I live mostly in Northumberland in a little cottage by the sea.
It’s a delightful place with nature on my doorstep and a great place to have friends join me for both quiet times in conversation as well as convivial barbecue parties by the seaside.
Now in my seventies I’m retired and enjoying the easy(ish) life. With three children and five grandchildren I tend to be seen more as the “crazy grandpa” rather than a stable, stay at home version.
It has its benefits.
The fruits of my labours have allowed me to buy some great toys. The main one of my AutumnRIDER adventures is one of the new versions of a Honda Goldwing.
The Motorbike
The Goldwing, technically known as a 2018+ Honda Goldwing DCT Tour, is without doubt the most capable, comfortable and practical machine I’ve ever ridden in all my fifty years of riding.
.
With a huge, silky smooth 1800cc engine, automatic gears and heated-everything for my ageing bones, its such a joy to ride. It’s also incredibly fast, tough, and agile, with a 45 degree lean angle. A low centre of gravity makes it even more agile when riding fast through the curves.
I put it through its paces regularly and it occasionally finds itself on its on its side as a result of me pushing it to the edge of my capability during slow riding.
In my view that’s the way a competent rider learns.
It requires a degree of fearlessness both for learning advanced skills and placing those skills over keeping a bike precious, pristine and pampered. The result is that my machine, like me, bears the scars of more than a few contacts with terrafirma. Whilst I see at as art in process, many don’t share my interpretation. Its all grist for the mill and I love the discussions it brings.
The Life
As for my life, I’ve moved through life more in contours than in a steady flow. Always periods of challenge followed by reflection and growth.
These are my seasons. My transitions.
The inner and outer journeys.
Across countries, landscapes, through relationships and conversations. Always examining the complex inner terrain that doesn’t always show itself.
The Message
AutumnRIDER began as a way of recording journeys on two wheels — travel, people met along the way, the humour and sometimes carefree perspectives that comes with age.
Over time, it became something broader: a place to reflect on strength, presence, and what it takes to remain intact when life throws a tough hand.
It’s a body of lived experience — written carefully, and with respect for the contradictions that we humans are.
I’m also interested in how men carry responsibility. How we’re shaped by culture and conditioning.
And how movement — physical and emotional — can be a way through uncertainty rather than an escape from it.
I’m equally interested in bringing joy, laughter, connection, beauty, and the fact that life can always offer great moments worth meeting fully.
Parts of my own story are still unfolding. Will they bring joy or pain? I just don’t know.
The website holds an undercurrent of human struggle, simply because that’s life being life. Whatever, the message isn’t about settling scores or simplifying the world; it’s about staying present, telling truth with restraint, and continuing to move forward without abandoning curiosity or compassion.
Above all …. it’s about rejoicing and rising above the things that would either seek to hold us down, or accept the things that we have no control over.
Now Fuckit. Give me two wheels and lets drive into that glorious sunset!
THE VIDEOS
Now how about shooting over to look at some of my favourite rides
Or check out the posts on Falls Fails and How-to
Or the blatant humour of Grandpa on the Road
Or if you you really want to dig in to the deeper stuff, that’s “The Big Journey”. The challenges, the growth, the difficult times.