Excellent weekend with the White Horse Run on Saturday and then the Signpost Rally with Somerset Section on the Sunday, both top events and very enjoyable. Many thanks to Paul S for organising our White Horse Run, I think you will certainly be given the opportunity to run it again next year! Want to do any more?
Weather wasn’t too bad with only short showers both days, but hard enough at times to get our Ex- Chairman hastily donning waterproofs before scuttling off home.
Pauls’ report below is embarrassingly comprehensive, we’ll all have to up our game in the future. I don’t think that Paul should be too dissappointed that the ‘grenade’ stayed in one piece as I’m sure his newly purchased Commando will provide him with hours of enjoyment with the spanners!
Remember our breakfast meeting is early this month – this Saturday. Our next run is The Border Run on Sunday the 10th August from Poets Corner, Sturminster Newton.
Pictures supplied by Paul and myself, unfortunately neither of us stopped to get a picture of a White Horse, bit of a rookey error!
White Horse run report Saturday 26th 2025
Great turn out to the White Horse run last Saturday with 15 riders total including myself.
Some familiar faces but also thrilled to be joined by two members of Somerset vintage motorcycle club who had ridden over especially for the run.
Having been tempted to use the Norton Commando, I opted not to break with the tradition of this run and selected the 69 Triumph Bonneville, affectionately known as “grenade” , having destroyed its top end internals on the first attempt at coordinating this run two years ago.
Our party set off together from the Udder Farm shop and headed off on the A30 towards Salisbury.
I’ve been tempted to change this particular stretch of run on both the outward and homeward bound journeys as its one which many of the members would no doubt already be constantly familiar with.
However it’s easy to forget how picturesque and ideal this is as a top biking road, something both Paul miles and I discussed midway through the run. Its blessed with relatively light traffic, long sections with which to gather some pace, interspersed with a wide variety of sweeping and sharp left and right handers all the way to Salisbury. This combined with the scenery, there’s more than enough to keep even the most seasoned and experienced riders interested and engaged.
On arriving at Old Sarum airfield, despite the recent devastating fire in one of its original World War One hangers, it was great to see the parachuting business in full swing packed with eager jumpers ready to go on their skydiving adventures with the entire operation now being based out of large tents.
The cafe owners were pleased to see us having now moved their business into a portable catering unit until all the main buildings are repaired.
All in all a great demonstration of true grit and determination to make the best of everything despite what must have been a devastating calamity for both these businesses.
After tea, coffees and bacon butties we continued on towards the White Horse and Pewsey sections of the route.
The traffic was unfortunately very heavy all the way to Amesbury through the town and out the other side, which was starting to get rather tedious for those of us on particularly older machines, however the moment we crossed Amesbury roundabout, the roads rapidly cleared up into the glorious scenery and sweeping bends that make the whole area north of the A303 such a joy to ride through.
Having finally reached the northern most part of the route, the 1st White Horse was clear to see on the hillside to our left as we went on towards Pewsey.
The effects of all the recently extremely hot weather was evident in the usually lusciously green scenery we get to behold on this route annually, with strong yellows and browns featuring predominantly throughout the entire run. You would be forgiven for mistaking you were riding through Greece or Southern Italy during late Summer!
Once in Pewsey, the good ladies of the charity cafe steadfastly made their way through a series of lunch orders from us all, serving delicious homemade meals and bakes one after another. Bernard and Co certainly enjoyed the extra-large baked beans on toast! (as you can see from the very clean plates in the pictures!)
After a quick fill up at the nearby Esso garage, we returned homeward bound back to the Udder Farm shop, with little traffic allowing us to get a good pace on and really enjoy riding our respective machines to the best of their performance.
Coming out of Pewsey and heading South, it was great to see the restored 2nd, but smaller, White Horse up on the hillside as you ride towards it, then climb up and behind it before a particularly exhilarating stretch of totally straight road you get to experience before heading through the military ranges, airfield and towns that cover the Salisbury Plain.
Folks who attended reported over lunch how much they enjoyed the run and I look forward to being hopefully offered the opportunity to lead it again (with some tweaks to the route?) for next year.
I‘m glad to say that “grenade” decided to leave some of its more explosive traditions in the past as far as this run was concerned, with only the slightest weep of oil being evident behind the cylinder head rear tappet tube upon arriving at home in East Stour (unsurprising considering the pace I ran it on last section)
This said, there is a little bit of me slightly disappointed she didn’t fragment (but it’s a Triumph, I’m sure it won’t disappoint in the future! Ha ha!) as I loved finding the right parts for that year, machining plus fettling them, then putting it all back together and producing something that goes and feels significantly happier than it did before. I love how this bike gives so much joy back for even little adjustments, care and attention.
AT THE UDDER FARMSHOP
AT OLD SARUM AIRFIELD
AT PEWSEY
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.