Your mentioning off National Rally’s has brought back nightmarish memories. I think it was 1988 and I had entered on my Jarama accompanying a mate on his bike. A matter of days before the event my Jarama became unwell and we decided I would do the event as pillion on my mates bike, a Yamaha FZR 1000. If you haven’t ridden pillion on these it is uncomfortable in the extreme, small seat pad, tiny grab rail and high mounted pillion foot pegs. We started at 2pm somewhere near Peterborough and ended up next morning at the Rally finish point at the British Telecom training centre near Stone, Staffordshire. In between and the return journey to his house near Peterborough we did close on 800 miles. I was in pain for most of the night and fighting off sleep whilst hanging on. I was a fit, slim, 26 year old then. Would struggle to get up on it nowadays. To cap it all my mate got a fancy award and I, as pillion, got fuck all !
The first Rally I entered was in 1988 , and I remember the Telecom Centre at Stone being a Final Control .
One year it was Doncaster Racecourse ....... which meant a long ride back home to Bristol .... this on top of the mileage already clocked up in the course of the event .
Planning your route to take in the maximum number of Controls without exceeding the nominal 500 mile limit ...... ( more like 600 miles plus in real road miles ) ...... meant a ride of maybe 100 miles just to get to your chosen Start Control ...... then another 600 miles or so during the event ...... then another 150 miles or whatever to get home again ...... A nice weekend ride ........ especially in pouring rain miles from home in the middle of the night ....... Although we were usually lucky with the weather .
I remember riding around in circles for half an hour in Corby looking for that Control , having to ask a taxi driver filling up at the pumps for help with that one ..........
Stopped under a streetlight looking at a map trying to figure out where the Royton Control was , whilst police riot vans dealt with " revellers " all around me at pub chucking out time ..... eventually find it hidden up a lane between peoples front gardens in a cul de sac ........ It was the local Air Training Cadet headquarters .... when I spotted the full size replica of a Spitfire suspended in mid-air , I knew I had found the right place .
Probably most difficult to find were the ones out in the country ....... Controls advertised themselves with a flourescent sign which read " CONTROL " .......... If your headlight beam managed to pick this out ( by no means guaranteed ) ....... then hidden away in the layby you might find a caravan or canvas awning with a generator providing the lights , manned by a couple of night owls with a ink stamp in their hands , ready to mark your card .
At one such Control I remember several snoring noises coming from within a nearby ditch ...... ( you had to take an hours break in the night for safety reasons ....... they could check the times stamped on your card to make sure you complied ........ ) .........
You could also guarantee that however quiet in might seem at three o`clock in the morning , as soon as you stopped to check where you were , some drunken late night straggler would suddenly appear , seemingly out of nowhere .......
...... and ask you " What are all these motorbikes doing ridin` around then ? " .......
Easiest to find were Controls situated in filling stations , or pub carparks .
Most stressful part of all this strangeness would probably occur at around 9 am on Sunday morning , when you realise you have only an hour left before the finish , but have two or three Controls still left to find ........
Logic tells you it can`t be done , but then sheer panic wells up , barges your addled mind to one side , and rudely takes over the bike`s controls .......and somehow you make it to the Final Control in time .......
You attribute it to mere balls out riding , but in truth it was probably something primitive in your brain stem which was really running the show ......
Makes it seem like quite good fun , looking back ..........
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I always try to carry as much clothing as possible to help stay comfortable under any conditions, great to be able to pull on another jumper when it gets chilly.
