On May 23rd, five AMAL members set off for England to take part in the Giants Run, an event for Girder Fork motorcycles. This tour is organized by the Dorset Section of the VMCC (Vintage Motorcycle Club), the English counterpart to AMAL, though much larger (with over 13,000 members).
On Friday, we left Luxembourg with two motorcycles in a van and three more on a trailer, heading toward the island. But before that, we had already had to deal with a moderately heavy amount of paperwork, since we had to temporarily import our motorcycles and then export them again, because we brought them over in a trailer and not by riding them on the road. After a stop and inspection by UK customs, where they wanted to know a lot of details about us and our motorcycles, we ended up missing our train and arriving on the island an hour late. Then, we had to battle slow-moving traffic for hours before arriving in the evening at our friends' place in Dorset. There, we were able to store our bikes for the coming days (a big thank you to Gill and John Young for that – and also for the spaghetti, the delicious curry, and the cider!).
On Saturday, the day before the Giants Run, there was a so-called Shakedown Tour, where some of the first arriving Giants got together for a short ride through the region. We stopped at a beautiful apple farm that produces cider, had a drink, a small bite to eat, and chatted with other participants. The pizza and cider were excellent…
Sunday morning was the official tour. After three of us took an unplanned detour in the area surrounding Spire Hill Farm, we still arrived on time to check out the hundred or so bikes. It was an impressive collection of motorcycles, with many true crown jewels of the British motorcycle industry represented. But even our two Belgian "intruders" drew attention, and the variety was well appreciated (dear English friends, if you're reading this: Gillet Herstal and Saroléa are Belgian, not French! 😉)
The actual Giants Run was divided into a longer route of about 106 km and a shorter one of about 58 km. There were also some interesting stops along the way, such as at the Cerne Abbas Giant (hence the name of the event), a roughly 50-meter-long figure carved into the chalk hillside – either in the 10th or the 17th century (historians still disagree) – featuring a very prominent part of the male anatomy.
After that, the tour continued toward the coast, where we visited Chesil Beach. This is where, during WWII, the Royal Air Force tested the so-called "Bouncing Bombs" – round bombs that were dropped from planes and skipped across the water’s surface to destroy dams.
Then it was back on narrow country roads, through the beautiful, typical British countryside, returning to Spire Hill Farm, where participants gathered again in the afternoon to end the day with a snack and a good cider, courtesy of one of the event's sponsors.
On Monday, the day after the event, three of us went to the New Forest National Park for a scenic 110 km ride on our old bikes through this extraordinary landscape. Besides the free-roaming horses encountered every few turns, we also made a stop at Milford on Sea for some stormy seaside photos with the bikes, visited the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, spent an entire afternoon at the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum, and of course had a few stops in traditional English pubs.
By Wednesday, we returned through the Channel Tunnel and somehow ended up on a tow truck some hundred kilometers later– everything 80 to 90 years old held up fine during the five days, but our 10-year-old van apparently couldn’t take it anymore...
We’d like to thank the VMCC Dorset Section for their warm and friendly welcome and the well-organized event. We hope to welcome some of you next year at our Tour de Luxembourg.
And a very special big thank you from all five of us to Gill and John Young, as well as their neighbor Fran (the fuel cap gasket works perfectly!) for their kind support, the time they took for us, and the wonderful moments we shared together.
More pictures in the gallery below....
