The Piston Rally Intro

First let me apologise for the lack of recent posts it has been a busy time with working on background things for the club and our first public meeting along with preparations for the shows ahead. More to discuss at out next meeting. But this Blog is about the soon to depart adventure….

The Piston Rally….. so what is the Piston Rally??? The Rally is an event mainly based in Santander in the North of Spain. It’s all about the classic bikes with a number of days riding culminating in the 5000 Curves, a one day 300+ mile ride with 140+ around the Picos de Europa mountains.

So a rally of classic bikes in north Spain, what’s not to like. This is being attended by 3 of the club’s Committee members Danny, Martyn and Myself (Josh) along with picking up our French pal Alain en route (a previous South Wales Resident). Danny and Martyn have attended numerous times before so a myriad of regular pals will be met at the event plus a stranger is just a friend you havent met yet and the biking community is always welcoming. Whilst attending the event has been a regular occurence the method of our adventure is virgin territory for us on the older ladies. Previous Piston Rally attendances have been done by getting the ferry to Santander with vans or driving down through France with Vans/Trailers but never the full Monty and ride down attend and ride back adding even more to the trip. So what machines are we selecting for this arduous Task.

Now preparations have not been simple, Martyn’s Bike is only just off the bench last week due to an oil leak on the rear crank seal and changing the oil pump O ring. Nothing like last-minute issues and even now as I post the BMW is in the testing phase so it’s not even a sure thing for the final selection.

Danny’s BMW has not fared much better being a fresh rebuild at the start of the year suddenly started developing battery and starting issues.  One new battery and starter motor later and all seems fine but this was only done Monday evening so more fingers crossed on this one.

I have done a few things e.g. rear brake caliper rebuild but for the most part my CX is used daily and fingers crossed it will be fine after an oil change on friday evening.  So the ferry is late in the evening on Saturday night doing Portsmouth to Caen on the overnight ferry.  We the then head down through France and stay at Alain’s where now I made a stereotypical french joke I expect to get a slap before being let in. The rough plan that follows is to book a hotel somewhere near the border to Spain and then figure out a plan to stay somewhere in North spain for  before Heading to Hotel for the Piston Rally on the Wednesday but we wanted to keep this open for discussion on the way down.

Now I shall probably keep a daily blog on here for those interested and my previous life as a motovlogger will come in handy when it comes to recording the whole thing so plan to vlog and record as much as I can to produce a video or video series when I come back.  So please join us on this entrepid adventure on these old girls across France and the Picos de Europe.

Also don’t forget your in good hands with Alwyn and Matt for next Tuesdays Meeting and they will be taking the lead on the Distinguished Gentlesmans Ride then we will be back for the Swansea Show.

More info on the Rally:

http://www.mcpiston.com/ukpistonrally.html