Latest / JUSTRIDE Podcast / Stopped Riding After Crash... Then Took Aprilia to Morocco - Lucia Aucott | JUSTRIDE Podcast Ep.20

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Stopped Riding After Crash... Then Took Aprilia to Morocco - Lucia Aucott | JUSTRIDE Podcast Ep.20 · JUSTRIDE Podcast

• Audio Track: And I just come off like a massive, I ripped the radiator off the bike, really hurt myself. I knocked down my confidence And then I went back A female on the flat track weekend. absolutely fell in love. Bored the first my flat track but it was just one to five. one week later I started racing. since then, everything just snowballed. mean, Enduro, adventure bikes. It's just a massive snowball. I'm not giving up on my dream. I'm going there. So welcome back to the Just Ride podcast. Tonight, we're joined by someone who has built a real passion for adventure, exploring the world on two wheels. and proving that you don't need to be six feet tall to ride an adventure bike. Lucia Orko is probably best known for her off-road adventures, her unmistakable classic Aprilia Toureg, and her love of Morocco, where she spent plenty of time tackling everything from challenging trails to sand dunes. Fast forward to today and she's racing, exploring different countries, inspiring other riders, and preparing for her next big adventure in Peru. Lucy's also been working closely with the Just Ride team, helping us test the app, sharing her experiences, telling us what she doesn't like and getting us to improve it, which has been great. But there's plenty to get into tonight. So, welcome to Just Ride. We're already talking 90s, so I think we might be going down the whole 90s rabbit hole in the green room talking about fashion and... So it's going to be, I think it's been an interesting podcast and I can be talking 90s quite a lot. That's the way. have been born in 89. So to be honest, I don't even remember. I just love the 90s style. We love it too. And we love it. You can remember. We can remember. And Alan Partridge is for listening, right? Big thumbs up to you. I did say it, we had Alan Partridge outside ready to come in the show. Yeah, that's for another time. I'm going to complete your script here. So how tall are you then, if you're not six foot tall? Well, still taller than you. That's actual effect. Yes, Martin, he's standing up. I'm 170 centimetres, whatever that is in inches, or feet, or whatever you British do. But welcome, you've come up from Grantham. Did you ride up? No, I didn't. I was kind of thinking about that and then I was a little late so I just jumped in the To be honest, it's not cold and the weather was beautiful. So I kind of on the middle of the way, I kind of regret it. But from Grantham to coming here, you have to kind of go through like a nomad's land and it's not that pretty, Which part that? we have a lot to say? Let's avoid the A1. It's kind of flat-ish. Boring. So boring. all the green lens you could have come up to. I imagine you would have left. You would have got here tomorrow. Can I ask the question? Have you ridden your bike on any green lens up here previously or I have done lots of up here. But I usually starting in a mashem. Yeah. The mashem is like the hotspot for green light. And you literally park in the middle of the town, get a chip and batty or whatever it is, bacon, batty, whatever. and off your goal and you do really nice loops. You can do two different loops. I usually do two days. So one day is 110 miles and the next day is a 90 miles. So we finish in the middle of day. It's like a dream. And that's somewhere that we go as well. So we know where you get in your bacon but the border tea room, border tea room. We were talking in the green room that you only started riding when you were 26, is that right? Yes. So I always wanted to ride all my life, but my parents or nobody in my family even drove. So I never had anybody to actually bring me into the, into like, I don't know, the cars or engine world or whatever you want to call it. And I moved to UK when I was 20 and I just said one day, so I want to ride a bike. And friend of mine back then, was like, just go and do your license. was just like that. He was like, yeah, just like that. I went to do my license. First I throw, it will stick to one, two, five. So CBT is enough for me. Once I got that, was like... Went for a full license. And it was actually a start. When I did my full license, I did it quite well. But when I got my first bike, I got the two wrong bikes. The first one was Ducati Monster. I was tiny back then. literally, no joking, I was 20 kilos lighter again, you know, different weights and stuff. 20 kilos lighter than I'm now. So I didn't have any strength to actually even move that bike off the stand or anything. And the second bike that I got was for greenlining and that was KTM 202 stroke. I had the green line 20 seconds behind my house. I just need to get out of my drive. turn around and I was on a green light following my friend, following him about one minute and I was like, this is green light next time, it's really easy. I was on a flat gravel drive, like, you know, just a normal farm truck until I hit the roots, like in the middle of the summer, full on baked tractor roots. And I just come off like a massive, I ripped the radiator off the bike, really hurt myself. And I picked up because I was so embarrassed and the adrenaline was completely hitting. So I picked the bike up and said, no, I keep riding. keep riding. He was looking me like, are you sure you want to ride? He's like, yes. So we managed to budge that radiator with a gaffer table, whatever it was. it was keep riding for another two hours, local green lines. And after two hours, starting to cry because I couldn't breathe anymore. My ribs really hurt. And I come back home, took my body arm and everything off. And I just completely had like a... probably you can find a picture of just bleeding all my side and the stuff. How badly I actually scraped it and how badly injured myself. So that was my first off-roading experience. I don't think so I went off-road after that for about two years. Yeah, but you really threw yourself literally into water cycling from doing that CBT, getting the Ducati and then getting the KTM and having such an off-flight like that didn't put you off? All completely put me off. didn't ride for one or two years after that because I just bought completely wrong bikes for my ability, for my weight, for my size and everything. And completely like I knocked down my confidence and I done anything for about one and a half year. And then I went back into I think it was female only flat track weekend. You did it. Yeah, exactly. A female on the flat track weekend. Yeah. Then on that absolutely fell in love. Bored the first my flat track but it was just one to five. And then one week later I started racing. from since then, everything just snowballed. mean, whatever it was, Enduro, motocross, adventure bikes. It's just a massive snowball. What drew you to then that weekend and doing that? What was the kind of thinking point about, I'm going to go and do a flatback weekend. What was that about? I think it looked really cool on social media. Yeah, it just looked really cool. And it was female only and it was one of the first female only. events that was happening back then I was like yeah this cool this look cool and I loved it absolutely was that in the UK yes that was in the UK it was in a greenfield yeah greenfield since then evolved massively yeah What did you like about the racing element then? Was it competitive? No, I actually hate racing. And I still do hate racing. I did love the people around, I love the atmosphere. But as soon as you put me on the start line, full on panic, my everything goes out. I hate racing. Even now I do vintage enduro and most friendly atmosphere ever. But just like the first start, it just freaks me out and I really don't enjoy racing. So I don't want to do racing, but it's just a good way to actually put lots of time on a bike and enjoy yourself and just have a safe environment. We were talking in the green room about your tractors. That was quite interesting Okay. So I like to wear Larry outfits and he's always like a colorful and I like to look feel good, I'm bearing in the staff. So usually it's very stand out or I always stand out as a snowman. Yellows, pinks, things like that. Well, actually, my leather suit is a white, blue and orange in golf colors. So, yeah, so very, very, you stand out and then you're a female and my bike was perfectly matching with my letters. Yeah, I'm not making it easy for myself, do I? So there's lots of men, sorry guys, with egos and they always want to be faster than a girl. this is going viral, isn't it? This is a Jade one. This is the second hand about racers. There you go. Come carry on. I did have a hundred bars. Did you have bar racers on that? Sorry, So put a cross on mine and because having a bike with a small capacity, a lot of guys want to overtake you on a straight, but they don't realize with the small bikes you you're breaking two corners much later. And so many times the guys wanted to go past me on a straight and they realized I'm breaking later. So when I was tipping in the corner, they were just there. So instead of them tipping to a corner, they just went straight. And honestly, it was so nice when they did this mistake and they actually come after and they said, I am so sorry, I didn't realize. And that was the most like, no problem. There is no harm in it. We all make mistakes. yeah. So that's the one. So did they do it again in session two? No, no, no, no, no, no, Really, really nice people. And there are people that are understanding and there are people that just like much alter ego. But do you have a same in the female things? Is it somebody just want to be faster, want to be better? Yeah, after you. Yeah. I always say when we're out on anybody can go fast in the straight line. It's when you get into the bends, isn't it? That's where I got that feeling of that competitiveness. And also when you start talking about like doing all these things with your license. which I thought was quite interesting in the great in the green with a bit of a chance to give me room. We didn't hear this. We weren't in the green room at this point. So on the back of your driving license, you got, you know, the marks, the stuff that you can drive. Yeah. And I want all those. Okay. The full set. You're collecting all of them and what have you collected so far? Well, the biggest one is a HGV license. So I got like, you know, full HGV license. Next one is a bus. There you go. And when you'll be taking the bus around the track as well, you get an opportunity. had this dream, I don't know guys if you've seen or not, I used to have this small DAF car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like green. Well, and those cars are bariomatic. basically they don't have a gearbox, it's just like a strings or something. So as fast you go forward, you go as fast backwards. So my dream was to actually take that car backwards around the track. Okay. Are you anywhere near that? I stole the So if you know where the car is, give her a shout. My neighbour has it. So let's talk about Morocco. So the Morocco adventures and the Aprilia tour rig. Yes. So for your 30th birthday, is, this is, this again, you've shared this earlier. You booked a women only motorcycle trip to Morocco. So why Morocco? Why for your 30th? And what attracted you to Morocco? we were planning this China trade board, Japan, I can't even remember. And then Sideburn magazine. back in the days, Flat Track magazine, just organized this female only tour. And Leah just followed me along and goes like, yeah, let's do that. It's much easier than actually try to do the Chinese trip. And we booked it. And I remember coming home and I tell my partner back then, it was like, I'm going to Morocco. And he just looked at me, it's like, you're going to die. No joking, you're going to die. Wow. So very supportive then. And I was like, so I booked 10 days of the motocross training and I went on a local motocross track just to get used to the front brake. Never use the front brake. I never really used or changed gears or anything like that. Because on the flat track you don't do that. So I got at least some feeling. And I went to Morocco and it was a tough one. The first one was a tough one. remember having a massive crash on the second one. I probably can't even share the footage with you. I a massive one because I just missed this washout and I just T-boned it and the car healing. Then going on, I was wearing glasses back then. After that trip I actually had my eyes laser straight away. I was just riding on top of the dune and I couldn't see the edge of it. It was tiny little dune and I just tumbled down and the bike just on top of me and winded myself. And again, it was like a really big one. was like, yeah, okay, I need to see better. So after the trip, first thing that I did was book my laser eye surgery and then board the enduro bike. Can we just do it? How many? How many things? What? What did you buy? you buy? Because what I was racing in the flat track at that stage was CRF Honda. So I went for the same. So basically all the spare parts and everything was exactly the same. So it was Honda CRF 250 RX. Right. nice. Yeah. Wow. And you go back to Morocco quite a lot. I we're talking about you've got I was showing you some of the routes in Morocco. I'll give you some room. You go back a lot, don't you? Yeah, I try to go at least once a year or sometimes I manage to or even three times a year or I to trips back to back with the different companies or something. I absolutely love Morocco. I love Moroccans. I love it. What is it about Morocco that you do love? Simplicity. OK. The openness. Everything is cheap. Everybody is super friendly. You want to ride there, you ride there, you want ride there, you ride there. And you don't see anybody until you need a pee and then everybody turns up. I'm not even joking. You're for hours. don't see the person and then it's like, there's nothing where I can hide behind. So you just stop and going to have a pee behind the backs and there's everybody running. You know, that's a short on TikTok. That's going to be a short. Everybody who been in Morocco in a place like that have exactly the same experience. Don't see anybody on the You mentioned again about the the ride in the dunes because we talked about Robbie Wallace, who you know quite well and Yes. The faster you go the kind of more you kind of just It's not just the dunes, it's just the sand. The faster you go through the sand, the easier it gets because you just skip over it. Like you're just riding in somebody's old roots and you wobble around. So the faster you go, the better it is. And this year, this was the first time I actually was on my own bike, the Aprilia. It's slightly heavier than a normal modern enduro bike. Everybody was like, my God, you can't do that. It's too heavy bike, blah, the actually weight of that bike was much easier in the sand because it just cut through it. And I was really surprised by that. But with the lighter bikes, they kind of just hop over things. So everything feels more twitchy. The heavier bike just went for it and it's just make its own path. And it was excellent. Did you ship your bike out tomorrow? Or did you ride it? No, shipped it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a bloody long drive. I know it's a long one. We've known people that actually like ride out there and then do a riding holiday. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm on a 1989 back in your age. Sorry. It's okay. I still in my twenties at that point. there we go. Yeah. So it's 1989. So riding it all the way there would be painful. about Morocco. What's been your most challenging or memorable moment, do you think, in terms of riding Morocco so far? Finding a private toilet. Other than finding a toilet. I'm so used to it at this point. It's like, yeah, okay, they're running to me. I'm Most challenging, it's push yourself through your tiredness. When you get tired and basically you just think, okay, I could just, I had enough now. I could. I'm tired, push over that. I think it's the mental, mental, physically I'm all right, but it's just the mental things. It's like, yeah, I need to keep going. I need to keep going. Do you think you're a stronger person for that as well? that endurance? Mentally, probably not. We thought that might be questionable. I'll be stronger person for that. I'm not sure to be honest. You keep going back. Yeah, I keep going back for more beating and making my challenges harder and harder, longer and on more difficult bikes. So I'm not sure if I'm stronger, but I'm definitely happier because I've that. And it makes me so happy with myself that I actually will just keep going instead of just give up. And yeah, and that's the main thing. Definitely happy. Did you take great pleasure in when you came back and said, well, I didn't die and I'm going back and I'm back again and I'm going to complete the Sun Raiders. Do you want to tell us about the Sun Raiders? when I read that, was like, what is that? Did you have a look? No. I thought I'd let you tell us all about it. The Sun Raiders is a vintage rally, always like following the Dakar routes or something. again is the bikes from 80s, 90s. And that's when my Aprilia come into because I wasn't planning to buying Aprilia or anything, but I saw this Android is online. I was keep following for about two years and things that this looks really cool. And then one year I decided I really want to do it. So I bought a bike for it and yeah, I just went for it and absolutely loved it. I mean, I absolutely loved it. And it was, was it challenging? I don't think so, was not challenging because my bike was working excellent and I put so much prep into it and I prepped it properly. So I had it really easy. Yeah. And it was just like the best seven days of riding. We did around 3000 kilometres. So it was a long one. Yeah. First two days where we were hit with 440 kilometres to do. And yeah, just, yeah, was amazing. How did Ian find that then, your partner? He was fine as well to be honest. It was only second time for him to be in Morocco so he's newbie to off-road. I actually taught him how to ride off-road. Yeah, I'm not joking. The first time he went off-road before he was going to kill me. That's his story to tell. He's newbie but he is very good at it. He's very natural and he's much better rider than me now. He's really annoying. So when you, when you go back, is there always a plan of where you're going to ride in Morocco? Or is it always going over routes that you've done previously? is it about exploring something new? it depends with who I go with. if I'm going with the tour organizer, they have the preset routes and the staff and I renting their bikes and, and, we doing, what are you, I used to go or I've been many times with is the company that actually it's a motor ventures. and they're incredible because they're only people that actually give you your GPX files. And this is how I actually, my love for the navigation and the STEM come from them because first two times when I went with them, I was completely useless. I mean, I couldn't even read the GPX file and all what you need to do was stay on a purple line. I couldn't do it. Like, mean, absolutely pathetic. So me trying to actually doing this and not be able to stay on a purple line in the middle of nowhere was... Once I went, I think that was the first trip, the first girl trip, I went off and all the girls were getting ready and I said, can I just set off and just go and riding and take some photos or something? And the guys say, yeah, go. we will we'll meet up in another next point. And I just keep riding for about two hours. I was like, this is really tough. Where's the next point? And I just see this Moroccan guy shouting at me. I see these massive trucks going for me and the roots are getting through the sounds again, really deep. I was like, I saw the girl coming through this, this is really difficult. And I crashed at that stage, picked my back up and just riding and it's just, this is getting really tough and it's still the same and I'm exhausted. And then I see a group of people, say, another turner. say, hi guys. And my best friend is shouting at me, it's like, where are you going? It's like, where are you going? It's like, we go, I crashed, I picked my bike. And I, turned all wrong way around and I went, basically went on back of myself. Because I didn't realize what I was doing and I didn't realize the mileage instead of coming down was actually coming back up. Everything looks same. And that was kind of like scary. It's like, wow, okay. Yeah, and I'm much better now, but yeah. Was a dodgy start with the GPX files and navigation and stuff like that. Well, weren't you, you were saying earlier on about showing all the guys on the morning. You were bit like, she mentioned all guys and tech. Yeah, she looked at me at that point, the way. She looked at mine I did look at all of Didn't look at you though. Yeah. yes. So, because I've been doing, I don't know, this for few years now and I got lots of different gadgets, whatever it is, DMD or on the phone, different apps or Garmin navigations and stuff. I learned how to, I'm an expert at it, I'm not going to claim that, but I use them all so I know the basics. And when you go to these events, like for example, the Sun Raiders, I had a few guys that didn't know how to use DMD. when they needed the navigation or the road book and I was like, can somebody please help me? Yeah. and I was the person that just literally sat them around. They're all queuing up though. And they're really getting sorted on the morning. Yeah. yeah, they were queuing up. I think you also said the simplicity of using the GPX is really quite important to you, isn't it? In terms of tech, you like your tech. I do like the tech. like to stay informed and to see the route, to know how fast you're going, know where you're going, how much you have left is really important for my mental well-being. I don't know if it is OCD or one of these whatever things that we're all going through, but yeah, I just like to see it. And I like to count the miles. So I know if I have a 400 miles that day to do, I like to know that the two hours in and I'm like. I only have a free hand. I can do it. You can plan ahead. And physically for me it is really important. I'm very much the same as you are. I to know where I'm going. And I need to know the detail. Just obviously so that I can plan ahead in my head so when I get there then I know where I am. We often go out for a ride, perhaps Saturday mornings and sometimes one of us needs to get back sooner than the other. we love just being able to say we're an hour into a three hour ride. How many miles is it to get to get us back? And then you can plan accordingly. yeah, yeah, it's important. But 400 miles in the Moroccan desert is a huge chunk. It's a huge, huge distance. Yeah, I would love to have gone. It is a huge be honest, it's like 400 kilometers, not 400 miles. Well, even a big difference. That's a big difference. Sorry, that's my mistake. It's still 320 odd miles. it's a big chunk in miles, isn't it? It is. I mean, that is really challenging, really. And that will be over. All-terrain as well I would imagine. That's 90 percent off-road. Yeah. 90 percent off-road yeah. Yeah. So a few rocks and a bit of sand. bit of sand. don't like rocks. No. And I would imagine that the sand will vary in its, its, you know, its density. You know, some will be quite firm and some will be very, very soft. Yes. So the soft one calls fesh-fesh. Fesh-fesh. Yeah. And That's my favorite. Yeah. But to be honest, anybody who writes off on any mention of fresh. I love it. It's just hilarious. It's like it's a challenge. It's so hard. It's like writing in a flower like soft flower. And it's just yeah. I remember Robby saying about that. Yeah. The very fine sand. Yes. The fresh fresh for you said that's the one that You have to make sure you keep it, what does he say? in doubt, gas it. It's just like, I don't know. It's really hard to explain, but it just makes me excited every time when I know that we're hitting a fashion show. I think it's again the challenge that, my God, I just did that. And there is this one place in Morocco, it's Ramlia. It's this tiny little village between the two dunes, like the small dunes of El Nop and Merzouga. And you have you got about 30 kilometers of the flash flash to get there. Yeah, and it's more exciting It's really nice and we did it actually and my dream was to take my own bike there and to take my old classic bike So apparently I'd ever me was the biggest thing but I had a little tumble just about literally just before we entering this section and my handbars were just like this and I couldn't see any of the technical cars and nobody could help me to actually straighten now because they were so badly bent I was like, I'm not giving up on my dream. I'm going there. So I literally rode those fresh, fresh lines with my hundred bars like that until I get to the point. then the guys are looking just like, you just did that on the whole. was like, yes, I did that on whole. I was absolutely spent that day. I mean, it's like it was the probably hardest day of my life. But I managed and I got this picture and I was just most exciting actually. It's like, yeah, I did here. I come here on my own bike and like, yeah. So when you, when you go on with Dakar to do the Dakar with Robin, because of this experience, mean, the fresh, fresh, the, don't take me wrong. got all the passion or the skills or or the, the, yeah, not yet. yet. But I think our friend is to Morocco next year, isn't he's doing a race in Morocco next year. Should we do it in a sidecar? It'd be like Wallace and Gromit worn it. That's it'd be like. And a good old Robbie Wallace deck would teach you. Yeah, we will, will, we're going to talk about Peru a little bit later on as well, because that's, that's really quite exciting. That's exciting things for next year. There's a of really exciting trips that are starting. lining up for next year. yeah, Paris, the one that is spotlighted. And is that with, sorry, I know you can talk about it later, but is that with the same tour company again? That's where they go beyond the one that I did the Mongolia this year with. Yeah. And yeah, I say it's very exciting. That was actually amazing trip to Mongolia. was on my book at least for a while and both me and Lily, my best friend, we actually, she said, it's like, got Mongolia on my book at least. I was like, I will do it with you. This was about two years ago. and We just planned for it for so long and then we went there and we had the most amazing time. mean, even the group of people, the guys that we actually met there, become friends and we're still in a touch and they want to come to where I'm going? Peru. Peru. So it's like everybody actually is like, yeah. The pictures looked amazing. We've been following you. and Lily all around all the stuff that you're doing. The fun that you guys are having. mean, it's like the fun that we have obviously when we put, but not as colourful for some reason. Yeah. That's cause we have to leave the North. that's it, isn't it? You know, the chief and Lily go, we're going to go to Peru and we're going to go to Massim. Yeah. Or you know, for a bacon sarnie. Come on, we are going to Portugal. Come on. yeah, we are going to Portugal in a few weeks. Yeah. My is going to look after us in Portugal. really excited about that. And my is the best one. So, Yeah, we know my. Yeah, we love Maya. Yeah, Maya had incredible laugh in Norway. Hello, Maya. So I want to talk about women riders and confidence and all that. And you've said that being short doesn't necessarily mean you can't ride big motorcycles because again, you mentioned earlier on about what you did. We talked about James Oxley when we were talking about them. When you took that bike up, so what do you mean by that in terms of give me some tips? me some tips Balls you need to grab pair of Well, that's what you need Martin have you met the eunuch Do you need a sidecar? So eunuchs Tom can you mute these guys? So yeah, but you've been spoiled greens. You don't need a small motorcycle. Tell us about that It's just all about the neck and it's about your own confidence. It's all in your mind. Yeah, of course there are some physical restrictions but you can't pick the bike up because it's too top-heavy physically and stuff. The most bags that are right I can still pick up. If I get tired by the end of the day, of course I can't pick it up on my own but there is always somebody around you to help you. But just because you can't... Honestly the only bag that I actually put both my tip toes, not the flat foot tip toes on the floor is my KDX and that's a tiny bike. But all my bags I can put one tiptoe and another one is a dangling just about the foot back on the side. Yeah, and that's just normal. And I remember my dream was to own a Tenere. And I remember going to look at a Tenere about, I don't know, four or five years ago in a shop. And I sat on one and I was like, no, I can't ride that. No, no. And I conveyed myself in my head that I couldn't ride it and I didn't buy it. And it was good. But a year later I was like, you know what? I I will buy it. And I didn't just buy the around, I bought the biggest turn around that I had at that stage and that was the World Ride with double tank. I took it off-road, I rode it and then lovely Suzuki sent me a long bike, Vstrom 800D and I realized I prefer the Vstrom a lot more, even though it's a heavy. But it was just nicer bike to ride for me. This is not anybody, it was just nicer for me. And I sold my turn around and got the Vstrom. We love the Tenere on my domain. Yeah, we love a Tenere. Yeah, and the, the dual tank one. The dual tank one, that's our Titanic moment. Titanic moment, yeah, there is a, somewhere. Our Titanic moment stood at the MCL on that bike, yeah, lovely. Didn't you nearly drop a Tenere? I did, yeah, I did, yeah. Is because you've got no balls, Precisely that, Mark, precisely that. I am a eunuch too. Yes, I did, yeah, on a test ride. And there's a lovely clip of that of me giggling away at myself, nearly dropping it tenor. It's fine to drop the bag, especially if you're road. But if you're off road, the dropping bag is absolutely normal. Not advisable on a test ride. on somebody else's it is on the road, no. It's the road. You can have it back. Sorry for the dents. Not for me. Yeah, we love it. We love a tenor. We do, yeah. So are you seeing more women get involved in adventure motorcycle and then? Yes, that is super exciting. Why do you think that is then? Why do you think that is? Is it because of you and Lily? No, no, no, no, no, no. Do you put bar risers on like Kair does as well? I do have a bar riser. I think all my bags by now. Just twin pegs? No, I can't get along with those. right. OK, that's interesting. No, I can't get along. I did try them. I just couldn't work it out. I got very small feet, so I got four feet. So for me, normal peg is basically like a twin peg. Tom and I spent a very drunk evening with Kai, who invented twin pegs, Mr. Twin pegs, and he was very passionate about the explanation behind twin pegs. know a lot of people actually use them, a of people on a long distance, and I completely fully agree with that. But the bike is such a personal thing. It's like not one Trainers or one shoes fit everybody else and the bike is the same same as a clothes doesn't fit the one and it's whatever you got fat bars You're gonna skinny bars. You're gonna love bars. You got the bi-riser or anything the seat We all ride differently as well So there is no one thing that fits all simple as that and we are not and we have none of us are pros or there is very little is what five percent of the pros up there all of us is just Bumbling around and we are really happy And I don't want to be pro. I just want to be happy. just want to have fun. Yes, having a fun. I just keep smiling and have a passion because once I lose that passion, there is no point of doing it. Then it's just a very expensive hobby. What I saw the seven day trip that you did, right? The bike B &B adventures across Scotland Island would look like you had every sort of weather in there. And I looked at it was 14 women, 14 Royal Enfields and one BMW. Tell us about that because that looked and we've got We're going to share loads of pictures because that looked like a lot of fun. That was incredible as well. That was my first time actually a trip with a bike and B &B. And I have to say the guys are absolutely incredible. so caring, lots of fun. Big shout out guys. Yeah. a massive shout out because the guys are and they do lots of trips across Europe. So if you want to do easy going trip, go for it. Seriously. Tom will drop a link in for those guys as well because that looked amazing. Yes. And all. I came much fatter from that trip because we have a big breakfast and most of the places was like really nice hotels and stuff and they make us a two course breakfast like a cold breakfast and then a hot breakfast. was like two course breakfast. Anyway, and then our hour and a half we stopped for a coffee and a cake. And then we stopped for lunch and then we stopped for another coffee and a cake and then we have a free course dinner and it was like, That sounds like our ride out. This is something very familiar. about it. We only do 10 miles. Yeah. And it was like, at one stage I said, guys, can we just skip the coffee and the cakes? And the guys look at me, like, if we go to the rally riding video, let's see how we will skip those. So now we're just taking this, like we own the holidays. Where did you start from? Was it Scotland? We started in Edinburgh. So their headquarters is in Edinburgh one was from Edinburgh. We went to head to the Ferry Holyhead, I think. And we started in the North Island and North Island down south all the way down to the big cliffs, Moher. Cliffs of Moher. There you go. Sorry, Irish people. the Cliffs of Morehand and we cut through the Midlands basically back to the ferry. Yeah, it was incredible. We did around 300, 350 maybe even to 400 kilometers. was on road, was it? Yes, this was on the road. You had every weather, didn't you? Well, it is Scotland like an island. Scotland was actually incredible. We had the sunny days, but then we moved to Ireland and the weather was Irish. Wet. Wet, windy. the wind was like... Three seasons in one day, think as well. We're literally starting a day and it's beautiful blue skies and then you just literally you can see it and you drive into this like a massive storm and you come out and you've got the most beautiful... What is it? Rainbow. Yeah, thank you. Most beautiful rainbow. And then you just ride off that and it gusty winds and it's like this is like literally in a 10 km race. Buttered. So that weather sort of suggests to me, particularly in Ireland, you just got to stop and go and have a pint of Guinness. That would be my... Alcohol-free Guinness. That's what we had for lunch. Alcohol-free Guinness. With cake. I just want the cake. To be honest, I did have a hot tea, alcohol-free Guinness for lunch and a cake and whatever stew they served. I came much heavier after that trip. Wow. It's interesting listening to tonight and everyone about the amount of people you've met over this journey. What is it about that whole building that motorcycle community around you that you feel is so special? don't feel special. Like even somebody said, I don't feel, honestly, I don't feel special. I'm absolutely nobody, a normal person. I just somehow managed to get to the opportunity that other people don't have or something. honestly, no special, no talents, maybe just big mouth. you. What do you enjoy about that the most? Writing I just still want to put it helmet and I just still want to challenge and I would share the challenges or the show anybody can challenge themselves and you can start from being Very scared and very poor yet something but actually become a confident and happy But I just don't want to tell to anybody or I don't really think like I want to tell it or show it on Instagram I just do me and if somebody takes something from it, I'm more than happy. And it's the authentic, sorry, and it is the authenticity that you see with what you do. particularly as it is, it's just like, mean, we've, try to be really authentic. It's just getting things wrong all the time, but it shouldn't be about trying to be something. not that image is it? And if it's, if it's too polished. People will see through that. We're not Polish. We are not. We are dull, dull. You're English, not Polish. No, I'm Welsh. Let's get it right. I couldn't actually work out your accent. was like, I did ask the... I've been in the North too long. I was like, is he South African? Is that how I work it out? That's a new one for me. I'm terrible with accent. I'm sorry all the South African. If I insult you, did say you watched our very first podcast when we met in the green room and I was like, Tom and I were going, my co-host. Hello. We were like puppets on a string. Do you like my helmet? I was literally doing homework. it's like, I'm going to sit with these guys. And so they're going to ask me questions. Maybe I should throw some questions. Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah. But just going back, mean, we all, you know, there's various different types of bike riding, isn't it? And we all love chatting about bikes and we all love looking at social media about bikes. love watching TV, motorcycle racing, various different things, but ultimately We all just want to ride bikes. We just want to ride our bike and we all get that ultimate pleasure and putting our helmet on and just riding our bike, forgetting about the day to day and just going out and riding your bike. And it's even better if you ride it with your friends. Yeah. You know, just makes it so much, we just have so much fun. What you were talking about is me and Mark are tourists. We've got for a ride on a Saturday and it's brilliant to enjoy it. But I love the touring element when we go away for a week in Wales. It's just, it's just another level. And I know it's only something basic where we're doing the routes in Wales, but for us, it's like Peru. And we are going to talk about that now. I have to say, it's like when I started riding a bike and especially when I started doing Enduro and off-road riding or like a touring, the bikes bring you into the places I would never visit normally. And I have seen the world from the back of motorcycle and I actually experienced the culture. Not just the culture of the five-star hotel or four star or whatever but actually real culture and that what makes me exciting. That's the riding the bikes and the freedom that it gives you is just one of the most exciting feelings out there. Yeah. you. So let's talk about Peru. Okay. So you've got a big, big trip coming up with go beyond travel, which is the people you go with. She can talk about it. So what can you tell us about this whole big trip to Peru? Well, it's again me and Lily. So me and Lily, as you could see on the socials, we do like to have a, we do like each other. And we like, we just have lots of fun and we are like very, we are very good together. like sisters really, aren't you? In a way. don't even know each other for that long. But sometimes you just click with the person and we, we work together in even in like a very stressful. Situation stuff. It's like she know where to switch off when, for example, I'm being a female, when I'm hormonal. She knows how to handle it. And I know when she's hormonal how to handle it. And this is like really important because you can be... I know the feeling. know exactly the same. You're all men, know the feeling. And we women, know we are... Not right at that time. We're just talking about when Andrew gets hormonal. Quite a lot of time actually. Where's Andrea? Where's Andrea? Tonight I'm being Andrew. Thank you. So come on then. So tell us about when, when, when is it? So it's October. Yeah. still have about four or five spots left. alongside we already really good group of people that we know each other and we are going and, yeah, I think very soon, mainly we'll starting sharing more information on our socials about it. but yeah, it's the next year and it's a pair of like, come on, like how much better it can get. It's like how much more vile you can go next October. think we started on 15th of October in Lima. Is it female only? and how long is the trip? The trip is nearly three weeks. Yeah. It's a long distance that you have to go and you're going so high to altitude that you will have a one or two days of basically recovering. So you don't get altitude sickness while you're riding in a staff. It is a proper, proper, proper adventure. yeah, we are just extremely excited. was a lot I was going to say in Alan's podcast, Alan Davies podcast for ABR, he talks about the medication you can purchase. to help with that the blue pill? Somebody said Viagra the other day and I'm like, am I going to be steaming right like this? Look at me one hand. I only know this from the top gear because I don't know if you wash your top gear when there is someone with the Clarks or somebody was passing over Viagra and stuff. Well, I hope it was for these reasons. I don't even know what that is anyway. anyway, anyway, are you looking forward the most for this trip then? I have never been in South America. So actually just experience. and we go to Max's pictures. if it's my Max pictures. Is that where you're going? Yeah. literally just to see completely a new culture, again, completely a new culture. Yeah. That would be something amazing to see. I remember watching the long way up when they went there and I've seen it on the TV. I never really knew what it was until I watched the program and it was like, that's wonderful. It's amazing to see that in person. I'm just thinking about October time, what the sort of temperatures are to be like at that time of year, because I know it can get... very cold in South America and particularly at altitude as well I just wonder what the sort of conditions are going to be like. It's not going to be a Morocco, that's for sure. there'll be plenty of places to hide and have a bit of privacy. So yeah, again, it's just like, I don't think so the distances in a day are that long or depends how difficult the terrain is and the bikes that are going to ride are CF motors. Nice. Did you hear this? Harry and Jess? Yeah. Good shout out. Harry and Jess. And Steve. Chris. Was it Chris? It's Chris. So sorry. Chris, kept calling him Steve all day long enough. Yo, Steve! He's not listening to me. It's not Steve, it's Chris. He taught us. Anyway, I digress. And I missed that day, but there you go. He missed it. was great. We had a lot of fun. Yeah. We'll do it again, mate. We'll do it again. So you can ride the MT, the 450 MT. Amazing. You'll have a, what an incredible bike. What an incredible bike. I haven't rode it yet. Jazz and Harry. you definitely need to down to the farm. You need to come with us. To be honest, I did supposed to do their press lounge and I think they kind of wanted to send me a bike, but because of the time trips and I think that was like, whoa. Send it to us instead. We are whale of a time. Send the 450 and 800 and a thousand please. I'm having the 450 this time. I'll take the thousand again. was happy on the thousand. I was happy on that. So beyond Peru then what's still on your most motorcycle bucket list? If I can get my words out. Everything. All the countries all the countries that haven't been it really even the countries that I've been it's just I just want to learn a culture I just want The more you travel I think the bigger person or the nicer person you are yeah, and I just wanted that I want to I want to see everything I want to absorb I haven't been in a proper Africa I know Marrakech Africa, but I haven't been down south so I would like to do the Paris Daka on vintage bikes as well. So the same guys that I did the Sun Raiders now doing the tour and it is Paris-Dakar starting in Paris and finishing in the Dakar. At the moment it's way too expensive for me so I can't really afford it to do it but hopefully maybe in a couple years or something I will be able to save up for it and actually do it but that's three weeks. and yeah, it's, lots of spares, lots of stuff, but this would be like the ultimate challenge. But then I'm a female and I'm running out of the time. If I want to start giving kids or something, I was like, hang on a minute. Like just stick the bikes and you can go anywhere you want. Anytime you have ever thought about doing a round the world trip? Cause I know a lot of people do. Yeah. If it's something that you've thought about. No, I haven't actually. haven't. I still like to be home and I still like to have a three, four days of just doing nothing. Just do like that way to go away, come back and then replan and do it again and so on and so forth. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I need that. I love to see my dogs and I like to, you know, just come home and just being couch potato and stuff like that. I just cook my own food and yeah, I like the comfort of my back, but as a challenge. Yes, definitely. Why not? If the funds are there. Yeah. So you mentioned that yourself, and then once you get your van or your kind of big, that's a big van. Once you get that kid out, you're going to Italy. us about that. The start is in Italy and the plan is to just chase the sun. or a state anywhere where it's 20 degrees and maybe bring that up to February or something, stay three, four months and have a base camp at the bun and have a two big adventure bags me and my partner in and just travel like park the bun somewhere, have a base camp but just do maybe one week road trip around the places where we normally wouldn't go because it would take us week to get there and stuff. So basically just that and just moving a base as far as we want. literally chasing that sun. amazing. That sounds really good. So we may end up in Morocco in January or we may end up in Tunisia. I would love to do Tunisia because I haven't done it yet and it's supposed to be, famous for dunes and never ending sand. And what bike do you take with you then? Aprilia. Of course, the legend that is the Aprilia and he will take his Africa Twin. I was just thinking about when you talking earlier about learning new cultures and experiencing new cultures. And I was just wondering if there's anything similar in Japan, because Japan's always been somewhere. I've been fascinated by the Japanese, particularly about Japanese bikes and things like that. And I just wonder if there's an experience in Japan that you could go on. That's another trip that we're talking for next year is in Japan. you are, you you're onto something. But let's let's tick those boxes one of three. Yeah Fuji and things like that must be amazing. I wouldn't say a problem but only things with the Japanese only road so it would be yes. Yes. Road not off road. All right. Yes. Still incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Japanese on my bucket list. I wanted to go Japan for a very long time like I'm a big fan of Japanese culture. Yeah. Japanese cars bikes and food. Yes, I think hopefully if when you do go, we might be to tag along because it's one of my things that I want to go and do as well. to go. I to use their vendor machines. It's a whole different. Yeah, it's one of those. You want to experience one of their toilets, don't you? I do. You can go to Morocco for that. Not even joking. Like, Like if you go to the nice places in Morocco, the toilets are like literally looking at so do I need a driving license to actually work this thing out. Is that one of those things on the back of the UK driving license that you're going to learn about? Japanese driving license. can just add it. Seashells. he said it. It's just like a really warm one. was like, it doesn't feel right. No. Yes. Right. So let's get in the quick fire then because we don't want be keeping you because you've got a busy day tomorrow, haven't you? Yes. Maybe driving to North Island tomorrow. With the truck, the Is it a truck or is it what is it a van? It used to be an old T-mobile truck for like maintenance and stuff. It's 2004, one of the latest ones. it's got air-conditioned electric windows and all the basics, but it's still got an old engine without the modern jazz. So you're kitting it out. So you're converting it then. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. For the big trip. Yes. Cool. To chase the sun. Chasing the sun. Chasing the sun. Or the rain cloud. Avoiding the rain cloud. Here we go, little bit of a drum roll for you, okay. Morocco or Mongolia? Morocco. Morocco or Mongolia? What was your preference? Morocco. Morocco. Sand dunes or mountain trails? Sand dunes. That was a good one. Classic bikes or modern technology? Classic bikes. Simplicity. There we go. Camping under the stars or luxury hotel? Depends where. Morocco. Camping under the sun there's not much luxury there is there? The camping under the sun is usually more luxury than the hotel. So the Aprilia? you Kawasaki. Just say these are the quickest fire questions. Solo adventure or group ride? Solo. Well, Lily doesn't count as a group ride. Favorite motorcycle accessory? A favorite one. What did I say actually? the maps. There you go. I thought I was going to say, guess, she-wee. On the last trip in the island, all what I was hearing was a she-wee. like, my god, I'm going to go purchase one just so I can tell my things. Never used one. Well, that leads me on to the next question linked, most underrated piece of riding gear. I really don't know that. That's the thing. It's like, if it's underrated, I probably don't own it. As simple as that. It's like, if I don't like it, I don't have it. Is there anything you've bought that you've just think, That was a waste of money. Ducati. Hard luggage. Hard luggage. Because I haven't used it. It wasn't a waste of money. I just haven't, I never used it because anytime when I go, I'm going with so little stuff. Then I never really need to use Just a roll bag then? a roll bag and backpack. My backpack is usually really heavy and by the day too I'm cursing. You need a bigger roll bag then. Yeah, literally. Yeah. But I don't say it's a wrong thing. It's just something that I haven't used. I like how you got out of that. I'm not saying it's That was a safe question. I just don't want to. No, because Road book navigation or GPX route following. GPX route following. know. I do like the road book. It keeps you more interested or you need to be more switched. but the GPX is a lot more common, a lot easier to use. I just use 99 % GPX. Excellent. one piece of advice for someone starting off-road riding. You will fall off, don't be scared of it. It will happen sooner or later. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a very good one. It's fine. Don't buy the most expensive bike because you will drop it many, many times. Here we go, here we go. the one motorcycle you'd never sell. I keep saying that about every single one that I buy and then I get tired of them when I sell them. You'll never. the moment, my up really. Yeah, we knew. To be honest, that bike when I did the rally with it in Morocco, it was that bike get me out of the trouble every single time. It wasn't my talent, wasn't my riding skills. It was the bike, I hit something wrongly and I was like, my God, I'm coming down and the bike hit the floor, straightening itself up. And when I was like, my God, and then I promised everything to that bike, said, you're having engine rebuilt, you're getting painted, the frame is getting power coated, you're getting everything new. haven't done anything. So next time I probably go, the bike will literally spit me out. You said, it will remember. remember. Well, listen, I think we'll wrap it up now and we'll go and talk a little bit more in the green room, which we always end up talking about really juicy stuff. need a just ride after dark. How Well, well, can I just say it, Lucy, it's been an absolute pleasure having you with us on the Just Ride podcast. We've really enjoyed it. We wish you all the best with Peru. Mongolia, no you've been there, Morocco, Japan, You've jaunt around chasing the sun, I think it's going to be amazing. We're going to keep watching because I think your content is absolutely amazing. So if you have any questions or you want to drop a comment and just let us know, ask ask her, Lucia, is there somewhere that you think you should go or maybe, you know, Massum? I want to be in Massum. sorry, those people live in Matam. Don't forget to like and subscribe You've been watching the Just Ride podcast and we'll see you next time.