People ask me: “Why the hell would anyone in their right mind ride a 400cc trailbike from Hampshire to Trento in Italy?” Well, in truth, they don’t actually ask me that. If they’re bikers, that is. People who aren’t bikers say things like “Oh really? That sounds wonderful!” and tell me about how they wish they’d done that too, but can’t because they have babies, or pet fish, or morris-dancing, or something.

However what most bikers do is: stare blankly at me, eyebrows raised, the above “Why the hell…” question written in astonishment straight across their face – along with the implication that I am probably not in my right mind.

2004 was the thirteenth year of the SunTour [www.suntour.ch]

SunTour is open to employees and former employees of Sun Microsystems and to partners of the same. As I understand matters, it began life as a rally by some of the German bikers who wanted to go carve-up the Swiss and Italian Alps for a long weekend…

Link to Part 1 is here: http://www.crypticide.com/users/alecm/albums/2004-suntour/story.html – I hope to finish the remaining two parts over the next couple of weeks, and will post pointers to the blog as I go.