Cape Crusaders
Owning a cool motorbike is one thing; taking it for a 2,500-mile spin into the Arctic Circle is another. THE RAKE’s Motoring Correspondent sent us a postcard from the ‘end of the Earth’.
Anyone who has kept an eye on the motorcycle scene in the past few years will probably agree that things have changed a bit. Biking is now less about haring around on plastic-clad race replicas and more about casually throwing a leg over a cool-looking custom build in search of slow-speed adventure on roads less travelled while dressed in dapper clothing.
Plenty of people have cottoned on to the business potential of the café racer/bobber/street-scrambler trend, and are making good money out of its various aspects, from building bikes to setting up locations and events at which enthusiasts can gather. Notable examples include the annual (and global) Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride fundraise and the thriving Bike Shed club, restaurant and coffee shop, which has bases in London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood and on L.A.’s Industrial Street.
But cousins Jonathan Cazzola and Robert Nightingale set out to do more than most in order to give owners of custom bikes the chance to enjoy their machines, by organising the inaugural Malle Mile in 2015.
Named after their business, Malle London — which makes high-end motorcycle luggage and riding apparel — the Malle Mile began as a no-red-tape hill climb and sprint race for a few friends in the grounds of Kevington Hall in Kent. It grew so much, however, that it had to be moved to the grounds of Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, and now attracts hundreds of riders and thousands of spectators.
These days the Mile is just one of several major happenings organised by the Malle boys between spring and autumn, the other fixtures being the Margate Beach Race, the Great Rally (covering the length of mainland Britain from south to north), and the Great Mountain Rally (Austria to Monaco).
Staging major road-based events for up to 100 riders amounts to a military-scale operation, but it’s something that Nightingale seems to relish. Why else would he have upped the ante this year by announcing the largest, longest and most madcap Malle event yet — the Great Arctic Rally?
Staging major road-based events for up to 100 riders amounts to a military-scale operation.
Held in August, it followed a 2,500-mile route from Copenhagen to the ‘Nordkapp’, otherwise known as Norway’s North Cape, a place often referred to as ‘the end of the Earth’, since it’s well inside the Arctic Circle, and the next significant stop beyond it is the North Pole.
It’s a journey that plenty of adventurous types organise for themselves, on two wheels and four, but what Malle offered was a turnkey package that took into account the fact many people have limited time in which to complete such an adventure due to work, family and other commitments. For that reason, Nightingale reconnoitred the route twice in order to work out a way of breaking it down into daily stages that would make it feasible to start on a Friday and finish nine days later, enabling riders to be back at work on a Monday morning (albeit slightly weary). To make that possible, participants could opt to have their machines transported to the start line (and back) from pick-up points in the U.K. and France, or rent from a dealership in Copenhagen and have the bike returned there from Norway. (There were still a few fearless types who had already covered an impressive distance before the rally proper had even begun, including the U.K.-based Stuart Wynne, whose journey from home to Copenhagen, on to the Nordkapp, and home again saw him rack up around 6,000 heroic miles on a 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet with a top speed of 60mph.)
A lack of time left me with no option but to take advantage of the offer of a Yamaha press bike, a 900cc Tracer 9, a three- cylinder sports tourer with (I’m almost ashamed to admit) an automatic gearbox. It proved to be smooth, fast, comfortable and perfect for the job.
