Annual rally

[squirrelciv]

Home safe and well :-)

Big thanks to SteveD and all his helpers for putting on an exceptional annual rally again. Matey you have raised the bar to new hieghts. Mav & beardy great to have met you and enjoyed your company (and the lift back from Sedbugh) only sorry my gluttony at the Hog roast slowed me up so much in the pub. Alan, Rick, Steve, Boyd and the rest of the crew thanks for the laughs, and a special thanks to Mr H for navagating for me. See you all around soon I hope and hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Cheers, Pat

[mav617]

Great to meet up with everyone, hope all got back safe and well. May be I'll be better organised next year and capable of getting all the necessaries on the SZR - or perhaps get a Dommie as a rally bike!

Thanks to Steve D for the organising and Bruce, Martin, GC, Steffan, Pat, Alan, Jethro, Jules, Mick, Steve H, Rick and all for the company and putting up with the crap jokes. Good work fellas.

[mini-thumper]

Yep! totally agree with everything above. Given the weather forecast there was potential for this years AR to be a massive wash-out. But as per usual everything was organised by SteveD to malke this years event run like clockwork. Cheers for all the hard work Steve and a big thanks to all those who attended for supporting his efforts. It was good to see so many old faces and to meet up with some new ones. Hope everyone got back OK and didn't arrive home to flooding.

Cheers for now and hopefully see you all again soon..............

Boyd

[Steve H]

Yep, very enjoyable weekend despite the weather. Thank you

[Steffan]

Here's to you Mr Dalby!
First Class!!

After 5.5 hrs on the road and thrapping along the M6 at 75-80+ my average speed was 38mph lol
Did I mention yet another couple of soakings and it looks as if Welshpool is a very appropriate name now.

Steffan

[beeman]

Thanks Steve and everyone involved in organising the rally.
I had a great time as did the rest of the tribe.
A good if slightly damp ride out  was just about right with good reliable riders in our party, I never felt pushed or thought the pace was too slow and finding the pub at Arncliffe was a real bonus, beer from the jug, none of this new fangled pump nonsense.
The entertainment by the Irish contingent made a great evening. Only let down by me accidentally being persuaded to go the the George and the Dragon when the sun called last orders. Getting back to the camp site just before 3am
Thanks for the Orange and ice with 2 straws, lads,  although I would have liked pink straws next time.
Must have been the 'aviator' but my head seems to be a bit heavy today.
No rain till 1/2 mile from home.
Am looking forward to next year and possibly a new venue!

Once again for everone who took part making it a great weekend.

beeman

[Andy M]

Great rally, many thanks to Steve.

The ride over to Skipton was pretty wet, but we were in bright sunshine by Shipley!

Andy

[steveD]

Back home now , trailer dropped off and van emptied. Colin,Terry and Steve (from Lincolnshire) stayed on last night and gave me a hand to get the marquee down, cheers lads. Bruce stayed over as well but as is understood wanted to get off quiter early, but we had another good night!
Thanks to all who attended and I'm pleased that from what I have heard you all enjoyed yourselves despite the weather which did not effect us as much as the rest of the country. The rideout over to the Lakes was great and we did not get much rain at all. This morning was sunshine again!.
As usual Mick and Wendy did us proud and helped us out no end.
A personal thanks to others who helped with preparing the food bits and bobs, Mart for getting the food and Mick (GN250) who helped with the curry / chili / rice on the Friday evening. The Hog roast seemed to go down well and I for one ate far too much!.......and there was still some left. The chap camping at the top of the hill did come down and apologise for his behaviour!
Thanks to the 'Stalwarts' that despite the weather still came to the event, without people like you the rally would not have been so successful, you know who you are.

I enjoyed organising the event and it seemed to go very smoothly, who's up for it next year?

PS The club marquee has been left up at Micks garage as the Honda owners club wish to use it for their Annual rally on the 8th and 9th of September. I will on behalf of the club be asking for a 'donation' to our club for the use thereof. Unfortunately I will be going to the Monoconnection over in Holland on the same weekend so will not be able to keep an eye on it or make sure that it is erected OK but Mick has said that he can do that.


Cheers SteveD

[Bruce]

Just got home no problems except the speedo cable broke.Total fuel used about £25 worth for a round trip of approx 330 miles excellent time was had, well fed and watered and good company all praise to those who did all the sorting out.

[Steffan]

Did Bruce get his brake sorted. I am always in awe of the milage he piles up on that bike and any man who'll do 20 miles of the long dark (M6) on a sidevalve at 50mph has my respect. I so enjoyed chatting to him about his adventures on the bike and his back road navigation that I feel even more inspired to find "bullet suitable" routes rather than relying on German/Japanese sophistication to thrap up the nearest motorway.

Steffan

[Ken]

Well it was my first annual rally but wont be my last. Thanks to Steve and anyone else that was involved for setting it all up and also for the enjoyable Saturday run. The weather could have been better but I was lucky and had a dry trip up there and back home.

Cheers Ken

[Dave#22]

Hi everyone, it's a pity I missed the rideout, due to my mishap the weekend before last, but it was nice to meet old friends and put some faces to the names.......but Saturday night was a laugh, unfortunately I couldn't drink too much in case I fell off those ****** crutches on the cobbles.
Looking forward to the next meet, when I should be back on two wheels.
    Thanks Steve
       Dave

[SteveC#222]

Got back at 16.30 in spite of torrential rain just before hitting the A1...the only real rain of the weekend for me.  Great weekend was had. It was good to meet old friends and put faces to names from the forum.  Thanks to Steve D and all others involved for a cracking weekend, excellent food and a first class, challenging rideout. Already looking forward to next year!

[guest7]

For me it was a tale of two journeys... "it was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides"

The trip up on Friday was unfuggingbelievable, with torrents of water across the M50 and heavy rain for most of the trip. I was stunned today to hear the names of the towns affected by flooding as I had ridden past most of them!

Arriving to a bowl of curry and a cup of tea was just the best thing that could have happened and within a very short time my good humour (discarded near Tewkesbury) had returned.

My best decision of the day had been to wear my cheap oversuit on top of my expensive goretex kit. It performed faultlessly and meant that I didn't have any wet riding gear to dry out.

But what a great little rally. As usual the Antrim crowd were good company (as indeed were all) and I had a really nice time.

Sorry the awards presentation veered off course. I had a silly little skit mapped out but the hecklers blew my bottle and I resorted to the usual format. The one bloke did come and apologise to me on Sunday morning.

In contrast the ride home was completed mostly in sunshine and in good time, despite the absence of a rear brake (it had started going 'over-cam' on the trip up). When I was getting petrol just outside Sedbergh, a group of Dutch riders pulled in and asked to take piccies of the outfit. When they noticed the Elefant Rally stickers they looked stunned. "You rode there on this?" was their only question. I think there's a double-edged compliment in there somewhere.


He's a top bloke that Dalby fella

Cheers
GC

[timbo]

Absolutely fantastic weekend! A huge thank you from the oirish contingent to Steve and anyone else who helped out.
I was supposed to be working the weekend, but managed to get Saturday night off at the last minute on Friday. So i managed to get a ferry over on Friday night. Again thanks to Steve, and also Mike and Rick for looking after me with tea and curry on my arrival in the early hours of Saturday.
Ride out on Saturday was excellent despite the weather, and me and Tony managed our annual pilgrimage to the Falcon at Arncliff along the way.
Excellent night on Saturday, and the Aviator must have been good as i almost felt human when i got up on Sunday!
Dry roads and sun the whole way to the ferry on Sunday, and i even had time to take the excellent backroads through New Galloway. Made the boat easy, and into work for half five, so couldn't have been better.
Still totally embarrassed about winning a prize for a standard dommie.
Oh yea, a big thanks to Mick and Wendy for their excellent hospitality as usual.
Finally, if any of you fancy a visit to 'Norn Irn', you are very welcome at my gaff. There is room for camping, and a couple of rooms free.

Cheers Timbo
PS Anyone know anything about XL250s, as i have been offered an '89 four valve for £500