Author Archive

Ollie Rooke

When I was about 9 years old I remember pulling something in my neck playing football. I don’t really remember if I was milking it or not (I probably was) but I do remember spending the day in front of the TV obsessively working my way through ‘The Long Way Round’ boxset. By the time Charlie and Ewan made it to New York I was hooked, I’d discovered my dream.

Since then motorcycling to me has always been about adventure: living on the road, everything you need strapped to two wheels and an engine, camping in the wild and travelling to places most people will never go.

Years later, in 2016 at the age of 21, I passed my CBT and started a passion that I doubt I’ll ever willingly give up. Since then I’ve upgraded to an A2 licence and will eventually go back to complete my MOD1 and MOD2 again to finally ride unrestricted.
In the two years since passing my A2 test I’ve travelled to 14 countries between my old Honda CBF500 or my current pride and joy, a bright orange BMW F650GS Twin. 11 of those were covered in one ill-fated trip that took me to the top of Norway and down through the Baltics until it was all brought to an end after 8 weeks with a crash in Latvia.

But it hasn’t stopped me, if anything it’s made me want to travel more. The dream is to one day travel around the world my motorbike, but for now I’m planning to tick off the entirety of Mainland Europe by bike.

I aim to focus my writing on all things touring, whether it be tips on preparing for a trip, country specific guides or general motivation I’d like to encourage everyone to make even just one overseas trip by bike.

I can be found on a new Instagram, where I can post constantly about bikes and touring without irritating my friends: a2adventurer. I also have a sparsely populated blog, https://rookieriderlondon.wordpress.com/