Jacki Kennedy - Entrant

Hi, here's my story about how I became addicted to the Round Britain Rally.
I'm an American, stationed in the Cambridge area with my job since August 2004. I had tried learning to ride a motorcycle back in the mid-80's when I was stationed in Hawaii while serving in the Air Force.
At that time, because I already had a car license, all I had to do was fill in some paperwork, no test or anything, and get a rider's permit. At this point I could ride any size motorcycle I wanted for up to a year before a test was required!!
Basically, I bought a friend's old 400cc Honda something-or-other (don't remember) and scared myself nearly to death because I had no idea what I was doing, fortunately, I was smart enough to stop before I killed myself and/or somebody else. I hadn't really given biking another thought until moving here about 20 years later.
One glorious summer afternoon (yes, you do have them here), while driving through the countryside, several bikers passed me and it made me start thinking about how much fun riding on the back roads seemed to be. Not really thinking much more about it until about a year later when Philip and I started dating. Philip loved to ride bikes but had a bad accident on his beloved VFR800 about 18 months earlier and was now bike-less. Hearing him talk about riding got my imagination going and my desire to try riding again was now unstoppable.

I started looking at bikes on e-bay and eventually decided we (I like the fact 'I' becomes 'we' so it confirms women are the same the world over) wanted to get a Honda Pan European for Philip and a Deauville for me. Well, while checking out one Deauville the owner was none other than an RBR'er, and as all good RBR'ers do he started talking about it. Although we didn't buy his bike, I did immediately go home and check out the RBR web site and decided it was a MUST try!! We did eventually get a Deauville from e-bay, as well as become RBR addicts. As a matter of fact, when we went down to pick up the Deauville we went from the purchase site to our very first RBR site in Cooling, Kent!!

During 2007, I purchased a Honda Veradero 125 to ride after taking my CBT and while training to get my full license. During this time we did ride both the Deauville and the Veradero to two local RBR sites, but have since used only the Deauville with me riding as a passenger (well, pillion as you call it) for all the others. I have since passed both the UK test, as well as going back to the states and passing the Maryland licensing class. (Believe me, getting a US motorcycle license is a joke compared to the UK licensing program!!) After getting my full UK license, I rode the Deauville once or twice and decided it is TOO heavy for me. So, instead of getting the Pan European for Philip and our touring, as originally thought, I left the Deauville for Philip and our tour riding and got myself a smaller Honda CB500 for riding around town on.
I like riding myself, but I just don't have the concentration to go for hours and hours. For our RBR trips, I prefer being a passenger. We have an intercom system and while we don't talk a lot, mostly because when at speed you can't hear anything anyway, it is just nice to have that connection. There have been days when we've left early morning and not arrived at the hotel until around midnight-I don't know how Philip can concentrate that long!! I can feel myself losing it after an hour or two when I'm riding. I'm more than happy to put myself in his hands and sit back and relax. (Aren't I awful!!) I'm so bad there was one time that I even took a quick catnap on the back on the home stretch of a long trip while going along the A14.

I basically do the research, planning and navigating-However, Philip frequently takes liberty with my navigating because he's more familiar with the roads and shortcuts. Sometimes it is just a gut feeling he might have because he's lived here all his life. All of this is fine by me as long as I don't get blamed for getting us lost!!
If you check out my web blog about our 2007 RBR adventures (HERE) you'll notice that we have our mascot (Rufus) with us in almost all of our pictures. The only site that he didn't make it to was our very first site in Cooling. I don't know why Philip got the idea of having a mascot, but when he did Rufus seemed like the perfect candidate as he was my first gift to Philip when we first started dating. Only problem is that we're kind of tight on space when we go on our longer trips and while he isn't that big, space is very limited-I think all three of us need to go on a diet!!

Well, that's the low-down on how I became an RBR addict.

Jacki