Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

We had a great plan for attending the 49th Dragon Rally in Wales. It went burst even before we got started.

 

 Thanks to Jon, an Oslo-based brit, I finally had a shot at going to the Dragon Rally in Wales. It's been on my shortlist for «need to visit rallies» for quite a while, so when Jon presented me to this opportunity last autumn, I simply couldn't refuse. I couldn't take that many days off work to ride one of my Guzzis all the way from Norway to Wales, so Jon contacted his mates in Bingham and District (BAD) MCC in Nottinghamshire and fixed me a loaner bike. So our plan became this: We'd fly from Rygge – which is close to where I live - to Stansted airports in the morning using a low cost airliner on Wednesday. Here we'd pick up a rental car, go to Bingham, get the loaner bike, get the MOT and road tax sorted on the loaner and Jon's Africa Twin, have a few beers and laughs the next couple of days, head off to Betws-y-Coed with the rest of the BAD lads on Friday, be at the Dragon Rally from Saturday to Sunday, head back to Bingham, and then fly back to Norway on Monday afternoon.

The BMW I borrowed from Julian at MOT inspection

 

Burst

A fantastic plan that went burst already at Rygge airport. Due to heavy snowing, Jon's coach from Oslo to Rygge came in just a few minutes too late for him to be let aboard the plane. I had checked in and was on the plane waiting when I got his text message: «They won't let us in». He had to rebook and take the plane that was scheduled some 12 hours later, at 22.00. So I flew to Stansted by myself. Jon rang Julian, one of his BAD mates, to meet me at the train station in Bingham. The flight itself went smoothly. So did the train trip. It takes some 3.5 hours with three changes of trains, but everything was on time so it was practically a joyride. It cost some 47 pounds for the ticket though – that's more than I paid for a return ticket on the low cost airliner...

Me waiting in vain for Jon to arrive at the airport.

 

Julian

At Bingham I was met by Julian. He brought me over to his place to have a look at the old BMW R80 I was borrowing from him. I'd seen pictures of it and it was exactly as ratty as I expected. A proper winter rally bike. Julian had bought it for next to nothing to use the engine and tranny in an Ural outfit he had. We rode the BMW and a Honda VFR 750, which another BAD mate - Mick - was to borrow, up to a garage to have them both MOT certified. The Honda went through, but the BMW's rear brake light didn't work so it didn't pass. Julian and I decided to wait until Thursday to fix it.

Julian has grown up with bikes, and has two in his living room

 

Grown up with bikes

Julian is a man who has practically grown up with motorcycles. His dad used to own a Brough Superior SS80, a bike that today would set you back at least a hundred thousand euro if not more – if you can get hold of one at all. He has dozens of motorcycles. He doesn't remember how many he has, but it's a lot! In the living room of his house there are two fine examples of British motorcycles, a 1926 Norton model 17 and a Triumph which I don't remember the details about. The Norton got all my attention as it was such a pearl. It had even been to the Dragon Rally back in the '70s as it too used to belong to Julian's dad. In his shed there were even more Nortons and Triumphs, and even a Morgan which he was about to restore. In another huge garage he had all his other bikes, but I never got to see them. Outside the garage, though under some cover, stood the BMW, the Honda and the Ural. Julian is a brit bike man, no question about that! Julian and I had a relaxed evening with a dinner over at the pub Horse and Plough, which is the «hang-out» for the BAD boys. When Jon finally arrived late at night I went with him to his place where I'd stay while in Bingham.

 

 
Julian's 1926 Norton Model 17

 

MOT

Thursday morning I went back to Julian's to fix the beemer's rear brake light. With some guidance from Julian I got the rear brake light working again and went with another BAD boy, Mick, to have it re-examined for MOT. It went through with flying colours and was by now ready for the Dragon. In the afternoon, Carl from Ostende in Belgium arrived on his 2007 BMWK1200GT. With his arrival we were such an international contingent that we dubbed ourselves La Légion étrangère d' Moto. Carl runs a hostel in Ostende and is a friend of Jon's since many, many years ago.

 
Me fixing the rear brake light of the Beemer

 

Tom's Dinner

Yet another BAD boy, Tom, invited us for dinner this evening. He'd prepared a great meal for us with good assistance from his daughter Georgia. We also got to meet Tom's wife Susan. Great people, all of them. Tom is a teacher and a keen dragracer, with some bodily scars and marks after many years in and off the saddle, so to speak. He's currently building himself a new turbofed thingy after he crashed his previous drag bike. His «civilian» bike is a Suzuki DRZ400 Motard. I won't go into further details regarding the dinner, but I suppose it's not hard to figure out that it got late – very late – before we all finally succumbed and turned in for the night.

 
Dinner at Tom's (left). Going clockwise: Mick, Jon and Carl

 

Friday

Friday we all get ready to go, after some egg and bacon feeding. Paul, a pilot and BAD guy, came over to join us towards Betws-y-Coed, a small village where many Dragoneers meet the day before the rally to get in the spirit and empty the local pub. We were all ready, Jon on his Africa Twin, Paul on his Yamaha R1, Mick on his Honda VFR 750, Carl on his BMW K1200GT and me on my borrowed BMW R80 – when Carl's bike started to rattle like a diesel engine with worn conrod bearings... The noise was so petrifying that he decided that it was not good at all to keep the engine running.There were no options: Carl's beemer had to go to a workshop in Nottingham.

 
Carl's 2007 BMW K1200GT in front of my loaner BMW R80.
Both broke down on this trip.

 

Trailer-Beemer

So off with all the gear, put the beemer on Jon's trailer and off it went to this BMW garage in Nottingham. Mick and I stayed back at Jon's to await the verdict. Mick suspected a worn cam chain tensioner, and after an hour we gotthe call from Jon. It was, as he said, a good news-bad news situation: It most probably was the tensioner, which is an easy thing to replace. The bad news was that they had none left and wouldn't get hold of any until Saturday morning. Jon and Carl would stay another night in Bingham, pick up Carl's beemer Saturday morning and come directly to the Dragon Rally.

 

Dead beemer

I decided to go with Mick and the rest of the lads to Betws-y-Coed, as a night there is sort of a part of the whole experience. Just before I went in to put my gear back on again, I just wanted to fire up my BMW R80 to let it run for a while to warm up. But it only churned and didn't fire. Checking for spark, gas, everything: It was stone dead. My thoughts of BMW was not exactly the highest at that moment. I called Jon, who was still on his way back, to tell him the bad news. I had to stay another night in Bingham as well. Mick decided to go ahead, as he'd meet up with Chris (the founder of BAD but now a Yorkshire man), Tom, Nick and the rest of the lads.

Some WD40 magic did wonders for the R80,
which decided to fire up again

 

Bad mood

Jon and Carl arrived as Mick took off. Paul decided to cancel his trip to Betws-y-Coed and went back home. The mood was not good at all. Jon was looking at taking his Harley and let me borrow his Africa Twin. But first he wanted to have another look at the dead beemer. He looked, sprayed some more WD40 at it, probably said a silent spell or something – because he got it to run. Lo and behold, it was working again! In better mood we went to visit Julian (he couldn't join us to the Dragon Rally this year) and then off to a curry restaurant in Nottingham. Back from there we bought a bottle of whisky and some ginger ale to enjoy a Horse's Neck or four at Jon's place.

 

 
Jon doing some essential shopping on our way to Betws-y-Coed

 

Saturday ride

Saturday we all got ready to go again. Jon's AT and my Beemer fired right up, and with Carl riding pillion on the AT we went to the BMW garage in Nottingham to pick up Carl's bike. It was ready – but it wasn't the cam chain tensioner after all, said the mechanic. The rattle was caused by the fact that the engine was overfilled with some 1.5 litres of oil, causing an internal pressure on some bit that came loose and started to rattle. The mech had drained the superfluous oil and the bike ran without noise again. Carl was very glad, of course, so off we went towards the Dragon Rally check point near Betws-y-Coed.

 

Re-rattle

Half way there, after a lunch stop in Whitchurch and my own beemer running flawlessly, Carl's beemer started to rattle again. We had no choice but to carry on. I could hear the rattle even as we rode. At Betws-y-Coed we filled up the bikes, and Carl's would hardly start. We got it running, and it went the last leg to the rally camp where it finally died completely. It wouldn't start at all. We had no option but to leave it for the night, put up our tents and party on with the other guys from BAD, who had arrived earlier that Saturday morning from their bunk house in Betws-y-Coed.

 
Jon and his tent which was roomy enough for all three of us,
Carl, Jon and myself

 

Rally facts

The Dragon Rally itself is great fun. It's been organised each year since 1961, and was established after model of the German winter rally Elefantentreffen. Hence this year's edition was the 49th Dragon Rally. It is only from Saturday to Sunday the first weekend in February, and you never know exactly where it is held, other that it being somewhere in North Wales. You have to seek out the check point to get the road description on Saturday morning. When you arrive, you exchange your ticket for a goodiebag containing a couple of chocolate bars, a small flask of whisky, badges and stickers. You must buy your ticket in advance. Usually they are available from October the year before, and the rally is always soldout. This year I heard some 1200 riders attended. We had greatweather, some 9 C and sun, but the camp was a bit hilly so it was hard for us late arrivals to find a proper flat spot to put up the tent. We found a decent one, but during the night I kept rolling off my sleeping mat due to the tent spot not being all that flat... Besides, there was a lot of horse shit all over, but as Jon said: Of all shit in the world, horse shit is not the worst. He got a good point there, so we made ourselves comfortable and spent the evening eyeing bikes and drinking a few (...) pints of beer.

Carl realized that his BMW couldn't make it back home on its own engine.

 

Ted's words

During the evening we pondered over our apparent bad luck. It took us a lot to get to the rally, and lesser riders would have given up. Not us, though. Of course not. We adopted the venerable motorcycle world tourer Ted Simon's slogan:«Interruptions are the journey». Or as they say:  Where the plan stops, adventure begins. So we decided that a week from now we would laugh at it all and call it a fantastic trip. Sunday morning came, and we rolled Carl's BMW downhill to the road where he'd wait for the recovery van that was coming to pick him and his bike up and ship them both back to Ostende. I packed my gear back on my BMW R80 – and it was dead again. We got it to run for about 15 seconds, then it totallyexpired. Tom used his AA membership (AA meaning a vehicle recovery company...) to call for assistance. It was soon established that the electronic ignition unit had died. This is not something you can easily fix, so Tom (pretending it was his bike) took it onto the  recovery van and was driven with it back to Bingham. I was to borrowTom's DRZ400, and with Mick and Jon I started the trip back to Bingham.

 
One of the stranger contraptions at the rally.
This one has a "Lardy-Dieselson Motor Tricycle" badge on its tank.

 

Fantastic Wales!

The ride to and from the rally was great! Jon showed us the sights of Wales, and it is a mighty pretty place even in February. We had good temps and even sun sometimes. No rain at all. When we arrived in Bingham later that Sunday, the temperature had, however, dropped considerably. It even started to rain with some snow in between. We were a bit cold when Jon and I arrived at his place. Mick had gone directly back home to his place.We rolled the bikes down to his porch, got off, and Jon found he hadlost the key to his house. It rained even more, and eventually we had to smash the glass in one of the back doors to get in, a debris getting into Jon's eye just as he cracked the glass. A suitable ending for this trip. And to top it all off: Somebody had broken into Julian's house while he was away for the weekend. As far as I know, nothing was stolen or damaged. Apparently they had only messed up the house.

 
Packed with tents at the rally camp. Some 1200 attendees, they said.

 

No chances!

On Monday, after bringing the Tom's bike back to his place and trailering the BMW back to Julian's, Jon and I decided to go really early back to Stansted to catch our flight home to Norway. We didn't take any chances. Fortunately we got there with time to spare for our flight so we had some food at the restaurant. The flight was only one hour late for take-off due to a de-icing queue at the airport, but we got back in one piece. Ole Robin, a mate from Moss MCC, picked us up and we got in my car to go back home. Which we did flawlessly, fortunately.

 

Going again?

Next year it's the 50th Dragon Rally. With this experience in mind, will I go again? Most definitely! We were right when we stood there dispairing over the broken BMWs: In due time we will look back on it all and laugh of our ordeals, claiming it was a fantastic trip. Which it was. I got to meet people that opened their homes, their garage doors and lent their bikes to a total stranger from Norway. They showed me a degree of hospitality that is nothing less than outstanding. The BAD MCC guys and Carl made the trip a great one. I'd like to go back next year. And I can vouch for the validity of Ted Simon's words: «The interruptions are the journey».

 

Next year, lads!

PS: Remember to check out the video from the rally!

And here is BAD lad Dave's story from his and Julian's
attendance to the 2005 Dragon Rally.