Lyndon Poskitt & Robin Poskitt Interviews Live in Europe - 2025 ADV Cannonball News

We travel to Spain to talk with Lyndon Poskitt of Races to Places, Darkar Malle Moto legend. We then fly to Yorkshire, England, to meet with Lyndon's father, Robin Poskitt. 

Aaron also visits Ted Simon's Triumph Tiger 100 and the Coventry Transport Museum. 

https://lyndonposkittracing.com/

Motorcycle Film Club https://www.advcannonball.com/aarons-motorcycle-film-club

Lyndon's Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjF_m99VAv8

Roll Out Music is provided and licensed by Austin Vince, yes, that Austin Vince. 

Episode 2 Main Sponsor - Colombia Motorcycle Rental & Tour Co

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV cannonball podcast, where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle-related nonsense. Welcome to season three, episode two, adventure cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host. And today I am joined by our world traveler, Aaron Pufal. What's up, big guy?

How's it going over there and speed? Yeah. Well, I'm a little bit east of you. Yeah, man. So, yeah, this is, again, only an hour in time in time difference.

It's really it's a whole lot easier to to work it out to get together as opposed to being nine hours. So that's quite nice. Yeah. I do appreciate the hand holding and translating everything to my time zone because my old man brain can't quite figure it out. Yeah.

In our text. I'm gonna make this London time. Yeah. So in my everlasting struggle, finding things to drink here, I have I bought a six pack of Gordon's London Dry gin and tonic seltzers. So this one's for you.

Oh, wow. Nice. When in Rome. Alright. And when in Rome, baby, what am I what do I have here?

As I pull it out of my koozie, you know, in in Sweden, they were like, what's that thing? And I was it's a koozie when you're in South Florida. Right. Or someplace where it's hot, if you don't have that, your beer is hot within minutes. Right.

And then it's like it's being served in in The UK, and they're like so anyway and, so I have a I have a bunch of koozies here. They're super popular with my friends. So I have a, opigors, IPA, which is the new Sweden IPA, which I'm quite a fan of. It's like a session IPA. And when I asked, when I didn't know what a session IPA was, I asked somebody and they said, basically it means you can just drink it all day.

And I was like, I can't do anything all day. Certainly can't drink IPA all day. I'll be sleeping in three hours. I'm old. Anyway, that was it.

So, look, you've been busy. You've been traveling a bunch. You've been interviewing people. Yeah. So in this episode, we're going to play our interview with Linden Poskett, the one and only, the man, the myth, the legend, the the races, the places legend, the car legend, the, you know, you name it.

This podcast is worth listening to, if not for us. You know, of course, you should listen for us, but at least listen to Linden. And I traveled to the South Of Spain for that. You know, super hospitable guy. He was busy.

He was you know, he's married. He's got a kid. He's worked on a van project. He's like, there's a Norden here if you wanna use it. Maybe, we can meet tomorrow morning.

No problem. And, he was generous with his time, and he was an open book. We actually broke some some news in this podcast. He is getting close to finishing his first book, So we broke some news in in that aspect. And then right after the interview, I flew to London, and then I took some trains, you know, any excuse to go on a train.

And I went, to Yorkshire, and then I met with Robin Poskitt, his dad, which if anyone knows Linen Poskitt, we all know his dad. What a prince of a dude, and we had a short interview with him, which is equally worth listening to. Yeah. I thought that was really cool. And, maybe we could, we'll do a bit of a talk about it afterwards.

I don't wanna give much away. So let's just let's just start the interview, speak for themselves, and then we can talk a bit about the the relationship there. It's just really yeah. I'll let it go. Yeah.

For sure. And I also wanted to mention, before we do that, is that yesterday, I I'm in where am I? I'm at the castle. I'm in Windsor Castle area because tomorrow, I'm gonna meet with Vince, Austin Vince, you know, another legend. And between Robin Poskett and here, I stopped at the Coventry Transportation Museum where they have both of Ted Simons motorcycles.

And it was really cool to see the Triumph Tiger 100, the 1973 Triumph Tiger 100, and it is a tiny little bike compared to what we're used to. It's got the single seat. He's got some leather saddlebags thrown over the tank, the hand built or, you know, retrofitted panniers. He hand painted green and, you know, did some street art on them. It was so, so cool to see that old bike, and it just goes to show, man.

You've if you can ride a Triumph Tiger 100 in the day in nineteen seventies, you know, you can ride anything around the world. It's tiny. It's so rudimentary. And a guy who has no motorcycle experience, has no mechanical experience, was able to pull that off, you, the listener, can pull anything off with any modern day machine. Yeah.

And it goes back to one the one comment that came out of his interview that was that was, that was big for me that stuck was your sense of adventure needs to be bigger than your fear, and all you have to do is go. Yeah. And that was season three episode one. Fantastic. Alright.

If you don't mind, let's, roll the Linden Poskett interview. Registration is now open to the public for the next ADV Cannonball rally. All riders on any motorcycle are welcome to join the adventure. Whether you're looking for an exciting and highly organized coast to coast ride with a group of like minded riders or a friendly competition for Cannonball glory, it doesn't matter. Everyone can participate.

Head over to advcannonball.com to secure your rally starting position today. Now back to the podcast. Linden Posca, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. We're here in the South Of Spain, and, this is a pretty nice place to live.

It's sunny outside and warm. How did you end up here? Well, exactly what you just said. It's sunny outside and warm. That's why I'm here.

We get, yeah, pretty much, like, three hundred and fifty days of this. So Wow. A year. So it's it's the main reason. And, you know, being so into motorcycles, that's one of the reasons why I wanted that.

I was in The UK, and before I went traveling, I was in The UK, and it was always difficult to find new places to go. And then when you did find somewhere, you would spend more hours cleaning your bike than riding it. Yeah. That's fantastic that those trails are still open, and people are open to people, you know, having fun in the in the outdoors. I understand you're working on a van project.

How's that going? Yeah. Camper project. Anybody that's been into a camper project know how knows how that is. Yeah.

Just just a small remodel turned out to be months worth of work. And, so I've been really motivated trying to get that done. It's a little bit like, second, like, the next project for me. I'd like to go traveling in in the truck, with a motorcycle. So, just working on that as much as I can.

That's awesome. We have a a van for our rally, and, it's in pieces. So, serendipitously, we're both halfway through a van project. So I wish I wish you luck because I understand how hard it is. Yeah.

Thanks. Speaking of England and and how you started riding there, I know that you started, riding motorcycles at around 10 years old. You're doing, trials in England. Maybe you could tell us your first motorcycle and how you started riding trials. Yeah.

So the story behind that is that I I had a few friends with motorcycles. We lived in a small village in the countryside in Yorkshire, a small mining village, and, there was lots of fields around. You know? I remember there's a river and a riverbank, and everyone used to go ripping up and down the riverbank on motorcycles, and I wanted a bit of that. And, the the the the bike I wanted was a KX 80 Kawasaki.

I was, like, hard over. I wanted this KX 80 Kawasaki, and I had pictures of people doing knock knacks and jumps in my bedroom. And, but my parents were just like, woah. Woah. Woah.

Woah. Woah. Woah. Like, going straight into a motocross bike, maybe that's not the best thing. So I have my my parents to thank for the approach that I took, and my my father said, you know, well, he didn't say.

He surprised me with it, but their thinking was that we're getting my trials bike. So I got a t y one seven five trials bike for my tenth birthday. It was a big a bit pile of bits, basically. My dad fully restored it, and it was like a brand new bike. And I was just made up.

It was my first motorcycle, and I didn't care if it was a motor cost bike or a scooter. I had a motorcycle, and and that's how it started. And we spent weekend after weekend after weekend at the start just learning how to ride a bike, but that my father's thinking was that, you know, if you can learn how to control a bike, well, then it doesn't matter what you're on. You can be safe. And and that's how that's why I got into trials, but I actually stuck it stuck to it for probably a good five years and and even went on to do well in championships with it.

So That's really great. And that was probably the start of you turning wrenches and starting your, mechanical engineering career? Yeah. Exactly. I I always worked on my own bicycles and things like that, but I remember the motorcycles, you know, things going wrong, you know, like, maybe something was burning a little bit of oil.

And and I've been asking my dad, and he's like, well, tear into it. Let's go. And I can you help? No. Get on with it.

Come on. Put the tools away. And put the tools back with the garage. Came from. That's what I meant.

Yeah. Put the tools away where you got them from, not leave them scattered all over the garage. But he was really helpful, like, you know, helped me and always not made me do my own thing, but encouraged me to do my own work. And I think that's really what gave me my, kick started my engineering career, really. Yeah.

That's really great. And then your taste of competition in trials, I know that you've done a lot of competition before races to places. Did you do the Baja at all? Yeah. I did the Baja one thousand in 02/2007.

That, that was that's that's a whole story on its own. That that I actually I was at an adventure rider event in New Mexico, and, I was there on my KTM nine fifty. I remember it well. It was probably one of the first adventure rider events I've been to when I was living in The US because I was working in The US at the time. And, I was just riding my bike, and I could ride a bike well.

So I was just jumping around, you know, sliding all over, hauling ass on the KTM nine fifty. Nice. And a couple of guys, couple of racers, fast guys, recognized it. And, before I knew it, I was asked to be part of a race team to go and race the Baja one thousand, believe it or not, on a KTM nine fifty Super Enjoro. Wow.

So it was the first year of the Super Enjoro for KTM, KTM, and KTM North America wanted to promote the bike. So we got a bike, and we put a team together. And we had this crazy idea to to, you know, two cylinders, twice the stupidity. Let's go. Base the Baja one thousand, and and we did.

And you, survived? We survived, and to be honest, did incredibly well. We we had, we had, a team of, was it a team of three? We had a team of three, but one rider got injured, so ended up being two of us pretty much. And we finished seventeenth in, which was, like, unbelievable.

Mhmm. But it was thirty six hours nonstop racing. You know, we're based in Canada and The and The US, and Baja really is our motorsports backyard. The the whole community is wonderful. The terrain is great, and everyone's welcoming, whether there's an official event going on or you're just ripping around.

And we always encourage everyone to, head down there for their their first experience. Looking looking back at that race for me was it was my first ever desert race. I didn't train at all. But looking back, all I would say is I had so much fun. The locals were so welcoming and exciting, but excited by it.

You know? I just buzzed off it, and that was my first ever desert race. All I remember is that I remember how brutal it was because when I finished the race, I couldn't even open my fingers on my hands. Mhmm. All my tendons, everything was all, three days it took me before I could even get on a motorcycle.

I was destroyed, and that's when I realized, okay. If I wanna do this, I gotta train for it. Yeah. It's a strange thing that we as we, as men, we're paying to do difficult things. We're paying for this pain.

I'm not I'm not sure what's wrong with us, but it's a story that seems to be repeated time and time again. It's funny you say that because, that's gone through my mind so many times. Like, why why do I spend so much time, raising funds, hundred thousand pounds to go and do a race like the Dakar Rally, and then just brutal event that sometimes I'm like, what the heck am I doing here? Like, I'm destroyed, and I'm in tears and everything. But, yeah, the story is that when you achieve something like that, it's all the more better.

Sure. Even just finishing Yeah. Any one of these rallies is really impressive. What was your first that car race? So my first my first ever road book rally, just to start with that, was the International Rally of Sardinia in 02/2012.

I'd made a plan to do the Dakar rally in 02/2013. That was my first Dakar in 02/2013. I didn't even have a rally bike with a road book. I didn't even know how to read a road book Mhmm. Until mid two thousand and twelve when I got a rally bike and went to do the International Rally of Sardinia.

And, I remember I I didn't do any training. I didn't go to any classes. I didn't even look online. Nothing. I just turned up at the rally with a road book and thought I'll put this piece of paper in and follow it.

You know? Well, I kinda didn't follow it very well. I made loads of mistakes, and, it was I realized that it's okay being a fast rider, but if you navigate if you're not navigating well, you'll just ride fast in the wrong direction. That's what I did. So I finished the rally, which was great.

I learned an awful lot, and I got my ticket to go and race Dakar because she needed to qualify. And so I got my qualifier, and I went and raced Dakar. So when I did the Dakar rally, my first one in 02/2013, I'd only ever raced one road book rally. That's it. Wow.

I think, I think what you're trying to tell everyone is if you're not really sure, just go do it anyways as long as you're a skilled rider. Just go do it. It's gonna work out. Yeah. One one thing, you know, from my rally training school that I've had, here in Europe is, if you can ride well, if you're a good rider, competent rider Mhmm.

And you can your riding is second nature, then you don't even need to think about riding. Like, now in my where I am now, I don't need to think about riding. All I think about is navigating and going in the right direction, taking care of myself, taking care of bike, not taking risks, all of that stuff. If you have to think about your riding and what gear you're in, and if you're this, and if you're using the clutch too much or that, it's all taking away important time, and, effort from all the important things that you need in the rally world because it's not just driving a bike faster. So many things involved with it.

Sure. As an aside, I run a, a GPS based rally in The US, and new competitors always talk about, well, if I ride fast and I do this, and I go, that's well and good in theory. But the minute you miss your first checkpoint on the first day of the eight day rally, you're out of the competition. Yep. So concentrate on this.

Trust me. The riding part is the easy part and the fun part, but you really need to concentrate on the navigation, and I'm really happy you've hit that point home. We have some, we have some really good events in Spain, here where they're they're for beginners, really, in rally, you know, to learn rally. Same as that. Yeah.

But what they do is they have a road book, and but how they score it is on how close you follow the road book. So they have a path at the side, like, 30 meters off each side. Yeah. If you veer off that path, each time, you get a penalty. Demare points.

Yeah. And the person that wins every single time is this one of the slowest people that follow the path. That's so great. So frustrating to those fast riders that turned up first and, yeah, I was first back. And then Yeah.

Yeah. But you made so many mistakes. You Mhmm. You didn't you didn't get any result. Absolutely.

Yeah. And it's it's really good to try and get your mind into even myself. I've been and done those events Mhmm. And I have not come in the top three because I'm a racer. You know?

Right. I do ride fast, and I do overshoot some corners and things like that. It just happens. So That's awesome. Yeah.

It's funny. I just did a a rally in January in the Baja, in Northern Baja, and the guy who won was on a Himalaya four hundred. And we were all making fun of him drinking the night before, and he was like, I'll show you guys, and here he is. He won because he achieved the most checkpoints. Anyways, but let's, move on to Race to the Places.

So everyone knows you from Race to the Places. Mhmm. And the idea was to ride around the world as off road as much as possible and then complete races and rallies along the way. It ended up being, I see, I have this right, 234,000 kilometers, 74 countries, over six continents. Is that about right?

That's it. Pretty much pretty much pretty close. So what was the genesis of this concept? How it came about was, it's like it's a life changing experience. So in 02/2013, I had done my first Dakar, and I was training for Red Bull Romaniacs.

I wanted to do an extreme enduro. I thought it would cost less money than racing Dakar, which it would have done. And part of my training was to go and, do some running with a colleague from work, and he signed me up for this half marathon. So I was training, but I was preparing my own bike. Anyway, I went to do the half marathon, and, basically, I thought I could stay with him who had already run 10 London marathons, and I wasn't a runner.

So I pushed and pushed. Competitive pushed way too hard. Almost killed myself. I ended up in hospital for nine days. Suspected heart attack, on hooked up to machines.

Like, nobody knew what was wrong. You know? Yeah. Just basically poisoned my body from overdoing it, dehydration. And, while I was laying in the hospital, I realized how close I was to not being here.

Like, if it wasn't for the paramedic that was passing, it wasn't even on the event. He said my they they saved my life. There's a group of people there that saved my life, and, it made me realize that if that hadn't have happened and I had have gone, then all that I've worked for in my life has gone. There's nothing anyway. So why do I need more?

Mhmm. What I need to do is I need to enjoy the time that I've got. And while I was in hospital, I was watching some YouTube videos and seeing all these people having fun on their motorcycles in Southeast Asia and Australia. And and I was like, I love riding my motorcycle. I want to ride my motorcycle around the world.

That's what I wanna do next. How I'm gonna do it, I don't know. But, the the idea was to actually go from races to places. So I was racing. Mhmm.

Now I was gonna ride to places. So it was I was coming from racing, and I was going to places. But then after a little bit of thinking, and I actually love the racing and talking to certain people, my family and friends, and they all said, but but you love your racing. Like, I don't think you need to give your racing up. You can just do it in between or something like that.

That's when the concept came. It was like, okay. I could do races to places. I could jump from I could travel and do races on the way. I mean, there's a lot to do.

I need to find a bike that can do both. I need to but that's a cool project. That's it. That's my project, races to places. And I remember I was laying in the bath one night, and I was like, this is it.

This is what it is. And it just it was born. You know? I drew a picture of what it was gonna look like, and it pretty much looked like that. It just took way longer than I expected.

It always does. Was there anyone in particular that you looked up to? Yeah. It was the the one that really, triggered what I wanted to do, was a guy called Noah Harak. And, you know, very low key, not big on social media.

I just stumbled across this channel, and I remember seeing a picture of him, riding through a big puddle with his feet up to stop his feet getting wet and a load of kids at the side of the road, like, getting splashed, laughing in the way. You know? And I was just like, I want some of that. That's that's life. That's fun.

That's life, and I want a bit of it. I wanna see the world. That's that's what I wanted. And it was just and, you know, and I spoke to him recently. We stay in touch, like, once a year.

You know? But, yeah, he he was a big inspiration, really. He he rode his motorcycle from, I think, from US or Canada, and all the way across Asia. A cabin boy got to, but pretty big trip. It's really great that that now you have all the videos up, and your current projects, and now you're the inspiration for other people.

It's, it's really fantastic to pay that back to the, community. For sure. And it was a big deal. You had you you sold everything. It well, you had to part with everything.

It was you know, I realized you had the catalyst of the medical event and that kind of epiphany, but, your family and friends must have had to be, you know, supportive to watch you sell everything in your life. Yeah. I remember I remember once, after the sort of after the moment laying in the bath realizing that this is what I'm gonna do, it was only the next day or the day after that I I went over to see my parents. I got two hours away. They lived, and I jumped on my bike, and I flew up.

You know? Went over to see them. And I I remember sitting in the living room and, like, explaining to them both that, I've decided to leave my job and, got traveling around the world. How'd that go over? Yeah.

It was, I mean, as you can imagine, like, I went to university. I worked hard. I had a good job in the aerospace industry. Was a big shock to them. And, you know, the the the they were they were brought up in that they were brought up to work hard, and do well, and and that's what I've done.

You know? I I I'd been brought up that way, and I'd achieved so much. And I was happy with everything I'd done, and they were like, what about your pension? What about this? And all I was thinking in my head was, if I'd have died, pension wouldn't have mattered.

If I'd have died, all the motorcycles wouldn't have mattered. The equipment, the bike, the houses, the everything, it's gone anyway. Just enjoy what we've got today and what we want to do with today. And and I tried explaining that to them. I could tell there was still a little bit of uncertainty.

You know? I don't know if you're doing the right thing. You've worked so hard giving it all up, this, that, and the other. But, yeah, it's how it all came about is a really, really long story after that. But that process of, like, figuring out, okay, how do I how do I get out of my job in a in a safe way?

You know? Is there something there at the end of it? How long am I going traveling? Thought I plan to go for twelve to eighteen months, and I ended up traveling for over five years. And, yeah, the decision was made.

I was leaving my job somehow, and I was going traveling around the world. You know, you did it when you were young enough, and you're still young, obviously. It's okay to take big risks when you're young, and there are people when they're older. Ted Simon did his first trip around the world when he was in his forties, and he did his second when he was in the seventies. You know?

So it goes to show that no matter, what your your age is, we can we can go ahead and make these big changes in our in our lives. And you mentioned the, the bike. Rather than just buying a a GS twelve fifty like everyone does, you decided to build the bike. Can you tell us what you build and why you made the decision to build something from the frame up? Yeah.

I had, I had a KTM nine fifty adventure, which is an amazing bike, very capable bike on the street and also off road as well. So that bike was actually a good choice, but my bike already had a hundred thousand miles on it. So it was it it was well used. You know? And I loved it, and I and I know I can keep everything going mechanically, but I'd been racing the Dakar on the rally bikes.

Now these factory rally bikes, for anyone that doesn't know it, they're like they are in a whole world of their own. They are like the they build a bike specific for racing across the desert. You know? It's as light as it can possibly be with the most suitable engine. Everything about it is designed for one thing, and that's to finish a 15,000 kilometer race, reliably.

Mhmm. Yeah. So everything's built for reliability and strength and racing. So I realized I wanted to travel, but I wanted to race as well. So I needed I needed a little bit of I needed I needed a lot of the ability to race, but I also needed the reliability and the capacity to carry some luggage, to travel long distances.

So I needed something that did both. Now there was no production bike that did both out of the box. Okay. I could make compromises. I could race on a production bike, wouldn't have very good suspension, you know, wouldn't have the navigation tower with the road book, but I can add one.

The the you can always build something. You know? But I really love the chassis and the handling characteristics of the Dakar bike. But at that time, the Dakar race bikes were four fifty cc limited. Well, riding a four fifty cc bike with a five speed gearbox on the highway is not the best.

So I I kinda figured out that I wanted the chassis of the rally bike, but I wanted a bigger engine like the nine fifty. The nine fifty was too heavy, so I wanted a big single. And that's what I ended up doing. So I ended up building, building a KTM six ninety Rally. Actually, four fifty Rally based chassis with a six ninety engine in.

That's what it was. And, yes, and made it so that I had a luggage rack to put luggage on so I could take that off and then race the bike. And, yeah, I basically rode a race bike around the world is what I did. That's really great. And you actually used that bike, in your first couple of rallies were in, Greece and then the Gobi Desert.

But I think the real reason we we admire the smaller bike was when you did, the Road Of Bones and the Old Summer Road. Unlike, you know, some people who may or may have done in the past with bigger bikes that I may be interviewing next week, so we won't go there. But Basel bike did great through that, wet, sloppy, nasty stuff, and you had a riding companion. Maybe you could tell us about doing the, Old Summer Road and how having that smaller bike really paid off. Yeah.

That that Old Summer Road, so those that know, there is the there is the Road Of Bones, which runs across, Siberia all the way to Magadan. But the the old road, the traditional road is further south, and it was not being maintained for years and years and years, and it's become a well known it's as hard I would call it a hardcore adventure road, and I'm a hardcore adventure rider. It's hardcore. Like, you don't wanna go there unprepared. And you while I could have done it on my own, it was absolutely nice to have a riding companion because if anything went bad in that area, there is no getting out, like, on your own.

Like, it's tough. And and we found that out. I was riding with a guy called Lucas Matzinger from Austria. We were on the same bike, incidentally, because he ended up he ended up realizing what I'd built was a great choice for traveling around the world, and he'd got himself a similar bike and built it himself. But he had some engine problems, and we drowned his bike in the water, and he couldn't get it started.

And we were between two water holes. We didn't have much distance. We drained his battery flat, and then it was like, okay. We're we are under kilometers either way from anything, and it's super rough conditions. We've only got one battery, and that's on my bike.

We cannot afford to lose that. So, that's the sort of place you're in. And there's that whole road was just river crossings, waterholes, bogs, negotiating through big washouts, through trees and forests, and, I mean, giant washouts. Like, I'm talking, like, hundred meter wide, you know, just river gone through, and it's just destroyed, rocks and big three or four, five, six foot drop offs. I mean, it was it was a crazy time, and and it like I said, could have got through it on my own.

Looking back, I was super grateful to have somebody with us. So Sure. And, the cast of characters throughout the series brings a lot of color into, your filming work. And then after that, I think there's some real dynamic content in your series, because when you go to, Korea and Japan after that, you know, it's really inspired me to look at those places for some, you know, easy adventure riding, and people don't really look at those places. So, thankfully, with your filming, you were able to, bring that to us.

We need to move on to the Malle Moto stuff, but in Africa, you had a scary situation. Can you tell us about that adventure? Yeah. I don't wanna go too much into it because I I write about it at length in the book that I've, and I've kinda kept it away from people. But, yeah, Africa Africa was without a doubt the hardest, most dangerous continent that I traveled without a doubt in so many different ways.

And I hope my book explains it really well. But, yeah, in Ethiopia, I had, yeah, a moment where I really feared for my life, and, it was super scary. And, it but it what I will say is Africa was probably probably the most rewarding continent to travel, and that's the same like with the races. You know? The hardest, the most dangerous, the most difficult, the most challenging, they're the ones that are the most rewarding at the end of it.

And, I learned so much from Africa. So while I don't really want to go into detail about what happened, it's, it's an amazing story. And, thankfully, I'm here today to tell tell that to tell the story in my book. And I think people will have the opportunity when you finally, publish your book to you'd be able to tell the story in your own words and you've had some time to reflect about it. I think it's really good for storytelling to, put things down on paper.

Maybe you can just tell us a little bit of the concept of the book, and when you plan on having that published. Yeah. So, yeah, I plan to have it published two years ago. Okay. So, you know, I I started writing the book pretty much well, I started writing the book on races to places.

I had the idea to write a book when I was on races to places. Actually, after my moment in Africa, that's when I started writing the book. And I had an every intention to just get on with it when I finished races the place. It was COVID, and I thought, okay. This is a good time to get it done.

Family, life, business, many other things just got in the way, and it it just wasn't a priority. And, the the priority came when, after trying for many years, my wife finally got pregnant. And, that was, okay. I got nine months to get the book finished. So I took nine months off work, just completely off everything, and I wrote every day between ten and five and ten hours every single day for nine months to get the book done.

And I didn't get it done before baby was born, but I was close. I was probably three or four chapters off having it finished. And, so that's why that's why that's how the book finally got kick started. But the concept of the book is, it's a story of me, who I am, where I come from, a little bit about me and my background, quite a bit of detail about my family and everything, how I was brought up, my career, my career and how I fell into those roles and what I did. And, and then the event that changed my life, really, the life changing moment as, as you read about in so many books, the life changing moment and the trip, the concept, the means, how I pulled it all together.

And then after that, it's it's just a whole load of experiences from around the world, things that I saw, amazing sites, facts, figures, all kinds of stuff that I think people will really enjoy reading. Yeah. I think all adventure bikers who enjoy a good book really enjoy the minutiae, so I encourage you to to stick with it. And I understand it is a lot of work. If I'm writing just a two page article for a magazine, it's it's days and days of work.

I I can only imagine what it takes to, to write a book. And I'm gonna be meeting with, Sam Monokam in in a few days. And his first book, he went through nine complete drafts. It took him years. Yeah.

So it is it is an amazing amount of work. One one thing you know, there's always pressure from people. You know? Well, there's there is no pressure from anybody really to get it done. It's on myself.

You know? But I wanted to get it out for last Christmas. That was the plan. That was the real goal. You know?

Like, my my daughter was born last year, and I wanted to get out for Christmas. But, yeah, having a little person in your life changes big time. And, all of a sudden, the book was not the priority anymore. But I have continued with it, and the the main body is written. And now I just need to get it finished, edited, and finalized and published.

Now that sounds like, oh, easy. You're nearly there. It's still a bunch of work. Like, you know, just just to proofread it, it takes ages. You know?

Mhmm. And proofreading something that you've proofread 20 times already, it's, it's challenging, you know, to to sit there and just focus 100% on it. But, I'm already really proud of what I've done with it, just to get it done. It's very unique as well. It's it's a book like no other I've seen before.

It it's got some interesting features in it, which people are gonna love, And I think, I'm just looking forward to getting it out. And so I hope to get it out by the end of twenty twenty five. I'm gonna do my best to get it out before the end of this year, but there's no promises because I just know I know how long it's taken to get to this point. Well, listen. Put us on your advanced list.

We'd love to read it. We're sitting here. There's a stack of six books right here, so you're you're definitely in, right company for talking about books. Yeah. And speaking of other sadistic things that we do in our lives, you entered the malle moto.

Can you explain what the malle moto class for the uninitiated is? Yeah. So the Dakar rally and in actual fact, many, many rallies, European rallies and African rally well, worldwide rallies, They have a category called Malle Moto. Now, typically, when you go to a rally, it's a multi day event. You need tools and equipment and tires and spares and everything, and, you have a support crew that carries that around with you and helps you on an evening to fit the tires and service your bike and change the oil and air filter and everything and any damage that fix it for you.

That's the conventional way to do a rally. You have a support team. You are the rider. You do the riding and the navigating, and then you take care of yourself on an evening, someone else takes care of your bike. But there is a there is a small category called Malimoto, and what that is is it's basically man and machine.

It's it's Malimoto is like, I think it's like, Moto tote, so it's like a a box. You get one box, a metal box, and you're allowed to put some tools and equipment in that box. You're allowed to take some tires. And other than that, you're on your own. You do everything yourself.

You get your bike ready in the morning. You go racing. You get yourself ready. You go racing. You you sleep in a tent.

You go racing. You manage everything throughout the day, then you get back, then you've got to fix your bike, fix any damage. Anything not working on the bike, electronics, computers, anything, you gotta fix them yourself. You gotta change your tires and mousses. You got to service your bike.

You got to make sure it's ready. Then you got to look after yourself, service yourself, feed yourself, make sure you've had everything you want, then you got to pay your navigation for the next day. Everything is done yourself. Now that used to be limited to 20 people in the Dakar Rally, because it is it is a really tough, way to do the valley. And the organizers typically don't want to be looking after those people.

So you you have to be qualified to do it. You know, they want you to have something about you that you're gonna get through it. You're gonna be okay on your own. So you have to actually to to get accepted, you have to have a bit of history of doing this type of thing, which, obviously, I did from races to places. My first Dakar Rally, I did the conventional way.

Then when I decided to do the Dakar rally again, I was on my world trip. And for me, the only way to do to repeat the Dakar and make it special was to do it Malle Moto. But, boy, was it hard. My first Malle Moto was really, really tough because I was not prepared, and I was not taking it seriously enough in the way that I wasted far too much time doing things that I shouldn't have been doing, like social media and things like that. Just sapped every bit of energy time and energy and sleep from me, and sleep deprivation almost finished my race for me.

Well, this is the balance of life. You know? You have to pay for the event. You have to keep your social media running. Otherwise, no one's gonna support you.

I wouldn't say that you're unprepared. I think that you were just trying to balance it. And Yep. Just because it was difficult doesn't mean that you weren't doing the right thing. But even to get there, that, that the cart was in South America.

You rode a 50,000 kilometers. You went through 50 countries and five continents just to get to Yep. To the rally. That's gonna take something out of you for sure. Yeah.

And and, honestly, it was the, you know, the traditional Dakar, Tiaras had been concept about, having an adventure in the desert. You know? Those guys I remember seeing images. And I was born in '78, and '78 I believe '78 was the first Dakar. And I remember the seeing images of the first Dakar rally when the old GSs and the old, I don't remember, the Tenere's or whatever they were in the day, you know, the really old bikes.

They had, like, leather satchels on the side. And those guys had ridden to Paris to ride to Dakar, and I wanted to do that. I wanted to be when was the last time someone rode to the start of the rally and raced it and then rode home? It was a long time ago, but I wanted to do it. And that's that that was my idea behind the Malamoto is that I'm gonna ride there.

I'm gonna race the race, and I'm gonna carry on on ride home. And surely there was no one else there doing the same thing? No one else No. No. No.

I was I was, and and the thing is everybody knew who I was. Everybody knew that this guy had ridden here. Sure. There's that crazy guy. I see him.

Yeah. Yeah. And I remember just just getting ready for the race. It was I had nobody there. You know?

There was no nobody to help. There was no van to carry equipment around. If I needed to go from the hotel, to the bike, to the bivouac, I had to take a taxi or ride my motorcycle, my rally motorcycle. Like, that's all I could do. Things were different.

Sure. And then to make things more complicated, there were some rule changes, and you couldn't use Basel bike. You had to build another bike. That's right. The the rules had already changed in 02/2010, where four fifty cc was the capacity limit.

So while I had the while I built the bike for races to places, I didn't envisage racing at Dakar Rally. And it's only the FIM rallies, the the world championship FIM rallies that are limited to that four fifty cc capacity. And to be honest, I was happy with my 02/2013 Dakar. I didn't know I was gonna do another Dakar. But when I was in Australia, I needed to figure out what rally I was gonna do on the American continent.

I needed to do a rally in the American continent, and the timing was such that the only rally that fell into the the correct time of the year was the Dakar Rally. And I thought about it a lot. I remember laying in my tent many nights trying to figure out which rally I was gonna do. Was I gonna do the in Brazil? What was I gonna do in a, Ruto forty?

What what race was I gonna do? And nothing worked. It was just the Dakar Rally. And it was like, that gives me six months to get through North America and into South America to do the Dakar Rally. Is it possible?

Yes. Let's go. And I remember the next day, I did a video for social media. I put it out on my YouTube channel, put it on all my socials saying, I decided to race the Dakar Rally, and I decided to do it Malle Moto. I'm gonna ride I'm gonna ship my bike from Australia to North America.

I've got from New Zealand, actually, it was to North America. I'm gonna ride all the way up to Alaska to Puroto Bay, and I'm gonna ride all the way down to the start of the Dakar Rally. I'm gonna race the Dakar Rally, and then I'm gonna continue all the way down to the Southern tip of South America and then Africa. And then it just the the the vision that I had never stopped. It just kept running away with me at that time.

I was anything was possible. I just wanted to ride my motorcycle. It seems to be a recurrent theme here is that you make a decision Yep. And then you announce it. And then, well, I've I've announced it, and I have to follow through.

Right. It seems to be a a recurring concept. You know, you were listed, on our motorcycle film club on the Cannonball website. And did you ever think you'd end up being a a filmmaker? No.

Not at all. I mean, I started it for fun. You know? I I I started it by I'd done I'd done a little preview video for my 02/2013, and using the same people that helped me make that video, we thought we'd film the building of the buzz bike. You know?

So we filmed that for YouTube, and then it just became well, actually, you know, video blogs are becoming quite popular. Maybe we should try and do something about this because it's pretty unique journey that you're about to embark on. We did. And I remember the first the first month of my trip when I was traveling through Europe to Hellas Valley, it was many, many phone calls of, you you need to film this. You need to do that.

You need to capture this. You need to do b roll. B I didn't even know what b roll was. I was like, what what do you mean? Oh, you mean so hang on.

So don't just put the camera on the tripod. Start my motorcycle and ride off. No. No. No.

You need to put the camera on the tripod. Start your motorcycle and ride off. But then you need to come back. You need to film everything climbing on the motorcycle, hit putting your helmet on, putting your gloves on, hitting the start button, clicking it into gear, all of those, and then you ride off. Okay.

But that's gonna take, like, half an hour, thirty minutes for every every single that's what it takes to make good video. That's what we need to do. So, of course, it was a massive, massive, six months. The first six months of Faces to Places was me learning how to film stuff solo, filming myself so that we could edit it into something decent for YouTube. And it probably took six months.

I mean, people were looking at will see the quality go better and better as I as I film more and more stuff. You know? And it it was a lot of work. It's a lot I talk about it in my book. There's a lot in my book about, like, how how challenging it was.

The the last thing you wanted to do is you know, you ride past something and say, oh, that's really cool. And you're trying to get somewhere before dark. Like, that's really cool. That would make a really cool one minute clip in my video series, But I need to get here before dark. But, okay, I'll go back and do it.

And then you end up rushing and rushing, and then you don't record the sound correct. Or just as you're you're doing a wheelie past a waterfall or something, Somebody walks past the camera and is talking at the same time. You know? It's just it's it's challenging. It was it was hard work.

Yeah. The, the quality of that Malle Moto episode is fantastic, and it shows that you've really, you've really improved on your craft. And, you know, we can speak to that. Please don't listen to season one of our podcast. It's on there for posterity, but, please, it's it's terrible.

You know what I mean? But finishing the Malle Moto is is sorry. In the Malle Moto class is an achievement onto its own. Never mind the fact that you stopped and you filmed along the way, but you finished second in your class. Do you think that if you didn't do the filming, you probably would have finished first, I think?

Yeah. I mean, everyone I I I think, ultimately, my goal was to obviously, I'm a I'm a competitive person. To win the Malamoto would have been fantastic. And I tried everything to win it. Would I have done better if I wasn't doing the filming?

In 2,017, probably, because it took a lot of energy. And more more than that, it took time away from me sleeping. So I had a real problem. It's massive sleep deprivation. I think I slept, like I think I worked it out.

It was, like, thirty seven hours in two weeks. You know, like, it was it was nothing. And that really put me on the back foot. I made mistakes because of it. So, yeah, I probably could.

But, you know, looking back, what would that have changed? Nothing. I would have had the same experience. I would have done the same thing. I would have made the same videos, except I've had I've had a bigger trophy.

Right. Nothing else would have changed. The experience is the same. And I think that was one of the things that I learned about racing. Like, all the events that I've done is finishing is the most important thing, you know, to have the full experience.

That's really cool. When I didn't finish Hellos Rally, I was I was broken. I was gutted that I didn't finish it. And I I had to go back and do it again recently to finish it, which I did. But, yeah, the Dakar rally for me, I finished second.

And I went on to do it again the following year, Malamoto again, because I knew that self filming it like I did and releasing it ten months twelve months later as a single episode, a single special feature, I could do better. If I had a film crew and people there with me to so that I could get my sleep, we could do a much better job. And that's why we went back in 02/2018, to make the video series, which in my mind is probably one of my best pieces of work ever, was the series from 02/2018. I did my job in the day. I filmed as much as possible.

Loads of cool, fun, interactive stuff, but then handed over to the team at night, did the work on my bike, and went to bed, and I slept well. I still finished second. It's a it's a running joke. It's like second, second, second. I've missed a lot of seconds in races to places, but, you know, in in in my mind, I'm a winner, and it doesn't matter the position.

You know? What I achieved is really amazing to me. Super grateful to everybody that helped because it was not alone. You know, hundreds and hundreds of people contributed to my projects to make it possible. Tens of people helped with the project to make it possible in so many different ways.

Couldn't possibly list everybody, but, everybody who helped in any way knows who they are, and and I couldn't have achieved races to places, all the races without them. Like, it was it was really something. It was a special community of people to make that project what it was. Yeah. You've had some, really great people, help you with that project and in your family, obviously.

And and we have a running joke around here is that we're always the number two podcast as well. So everyone who's listening is probably laughing right now because we have a running joke about being number two, also, which is which is fine with us. Your honesty and your vulnerability, today and also in in the filming really comes, comes through in an endearing way. How do you avoid selling out on YouTube and just keeping it honest? It's a really good question.

The thing that I think people liked about what I was doing, was just the sincerity of it and, you know, just just sharing everything as much as I could. You know? There's some things that I couldn't share in my video series, which will get shared in my book. You know? So that I'm really excited for those real hardy followers that followed it all that don't know some of the pieces that happened.

It's gonna be in the book. So, but for me, for my own credibility, it was not it was not about, showcasing anything, selling anything. It it was about telling the story of what I was doing. That's it. As it was.

And if, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. You know? The mistakes that I made along the way. It's okay. Everyone makes mistakes.

You know? But it's it's it's it's an interesting topic because as I sit here now as an ambassador for Hospana Motorcycles, it was really it was not easy for me to take on that role because I'm I'm not a salesperson. I'm not here to say what somebody wants me to say. I'm here to tell my story and my experiences, and I will always do that. And that was a really interesting, discussion that I had with KTM Group and Husqvarna when I became an ambassador was that, my honesty comes through in my videos, and it's important that I maintain that.

So it it it was it was in some interesting discussions because I've never you know, people might see it on my social media. I'm not the salesperson. You know? Mhmm. I just showcase what's possible on that bike.

And they build amazing machines, and I go ride them. That's what I'm here to do, and that's exactly what I did on races to places. Yeah. And that really comes through in your, in your film makings. And now having spent so much time riding around the world, having seen so much, has it changed you in any way in a in a positive or negative way?

Yeah. Definitely. For sure. One of the big things that I say and I say in my book as well, I've said it in, speaking events that I've done and all. I was very in my early years, I worked hard for everything that I got.

I was an aerospace engineer. I had nice toys and nice cars and everything, but I was extremely selfish with it. Well, not not extremely, but I was a little bit selfish with it. One thing that I learned when I went on my world trip, I dropped everything and went, everybody that I met, probably 99.9%, just wanted to help me, make me happy, share love, share their family, share what they've got with me. And it changed me massively as a person.

I would now more than ever, and especially on my world trip, I would go out of my way for anybody. You know? If I saw somebody having a bad day or I saw somebody struggling, I was like, I'd be straight over there. Oh, what what can I help? You need something?

Oh, you know, oh, I've lost my wallet. I need €20. Okay. I can help with that. I'm in fortunate position.

I can do that. Let's do it. Help them with it. You know? Somebody with a flat tire, couple on a motorcycle with a flat tire can't fix it.

It's okay. I can fix it. Let's go. Meet new people, help. You know?

Like, just things like that. I just and and also now, you know, sharing what I've got with other people, motorcycles, vehicles, home, workshop, whatever I can do. You know? Like, it it I had so much help from other people on my world trip, that I feel like I want to give back. And, one one little thing that I'm doing, here in Spain is I've still got the motorcycles that I race the big events with.

I kept them all. And I was trying to think, you know, like, it's material stuff. While I could sell them and I can use the money from it, and I'd probably get good money for it, it's is that gonna change my life? No. But could I use those assets, those things to influence other people in some way?

Yes. How can I do that? And so what I'm planning to do here in Spain is put a little museum together with all my bikes, but where people could come and stay. So they can come and sleep there, but like an Airbnb, and they can see all my bikes and my race gear and the story behind races to places and my life with motorcycles. And I think that's the best thing I can do with it, you know, and make use of it rather than just sell it.

Sounds like, there's gonna be a great riding destination for everyone. Yeah. I think South Of Spain yeah. I don't know how long it's gonna take, but maybe another year or two. After the book.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. After the book.

See, this is just another project. So after the book, maybe before the camp is complete. Uh-huh. Sure. Sure.

Sure. You're, I know we're running out of time, but I wanted to ask, about your father. Is he still, restoring vintage rally cars? Yeah. My my father is we're twenty twenty five now.

My father had a heart attack in 2024. He's okay, thankfully. He was with my mom at the time, and, thankfully, they got him to the hospital. And he had some stents fitted, and he's he's he's in really good spirits. And, but he's he's 72, and, he's for sure slowing down.

And he won't like to hear that if he's listening to this. But, yeah, he loves tinkering. He still has a workshop with a CNC milling machine, lathes, welders. You know? There's always stuff going on in my father's workshop, and he works for me and my business as well.

You know? He makes he makes CNC parts for those machines things. When when something needs adapting or changing, he's the first one we turn to. You know? Hey.

What do you think about this? Oh, it's okay. I'll just weld that up, grind it off, do this, machine it here, do this, tap it. It just it just fixes anything. He's a really, really, really useful person to be around, really, and and he's he's just he's been so supportive, him and my mom, of all the projects that I've done, and, you know, just selflessly putting so much time and very own time into my projects and still do today.

I mean, my biz I have a business in The UK, and I'm not even there. I live in Spain. You know? It's like, mom, can you just dad, can you just they're they're always there to help. But, yeah, my my father's been been great.

And and, you know, in 2020, we went and did the Africa Race Project, which was like the post races to places project. And I invited my dad along, and, it was really cool that he could be part of that project. Yeah. He's really great, and it really shows in your videos that, you have a great family, and and they obviously, are owed some credit to your success. But I know we're out of time, but we have always give people, one of our stickers.

There's only 100 of these in the world, and it's the official, Badass Cannonball sticker, and I'm presenting you with your sticker now. Oh, so it's a Badass. It's even reflective. This is a cool sticker. Listen.

It's holographic and original. It shows its authenticity. Yeah. I think you know, I always think when I get a sticker, where am I gonna put it where it's gonna always be for a long time. You know?

And, the one the one thing that I use every day is my laptop, and it's covered in stickers. So if I can find a place on there for it. It's a badge of honor. Thank you very much. My wife has said that I have to mention that you're her favorite YouTuber.

We always used to sit around and watch all your videos. So, thanks very much for, putting out that content, and, thanks very much for taking time of your obviously busy day to, meet me here. I appreciate it. Sounds like I need to, make a new YouTube series. Maybe maybe, yeah, maybe Another project.

Yeah. Maybe maybe there's, maybe there's a YouTube series about traveling the camp around the world. We'll see. And maybe have a have a Husqvarna stuck on the back. Quite possibly.

There's a garage there's a garage on the campus, sir. Alright. Well, listen. Get back to work, and thanks very much for your time. Thank you very much.

Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, could I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball.

Hey, Cannonballers. Thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com, or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll visit on patreon.com.

Links are in the show notes. Now back to the riveting podcast in progress. Okay. We are in Yorkshire, England, and I'm sitting across the table from Robin Poskitt. How are you, sir?

I'm very well. Thanks very much. Thanks very much for letting me into your home. And as you know, I, you just picked me up from the train, and the train was bound for a haul. Would it surprise you as a kid?

I used to go to haul to the caravan park with my family. Wow. That's amazing. You know? Obviously, I knew you're from America, but, yeah, to have that knowledge of this country is great.

Yeah. Yeah. Whereas, my grandmother lived in a little tiny town called Haswell in the County Durham. And when we drove through this town, it really brought back those memories. How long have you lived here, and is is this where Lyndon grew up?

Yeah. We we Lyndon was born in Harrogate, and we lived in Weatherby at that time. He did, probably I think he was four or five when he came here, and we've lived here coming up to forty years now. So he's getting on a bit, is Linden. But, yeah, all his all his youthful stuff, all his bike building, and all that has been done here.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. You know, he moved to to Spain. He says it's for the weather, but it's a lovely day outside.

It's sunny. It's warm. I don't have a jacket on. I don't know what he's talking about. Well, I know.

This country, when it is nice, it's absolutely stunning. It's beautiful, but it's not every day It's not every day. And not many days. Truth be told, last night, it was quite cold when I was in, when I was in Leeds, but we can just pretend that the weather was, was fantastic. Yeah.

We took a tour of your shop, and you had these amazing CNC machines and milling machines all over the place. And he had no choice but to become a mechanical engineer. Was it natural for him, or did you push him in that direction? No. Never pushed him.

But, obviously, I was always doing stuff. I I was always I was rallying, so I was looking after my car for a start. But always do it yourself. If anything won't fix it in the home, I'd do that. No problem.

And so he was always at the side and very inquisitive wanting to well, why are you doing that? And what's this? And I would always try and explain things, you know, well, that's leverage, and this is what happens and explain stuff. But he picked it up so quick. Unbelievable.

And if, you know, I want a ramp, dada. Well, you need to do this, this, and that. Oh, okay. And then he'd go do it, and he'd come back and he'd build some great stuff. That's really true.

Yeah. Having the tools around, I think it's a natural inclination. Right? Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. But that's where his mum would say I were too hard on him because, yes, my tools were all over the place, but they always went back where I put them. Of course, when Lyndon started using them, they weren't always going back. So he got a clip around here now and again. Then he need to go back here.

Oh, you're too hard on him. You're too hard on him. But now his workshop's better than mine. His his workshop I was gonna say, have you done a surprise inspection, in Spain? No.

No. No. No. His workshop now is It's orderly. Oh, that's fantastic.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. You mentioned that you did some rally racing.

Can you tell us what what classes you used to race and maybe if you took Linden along with you? Well, that was in, I didn't tell Linden when I when I was actually rallying. That was in the seventies. And so rallying through the woods, which is on maps, you know, no person who was then. It was all on maps.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very expensive because if you ever make a mistake, it's gonna hurt in the woods. But I fixed all my own stuff, built all my own stuff, and that's how I got involved. And then when you have a little bit of success, then you start building stuff for other folks. Will you just do this for me?

Will you just do that? And that's how I just got started in the business, basically. Yeah. We saw a bunch of engines and gearboxes. Can you tell me the kind of work you do for, other rally teams?

Well, obviously, now at my age, I've stopped rallying many, many years ago. So building cars, so, primarily historic stuff. Veteran vintage cars I've got into, but the rallying side is more historic. Lotus Cortinas, Ford Escorts. So I'm building a lot of twin cam engines, gearboxes, back axles, that type of stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic work. It's also fun to see your work out there on the on the rally course. Oh, there's nothing better.

And particularly when they win a championship or, you know, they're up there fighting for it. That's great. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful.

Linden said that his first bike was a t y one seventy five. I don't know what that is, but he said it was a trials bike, and he said that you got it for him, maybe to the chagrin of your wife. But can you tell me, what the thought was behind that specific bike? Yeah. Well, he wanted a motocross bike.

He asked for a motocross bike, And I'm thinking, I don't I don't particularly want him to go motocrossing. It's a bit too hard too hard at the minute. So I thought I'll get a trials bike for him. And I found two t y one seven fives, and did them both up. Sold one, and that paid for doing Linden's up.

So it was a TY175, did it all up, everything immaculate, and get and he got it for Christmas. Wow. Sounds like a full restoration. Absolutely. And it were a lovely bike.

Nice bike. Absolutely. Trouble is he grew out of it too quick. Wow. This is Straight onto a two fifty then.

Yeah. Yeah. We're all still doing this. We buy a bike, and we're looking at the next model. This this is this is human nature or nature of a man anyways.

But, I think he had some lessons working on bikes. We know he became a mechanical engineer, and you must have encouraged him to work on his own bike. Well, he'd he'd asked things. Right. I need to do so and so.

And and I'd right. Well, and I'd explain, as I said, right. You need to do this. Do that. Alright.

Okay. And he'd I'm not doing it for you. You need to do it. And he would. And he'd just get to and if it it'd stop if he had a problem.

Right. What do I do here? And explain it. Alright. And he never had to explain it again.

He'd got it. He he he understood it straight away. Yeah. Yeah. When did you realize that tinkering and that mechanical work in the shop would translate into professional aerospace career?

Well, well, obviously, I I never foresaw it. But clearly, I thought it'd be it'd be a hands on mechanic like me, and his grandfather. You know? His grandfather's a a an engineer. And he would breathe into trucks, big lorries and that.

So it was there, but the actual he the fact that he went and did a degree on it and got a, a qualification out of it, for just well, that was just sublime. But it's it's the way it fell, I think. At school, it was obviously very mechanically minded, and it was aerospace that had just put out an advert. And he'd spotted it, and he went, I I wanna do this. So he put in for it, he got the position, and then when he he did, obviously, went through their program, and they were delighted, came back to Selby College and said, oh, if you've got any mortgage like that, send them out here.

We want them. That's great. And, you know, speaking of that that wonderful career, what did you think when you came to you one day and said, you know, I'm gonna quit all this. I'm gonna buy I'm gonna build a motorcycle and go around the world. Oh, well, now yeah.

Obviously, I I was in the fire brigade. That was my career, and I have a pension from that. So when he decided I'm gonna quit and I'm gonna go riding around the oh, soon, are you really sure you wanna be doing that? You know, just think of the future and your pension and long term, you know, you won't wanna be riding bikes all your life and but, you know, it is what it is, isn't it? You know?

No. It's your passion's there. Your passion's there. Yeah. So I think also when you're young enough, you know, you're not gonna have any major regrets when you still have time.

No. No. And, obviously, it worked out fantastically. I know that you were his chief mechanic on some of his bigger rallies. Can you tell us how that came about and which rallies you were the chief mechanic?

Well, so it it through the aerospace, he ended up in America, and that's where they got on to the big bikes, the adventure bikes. And I think that it that's where he did the Baja, and he met a gay a guy called Ned Zeus. And Ned had he'd done the Dakar in 02/2012. He'd done the and and him and Ned had done the Baja and plenty of off road stuff. And Ned rang him and said, Lyndon, this race is for you.

You've got to do this race. And that's where the siege was sold, I think. He then set to, got a rally bike, rebuilt the rally bike, and put an engine for the Dakar in 02/2013. And and he was pondering about the mechanic. Who who's it gonna work?

How's it gonna work? One thing or another. And I think it went Ned. Well, who do you trust? Oh, and that gets emotional then.

So he said, we're not a mechanic for him. That was great. I loved it. Yep. I'll do that.

Now thinking back, there was one night, and, I mean, he had a great run. He came ninth on one of the stages, which was fantastic result, but then, I I don't know, it was day after, two days after, had a big off. Pike came back in a mess, he was late in, in a bit of a mess himself. And so just go go sort yourself out, get yourself sorted out, and get ready for tomorrow. And I stayed up all night, rebuilt the bike, and put him out the next morning and free went and finished.

What did you think about him doing the Malle Moto? He must have had some concerns about doing all that on his own and dealing with Yeah. The videography and the navigation and the self care and all that. Did you have any concerns about him when he mentioned to you, dad, I'm gonna do the Mali Moto. No.

No. Because by this time, he's a thinker. He uses his head. He won't go headlong into stuff. He thinks of stuff.

His only problem is he pushes himself too hard. He will push and push and push, and and clearly, I presume he's spoken about his marathon. Yeah. That's Lyndon. He'll push.

He he's determined. And so no. I had no concerns. He'll use his head. He'll he'll get through it, which he did, you know.

Mhmm. I think that experience, the the the medical scare, maybe pulled him back and he goes, maybe I'm not indestructible, and maybe I should listen to that a little bit more, and maybe we should just concentrate on finishing and not finishing first. Exactly. And if if you look at the two, I did it in, Malimoto Seventeen And Eighteen, I think. And if you look at the two, the first one, yeah, it were nearly broken.

But the second one, it was a breeze because he got it. He understood what he needed to do, how he needed to do it, how to look after himself. And for me, it looked a breeze. Yeah. Yeah.

So what brought us to talk to Lynn is that we have, we call it the motorcycle film club. And he's listed as number one voted number one in that film club. And if you watch the 02/2017 and the 2,018, you can get a completely different feel is this one is tough and it is hard and it is a, exercise in perseverance. And then the next one is it is light and it is fun and it is a, a totally different experience. You are absolutely you know, imagine that men actually grow up a little bit.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and I think it did some great video stuff.

You know, going around the camp into the kitchen and, you know, little bits that people never ever see, and for me that were great. And I mean, I remember when he was going on about going around the world, he said, oh I'm gonna use Facebook, I'm gonna, ah, I said, son that'll never work. I'll rub my eye. We were all wrong. Yeah.

Because he he did he has brought some great stuff out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then at the at what point, speaking of knowing that he would be alright, at what point during races of the places and his circumnavigation of the world, did you know that he will be okay doing doing that?

I'm sure I don't I'm sure we don't know all the details. We know most things that happen, but I'm sure we don't know everything. So it'll be interesting to read the book whenever that comes out. But no, I think it was just the fact that he could push himself into a position, but it it it was of the mindset, right, I might have gone too far. I need to step back.

He'd be at that point, No. I need to step back now and and recover. You know, it never go way past the limit. So, yeah, I think it it's always scary because you you there's nothing you can do. He's out there, and all we were following is that he had, outreach.

So we could see roughly where he was. And if he stood in the same place for a day or two days oh, my word. Is there anything wrong? You know, can we contact him? Can we get hold of him?

So it were worrying at times. But then third day, yeah, I'm okay. I've been stuck here. I'm trying to get through this forest, and I couldn't get through, and now and now we're back. You know?

So Yeah. It's always tough, tough watching a GPS tracker. I'm like, if it sits in one spot, maybe just the battery ran out or it's in his pocket or something like that. I I understand that. But when you're with them at these rallies, that's a different experience.

What was the last rally that you, worked with them at? The last rally, I think it was probably, in Greece. Yeah. I'm trying to get a name in a rally. I think it can second or third.

I can't remember. I think the best rally. The rally. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. But the best one for me was the eco Africa eco race. I mean, I've rallied with cars for a lot and serviced on events, but that was the toughest event I've ever done. Just even as a service crew, that was one tough event. Was it the mileage or the terrain or the or the political?

The mileage, the constant timescale, you have to keep going. If you've not if you don't keep going, you're gone. Mhmm. You know? Having said that, if if you if there is people out there that wanna go adventure, I'll go rally in the Dakar, for me, do that event first because the organization are out to help you.

They will do anything for you to keep you going. And that's what you want when you spend a bucket load of money. Whereas, DACA, I think they're a little bit easier now, but they're not that helpful. Once you're gone, you're gone. You know, I I can't speak with authority on on many things, but on this particular subject, I can.

And, you know, it's because of your parenting and your wife's parenting that he's ended up being so successful, and, he's so liked by so many of his peers. You must be so very proud of him. Oh, well, yeah. I suppose we've been fairly fairly strict, but just guidance. You know, you need to do it this way.

This is how it's done, you know, good manners. And even as a kite I mean, I took him, one of the first events he went on, I did we did the Land's End Johnny Growats with the old cars, and I took him along as a mechanic. And the number of participants that came up to me, oh, your lad is so polite and he's lovely. And I've had that for a long time, you know. So now to see him, people like it because he does relate.

He he will stop and listen. And and I'm a good listener, you know. He'll stop, talk to people, communicate well, and the fact the fact that he now stands up in front of a hall of people and can communicate great is a surprise because when he first started, he he was practicing in the room in there, just in there. I can't do this. I can't do this.

You can. It solves confidence, and it's just come on in leaps and bounds. And now he just does it off the top of his head. But I always think if you know your subject, if you're interested in your subject, you can keep talking. I mean, I can keep talking for about rallying.

You'd know your subject, you're you're on it, aren't you? And he's on it. He's on it. Wow. This is a family business here.

You've stamped the end of the interview with, with the key phrase that is, on it, linen posket. But thank you so much for letting me into your home, and and, again, you should be really proud of, Linden and its success and whatever is in the future. And, again, thanks for your time. No problem. Thanks for coming.

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Visit columbianmotorcycletour.com and start your adventure today. And we are back. Nice one. Yeah. That was a great interview.

Oh my god. The, it was so kind, you know, just listening to the relationship that he has with his dad. Like, he's like, you know, my dad, he had a stroke last year, and he's a little bit slow dad. I'm sorry if you're listening. You know, I hope you don't hope you don't take offense.

Like, he was really concerned about his dad, and, I thought that was amazing. And then the other part that really that really sort of the receiving side of that is that, you know, an app like, hours later, you were talking to the dad in, where was that? You were talking to him in Yorkshire, England. In Yorkshire. And, and they were talking about so he was gonna go do one of the decars.

Linden was gonna do a decar, and and he was talking to one of his good mates. And his buddy said he's like, I don't know who to get to be my to be my chief mechanic on this. And the dad is telling the story, and he says, get somebody you trust. And the dad got all choked up. Ah, that was amazing.

Yeah. I mean, I'm getting choked up thinking about that. Just the relationship there is amazing. You can really see the love that the family members have. And so much of I think the reason that he is so successful is, a, he's extremely driven, b, he has amazing support from an amazing group of friends, and, like, an amazing family.

And it it kinda goes back to the to the idea that if you follow your dreams, if you work hard, if you're nice, and if you're humble, you can do anything. Yeah. For sure. And, you know, that family is is great, and that comes through in his, his success. And, you know, he was able to persevere through some difficult things.

In the Linen interview, he, he previewed some stuff that happened to him in Ethiopia that he's gonna release in the book. And, you know, he another quote I liked was he's able to turn the challenging sections into rewarding experiences. So we're gonna have to come up with a list of, linen posket, you know, positive quotations, at some point for him. Yeah. Absolutely.

Another thing that really stuck out for me was the malle moto part. I know that you, you you at one point, you were talking like, alright. Let's get to the malle moto part. And for me, that is absolutely insane. So, I mean, he is so driven to I mean, no pun intended, but he's driven.

Like, he is he is ridden that bike. So we'd ride up to the and he rode up to Alaska, and then he rode back down for the start of the of the Dakar, did the Dakar, and then carried on, you know, moving the bike. At the time he made that decision, he was in, New Zealand, I believe. And the idea that most people are really good at at one aspect of it. They're really good at at turning wrenches, or they're really good at navigating, or they're really good at riding.

But rare is the day that somebody can master all three and come in, take care of themselves, at the same time, be a YouTuber, nail all that down so there's four major things or five, and they had to take care of himself and come in second? Yeah. And that's why that film is the top of our motorcycle film club on the main Cannonball web page is because, you know, not only did he produce a great film, it's an awesome story. He's able to communicate the story, and, you know, he, you know, he does well in the competition. And, you know, it's very rare that you have that look behind the curtain into the Malle Moto experience of Dakar.

Yeah. Overall, his entire his entire history was, was interesting to to listen to, and I'm really I mean, hopefully, we get on a a preread on the book because I am I am really excited to get, to get our hands on cusp, a few copies of that. So I'm sort of I'm I'm I'm gonna say something, but make a a bit of fun of myself here. So, in the interview with with Linden, he's really inspires people to get out there and, like, you know, you can do it. It's not just me.

It's like, you can do it too. And his his dad always inspired him. He's like, first of all, tear into it. He's like, I need a little bit help with this. And he's like, tear into it.

And he's like, can you do it? You know, can you can you get going with me? Dad is that, of course, super capable. And he's like, no, you do it yourself. Get into it, tear into it, use the tools.

They're right there. And then the big thing is saying, my dad said the same thing. He's like, make sure you put the tools away. I remember getting in trouble for not putting tools away. Yeah.

I'm a bit, I'm a bit crazy about it also. Not nothing worse than getting 500 miles on a trip, something goes wrong, and you go in your tool roll and something isn't there. I'm like, yeah. There's a reason for that that lesson. Yeah.

It's true. Also from the captain from maritime training, I remember I had a captain I worked for one time, and I was I mean, at that age, I was already putting tools away. And, we talked about the importance of it over a drink one time, and he said, yeah. Pretty much. And this guy had been I mean, he had been around.

And he said, yeah. Pretty much if it's if it if it's, if you're upside down and, and you're wet, and it's pretty important to know where things are. I was like, good point. Abs absolutely. When the when the poop hits a fan, we wanna know where things are.

And what people didn't get to see was Robin has a full shop. It's amazing. He's still working on rally cars. He says he's not taking any more clients. He says he's going to try and get rid of all of the outstanding projects that are in that shop.

But I know that Lyndon is coming down to Yorkshire and he's doing some cool stuff like building his own pistons in that shop, and his dad is a resource that he's definitely using whenever he needs something custom made. And his dad has even learned how to do things in, in CAD. So he's drafting things in CAD, and he's sending them over to the CNC machine, and he's still machining stuff manually. They got a they got a bunch of really impressive equipment in there. It's it's definitely a boy's playground in that shop.

Yeah. Very nice. I saw a, I saw a short, this morning of Linden, and he had just rebuilt the, the front shocks, his his his forks. Nice. Yeah.

That's a skill we should all have, by the way. We should all know how to rebuild forks. As but I was as I was looking at that, and I was like, there's a specialized tool. There's a specialized tool. There's a specialized tool.

And I was like, oh my god. I'm sending mine away. Yeah. But once you own the tools and you know and you know how to do it, it's actually really, rewarding to be able plus understanding how the front shocks works. And then when you're out there on the trail, I'm like, oh, I get why the, you know, the rebound and the compression and the, you know, all that sag and all that stuff.

So once you start to rebuild it, I think you have a better understanding what suspension does on a bike. So it's a it's a great skill to have. Yeah. No doubt. I think once you rebuild anything, you get a really good clear clear picture about what it was what it was initially intended to do.

But for me, somehow, there's always spare parts at the end and, you know They always they always overbuild things anyways. They always they always put too many parts in. Yeah. Let's, let's do some Cannonball news. I have five hotel rooms left for the 2025 Cannonball.

We are confirmed to be at the Touratech Rally West, and that is in Plain, Washington. Look for our super cool vendor display, and we're gonna be there handing out cool swag. And you can get information on the 2026 Cannonball by then, and it should be released to the public by the Touratech rally. Very nice. Alright.

Well, that's all I got, sir. Unless you got anything to add, that was a great podcast and great interviews. No. I just wanna say as we, as we leave this, I know you've got some exciting things teed up for this later this week. Anything you wanna maybe give us some, some hints about?

Yeah. I wanted to mention that in Windsor, I'm gonna be meeting with Austin Vince, and that's gonna be a great interview. And we have a interview with Charlie Borman, and he talks about the re the release of Long Way Home on those cool vintage bikes, so we get to talk vintage bikes. And in the next episode, which will be dropped immediately after this one, I take a trip down to the fifty nine club and visit the Ton Up boys in East London. So there is a lot on the next episode, and it might go a little bit over, but it will be worth it.

And, in that episode, you can tell us what a Ton Up boy is. I had no idea. I hate that. The whole time when people talk to so, you know, the fifty nine club and Ton Up Boy, I'm like, I don't know what the fifty nine club is, how it got its name. I have no idea what a Ton Up Boy.

So I traveled there, and I've got the facts for us, so we will not live in ignorance anymore. I don't know about that, but at least we'll we'll know more about that. Fifty nine calling in a town of boy. I don't know about that. Hey o.

Alright. Nothing else for me. Yeah. Okay. Alright.

Well, let's roll the outro. Thanks for listening to the ADV cannonball podcast. Please give us a five star review on your preferred podcast platform. That really helps us with the algorithm gods. All hail the algorithm gods.

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