MZ Riders Club

South of Scotland Section

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Dent Winter Rally 2001

Starting The Year Off The Right Way

 (by Mike Paterson)

High Laning Farm, Dent, Cumbria, on the last weekend in January. Yes, it can only be the MZ Riders Club almost legendary Winter Rally. Originally started as a rally for sidecars (they were the only vehicles which could make it through the snow-drifts in those days) the Winter Rally now provides a rite of passage for members of the MZRC. Since only the seriously deranged would want to venture out in January the MZRC provides them with somewhere to go and at the same time lets the rest of normal society sleep easier in their beds. But don't worry, it's not only MZ riders who engage in this bizarre form of motorcycling masochism. The Panther Owners Club make up a fair proportion of those present each year, along with a sprinkling of assorted mad BMW-owners. I suppose if you insist on riding a Panther outfit you're used to a bit of hardship. I don't really know what excuse the BMW pilots have except insanity by association. Biggest giggle of this year's weekend, however, was standing around watching all the Beemers failing to start on the Sunday morning mainly due to the cold affecting their high-tech Bavarian electrics. Funny, all the low-tech singles managed it all right.

This year saw me travel to Dent in a car. Yes, I know, I know. For the first time I didn't manage to make it down to Cumbria under my own steam. Bike problems, no less. Drastic measures were called for if I was to make the trip. Luckily Stuart Forbes kindly offered me a lift down in his Trabant. Before you all shout "wimp" for my travelling to a bike rally by car (even a Trabant) I would like to point out that I at least camped while by far the majority this year shunned their tents and were in caravans and Bed and Breakfast - they know who they were! 

The rally went off much as you'd expect. With it being bitterly cold both during the day, and especially at night, much of the weekend's activity centred around the local hostelries - The Sun Inn and The George and Dragon Hotel. Even though I remembered to pack my thermal sleeping-bag liner it was still bloody cold overnight. Still, nobody has caught hypothermia at a Winter Rally....yet. Did I enjoy myself? Of course. Will I be going again? Of course. Would I recommend it to anyone? Don't be silly, of course I would. It makes for an interesting conversation at work the following Monday if nothing else.

Attendance also bestows any number of serious brownie points on you for future conversations with fellow club members, and motorcyclists in general. One chap at my work who reckons he's a serious hard-core biker and that MZs are all crap has learnt to keep his mouth shut now. He doesn't understand it but he has grudgingly come to accept that no matter how rufty-tufty he reckons that he and his friends are they can't hold a candle to people who go camping in January and put as many miles behind them as MZ club members do. He still wouldn't be seen dead on an MZ, obviously, but he doesn't slag them off anymore.

I'm afraid that pictures can't really do the event justice. My suggestion is that you buy some thermal underwear and a woolly hat  and make the trip yourself next year. You won't regret it (Oh, all right. You probably will, but just think of all the stories you'll be able to tell of snowdrifts and carb-icing and sleeping in a ditch by the side of the motorway because your bike broke down and you'd forgotten to renew your AA membership before you left etc., etc.).