Hull ACU Rally

It was quite by chance during my now common daily internet searches that I came across this gem. It featured on a website selling old postcards and proved a very interesting and totally unexpected discovery.

The postcard itself had obviously never been sent, as evidenced by the absence of a stamp. As such there is no postmark and therefore no accurate clue to the year the picture was taken.

It's clear to the vintage motorcycle enthusiast that this sepia shot was taken by a professional photographer well before the First World War, dating it perhaps to the turn of the 19th century.

The only clue to its origin comes from the scant information written in pencil on the reverse reveals the following inscription: Hull A.C.U Rally.

Was it a motorbike rally organised by an A.C.U affiliated club in Hull or nearby?

The mystery remains unsolved at present. One's imagination can of course conjure up the scene; thirty or so enthusiastic amateurs at their meeting, all proudly posing as a group on their vintage machines.

What is certain, as my good friend Dave Richmond recently pointed out, is that this document, (as stated above, pre-dating the Great War), proves that the Hull motorbike event depicted, took place decades before the first ACU National Rally came into being.

This is what the atmosphere of an apparently summer rally looked like a hundred years ago.

Little did these brave pioneers know that a century later they would be featured on a website dedicated to motorcycle touring; even less that their meeting would be one of the oldest in the long list of rally reports on LPMCC...

- Jean-Francois Helias