Graham Saunders Around the World

The Honda Blackbird performs well during the World Motorcycle Challenge 2002

Graham outside the town called Avon and No this is not where the Avon Tyre's come from

Graham in Avon Town

Trans Canada Highway Time Line

The Rocky Mountains

They even paint fish on their garages you don't get this in the UK

USA Garage

Glen we meet in USA (Nice Chap)

The Honda Blackbird performs very well considering the terrain we went through. The Top of the World Highway in Alaska was where I had a problem with the uneven road and large pot holes. I was riding at a speed of around 60 mph on gravel when I saw a pot hole coming up very fast "but hay" I could not turn because I was riding on gravel. I knocked it down the gearbox from 5th to 3rd and gave it some stick, the back wheel spun up "No Grip" but it was too late. I hit the pot hole hard front and back, I thought I'd broken the front yoke & ended my challenge. I got off to check if there was any damage, but to my amazement there was none. "What a bike". Anyway I carried on and got to Anchorage ok where our service point was to get some tyre's and have a small service. When I took the wheels out and gave it a good clean, I found that there was a big hole punched through the rear under tray and found a large crack on the top part of the faring just under the right mirror. So the Honda was all ok apart from that damage. I had Avon Tyre's fitted to the bike (Avon Azaro's 45s) I was a bit wary of Avon's at first, especially sticking them on a Blackbird. At first they were a bit scary but when I had done about 100 miles they came into grip mode and "Man O Man" did they grip. I was just waiting for some rain to test these properly. When we got some rain three days later yep they gripped just like they did in the dry, it was lean over time getting the knee down on those fast sweeping corners in Canada through the Rocky Mountain's. Yep I approve the Avon's. Thanks Avon for the Tyre's

On route to the Northwest there was great scenery from a place called Avon (USA) to the Trans Canadian Highway. They even had a road named after me "Graham Road". Of all places to stick it they put it in the middle of nowhere. On the way trough we got stopped by police, (me, Jane and Claire) this was to tell us that we could not cross the white line in the stop sign junctions, we had a laugh with them and later that day when all the riders got to the overnight stay we found out that three of the riders got stopped for speeding. They all received a $300 fine (Bad luck Lads !) We meet a chap called Glen from the UK, he was on his way to Vancouver (Canada) to meet up with an old girl friend. He asked if he could do some miles with us, there was no problem with this. He kept up on an old FZR 750 Yamaha, later Nick Sanders employed Glen to be a stand-in mechanic. Glen stayed with us until Las Vegas, Thanks Glen for all your help.