Bike: Various - having your own bike training school and dealership has its uses but BMW R1150RT for work and Aprilia Mille for fun

Home: Busby, which is not as near Glasgow as Giffnock

Experience: where to start? If its got 2 wheels and an engine he's ridden it, whether on the dirt or the road.  He dreams of doing the Dakar -yes, really.

Average mileage: 20,000? who keeps count?

Good/bad habits: Well, he's a senior trainer so he's not admitting to anything short of perfection, but I know he bends the speed limit very very occasionally (ahem ahem)

Best trip: 10 days dirt biking in the Spanish Picos mountains-going from blistering sunshine to running snow drifts 6000m up on the same day! (Excellent) or his next ride?

Richard Dover    Alan Hill    Jim Harley (Day 1)