The Great Arabian Bike Ride. By Peter Friar.

Author’s note

My great Arabian ride was almost 15 years ago and it is only at the insistence of friends like Alan Parker, Mel Green and Alan Booth that I am now getting it published. ‘The Ride’ was written shortly after completion and what you read has been taken almost word for word from the original account, some of the phrases and grammar have been tidied up. Any notes added later for clarity have been put in brackets. Peter Friar, Bangkok, Thailand, April 2004.

Introduction.

During my teenage years I was a keen cyclist – never on a ‘racer’ because my dad considered them ‘dangerous’ so I was never allowed to buy one! I bought my first racer at the grand old age of about 35, mainly to do some gentle exercise and to keep my spreading waistline down but I was again bitten by the cycling ‘bug’! After doing a few circuits of Widnes – Penketh – Widnes, I decided to venture further afield and joined the Runcorn CTC led by Alan Booth; who after my first long ride with them to the Sunspot gave me some sound advice "Get yourself a strong pair of walking boots and join the Ramblers Association!" In 1989 accepted my second contract in Saudi Arabia as an aero-evac medic for Lear Siegler Inc. in Taif Saudi Arabia. I was met by the company personnel manager in Taif, a chap by the name of David Glynn. I found out that he too was a keen cyclist and was only born a few miles away from me – I was born in Prescot and he in Huyton. We were about the same age and, although I did not know him then, we cycled the same routes in our teenage years!



David and I started our cycling trips from our compound ‘Al Gaim’ about 11 miles from Taif into the centre of Taif every Thursday morning – just a gentle trip to the ‘House of Donuts’ for a cup of coffee and a few doughnuts! David used to buy the Daily Mail or Express (whichever was available) but I thought at about £5 per copy and a few days old was a bit too much! We decided to start going further afield and eventually doing a charity ride from Taif to Riyadh. If we were to do this ride, we would need at least two reliable drivers and decided to ask two company employees, Jim Paulin (Logistics) and Rich Weiss (Radio), who would accompany us on longer training rides and the ride itself. David would get the paperwork and various permissions sorted out and I would get the sponsorship.

I came home on leave in July 89 after having arranged with Impsport of Lincoln to supply printed tops for us with ‘Taif – Riyadh’ printed on them. When I returned, David informed me that the ride was now Dhahran to Jeddah and could I get Impsport to change the tops! Without e-mail or fax it was impossible to do, I tried to convince them that Taif-Riyadh was long enough and we could save the cross-country ride till next year – I was out voted 3-1! Just a quick word on one type of permission that was needed, there are basically three police forces in Saudi Arabia – civil, military and religious (The Mutawa). Davis and Suleiman pleaded with the Mutawa to let us cycle through the Kingdom wearing shorts! By this time our training rides were now starting at dawn and ending about 100 to 120 miles away and being driven back in the GMC Suburban by either Jim or Rich.

I feel that I must mention two amusing incidents that happened during training. The first was regarding out first trip to Jeddah. At the time, if you wanted to go more than 30kms away from your place of work you needed a ‘travel letter’ signed by your employer, which in our case was the base commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force base at Taif. Out company – Lear Siegler Inc.- provided management services for them. Having written out our letter, Suleiman our government relations officer took it to be signed. The conversation went something like this: - Base Commander "Peter Friar – I’ve heard of him, he’s your medic" Suleiman "Yes" Base commander "Going to Jeddah – by bicycle? Is he mad?" Suleiman "No, he’s English!" Base Commander "OK!" and then he signed it.



The second incident was when I was cycling back alone. We had found a nice bakers shop at a place called Al Sail al Saghir which made the most delicious bread I’ve tasted in years! I was just passing the Army Barracks about halfway back to Al Gaim when I was passed by a black Toyota crew cab pick up truck (White ones are common but there are not many black ones!) A forest of waving arms shot out of the pick up and there was a lot of jeering. Fortunately the truck passed me and did a u-turn by Taif sports stadium, they were jeering when the passed me on the other side of the dual carriageway. A few moments later I heard a car horn behind me, looked round and it was the same truck! "I’m in trouble here", I thought – do I pedal like mad, go off road or stop? The dreaded black truck drew level with me and slowed to my pace: a hand shot out of the passenger door and a voice shouted – in almost perfect English – "Do you want a Pepsi, my friend?" I accepted and breathed a sigh of relief! There were many other training incidents – four punctures and a cracked rim (simultaneously) at a cattle grid just outside Taif; the time when David went by car to Jeddah, told me that he had bought two wheels and could I fix them for him. I told him that I could, not realising that his two wheels were 2 rims, 2 hubs and 72 spokes! Somehow, I managed it.

David rode a Bianchi bought in Taif. I rode a Raleigh Granada tourer – 48/36 with 12 to 24 rear sprocket. My rear wheel was a 48 spoke tandem wheel built by Alan Booth. I used 2 CatEye computers – one calibrated in miles, the other in kilometres. Two disappointments were that Guinness did not recognise it as a world record – we gave them all paperwork they asked for but the feat, they said, was not noteworthy enough! The second was that neither Rolex nor Omega would supply a watch so that I could time the event Sponsors of the ride included John Geddes Cycles of Widnes, Ray & Audrey Sloan (Charlie Binghams, Widnes), Ron Kitching of Harrogate, DHL, Samir Photography, Jeddah, and Lear Siegler. I am indebted to Alan Booth and all members of the Runcorn CTC for all their support. Have I got another big ride up my sleeve? All I can say is "Watch this space!"




Copyright Peter Friar 2004. This content is intellectual property. No part may be reproduced without permission by the author.