Bikers reveal how the ABR changed their lives

Inspiration is at the root of everything you see when you visit the ABR Festival, from the fascinating talks and insightful masterclasses given by the biggest stars in adventure biking, to the fearless displays of skill and raw talent on show at the GoPro Arena.

We’re often told stories by festival goers new to adventure motorcycling who arrive at the ABR eager to get started, and leave fired with a steely determination to make the most of the possibilities offered up by this passion that we all share.

Then on occasion we hear from guests who’ve had experiences at the ABR Festival that they say has changed their lives. Their stories continue to inspire, motivating us to keep improving every aspect of the ABR experience for all of our guests.

And we thought we’d share a few of them.

Finding the courage to return to the trails after 20 years

From 1985-2015, Rhys Reynolds served as a motorcycle officer with the Gwent Police Service. His day-to-day duties required a certain amount of off-road riding, recovering stolen scramblers and keeping bikers from riding in areas illegally, away from Green Lanes. A keen off-roader in his spare time too, Rhys spent 14 years practicing his craft, eventually competing at a decent Club level.

Everything changed in April 2004, when Rhys was involved in a terrible accident, cracking two of his vertebrae and spending the next six months in a chest brace. He made a full recovery, but it seemed to be the last time he would ride off road. He was 40-years old.

Fast forward twenty years, and Rhys is making his first ABR Festival appearance at Ragley Hall, tagging along with friends to see what all the fuss is about. One of his pals offers up a Honda CRF300 so he can sample a lap of one of the trails. Rhys accepted, but understandably was a bit reluctant: “I was really nervous. What if I came off? Anyway, within ten minutes or so, I settled in and realised what I’d been missing. I absolutely loved it! It felt like I was back riding at my old pace as well. I went back to my tent and couldn’t stop grinning.”

Confidence regained, Rhys has returned to off-road riding in a big way. Now the proud owner of a Honda CRF200 Rally, Rhys has joined the Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) and has booked a January trip to explore the mountains in Thailand.

A biker forged from extreme adversity

Samantha Brooman and her husband Mike were childhood sweethearts who married over ten years ago. Eager to have children, the couple spent nearly a decade trying to start their family. After countless rounds of IVF and IUI treatment, a heartbroken Samantha had decided enough was enough, and they shelved their dreams of having children. Life clearly had other plans for them.

It was 2022, and to help put the stress of the treatment behind them, Samantha and Mike decided to make their first trip to the ABR Festival. Mike had been riding since passing his test at university, but Samantha had never really got any further than being Mike’s trusty pillion.

All that changed when she walked through the gates of Ragley Hall that June. Mike and the group of friends they had travelled with took advantage of all the opportunities the festival offers to ride, racking up multiple bike tests and exploring the epic adventure trails set within the grounds. This left Samantha to explore the ABR on her own, soaking in the atmosphere and taking inspiration from the talks she listened to, and the stories she shared with her fellow guests: “I loved it. I declared at that weekend, I want my own bike. I’m getting my license.” So Samantha left the ABR Festival determined to become a biker in her own right and return with one simple goal – to conquer the Bridgestone Trail.

Less than a month after the gates had closed on ABR Festival 2022, Samantha is the proud owner of her very first bike, a tired 125cc Yamaha she bought on eBay, which she now admits was a “Bad idea!”.

Eager to get her full license as quickly as possible, she completed her CBT and began taking lessons to pass her MOD1 and MOD2 tests. And it wasn’t long before Samantha began to feel she’d made another mistake. She wasn’t comfortable with the instruction she was being given, and was finding it difficult to make progress. This wasn’t helped by a fall she had in the middle of one lesson, knocking her confidence as well as her head.

By now it was the end of December, and Samantha was still adamant she was going to make it to ABR Festival 2023 as a fully-fledged biker. The coming of the new year saw her switch instructors, and she immediately felt much more confident. She secured a MOD1 pass at the second attempt, and then a single cone ended her first try at passing MOD2.

If she was going to make it to the ABR with a full license in hand, she was going to have to pass her MOD2 at the next attempt. The earliest date she could book the test was the morning of Friday 23rd June – the opening day of ABR Festival 2023.

Mike and their friends spent that morning getting reacquainted with the ABR, anxiously awaiting Samantha’s arrival and news from the test centre, as well as the camping gear she was bringing for them all.

When they finally caught up with her, she said nothing, simply presenting the group with a shiny new blue pass certificate. She had done it.

There can’t be many better places for a freshly-minted biker to celebrate securing their full license than the ABR Festival, and with everything the couple had been through to this point, it’s fair to say they had a blast celebrating Samantha’s fantastic news. And Mike had a little surprise for the new motorcyclist in his life, one that would set Samantha on a whole new path in her biking journey. He had arranged for Samantha to have off-road riding tuition with Phoenix Trails, a free service offered to all festival goers. It turned out to be another pivotal moment in her journey: “I’d had my license all of two days by this point but that experience at ABR has never left me.”

Before she could really get started on her off-roading journey, Samantha and Mike arranged to take their bikes on a tour around Europe with friends. Having fallen in love with the bike she’d taken her tests on, it was the only machine she wanted when starting her life on a bigger bike. And so it was a brand new model Kawasaki Z650, finished in a sumptuous red, that Samantha threw her leg over on her first long tour.

So how did it go? “I did more miles across Europe, on the wrong side of the road, than I’d done in the UK by that point! I had certainly found the biking bug, I loved it. Granted moments on the Europe trip were tough but my skills improved every day and I came home wanting to learn more.”

It was this initial grounding that gave Samantha the confidence to continue her off-road journey, and when they returned home from Europe, a Honda CRF 250 was welcomed into their collection. Throwing themselves into the spirit of off-roading, Samantha and Mike took more lessons, including a session with Phoenix Trails on Salisbury Plains, before spending time exploring the nearby Green Lanes.

By now it was March 2024, and everything looked set for Samantha to achieve the ambition she’d held since her first visit to the ABR Festival back in 2022 – riding the Bridgestone Trail. But once again it seemed like life had other plans, as she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. It was devastating to hear, but after taking some time to get an exact diagnosis and process the news, Samantha steeled her resolve and focused her mind on being there when the gates of Ragley Hall opened and ABR Festival 2024 began.

Her chemotherapy started on 1st May, and by the time the ABR was under way, Samantha had already undertaken three of the six sessions she would need to complete as part of her treatment plan. She’d succumbed to the hair loss that so often occurs during chemotherapy, but was determined to make that Bridgestone Trail : “I was half way through chemo and completely devoid of my eyebrows, but still full of hope for what I’d set out to achieve back in 2022.”

Climbing aboard her beloved Honda CRF 250, Samantha made her way to the gate and began the ride that she had fought so hard to experience. Early on in that journey, it became clear what impact her treatment was having on her body. With a heavy sense of fatigue setting in quickly, Samantha began to slow down, only too aware of the consequences even a small fall would have on an immune system compromised by chemotherapy as hers was. With more riders catching up as her speed dropped, word of Samantha’s situation quickly spread among those trailing behind her. In a display of solidarity typical of the ABR community, those riders now following Samantha dropped back to give her more room and spread out across the width of the course, forming a cordon that would deter faster riders from overtaking, allowing her to complete the Bridgestone Trail at her own pace.

Exhausted and no doubt emotional, Samantha had finally completed the mission she had begun back at ABR Festival 2022 – she had ridden the Bridgestone Trail on her own bike. So how did it feel? “It was amazing. I’ve never felt more proud of myself. I realised at that moment, riding the trail on my own bike, one year after gaining my license (and with the added bonus of cancer!) that I’m far stronger and resilient than I ever give myself credit for.”

Following ABR Festival 2024, Samantha completed her chemotherapy and underwent surgery to remove her cancer in the September. Her red Kawasaki Z650 has been a constant companion throughout her treatment, powering her journeys to appointments, blood tests, and those rides she wanted to take just to escape from what she was going through. As she explains, “being on the bike and being at the ABR gave me the fight when chemo/cancer had stolen it all.” The road to recovery has been long but Samantha has emerged triumphant, and it was only fitting that she received the news she’d no longer need active treatment for cancer while she was at this year’s ABR Festival.

Samantha’s story ultimately has a great ending, but she hopes it will encourage those that read it to get themselves checked by a doctor if they notice any strange growths or even small changes in their body, and always seek a second opinion if you’re unsure of your initial diagnosis. Her cancer was particularly aggressive and began spreading quickly, so if she hadn’t got it examined when she did, she may never have achieved those goals she set back at her very first ABR.

Sparking a passion for off-roading

In August 2022, Ruth Cork was involved in a serious collision near Kirby Lonsdale. It resulted in a three month stay in hospital where she had to learn to walk again and slowly piece her life back together, both physically and mentally. During a particularly long day on her ward, a friend suggested that, once she’d recovered, they should both go to the next ABR Festival. Ruth was curious, so once her hospital stay was behind her, the tickets were booked.

June 2023 rolls around, the gates to the ABR Festival are about to swing open, and Ruth is still feeling the effects of a slow and painful recovery. She wasn’t allowed to drive a car, and the idea of even thinking about riding again was completely off limits. Curious to see what it was all about, and quietly determined to press on, she decided to go along and see what all the fuss was about.

It was only natural she would make a beeline for the Triumph stand, given her last bike was a Speed Triple, and Ruth had nothing but praise for the staff: “The team there were incredible — patient, kind, and they gently coaxed me back into the saddle on a scrambler.”

“It wasn’t easy. As a woman who could barely swing a leg over a bike, and who had never been off-road before, it was terrifying. But the second I twisted the throttle, I felt a quiet sob in my helmet – half from joy, half from disbelief. I was back.”

Buzzing from the rush of her emotional experience on the Triumph, Ruth made her way over to Honda to try out an Africa Twin: “I was laughing —partly from fear of being on such a huge bike, partly from adrenaline — but mostly because it felt natural and just right.”

“That weekend, surrounded by like-minded riders, and with a mate who’d seen me go from hospital bed to handlebars, I remembered what riding meant to me. The laughter, the camaraderie, the freedom — it all came rushing back. And that was it: I knew I was getting back on two wheels for good.”

Ruth now owns a Honda XL750 Transalp, she has become an advanced rider, and is also a volunteer blood biker. Speaking about the influence of her weekend at the ABR on her decision to return to riding, Ruth explained: “The Adventure Bike Rider Festival didn’t just get me back on a bike — it reignited a passion that had been quietly smouldering during those long, difficult months of rehab. I’ll never stop riding again. And wherever possible, I’ll be keeping it off-road.”

The ABR Festival is built on incredible stories like those of Rhys, Samantha and Ruth, so if you want to hear more, and spend the weekend in the company of bikers like these, and the friendliest community in motorcycling, you can enjoy £50 off a full-price weekend stay with an Early Bird ticket. This is a time-limited offer, so book your tickets now before it’s too late.