Nick Sanders shares his top 10 tips for endurance riding

Nick Sanders shares his top 10 tips for endurance riding


Nick Sanders' endurance riding tips

By Dan Aspel -

Touring & travel

 04 April 2011 16:29

Professional moto-hobo Nick Sanders will soon embark on a finalm, insane adventure - riding from the tip of Alaska to the toe of South America, and back again. It's a crazy trip you'll be able to read all about in MCN soon. But if you ever wondered how he does it and whether you could, here's his top 10 suggestions.

By Dan Aspel

1.      To engage in the ride, you have to disengage from your family life. Compartmentalise it, otherwise you'll be out there and homesick for your family and when you're back with your family you'll wish you were out riding your motorcycle.

2.      The few near-misses that I've had have always been when I've lost concentration. It seems like coincidence, but every time you lose concentration, just by chance you almost have an accident.

3.      Don't sell your house.

4.      Halve what you think you need. People always bring too much. I bring my laptop, camera, tripod, toothbrush, passport, money, credit card and the clothes that I'm wearing.

5.      Choose the right bike, don't bring a heavy, unwieldy machine.

6.      Get fit so you don't have to carry a four or five stone beer belly with you.

7.      When you're riding extremely you're always on the verge of an accident.

8.      Be dismissive of your fear, normalise every situation you're in. If you panic you'll mismanage your throttle, so keep your heat beat slow and realise that the chances of anything horrible happening is very small.

9.      Don't be afraid of being afraid, think of an actor getting stage fright before giving a great performance. I'm very nervous about this new record attempt, and I will be until I begin it, but hopefully it'll be a great performance.

10.     Build up your endurance. If you think you can't ride 200miles then try it; you can, and you'll be surprised how well you do. Do a little more than you think you can do. It's all to do with musculature, especially on an R1.