Winter solstice saddle-sore for the puppies

We're doing it tough this time, we've chosen Jun 22nd (the shortest day - Winter Solstice is at Sat, 22 Jun 2019 3:54 a.m.) as our target day for our next mad motorcycle riding adventure. We're attempting another Saddle-Sore, an Iron Butt Association endurance ride, for which we need to complete 1609km within a 24hr period.

With only 9:37hrs of daylight on the 22nd June, the majority of our riding will be done in the dark, and as you'll know, the majority of the ride will be cold too.

Quite fitting then that we're hoping to do this ride to raise money for the puppies again, as that's how a lot of them will be feeling in the pounds: left in the cold and dark with only a slight glimmer of hope...

My lovely wife, Stella will be joining me this time on the back of the bike (as pillion). If you think that riding 1600km in 24hours is hard, try sitting on the back of a bike on a seat which is only slightly bigger than a dinner plate for 24 hours! She's a trooper!

In order to stand the best possible chance of finishing this ride, we'll be setting off in the early hours of Saturday morning, leaving our starting petrol station at ~3:30am. This way we can at have at least a few hours of sleep before we need to get up and start the long day. You've ideally got to rid yourself of as much sleep-debt as possible before you start these things.

We'll be riding on a route in the North Island of NZ, which has yet to be fully finalised, it will be mainly NZ highways, and we're hoping to keep the higher altitude roads to a minimum given the temperature at this time of year.

We'll be sending updates out to our sponsors, with live tracking links and more of the planning information, so if this type of madness interests you, then get involved and drop in a donation, you'll be provided the details you need to follow our prep, and the ride in response.

Thank you, any donation is a good donation, it doesn't have to be huge, anything which you can afford to give will be very gratefully received.