We're five blokes in our mid-twenties: bright, talented and outgoing. Great jobs, great health, great friends. Life is pretty good, to be honest. We've even been lucky enough to have enjoyed our fair share of travelling already. This time we are ready for something more - something bigger. We want to make a difference.

Click here to read more about the 51st Traverse crew

Our bikes are going to be our lifelines out in the wilderness. There are going to many hours sitting in the saddle, leaning against them waiting at border crossings in remote Kazakhstan, sitting on them in the sun of Turkmenistan's deserts, and sleeping next to them in the Siberian wilderness...

Click here for more bike stuff

The name of the adventure comes from the latitude line on which our destination of London sits. If you draw a straight line across to a map from London to Russia, you have the first and last parts of our route more or less marked. All that is left is to cover the distance in between.

The starting point (Vladivostok) is below the 51st latitude, but we soon head north to go above it as we head into Siberia where we tackle notorious bogs, river crossings and atrocious Russian roads. Through Siberia we more or less follow the 51st, before dropping down in to Mongolia and then heading west. Crossing into Kazakhstan we are again nearing the 51st, but rapidly drop away as we clock up the kays through central Asia. From the day we hit Turkey we know that we have Europe and the end of the trip in sight. From that day we are climbing north again to reach destination London, on the 51st parallel.