ACU NATIONAL RALLY
Always up for a challenge, Hitchcock’s Motorcycles entered a team in this year’s gruelling A.C.U. National Rally. The Rally, spread over two days and one night (4th and 5th July), offers bronze, silver or gold awards for finishers, depending on the total miles completed. The Hitchcock’s three-bike team, not satisfied with second best, were out for gold!
Starting at 2 pm on Saturday, the riders faced 20 hours on the road. To win gold awards the riders would have to complete at least 500 miles in the time allowed. Progress was monitored by manned check points scattered all over England, the riders plotting their own routes.
The Hitchcock’s team entered three Royal Enfield Bullets – no surprise there! Claire rode her standard Bullet Sixty-5, Wayne his recently completed, very handsome Hitchcock’s 612 and Allan chose his trusty Bullet 612 Cafe-Racer – the same bike that was ridden from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s in under 24 hours back in 2004. Richard was entered to ride the company’s new Efi Classic, but the recent factory recall left him as an ‘out-rider’, on his trusty twenty-year old Honda XBR500.
Setting off from the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham the team went north through Shropshire. They then travelled west to Shrewsbury on the Welsh border, south to Wiltshire and Stonehenge and east to Ely and the Cambridgeshire fens. Each rider took a stint leading on the road. They battled through violent storms of hail and rain, traversed some of the most enjoyable roads in England, cruised through picturesque villages and towns and rode on, virtually without stopping, through the night. Two hours early, the team reached the finish at Bletchley Park, at 8 am Sunday morning.
Thankfully, there were no ‘moments’ and the Bullets covered over 600 miles without missing a beat – a team total of 1,800 trouble-free miles. More than good enough for gold!
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