Walworth 2004;

A tale of woe at Walworth 2004;

"My First BK Rally", Dave Williams, England XII.
 

BK III ‘Walworth 2004 Rally’ was my first BK rally and by the end I would think and hope it to be the most accident-prone one!

I set off Friday night in the rain to the venue. The night was wet in more ways than one, it was raining and the beer was flowing in the Castle.

Saturday started as much as it ended on Friday, wet and uncomfortable for a ride out. Two rides were on offer, one to Whitby the other across to Bowness. I choose the Bowness and Windermere one.

I was about one of 10 riders, three from the hosts Eng III, four from Belgium, although two were wearing Scotland 1 rockers, Marcella and David. Tom Elliot from Eng V and two others.

We had only travelled about 45 miles when we had our first pit stop in the market place at Kirkby Stephen, where I had my first mishap. Leaving the car park in wet, slippery conditions and on an upward leaning to the left incline – have I set the scene? Too much acceleration and front brake, makes a heap on the ground, with me under the thumping and lumping XV1600.

With a little encouragement from me with a few choice words I managed to get three passing lads to lift the bike from me. With the engine guard and one of the driving lamps strapped to the rear of the bike I was off after the group, that had set off unaware of my plight….(this time).

When we all arrived at Bowness, I was approached by Tom who pointed out that one of my driving lamps was not working. He looked surprised when I pointed out that the lamp was in fact missing.

After about an hour we set off again on the homeward journey. I was going along fine along the M6 approaching a roundabout junction in the fast lane, when the second mishap occurred. I was slowing to about 60mph when the bike locked up –cloud of burning rubber and smoke, which pulled me into the slow lane before the bike suddenly came to a halt. I was unable to move the bike from the middle of the slow lane, so I did the next best thing! – I stood in the carriageway warning the approaching traffic of the stationary lump. I was joined by another group of bikers, who all alighted from their bikes and formed a ‘human line of cones’ warning the traffic. The BK group had seen what had happened and stopped. They returned on foot to assist me. I was sat astride the bike trying to fathom out the problem, had the rear brake seized on the wheel, had the rear wheel jammed of had the engine seized up. When Tom arrived he asked if the front metal mudguard should be melted onto the front tyre. This had caused the bike to come to a sudden halt. With a drag off the carriageway by the BK’s, the front mudguard off and added to my load of parts on the rear seat, I was off again.

When I got back to the Castle and I was removing my outer clothing, I felt in my leg pocket to find that my sunglasses were smashed due to the fall off I had. – "All things come in three’s" I here you say, if you think this was the third mishap – read on!

After all that had happened to me on the ride out, I decided to have a nice hot relaxing bath to unwind. So there I was laid in the bath with a cup of tea on hand and using my mobile to phone home.

I was quite relaxed after finishing my tea and phone call, when I felt the bar of soap under me. I thought ‘I can not remember putting any soap in the bath’. Reaching for it I retrieved, from under the water, my mobile phone which had slid off the side of the bath. Finally the third mishap!

I tried and better tried, but I could not get the phone to work after that.

There must be moral to this story!

The night then got better; a good group of party animals rocked the Castle. I was joined by other Eng XII members that included Keith, Dick Dick and John Ward with their spouses. It was also my first meeting with ‘Big Gus’ from Scotland1, seen here dancing with his partner.

Now, here's some more photos of the weekend;