As seen in the Ross Gazette: Read about Vanessa Ruck’s unforgettable experience with Patsy Quick in the Ross Gazette. A heartwarming story that will leave you inspired.

Nestled in the picturesque southeast of England, the Desert Rose Riding Academy offers an unparalleled off-road motorbike riding experience in a serene and captivating setting.

Vanessa Ruck, also known as The Girl on a Bike, paid a visit to the academy to explore what it has to offer for both novice and experienced riders.

At the Desert Rose Riding Academy, a wide range of Beta motorbike models are available for riders of varying skill levels. The academy also provides a smaller, lower bike for those looking to build confidence or for shorter riders.

The main attraction of the academy is the top-notch skill training and guidance provided by experienced instructors Harry and Patsy. They ensure that safety is a priority and never push participants beyond their limits. The academy can accommodate mixed experience groups, with the ability to break off into smaller groups to cater to different skill levels.

Riders are welcomed by sunshine and an expanse of lush green grasslands, creating an ideal environment for improving off-road riding skills. While the priority is ensuring participants enjoy their day, the academy also takes great care to preserve the beauty of the venue.

The experience begins with a comprehensive briefing that covers safety measures, the correct way to mount and dismount bikes, and strategies for managing different terrains. Instructors emphasize the importance of a solid foundation in the basics before tackling more advanced techniques.

Participants have the opportunity to practice their newly acquired skills on a variety of loops and terrain, culminating in a thrilling river crossing at the end of the day. With expert guidance, they learn to embrace the natural movements of their bikes and develop confidence in their riding abilities.

The Desert Rose Riding Academy is not only an excellent place to learn off-road riding skills but also a fantastic destination for a memorable day out surrounded by the beauty of East Sussex.

For the rest of the Ross Gazette article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Adventure Bike Rider: Get to know Vanessa Ruck, the renowned motor rider from the UK, as she shares her journey, experiences, and insights in an exclusive interview.

ABR: Hi Vanessa, people know you as ‘The Girl On A Bike’ but I know that you didn’t always get your kicks from motorcycles. How did it all begin?

Vanessa: When I was 20, I was living on a remote island in the Bahamas for a work placement, and I just wanted to get around the island. I couldn’t afford a car but a bike was considerably cheaper. I thought, how hard can they be to ride? So, I ordered a cheap Chinese 250cc motorcycle online. It came in parts that would become a motorbike if you knew how to put them together. Luckily, rum is an accepted currency on the island, so I traded a bottle to the local bush mechanic and he put it together for me, showed me the basic controls, and off I went to explore the island. When I returned to the UK, I figured I should get my full license, mostly because I liked collecting licenses. I never thought of myself as a biker. After that, I didn’t think about riding for a long time.

ABR: Am I right in thinking it was actually a serious bicycle accident that changed your life and led to you becoming passionate about motorcycling?

Vanessa: Exactly. Before the accident,I would cycle a 16-mile round trip to the centre of Oxford every day, come rain, shine, wind, and snow. Then I had the accident and my life completely changed. I had seven operations on my hip and shoulder over seven years, and in between I’d be bed-bound. Then I’d start to learn to walk again, start doing rehab, and then there’d be complications. Meanwhile, I was really struggling with the traffic commuting to work in my big Mercedes campervan. Getting to work early just meant doing really long days. So, one Friday night I was sitting with my husband and his friend, and I just came up with this idea. I was going to get a motorbike. I found a cheap Suzuki Bandit 600 nearby, bought it the next day, and went kit shopping on Sunday. But then I had to ride it.

ABR: You’re an inspirational figure to many people, but who or what inspires you?

Vanessa: When I was a kid, my mum was really ill. She had to have surgery and she was given a 50/50 chance to live. She even said goodbye to me. But she was so determined, she’d always get out of bed in the morning and fight on. I drew a lot of energy out of that for my own battles. In terms of motorcycling, I look at some of the people who are at the absolute pinnacle of riding, and while I can only dream to be a fraction as good, I think we’re all made of the same stuff. If you put effort and time into something, you can get better at it, even if you think you’re the worst. And you don’t have to be a pro to have fun. As long as you’re doing it, that’s what counts.

ABR: As someone with superb riding skills, what is the one piece of advice you would give to new riders looking to progress?

Vanessa: Leave the ego at home and stop worrying about what other people think. If you’re worrying about falling off or having a hard time, you’ll put too much pressure on yourself, and you won’t enjoy it. Put all of that aside, just get on a bike and have fun. You’re going to have a great time, you’ll learn and get better. It’s just about being on a bike and getting on with it.

For the rest of the Adventure Bike Rider article download here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Monmouthshire beacon: Vanessa Ruck, often known as “The Girl on a Bike,” a resident of Monmouthshire, has just returned from an exhilarating 9-day motorbike tour across Iceland’s untamed landscapes and is here to share her experiences with us.

On day one, Vanessa started her journey with a good night’s rest and a trusty supply of protein powder. With her Africa Twin motorcycle, she set out to explore the extreme terrain of Iceland, where the roads are insane, the scenery is mind-blowing, and the weather is always an additional challenge.

Throughout her journey, Vanessa encountered black sand, rocky roads, water crossings, and even fog, but she was always up for the challenge. She rode through lava fields, desolate valleys, and epic waterfalls, experiencing the beauty of Iceland like never before.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Vanessa faced some tough moments along the way, including two flat tires, an incident with one of the support vehicles, and some close calls on the rocky terrain. However, she managed to keep her bike upright and her spirits high, always ready for the next adventure.

Despite the challenges, Vanessa couldn’t have been more thrilled with her experience. “Iceland is my favorite off-roading destination,” she exclaimed. “The scenery is absolutely incredible, and there’s nothing quite like riding across the moon-like landscape on a big bike.”

And after nine days of riding, Vanessa’s adventure came to a close at the Blue Lagoon, where she soaked in the warm waters and reflected on her incredible journey. “Nine days over three thousand kilometres, one happy girl, and a massively amazing Africa Twin,” she said. “I’m exhausted, but it was worth every moment.”

For the rest of the Monmouthshire beacon article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Arab news: Since 33 bikes took on the event back in November 2004, when Tim Trenker, a German rider based in the UAE, won on a KTM, this week’s Qatar International Baja is the largest ever hosted by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation in terms of numbers and strength in depth across the different classes.

LUSAIL, Qatar

• 14 veterans, four juniors and four women set for FIM motorcycle tussle
• Lusail Boulevard to host ceremonial start on Thursday evening

This week, 51 motorcycles and four quads grace the entry list for the second round of the 2023 FIM Bajas World Cup.

MX Ride Dubai has entered four motorcycles in Qatar and the team’s lead rider Mohammed Al-Balooshi will be hoping to repeat his recent Saudi victory and extend his early lead in the FIM Bajas World Cup. The Emirati has mixed memories of his previous visits to Qatar for the longer cross-country rally and knows full well how tricky the navigation is and how deceptive the terrain can be.

His brother Sultan is 10th in the championship standings and rides a second team bike alongside fellow Emirati Marwan Al-Rahmani and Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Shatti. Jordan’s Abdullah Abu Aisheh is not present on this occasion.

Qatar-based Australian Martin Chalmers is seeded at two after finishing second to Al-Balooshi in Saudi Arabia, while Briton Alex McInnes is third in the points’ standings after round one and starts at three.

Talented Polish rider Konrad Dabrowski claimed overall victory in last year’s Qatar International Baja and this year’s fourth seed is also the pre-event favorite to win the FIM juniors’ class for riders under 25-years-old on Jan. 1, 2023. He comes into the weekend as both the defending FIM Bajas World Cup and junior champion.

Konrad’s closest junior rival may well be McInnes, who leads the junior section on his Motozone Husqvarna after finishing second in the championship last season. Canadian Jonathan Finn and Italy’s Alessandro Iacovelli will also be chasing points in the juniors.

The experienced KTM rider Mirjam Pol is the defending FIM women’s world champion and leads three rivals into a tussle for honors in Qatar. The Dutchwoman lines up against last year’s runner-up, Poland’s Joanna Modrzewska, Kuwait’s Sarah Khuraibet and Great Britain’s Vanessa Ruck, the latter riding a Honda CRF 450 RX.

Fourteen riders are eligible to score points in the FIM veterans category for over 45s. Australia’s Andrew Houlihan leads the class after his useful ninth-place finish in Saudi Arabia but competition will be intense in the Qatar deserts.

The Husqvarna rider faces a six-strong Italian challenge from Cesare Zacchetti, Francesco Catanese, Fabrizio Macchitella, Alberto Bertoldi, Elio Aglioni and Enrico Tanganelli, while Britain’s Barry Howe also holds European hopes of success alongside Norway’s Ola Floene.

The Qatari trio of Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani, Mahanna Rashid Al-Naimi and Mohammed Al-Kaabi, South Africa’s Jaco Anderson and Emirati rider Mohammed Al-Shamsi round off the runners eligible for the ceterans’ category.

For the rest of the arab news article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Mcnews: Race Management has now been informed of the amended and final results, which have been modified to reflect the modified outcomes.

What’s New:

• Qatar International Baja this weekend

Qatar International Baja this weekend

After the start of the 2023 FIM Bajas World Cup in Saudi Arabia, riders meet again this week for the Qatar International Baja, the second round of the series in Qatar being held over a route of 840km. Fifty motorcycles and four quads are scheduled to attend administrative and technical checks at the Lusail Sports Arena, north of Doha, on Wednesday.

Mohammed Al Balooshi (KTM) was the winner of the Saudi Baja-Hail and arrives in Qatar at the head of the FIM Bajas World Cup standings with 25 points. He will, therefore, have to defend his position against Martin Chalmers (Beta), who is second in the standings, and the third-placed Junior rider Alex McInnes (Husqvarna).

Competition in the motorcycles will be fierce between the 50 participants, who include four Juniors, 14 veterans and four women; namely Mirjam Pol (KTM) – the title holder, Joanna Modrzewska (KTM), Sarah Khuraibet (Husqvarna) and Vanessa Ruck (Honda).

The Qatar International Baja begins on Wednesday, March 15th with administrative and technical checks followed on Thursday, March 16th by a 10km Prologue. On Friday, SS2 will run for 248km and Saturday’s SS3 will be 239km. That makes a total of 844km, consisting 498.37km of selective sections and 346.21km of Liaisons.

For the rest of the mcnews article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Morocco desert challenge: Today is International Women’s Day. We want to use this chance to highlight the women competing in the Moroccan Desert Challenge. Although primarily a man’s domain, the world of motorsport is rapidly evolving.

More and more ladies are showing that they can compete on equal terms when it comes to driving skills and navigation. In the MDC too, we see a nice increase in the number of female participants every edition. And we can only applaud that!

Next month, no fewer than 33 power women will be at the start in Agadir. Earlier, we announced that Anja van Loon will take the wheel of a De Rooij truck. In the truck category, she will compete against, among others, Syndiely Wade, who is once again aiming for victory as navigator alongside Igor Bauwens in the Gregoor team. In the SSV category, we welcome a number of regulars at the start, including Delphine Crosse and Caroline Zosso.

Tessa Rooth and Veronique Dard and Miranda van Middendorp will navigate in a 4×4 and Magdalena Zając herself will take the wheel of the Proxcars TME Rally team’s Toyota Hilux. Vanessa Ruck joined us last year in Tunisia for her very first rally. Next month she will be the only lady competing in the motorbike category. Respect!

Also in the bivouac, the number of ladies in key positions is rising. Andrea Peterhansel, wife of Mr. Dakar Stephane Peterhansel and no stranger to the world of rallying herself, leads the Yamaha Spirit World Raid team. And she is not the only one! No less than 12 other teams have a female team manager.

Last but not least, we like to mention that within the organisation, more than 40% of the crew members are ladies! We also like to give them a special mention today!

For the rest of the Morocco Desert Challenge article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in Blade Motorcycles: The number of women riding motorcycles has been steadily on the increase, with the industry making it more accessible over the past few years.

Vanessa Ruck

Vanessa has a really incredible story to tell. After being hit by a red light jumping car while on her bicycle in 2014, she has endured a long road to recovery, through which she discovered her love for motorbikes, and thus The Girl On A Bike was born. She now uses her platform to share her ongoing journey while teaching others the importance of taking control when you feel low, resilience, and to make the most of each day.
Vanessa now regularly travels around the UK and the world, testing all kinds of motorcycles, working with top brands and even taking part in Rallies!
I recently chatted to Vanessa, who told me about her connection with Oxford Harley-Davidson. As a belated wedding anniversary when her Husband returned from Afghanistan, she organised two Harleys from us for the afternoon to take on a little adventure. 

Suzi Perry

Suzi has been a prominent figure in broadcasting for many years, and most people will probably know her best for reporting on MotoGP for the likes of BBC and BT Sport. Suzi is a keen advocate for women in motorcycling, being a rider herself, and in 2018 made a documentary for BBC called ‘Queens of the Road’ where she followed the fortunes of three female road racers. 

For the rest of the Blade Motorcycles article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.

As seen in The tengtools: She certainly understands how organizing a toolbox is essential for enhancing work productivity, saving time at the workplace, and preventing accidents because she is an incredibly good motorbike rider.

Proper storage of tools helps ensure they are easily accessible and in good condition, which in turn helps prevent any mishaps on the job or in your workshop. These are our key takeaways to highlight the importance of considering a well-structured tool storage solution, both for the sake of productivity and safety.

1. The way others do it today might not be the way you want to do it.
   You do you. The TengTools toolkits are incredibly flexible and over time you need to work out what are your most used tools and what tools you use in combination with each other. Once you’ve put them in you might realize “Actually, I need that with that” and you will be ever evolving and optimizing the toolkit.
2. Make sure that the tools that you’re using the most frequently are the most accessible.
   Depending on the type of work that you’re doing, you might be on your feet, you might be moving around a vehicle, you might have a stool that you’re working on, you might be a short person or a tall person etc. Factoring that in as to what height drawer you put your most used tools is going to be important one.
3. Put tools in imperial sizes together.
   Depending what sort of jobs you’re doing it seems logical, but you could also…
4. Put tools “like for like”.
   Spanners with spanners and sockets with socket wrenches.
5. Factor in a little bit of extra space.
   Give loose things all those odd screws a home as well.
6. Reorder and shuffle around.
   The good thing about loading drawers in a tool kit is that it’s not permanent. You can put them in, start working, see how it feels and shift things around constantly adapting and improving your layout for your working style.
7. Try and have a little bit of logic and similarities in how you fill your drawers.
8. For example, I’ve put my organizer tray in the left-hand corner of both drawers which means I’ll very quickly get into the habit of knowing “back left is where my organizing tools are”.
9. Think about the weight.
10. It’s worth trying to have the heavier tools down low. That’s going to help the overall weight of the cabinet for its stability. Although TengTools offer incredibly stable cabinets there’s nothing wrong with helping it out.
11. Think about the size of the trays.
12. The tools in the trays are not all the same height. Trays with big tools like large sockets won’t fit in the thinner drawers so make sure they’re in the right drawers to make sure they close properly.
13. You don’t have to leave completely spare drawers.
14. You can leave capacity for other things alongside tool trays in any drawer.

For the rest of the tengtools article see here.

If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.

You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.