National Rally 2008

The National Rally 2008 which took place from the 25^th – 28^th of July at Stirling County Rugby club was an attempt by us to give our members unable to attend the International Rally in Australia a chance to come together in an “International atmosphere”. I’m glad to say that after the event it appeared to have worked, we ended up with 224 entries including 15 from Holland, 4 from Belgium, 6 from Austria, 2 from France and 5 from the Republic of Ireland, the bulk of the others were made up by a large English contingent a solitary member from Northern Ireland and of course the “locals” .

The event started for us long ago but the real work started on the Wednesday before the rally when George Peddie and I were in Stirling to put up the signs, this was of varying success as half thanked us for the signs and half never saw them. I suppose it’s a fact that the membership may be getting older and eyesight failing but the local authorities may have objected to us putting up the 5 metre by 2 metre banners required to ensure everybody saw them!

George arrived on Thursday night to greet the early visitors which included a fair few from down south and Dirk and Raymond from Edinburgh. I meanwhile had met some of the Nederland branch in the borders that day and then had a pleasant evening with them in Edinburgh.

Friday arrived the official start to the Rally and George had done a great job of getting almost everything organised before we arrived, I never even had a chance to get my jacket off before starting the booking in, many of the early attendees eager to part with their cash. The booking in never let up until around 9.30pm and then a chance to meet up with old friends in the clubhouse. We had received a call from Wolf & Arno from Austria announcing our first casualty, Arno’s Manx had started making mechanical noises near Darlington and had to be recovered, the very nice recovery man had then organised a good van hire deal, taken them to pick up the van and gifted some tie down straps to tie his Manx down, the pair arrived around 10.30, Arno had arranged for his girlfriend to start out from Austria to meet him at Calais with a rescue vehicle from the other side, he would drive down to Dover on the Sunday, dump the hire van and push the bike onto the ferry to liberate it to the other side, superb effort by him to ensure he made the Rally. Later that night in their B&B Wolf had an unexpected and unwelcome visitor in his bed, a naked man sleepwalking had gone into the twin room he was sharing with Arno, after a gentle rebuff by Wolf the guy helped himself to towels from the bathroom and carried on sleeping on the floor for the rest of the night using the towels as blankets! I’m sure Wolf was disappointed it wasn’t a lady sleep walker who joined him! The mystery was cleared up in the morning when a rather embarrassed guest apologised to the landlady, admitting he had a problem with sleep walking!

Saturday and there were two runs organised, a long run of just over 100 miles stopping at Lochearnhead for lunch then on to Rob Roy’s grave at Balquidder. The short run of around 50 miles to Callander then a detour by Loch Katrine to see the Sir Walter Scott steamship before heading over the Dukes pass for lunch in Aberfoyle. Both runs were well attended and enjoyed by all. The Edinburgh branch done a great job leading the runs & the organisation for the day.

Saturday evening and in between the Disco (Thanks Trogg!) and the superb Glebe Street band the prizes were awarded, prize winners were;

Overseas branch   Nederlands
UK Branch             Essex (George Childs trophy)
Overseas long distance Wolf Pfiefer
UK     long distance       Colin Jones
Triumph over Adversity  Arno
Best Norton overall Brian Hutchison DYP 51C
Commando Alan Richard RDV 184R
Rotary Roger Toyer F918 RBH
Single Alan Clarke 510 BNW
Twin Tom Bradley NRS 67
Cafe Racer XL-13-11   Van Stein
Lightweight Roger Kingsbury 800 GLF

I did give Roger Kingsbury some stick for his lightweight but in the true spirit of the Rally he took it well.

We partied well into the evening and a great night was had by all.

Sunday and once again two runs however the party must have gone on too late as we only had takers for the short run to the Falkirk wheel, thanks to John from the Edinburgh branch for organising this one, once again an enjoyable day out for the participants. Some left as they had work on the Monday but we were left with around 100 for the Sunday night which was enough for another great night. We were very fortunate that the weather gods shone on us, the whole weekend was warm and mostly sunny. The catering by the local butcher Michael More was excellent with up to 6 choices on the menu and excellent food at reasonable prices, the catering staff deserved a round of applause for their efforts. I’d also like to thank again Dougie & the rest of the Edinburgh branch for their help, Phil Rattray for organising the trophies, George, Fiona & Alex for their work on the control and the rest of the Tay Valley branch for being there and helping when required. Also I’d like to thank Trogg for 3 nights hard work on the disco decks.

Alex and I ended up having to rescue Bouke Steinfort from the Borders General hospital on the Thursday following the Rally after he had a pheasant get tangled up in his throttle cable with disastrous consequences. Luckily the National health patched up his broken elbow and he is now safely back in Amsterdam ! This was his 3^rd incident of his Scottish trip including being hit by a flying mirror courtesy of Hessel and a low speed tumble on the Friday. I hope his bad luck doesn’t put him off coming to Scotland.

I’d like to thank all who made the effort to attend and enjoy themselves, I could see the spirit of the club was very much alive and well amongst those who were there, perhaps we should all set ourselves a challenge to persuade a member to come along to an event next year instead of reading about it in Roadholder, motorcycling is better when shared with friends.

As a footnote I am also grateful for the E mails received following the rally to let me know what you thought and that you had all got home safely, Guy and Karin Boffe went off to the bridge of Cally Hotel following the Rally after having a great time there following the 1998 International at Blair Atholl. On their second night two locals high on drink and drugs and fighting each other had been ejected from a passing taxi, it ended up with Guy having to help stop the manager from being beaten up and restrain them until the police got there, local entertainment, we aim to please!

The Small Print

The views and opinions contained within this publication are not necessarily those of the NOC or of the branch but are probably mine as I wrote it.

No one accepts any responsibility for anything, if you have a good time don't say I didn't warn you.

Gino Rondelli

August 2008