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About Sam Manicom
'One of the world's leading motorcycle authors.' Motorcycle Sport and Leisure
Sam was born in the Belgian Congo. His parents worked and lived through the two rebellions that preceded the change of this West African country's name to Zaire. They brought the family home to England when he was ten years old.
His first trip was a backpacking seat of the pants voyage of discovery across Europe, India and Australia, which often saw him down to his last $10. On arrival in Australia, no one asked him if he had any money and a return ticket. He had neither. What was needed, he earned along the way and this he says was a great learning experience. "I suspect that without it the journey would have been a far less rich experience. My biggest lessons were attitude and priorities. The three-year trip taught me that the world is an amazing place full of amazing people."
On his return he worked in retail management, with his last shop being in St.Helier on the Channel Island of Jersey.
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Wanting to do something completely different he learned to ride a motorcycle and 3 months later set off to ride the length of Africa. This one-year trip turned into an eight-year epic across 55 countries around the world.
Sam met his partner Birgit in New Zealand in year two of the trip, and she joined him for the latter four years across Africa (again), South, Central and Northern America. She was travelling by bicycle when they met but transferred steeds to ride her own motorcycle, a 1971 BMW R60/5.
Since 1996 Sam has been writing for Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, Motorcycle Voyager, Adventure Motorcycle Magazine and various other motorcycle magazines and newspapers around the world. He is a keen advocate of motorcycle travel. "The travel bug bites hard, but motorcycle travel bites deep and doing a long trip by bike is the stuff of dreams. I started to write because I wanted to share the fun."
Since returning from this last trip he has renovated houses in various parts of the UK, and worked as a Practice Manager for a South West firm of lawyers. He continues to write on a freelance basis and talks at motorcycle rallies and clubs. His motorcycle is still his sole means of transport.
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Sam with adventure travel authors Austin Vince and Paddy Tyson at the UK International Motorcycle Show NEC 2009
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Join Sam's group on Facebook
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