The PJM Rally

This was a two day, five laps of a 30 odd mile circuit of a Welsh forest.

Hmmm Hm.

That was fun. I've just completed the Patrick James Memorial Rally on the trusty Hefalump. Well trusty as in, being in the garage in pieces having new bits bolted to it all winter, trusty.

It was a two dayer run over what was pretty much the Hafren course. Well I kept recognising bits of it, so I reckon it was. I got down there reasonably early on the Saturday, after spending all week completing various mods on the bike, new sumpguard, wider pegs etc.. The sumpguard I'd actually started making up in December, but delays with the welder, bike unreliabilty, all that sort of thing meant, as bloody usual, meant everything was being finished the day before the event. Why does that always happen?

Back at the event, John Monger had already arrived when I got there, having worked even later (he had changed the cylinder head studs on one barrel in the week, finishing it, as usual, the day before the event) and got up even earlier than I did. The day was dry and cold, probably the best we could hope for in mid feb. This led to lots of moaning about frozen hands, including John , who had to stop on the first lap to warm his hands on the exhaust. I was predictably smug, with my heated grips.

We got away on the first 35 mile lap about midday (2 laps to do on Saturday, 3 Sunday) it kicked off quite gently, bit of fire road, turn on to a bit of nadgery wooded bit, wiggle through that, and then onto a sandy down slope with a nasty plop into a ditch to turn up onto another fire road. This, of course, I managed to mistime and ended up flat on my back, and the bike on it's side. Fortunately, though embarrassingly, I was being followed by Russell Tyner on the ex Adam Atkins 1040 HPN BMW GS, who, along with his mate, gave me a hand righting the beast.

After that christening I got a bit more into the groove, helped by the course getting easier. After about another 5 miles of whizzy fire road we approached a group of Marshals, which was the start of the difficult bit. We had been told that the big bikes could cut this bit out, but as this was the first lap John and I had decided to give it a go, just to show them we could do it (don't know who 'them' are, probably ourselves really).

After a few nadgery preliminaries the main show approached. This was a long, long climb through trees with fairly soft, shale surface. I mis-judged the start and had to stop for a moment at the bottom, one boot on a bank. Good thing really as there various road blocks on the climb as helpers man-handled the corpses of failed 250 riders out of the way. Once it was reasonably clear I set off, getting a good bit of speed up at the bottom, and maintaining it for most of the climb. All while I avoided various pot holes and Honda back wheels sticking out of bushes. I lost a bit of speed towards the top as the grip got worse, however the ducati egine kept on pouring out torque, the 'fant is good at this, keeping a steady flow of torque really no matter what the revs are. I was greeted at the top by the cheers of a group of Husaberg riders who were stopped for a rest. I stopped long enough the see John Monger appear, having similarly cleaned the climb on his E900.

The remainder of the shitty loop weren't as testing, but were still interesting, with rocky down slopes and narrow bumpy paths.

After this first lap John and I decided to cut out the crappy climb, on the basis that we were at the event to enjoy ourselves, and the climb could, potentially be a showstopper for big bikes.

The rest of the course was great fun, lots of high speed fire roads interspersed with some tricky bits. There were two specials on each lap, the first one long, and including some fire roads, which really tested the 'late braking on gravel' skills. The second was really muddy, through some trees, including some really grim ruts. One of which I got stuck in in the first lap, requiring three of us to lay the bike on it's side to drag it out.

So, all round a very entertaining and enjoyable event.

To get a flavour of the terrain and pictures of other bikes go here

 

Ian Booth's pic of us parked,
waiting on the course.
Note Russell on a HPN BMW 100GS in the background.

 

Mr Monger and the bikes at the start.

 

 

Mine, after the event, and it finished

 

 

ditto.

 

It's home, and I'm too tired to unload.

Tyre post rally