Exe Rally

The Rally was held by Exeter& District MCC near to Exeter airport however, I was speeding past the exit I knew I should take. I was on a mission and I carried on until the roundabout that used to be at the end of the M5 south of Exeter.

It had all started off as a "normal" rally weekend; I was trying out a "bikini" style handlebar fairing I had fitted to my Suzuki GS1000. The idea was to stop the neck ache I was getting due to the wind trying to remove my crash helmet if I cruised at anything over 90ish ...

This had seemed successful on the trip from Bradford, over the M62, down the M6, and I was checking it still worked on the M5 but, due to the fact a lot of it had only two lanes then, I kept having to slow down for traffic.

Just to the north of Gloucester I spotted what appeared to be a police bike following me and it was gaining. I moved into the nearside lane then slowed to a more legalish speed. I was surprised to see a civilian BMW R100/S with its main beam on pass me at high speed, ridden by a chap wearing fluorescent over trousers. The traffic was moving out of his way like magic so I decided to tag on behind him. We both stopped for petrol before Bristol and he told me he was headed for Cornwall so it would have been rude to let him ride on his own!

I had fitted a clock in my fairing and when we got to what should have been my exit I could see that 100+ miles were possible in under an hour if I carried on! Try that now on a Friday on a motorway near you! Those certainly were the days!!!

Anyway, back to the rally. It must have been good because I can't remember a lot!

I seem to recall the barbeque on the Saturday night running very late due to all the food being deep frozen. Chicken black on the outside but with ice cubes inside would probably poison me now, but back then I didn't know about salmonella.

I also had an encounter with an electric fence which we thought was switched off; it was behind my tent. I am really glad I only got a shock down my arm!

- Ted Trett