Dorset Dakar Dawdle

Read carefully prior to registering for the event.

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the 2025 Dorset Dakar Dawdle. Our objective is to create a gentle social Green Lane run with ample catering opportunities.

FORMAT

• We start at Compton Abbas Airfield, gates open at 9-30am with the first bikes away at 11am.
• The Café and the Tea/Coffee Cabin are available and entrants will receive a voucher for a free Tea/Coffee at the Cabin upon Signing On and after reading the Health & Safety brief.
• Half way along the route there will be a pop up Café with more Tea/Coffee and Cake. This is free but donations to the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance will be MOST WELCOME.
• At the end of our run, you arrive at the Fox and Goose Inn at Coombe Bisset, where naturally a wide range of refreshments are available.

RULES

• Entry numbers are limited to 50, so you must reserve your place by registering below.
• The entry fee is £8 for everyone and is payable at Sign On. If you are not a VMCC member, there is an additional charge of £5 for day membership — if you don’t want to pay this, make sure you bring your VMCC membership card to the event!
• Check your insurance has no restrictions relating to Green Lane usage; our route is made of country tarmac lanes and unsurfaced lanes with right of way for all vehicles.
• Your motorcycle must be at least 25 years old.
• This year we plan to change the format a little, as before there will be two options of route, easy and very easy but we will operate in guided groups accordingly with a Lead rider and a Tail End charlie (sweeper) to keep each group together. Select your group at the start, no need to navigate, but still no recovery available although we will try our best to help. The Lead rider will stop from time to time to look at the view and possibly meet up with other groups after leaving the start (Compton Abbas Airfield ) at 5min intervals.
• As before Pop up Cafe above Fovant. At the Ford at Stratford Tony the cautious riders can watch the fearless fellows who elect to pass through the optional Ford, then on to the Pub. Thereafter as before you are free to do as you wish.
• Another  option for 2025, our esteemed  Chairman has volunteered to to lead a group of road riders who would like to visit the Flying Club , the Pop up Cafe and the Fox and Goose Pub but stay on the tarmac watching the rest of us getting muddy, there are some very pretty villages along his proposed route, just let us know your preference on arrival
• You do not require a specialist off road machine; the scruffy old Bantam in the back of the shed will do just fine. There is a trivial award for the most unsuitable machine completing the run.
• Make sure you Sign Off at the Fox and Goose Inn!

THIS IS NOT A RACE!

• Ride slowly. Stop look at the views, chat with fellow riders and importantly be polite to all the other users of the Green Lanes, they have a right to be there too.
• Due to the terrain, we are unable to offer support in any form, so obtain an OS Landranger map 184, charge your phone, fettle your motorcycle, check its tool kit AND be responsible.
• There will be mud, gravel, very uneven surfaces and water (possibly deep!) at the Stratford Tony ford and many of the junctions require extreme caution.

FINALLY

Now plea to your chosen deity for good weather, primarily DRY, take it easy and have fun. After you have relaxed and lunched at the Fox & Goose, the options are all yours. If you need to return to the airfield, you may retrace the route or opt for tarmac. There is an alternative route along the Ox Drove track which is less pleasant and you will be entirely on your own.

Compton Abbas Airfield has kindly allowed us to use their car park and some parking for vans and trailers will be available at the east end of said park; please support their Cafe and or the Tea/Coffee Cabin.

Any profits the event makes will go to the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance, the greater part of which is usually generated by our pop up Cafe at midpoint.

Having studied all the above, please register promptly. We wish you a gentle relaxing ride, eat and drink as much as you wish, take it easy and REMEMBER bring along your VMCC membership card.

NOTE: the VMCC West Wilts White Horse Scatter event is on Sunday 13th July (the following day!). If you fancy more Green Lane riding, then click here 

Book Your Place!