Grim Rider
After a couple of years, I'd now got a taste for some longer runs through group riding and was now looking for more of a purpose in riding. We were starting to cover the same roads, inevitable given that we mostly aim for day runs, and I was looking for some new experiences.
As usual, my first port of call was to dig around on the internet and see if anything came up. One site that I found was Grim Rider, not a name that you associate with enjoyment at first glance, but I thought I'd take a closer look.
The site for the Grim Rider MCC was created by Rob Roalfe in 2009, following an accident. Its aims are twofold - one to raise money for charity (the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance which airlifted Robert to hospital), and two, to encourage riders to discover parts of Britain they may not have visited otherwise. It also promotes a number of other long distance rides and rallies, but more on them in other pages.
To date, it has raised over £7000 and has certainly achieved the second aim in my case! Rob has now decided to stop creating new rides for the "club", due to family commitments (Rob is now the proud father of twins) and a feeling that this particular project has run it's course. This does not mean the end of Grim Riders – the website will stay and all the rides will still be on there for anyone to complete as they wish. They may even be added to by either Rob or other members.
So from March 2011, I set out to visit the various locations that these rides offered. They're still being added to as I go around the country on other rallies, but I've finished all of the mainland Scotland ones, just the islands to go.
In one of Rob's newsletters he mentioned some of the other rallies that he takes part in. These were the South West Peninsular, Welsh and Brit Butt rallies. This was late on in 2011 and led to a new chapter in my riding history.
Grim Rider MCC Rides.
Battlefields
Castles
English Counties
Giants
Letterboxes
Lifeboat Stations
Millenium
Motorcycle Legends
Motorcycle Museums
Mountain Passes
National Parks
Pub Crawl
Racing Circuits
Scottish "Counties"
Sculptures
Standing Stones
Welsh Counties
Windmills
As usual, my first port of call was to dig around on the internet and see if anything came up. One site that I found was Grim Rider, not a name that you associate with enjoyment at first glance, but I thought I'd take a closer look.
The site for the Grim Rider MCC was created by Rob Roalfe in 2009, following an accident. Its aims are twofold - one to raise money for charity (the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance which airlifted Robert to hospital), and two, to encourage riders to discover parts of Britain they may not have visited otherwise. It also promotes a number of other long distance rides and rallies, but more on them in other pages.
To date, it has raised over £7000 and has certainly achieved the second aim in my case! Rob has now decided to stop creating new rides for the "club", due to family commitments (Rob is now the proud father of twins) and a feeling that this particular project has run it's course. This does not mean the end of Grim Riders – the website will stay and all the rides will still be on there for anyone to complete as they wish. They may even be added to by either Rob or other members.
So from March 2011, I set out to visit the various locations that these rides offered. They're still being added to as I go around the country on other rallies, but I've finished all of the mainland Scotland ones, just the islands to go.
In one of Rob's newsletters he mentioned some of the other rallies that he takes part in. These were the South West Peninsular, Welsh and Brit Butt rallies. This was late on in 2011 and led to a new chapter in my riding history.
Grim Rider MCC Rides.
Battlefields
Castles
English Counties
Giants
Letterboxes
Lifeboat Stations
Millenium
Motorcycle Legends
Motorcycle Museums
Mountain Passes
National Parks
Pub Crawl
Racing Circuits
Scottish "Counties"
Sculptures
Standing Stones
Welsh Counties
Windmills