Around the World Fighting Prostate Cancer

In 2009 Simon Buckley and Todd Barry headed off on a round the world journey to help raise awareness of Prostate Cancer.

Welcome - New Website

In 2009 Simon Buckley and myself (Todd Barry) embarked on a journey of massive proportions, with two ultimate goals, the first was to raise awareness of Prostate Cancer and men's health, the second, to ride around the world on two motorcycles.

The journey began on March 28th 2009, but the planning began long before that. Years prior Simon got the idea to travel the world by motorcycle after meeting an Austrian (not Australian) man at a party, he had ridden his motorcycle from Europe to Australia. This was the beginning of the idea that would eventually turn into Ride Right Round.

We were on the road together for 9 months, traveling over 60,000km. 2 Blokes, 2 Bikes and 2 Sore Butts. We had met many amazing and cool people along the way, from all over the world. Upon arriving in California in the United States of America, we came to a point where I could not continue with Simon down through South America, partly due to funds and other issues. Initially after spending some more time in the south west of the US, I had investigated meeting up with Simon somewhere in South America.

I had contacted every shipping agent I coud find in South West and South East US to find a way to ship my bike to a port where I could meet up, however the best offer I could find was $3000 for a whole container. This was too expensive for my budget and after receiving an email from an agent that shipped US to New Zealand for only $500 US Dollars, I decided to accept his price and packed my bike for New Zealand. The plan from there was to head to Australia to kill time while I waited for my bike to land in NZ and then wait for Simon who was going to fly his motorcycle and meet up in New Zealand after traveling to the south of South America and Antarctica.

After returning to Australia for Christmas and New Years to await the arrival of my motorcycle to New Zealand, I met up with some old friends and embarked on a journey that would result in the following three and a half years running a backpacker hostel in Sydney, Australia. However there was still part of the journey not yet completed, New Zealand.

While Simon was still traveling South America, I was awaiting the arrival of my bike in New Zealand, this proved to be not without problem as the agent who I had arranged to ship my motorcycle from L.A. in California to Dunedin in New Zealand, had made a paperwork mistake that would result in my bike missing the boat and waiting another month. While waiting for my bike I was fortunate to have a friend (Sky Ferguson aka Fergo) also traveling NZ who I rendezvoused with and spent three weeks traveling by car around the North and South Islands. After arriving in Christchurch, Fergo flew back to Australia leaving me with 2 days until my motorcycle was due to arrive in Dunedin.

I had made plans to travel by bus to Dunedin on March 14th to meet the agent and collect my bike, this was not to be.

On March 12th 2010, in the early hours of the morning I received a phone call from Simon's sister that would change everything, for me and for so many others. The call was something that I will never forget, something that at first I did not believe, like a bad joke that you don't want to believe is true. She was calling to tell me that on March 10th 2010, Simon had been involved in a single vehicle accident that resulted in Simon's passing. He left this world far too soon and left a hole in so many lives, no more so than his immediate family with whom he was very close.

Over the past years I have been kept busy with the running of the backpacker hostel and not had much time for the Ride Right Round project. The first 24 months of the website hosting were graciously provided by Digital Pacific, however as the project was over, I have been funding the site personally to keep it up and accessible to others. I am planing more for the project and hope to have more time for this in the near future, for now it begins with a NEW Website.

Please use the information on this website for your own planning and adventures and also to help continue to spread the word about the fight against Prostate Cancer and men's health issues.

-Todd Barry
Co-Founder and Rider
Ride Right Round