RBLR 2024

[Capt Sisko]

For those of you not familiar with the above it's an annual charity ride run by the UK branch of the Iron Butt Association to raise money for the Royal British Legion. The general idea is to ride one of the preset routes, the longer ones being each just over 1,000miles and do them in under 24hrs. Link here, FB page here.

 

This was my third 1,000 (I also did a 500mile taster the first year) and whilst many of you think 1,000 miles in 24hrs is a mad idea, it's not that bad. If you can average 50mph for 20hrs, that's 1,000miles which leaves you 4 hours for fuel & food, stretch & nipping behind the hedge pit stops! In practice to achieve that sort of speed / time you need to ride on a lot of the miles on motorways, dual carriageways & good A roads; and as the police used to say, you need to make progress; however if you arrive back too soon you'll be disqualified as the organisers will know you've been speeding. The trick for the first half at least is to keep the pit stops efficient. Refuel the bike & body and keep the miles rolling while you're feeling good. By later in the day you'll know how far/much time you've got left to go and hopefully you'll have time in hand for longer breaks when you really need them.

All the RBLR routes start at Squires Cafe just off the A1(M) near Leeds and you've got a choice of a preset North or South 1,000mile loop which you can do either clockwise or anti-clockwise, plus the taster of 500mile in 15hrs loop of northern England and the Scottish Borders. That 500 miler is no mean achievement on it's own as it's more A road than motorway and some of the A roads are minor ones. The recent rash of 20mph town & villages in the Scottish Borders doesn't help either.

I did the 1000 North Anti-Clockwise this year. Basically we left Squires at 5.00am and headed north to Berwick-upon-Tweed, Edinburgh, Perth, Inverness and eventually all the way up the A9 to Wick. Turn around, head back south to Inverness, down the side of Loch Ness to Fort William, down to Glasgow, then due south down the M74 & M6 and over the M62 back to Squires. Easy if you say it quickly. My planning & estimates of timing said I'd be back to Squires at about 2.00am.
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So, with the alarm having gone off at 3.45am, a shower, cuppa and sort of breakfast it was just a short ride to the start at Squires to get the mileage read and queue up with the rest of the mad fools. 5.00am on the dot we rolled out and 140 riders went off in different directions. Me, A1(M) and all points north. To be honest it wasn't a bad start. There'd been a shower or two overnight and we caught the edge of one somewhere around Darlington but otherwise it was cloudy, grey but mostly dry. The motorway as you'd expect at that time of the day was pretty much empty and we made good progress. The first checkpoint was Berwick-upon-Tweed at 162 miles. I was ahead of Schedule. A quick refuel, a drink of water & a snack bar and I was back on the road heading north.

Somewhere halfway to Edinburgh we rode out of the cloud and into sunshine. It didn't get any warmer though. The Edinburgh checkpoint came & went, as did the new bridge over the Forth, Perth and keep your nose pointing north, but bloody hell, was it getting cold. Half way up the A9 I stopped to put on my full winter gloves, another layer, heated vest and a second buff to plug the draughts. The heated grips were on as well. Talking of the A9 north of Perth, the 100miles or so of  average speed cameras made it a bore, but you couldn't do the speed limit a lot of the way if you wanted to. Saturday morning, tourists and Motorhomes, need I say more. Thank goodness I was on a bike and had the power & mobility to 'make progress. I figured the going faster when overtaking was cancelled out by the slower whilst waiting for your opportunities to get past them.

Onwards & upwards, refuel at Tesco in Inverness, over the Black Isle and still more north on the A9 towards towards Wick. Unfortunately the grey cloud returned and brought showers with it. Oh, and did I mention the matrix signs were giving out warnings for high winds and by now the showers were quite heavy, some prolonged and some with hail stones in them. The thermometer on the bike read 5c? Honestly, I had to question whether is was still June.

 

That A9 up the far North East coast is a fantastic road, honestly it's brilliant, but marred by the blight of the NC500, motorhomes. They themselves aren't a great problem to get past as most trundle along, and well, I'm on a motorbike. The problem is picking off the dozen or so cars queued up behind each one. THEN, once you've got past them, ten minutes up the road is another gaggle. Grrr.

Wick was the halfway point and I'd scheduled a decent break. No bloody way, it was freezing cold and the North wind was the type that went through, not around you. Heading south was a good idea. More A9 and motorhomes!

Inverness, Loch Ness passed quickly and was thankfully fairly free of motorhomes. I reckon they were trying to lull me in to a false sense of security as the bast*rds ganged up to me on the last 25 or 30 miles of the run into Fort William, and on the twistiest part of the A82 into Fort William. The refuel was a welcome break, well it would have been if their coffee machine was working. Tough, I needed to press on. Glencoe & Rannoch Moor are quite spectacular, even in the cold & rain but for the first time in a long time, albeit briefly, the temperature nearly made it into double figures, well almost. The road was also mercifully free of motorhomes, they'd all now parked up for the night. That meant ever single car park, lay-by, pull in or bit of rough ground had someone in it who'd pulled over for the night 'wild camping'. The people I felt pity for were those with roof top tents. Now a motorhome may be the bane of the highlands, but at least you've solid walls, soft furnishings and probably a heater and a loo too. A tent perched on the roof of a car, in the wet, on a day with warnings for strong winds, at 700 or 800ft. Yeah, I bet they had a good nights sleep!

Onwards past Loch Lomond which despite being the A82 is in places a narrow twisty road and I guess would have been a nightmare on the Saturday morning, but at 7.30 in the evening was mercifully traffic free. Onward through Glasgow and the long drag down the M74 & M6. It went dark somewhere on the M6. Quiet motorways in the dark, oh how time flies.

Last check point at Rivington Services on the M61 and onwards over the Pennine on the M62. Just where is everyone going at half past midnight? After the quiet of the M74 then run down M6 through Cumbria and Lancashire just how busy the M62 was came as a bit of a shock.

0.55am and over an hour ahead of schedule I got back to Squires. That was 1017 miles in near enough 20 hours and it was warmer at one o'clock in the morning in Yorkshire than it was at midday in Scotland! All I say is thank goodness for Gore-Tex, heated grips & vests and a Pinlock to stop things misting up. I'll admit I should probably stopped for more and for longer breaks, but it was bloody freezing in Scotland with the temperature showing as low as 5c and most of the time staying in single figures. With all my layers on, heated gear & grips on, textiles zipped up it just felt more comfortable to keep moving. Further south and the smell of the finish line dragged me along when perhaps I should have stopped. An hour later my head it the pillow and I was out for the count.

I believe there were about 140 of us split between the six routes (as I said I did North Anti-Clockwise) and whilst it's too early to say how much be raised until all the sponsorship money is in, last year was well over £30k. If you fancy a go, pencil in the weekend of 6-8th June '25.

 

If you do fancy having a go, a few hints & tips. In no particular order.

.Don't try something new, be that clothing, new lights or luggage. Old faithful that's comfortable is better than the all singing & dancing new jacket you've just bought, only to discovering after 100miles that the collar rubs your neck.

..Expect to rain at some point, particularly if you're doing the Scottish routes. Dress accordingly. You don't want to waste time putting on or taking off waterproofs on the side of the road.

...Take your breaks. If you're tired stop and don't forget to eat & drink. Do what I say, not what I did.

....Talking of eating, avoid your Big Mac & Fries. Heavy food when you're sat on your arse is hard to digest and makes you feel sleepy.

.....Cruise control is a godsend,

......as is a decent screen.

.......Ear Plugs. Wear them.

........Your arse will be sore, your neck muscles will ache and at some point you will think why the hell am I doing this. Deal with it however your need to, it'll happen.

.........Book the following Monday off work. You'll be knackered!

Lastly and this is perhaps the most important bit, join in. Talk to other riders at the start & pitstops. Find a riding buddy, company makes one hell of a difference, particularly late in the day.

Really lastly, enjoy it and come back next year.

Really really lastly, I hate motorhomes!

Edited November 25, 2024 by Capt Sisko

[S-Westerly]

There were a fair few of them trundling along in the Pennines. Like you say they're easy enough to get past it's the 12 cars behind that make life difficult.