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.

As seen in Ross Gazette: The Girl on a Cycle Vanessa Ruck has embarked on a brand-new adventure with Ural Bikes in Portugal. With Emma as her co-pilot, she faces the task of learning how to operate a motorcycle with a sidecar securely.

Ural Motorcycles, celebrating its 80th anniversary, is teaching Vanessa how to ride its 745cc bike, which has a unique design with a sidecar.

The challenge is not an easy one as the bike weighs just over 500 kilos and has different controls than a regular motorcycle, which makes it more challenging to ride. But Vanessa is determined to master the skill and the Ural experience is the perfect way to do it.

Vanessa and Emma are taking on the adventure of riding adventure sidecar motorcycles through eucalyptus forests and rugged terrain at the Euro Experience Centre in Portugal. The excitement of the ride has exceeded their expectations, as they navigate the challenges of riding with three wheels instead of two.

After a satisfying lunch of soup and salad, they head back out into the afternoon sun to continue their adventure on two sidecars. The sidecars add a new dimension to motorcycling, providing a social experience that allows riders to converse with ease and enjoy the scenery together.

As the day wears on, they encounter more difficult terrain, including a steep hill that challenges their skills. But with the help of their instructor, they conquer it and continue on their adventure. By the end of the day, they have accomplished more than they ever expected, having achieved a level of skill that few people have reached after just one day.

The team is excited for what the next day will bring, as they plan to venture out on a picnic adventure. They reflect on the social and safety aspects of riding a sidecar, which allow them to enjoy the scenery and each other’s company in a new and exciting way.

Vanessa is excited to learn the skills to control the chariot safely, whether on or off-road. She has been practicing her skills in different environments, including turns, different terrain, manhole covers, and corners. Her determination to learn how to ride a sidecar chariot safely is evident as she embarks on this thrilling adventure.

After a day of excitement and adventure, they return to the Euro Experience Centre headquarters for a delicious dinner and some Portuguese wine. The friends are happy and content, looking forward to the next day’s adventure and the many more to come.

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 The Forest Review: In her most recent video, Vanessa Ruck, popularly known as “The Girl On A Bike,” takes viewers on an exciting and adventurous voyage as she rides a big Africa Twin motorcycle across the difficult terrain of Iceland.

The video starts off with Vanessa expressing her nervousness about the technical challenges that lie ahead, including multiple river crossings that are sure to put the Africa Twin to the test.

But Vanessa is no stranger to adventure, having previously conquered the Shotover River in New Zealand and the wilds of Iceland. With her waterproof socks on and a reminder of her previous triumphs, Vanessa sets off on the day’s ride, accompanied by her fellow riders.

As the group navigates through the beautiful landscape of Iceland, Vanessa can’t help but express her awe at the stunning road riding and rugged scenery. The group takes a break to warm up and enjoy some Icelandic delicacies before hitting the road again, this time venturing through a black sand lava field, complete with random solid lumps of rock that threaten to derail the riders.

Despite the challenges, Vanessa remains determined and focused, taking on the deep sand and technical terrain with skill and confidence. The group encounters their biggest challenge yet, a wide and rushing river crossing, but with the help of their expert guide, they make it safely across.

As the day draws to a close, Vanessa reflects on the incredible adventure she has just experienced, and the thrill of conquering such a formidable landscape on the back of the mighty Africa Twin. For those who crave adventure and excitement, Vanessa’s video is a must-see, and a reminder that anything is possible with the right mindset and determination.

For the rest of The Forest Review 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 forester: Vanessa Ruck, often known as “The Girl on a Cycle,” has been drawing attention with her most recent attempt at a spin turn on the Tiger 900 motorcycle.

A Monmouthshire-based rider, adventurer, and presenter, Vanessa is known for her high-profile work and offers free #BecauseICan workshops to schools across the UK. Now, it’s time for her to bring her message of resilience and perseverance to her own community. Vanessa is on a mission to show that with hard work, nothing is impossible—even in the face of adversity.

After a reconstructive accident, she has become a symbol of strength, honesty, and authenticity in a world where “perfect” lives dominate the media landscape. By sharing her own highs and lows, Vanessa offers relatable lessons and tools to help others face life’s battles and challenges.

With the right mindset and strategies, she believes that anything is possible, and that even the desire to quit is a natural feeling that can be overcome. For Vanessa, it’s not about being flawless, but about embracing imperfections and coming out stronger on the other side.

For the rest of theforester 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.