Big Head Rally

Held in a field at the side of the A64 near Thorner (Leeds), organized by Leeds and Yorkshire MCC.

It would have helped if it had been advertised as next to the A64, as then I wouldn't have spent valuable drinking time riding around Thorner looking for it!

I went across to the rally on Friday night, but it was close enough to home for me to go into work on Saturday morning from the rally. It was usually bad traffic through the centre of Leeds, but not at six in the morning! I lost a lot of metal off the collector box of my Honda 400/4 on that ride; it was quite a challenging race track, with corners I had never noticed before. It's a good job there were no cameras in those days.

The rally was set up with a bar in a large marquee and outside they had displays of bikes from local shops and a concours d'élégance. The bar had cheap Whitbread Trophy beer as they were sponsoring the event I think! Hence the rally name and badge. The advert used to be "Whitbread Bighead Trophy Bitter the pint that thinks it's a quart". But despite all these attractions, as usual in the evening we walked to the nearest proper pub.

Bill and Cath Stephenson (Dean Valley MCC members.) were at the rally with their two sons. The youngest, Dave had always loved his dad's Triumph Trident, one of the original 1969 green ones which had recently been traded in for a 750 Honda.

He was a bit shocked when he saw "his" bike being parked by its new owner Malcolm who had been busy with the spray cans! It was now in the latest colours (Black and Gold) and customized meggas instead of the ray guns!

When he saw young Dave looking round the bike he asked him if he liked it. He was shocked when Dave told him that if he had been older and a bit bigger he would have punched him for ruining it! He was only about 8 or so! I think his dad must have agreed with him because he didn't tell him off for being cheeky!

- Ted Trett