Scottish Rally 32 Anniversary 2024

Friday 3 May, Saturday 4 May, Sunday 5 May (Departure).

Linlithgow Rugby Club

42 Mains Road

Linlithgow EH49 6DB

Tickets £25 per person,   Please go to the Ticket Application page for details.

The 2024 Scottish Rally will be held at Linlithgow Rugby Club EH49 6DB in the historic town of Linlithgow, about 20 miles West of Edinburgh in Central Scotland which is ideally located for exploring the fantastic motorcycling roads we have in this part of the world.

The Rally will commence on Friday 3 May and will conclude on the morning of Sunday 5 May.

We will have a band playing on the Saturday night and on (Saturday as we are only 5 miles from Falkirk, Jim Allan Motorcycles has offered to host an open day again for us. This will include demonstration runs, raffles, food, discounts etc.) TBC

The Rugby Club has excellent facilities and there are plenty of eating facilities within a short walking distance including the "Dolphin" which is in the car park.

For those not wishing to camp there is a variety of Hotel / B&B accommodation available in the town but if you do I would suggest you book very early as Linlithgow is a popular destination.

The ticket price at £25 represents excellent value for money so book your place early. 

Please go to the Ticket Application instructions  page read the instructions and then go to the Contact page and complete the details. 

Scottish Rally 31 Anniversary 2023

Friday 28 April, Saturday 29 April, Sunday 30 April, Monday 1 May.

Linlithgow Rugby Club

42 Mains Road

Linlithgow EH49 6DB

Tickets £25 per person,   Please go to the Ticket Application page for details.

The 2023 Scottish Rally will be held at Linlithgow Rugby Club EH49 6DB in the historic town of Linlithgow, about 20 miles West of Edinburgh in Central Scotland which is ideally located for exploring the fantastic motorcycling ro

a

ds we have in this part of the world.

The Rally will commence on Friday 28 April and will conclude on Monday 1 May, being the Bank Holiday weekend.

We will have bands playing on Saturday and Sunday nights and on Saturday as we are only 5 miles from Falkirk, Jim Allan Motorcycles has offered to host an open day again for us. This will include demonstration runs, raffles, food, discounts etc.

The Rugby Club has excellent facilities and there are plenty of eating facilities within a short walking distance including the "Dolphin" which is in the car park.

For those not wishing to camp there is a variety of Hotel / B&B accommodation available in the town but if you do I would suggest you book very early as Linlithgow is a popular destination.

The ticket price at £25 represents excellent value for money so book your place early. 

Please go to the Ticket Application instructions  page read the instructions and then go to the Contact page and complete the details. 

Scottish Rally 30th Anniversary 2022

Friday 29 April, Saturday 30 April, Sunday 1 May, Monday 2 May.

Falkirk Rugby Club

Dorrator Road

Falkirk FK2 7YW

Today (2/6/22) we were at Perth Airport presenting the Cheque for £750,  being what we raised at the Moto Guzzi Scottish Rally, to the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance. The helicopter was out working so we had to use the response vehicle for our photo.

Scotttish Rally - Virtual at Home - May 2020

The Scottish Rally, which was scheduled for the 7 – 10 May, was unfortunately cancelled due to the horrible situation we all find ourselves in with the Covid 19 epidemic. However, not being ones to take things lying down we decided to go ahead with a Virtual Event over Friday and Saturday instead.

Emails were circulated to all Scottish Branch members, the MGCGB Committee members, those who had purchased tickets for the Rally proper and subsequently refunded and any other interested parties. In addition to the emails containing the Zoom meeting ID and password the details were published on Facebook the Forum and the Website. All in all a pretty wide circulation of the information but it was impossible to predict what the response would be, the concern being that it would be difficult to manage a large number of participants on the Zoom System given our limited experience of the system.

Graeme McDonald had offered to give us some live entertainment during the evening similar to the You Tube videos he has put together demonstrating his amazing magical skills and his musical talents which you can view at   The G Videos .  We also had the facility to share photographs and videos on the system. Gino and Fiona facilitated a very useful training session on screen sharing prior to the main event to minimise the likelihood of problems on the night.

To add a bit of fun it was suggested that we could all be in our tents, with our bikes or anything else that attempted to make the virtual more of a reality which obviously meant a plentiful supply of whatever your favourite tipple is.

So all organised ahead of the start time of 7pm we awaited the first participants to arrive on screen and one by one the names appeared on the screen waiting to be admitted. The system worked well as the numbers built up. The maximum number of screens at any one time was 15 the majority of those with two people and over the two nights we probably had over 50 participants.

We did have a few technical difficulties with Graeme’s live performance and screen sharing videos and had an interruption due to the 40 minute limit that had been reinstated the previous night. A quick registration and a Zoom subscription and we were back up and running with the meeting continuing until nearly midnight on both nights.    

The impression I got and the feedback after the event suggested that all the participants had enjoyed, the event, meeting up with old friends that they should have met up with at the Rally, meeting some new members and the general banter during the course of the evening.

It was good to see everyone having a good time and the hangovers were for me and a few others far from virtual!!  So a big thanks to all those who took part contributed to the overall success.

It was worth taking the trouble to do it and if the lockdown continues we may be doing it again for other cancelled events but with a bit of luck we would much prefer to do the real thing.

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Next weekend should have been the 28th Scottish Rally which was cancelled at the outset of the  Coronavirus lockdown. The Rally is always the highlight of the Scottish Branch events and we are all extremely disappointed that it cannot go ahead. It was always an opportunity to catch up with other MGCGB members from far and wide and this camaraderie will be sorely missed by everyone. However in this day and age there are many alternatives to physical meetings therefore we are going to have a Virtual Scottish Rally using Zoom.

A lot of you will have previous experience of using Zoom and will know that is fairly straightforward to use, if you have not used it before the link below to a "You Tube" video explains how to register with Zoom and how to join in the Virtual Scottish Rally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOUwumKCW7M

The intention would be to involve as many members as possible and hopefully still be able to keep control of the event and enable members to meet virtually and chat to one another.

In order to get in the spirit of the event why not pitch your tent somewhere in the house or the garden (if you can get a Wi-Fi signal out there) or be inventive in some sort of way, anything for a bit of a laugh 

We would also hope to have a little bit of entertainment throughout the event and have a show of previous rally videos and photos which can be some of your own if you have some interesting ones to share with the crowd.

One of the regular features of the Rally is the raffle with an extensive array of donated prizes to encourage ticket sales, with the all the money raised being donated to a deserving charity.

Unfortunately this will not be possible this year but we would still wish to raise some money for Charity, therefore we have set up a "Justgiving" page link below

The intention is to run the event over Friday (8 May) and Saturday (9 May) evenings staring at 7pm.  The Meeting ID and the Password to enable you to join the meeting are detailed below for both nights.

We look forward to seeing you all over the both nights, just log in and join in the fun, remember to have a few bottles of beer, wine or whatever your favourite tipple is to hand.

I will be hosting the Zoom part of the event, however I am far from an expert on the Zoom system, so fingers crossed that all goes according to plan. If you do experience any difficulty during the event feel free to give me a call on 07774 281222 and I will see if I can assist.

Please remember that this is a bit of an experiment for the Branch but hopefully it will be in some way entertaining during these strange times.

Friday  Event           Ian Mackay is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Virtual Scottish Rally
Time: May 8, 2020 07:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2341744926?pwd=Y2hQcktmNlpPV3ZWSXlVd3ljeExRZz09

Meeting ID: 234 174 4926
Password: 0z5ce7
 

Saturday Event         Ian Mackay is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Virtual Scottish Rally
Time: May 9, 2020 07:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2341744926?pwd=Y2hQcktmNlpPV3ZWSXlVd3ljeExRZz09

Meeting ID: 234 174 4926
Password: 0z5ce7
 

Enjoy the Event

Cheers

Ian Mackay

PS All ideas and advice from Zoom experts for this event would be most welcome        

 Sadly due to the Coronavirus situation we have no alternative other than to cancel the Rally, any ticket money already paid will be refunded. 

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2019 Rally Report

Our Lunch meet on Sunday 14 April at the Tayside Hotel in Stanley, Perthshire was our last get together ahead of the Rally. The discussion revolved around bits and pieces relating to the Rally organisation so that, hopefully, everything would be in place. A couple of us had managed to get through to Falkirk for a recce of the site and reminder of the facilities available, so it was good that they had an event on that night so we could see how things were laid out and how they coped. It all looked reassuringly good and gave us a bit of peace of mind given that this would be the first time we have used the venue. We were also able to work out how best we could set up the rally control and the entry to the camping area which was a bit different from what we had originally thought when we first looked at the venue last year.

With Rally time rapidly approaching it was time to get all the bits and pieces organised and work out how we would get it all transported through to Falkirk, however as we were not running the bar ourselves this year it did make life a little easier ie. No optics, cask stands, boxes of glasses etc etc to cart through. We had decide to go through on the Thursday afternoon to do the external setting up with the control and all the banners and directional signs. The weather was promising when we arrived but deteriorated somewhat, fortunately, after we got the awning up and weather tight.

On Friday morning we were able to start organising the Rugby club room with all the Guzzi stuff and other decorations. The toilets for the camp field were delivered and set up and all the gear for keeping them in order, including the “Jobbie Wheeker”, appropriately placed in readiness for action!

With the goody bags organised, apart from the badges, (which had not arrived and we are still waiting for) we were all set for the arrivals.

Friday night as usual was fairly relaxed and a chance to catch up with everyone, the Rugby club had put on food albeit a little bit basic, but you have to acknowledge that it was all prepared and served by “volunteers” from the various rugby teams and they worked extremely hard over the weekend. The beer was good and it made a huge difference not having to be working behind the bar.

On Saturday, Jim Allan, the Scottish Moto Guzzi dealer based in Falkirk had organised various things at their showroom including coffee and sandwiches, a free raffle with some decent prizes, vouchers for the café at the Falkirk Wheel and demonstration rides on the new V85TT. This proved to be very popular as the photos show and a big thanks to them for hosting the event. After the Rally we presented them with a Shield in recognition for their efforts and they now have Club Membership application forms on display in the showroom.

The Blue Hyenas played for us on Saturday night, a first at a Scottish Rally, but interestingly we have two ex-members of the band, going back over a number of years, in our group. A great band that had the place rocking. We also held the raffle on the Saturday night and with a lot of good prizes to be had, we managed to raise a little under £400 which the branch rounded up and subsequently presented a cheque for that amount to the Penumbra Mental Health Charity who were very appreciative of the donation.

The weather on Sunday was holding up OK and good enough for ride outs, some choosing to utilise the pre-planned routes. With the Rugby Club serving food of some sort for most of the day and the bar being open, relaxing in the sun was a good alternative.

On Sunday night we had the Dangerous Brothers playing for us again and I reckon they were even better than last year, the dance floor was full for most of the night and the award presentation during the break allowed us to get our breath back. The award presentation as usual was fairly laid back with additional awards going to our far travelled friends - four from New Zealand,  two from Belgium and one from Germany, in addition to these we also had a Guzzi enthusiast visiting us from California, so all in all a truly international doo. Also I was presented with Jake’s masterpiece of table cloth art which was adorned with heartfelt messages from the company, which, at this time, meant so much to me – it is things like this that make this such a great club – a wonderful gesture for which I am extremely grateful. The tablecloth has now been framed and is hanging on the wall at home and looking great!

On Monday morning we organised a “continental” breakfast for those who required a wee bit sustenance before heading home and for those involved in the clearing up an packing away.

The weather broke and the rain started as we were packing up to go home so this meant that once home everything had to be unpacked to dry out again, however we did manage to get some decent weather for the Rally itself, probably the best we have had for a good few years.

We now have the task of deciding if we have a second year at Falkirk or move on elsewhere, personally I think it worked well and was certainly a lot easier not having to organise our own bar. However the downside is that this year we were very slightly the wrong side of break even from a financial point of view, but with a bit of fine tuning that could be sorted.

2018 Rally Report

Rally ticket sales seemed to have peaked so the beer order was placed with the brewery the usual two weeks ahead of the Rally. As the beer we have at the Rally is termed “Bright” so has to be specially prepared and it has a limited shelf life therefore there is no sale or return option available so the quantity has to be based (guesstimated) on the ticket sales. However we had a flurry of ticket sales at the last minute so we pretty much new the barrels would be emptied before the end of the Rally.

The organising party for the rally arrived at Thornhill on the Thursday afternoon to start setting up the campsite and the outside flags and banners all of which took a bit of a pounding in the wind before the better weather arrived after the “witches” performed their Sun dance!!

Friday morning saw the usual burst of activity after we got the keys for the Hall; we have to wait until the village play group is finished so it doesn’t give us a lot of time before folk start arriving. The beer arrived and the bar was set up, the hall was decorated as usual and all the tables hauled out of the cupboard, a few lights set up and the music / videos working and we are ready to rock!

The mobile kitchen arrived so it was ready to feed everyone.

Friday night was the usual natter night catching up with old friends and I found the cure for my back pain – apparently beer is a marvellous anaesthetic, it definitely works if you consume large quantities!

Saturday night we had Davy Sloan and the Rattlers on stage and they were excellent, really getting the hall and everyone in it rocking!

The raffle was well supported with some excellent prizes available by choice of those who had a winning ticket. As a result we were able to make a donation of £400 to Doddie Foundation (the following link will let you see what the purpose of the charity is) https://www.myname5doddie.co.uk/ Prizes were donated from various sources but particular thanks go to Gutsibits and Total Oil for their generous support. Also thanks to Moto Guzzi UK for the parcel they send every year which makes up the main items in the “goody bag” everyone receives on arrival at the Rally.

The bar was very busy so a trip to the supermarket was planned for the Sunday to restock the bar in preparation for the Sunday night.

Sunday morning and we had a continental breakfast laid on as the caterer had to go to another venue during the day but would return later on in the evening to feed us all.

Gino and Fiona did an excellent photo / video presentation and talk on their recent trip to Nepal – some really scary stuff involved, definitely not a trip for me!

On Sunday night we had the Dangerous Brothers perform for us, they too were excellent albeit perhaps a little more technical and it was obvious that a lot of people were really enjoying the show.

The prize giving was carried out during the break and followed the usual light-hearted entertaining theme.

The prize winners were as follows:-

Guy Wain – Favorite Guzzi

Claire – Favorite new Guzzi

Trish  - Outstanding Stupidity.

North Staffs – Best Branch Turnout

Uki and Pete – Furthest travelled, from France

Ali Hay – closest to average mileage.

Gerbil and Claire – Special

Gino and Fiona – Branch Adventurers.

Apologies if this is not quite right but it was transcribed from a screwed up piece of paper with someone’s scrawl  over the top of the extensive calculations to obtain the average mileage category winner!!

All in all it was another great rally with good reviews on Facebook and the Forum.

A big thanks to everyone involved which really means everyone that was at the Rally because it needs you all to make it the success it is.

We now need to sort out what we are doing next year and start the organisation ball rolling.

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2017 RALLY REPORT

Having got everything packed into the car (or rather cars as there is that much stuff to take) it was off to Thornhill on the Thursday to get set up for the start of the 25th Scottish Rally. The weather on the Thursday was very kind to us for setting up outside and the hope was that it would continue that way over the weekend! On the Friday we got access to the hall just as the beer arrived from the brewery and commenced turning the hall into our very own “nightclub” for the weekend. With a lot of effort and even more ingenuity from the team we managed to achieve a reasonable result.

Also the amazing “Transformer” trailer that evolved into our dining facility for the weekend arrived outside the Hall so with all that food and drink we were good to go and ensure that the 150 members due to arrive would have a great time.

I am sure there will be a report on the rally from a members point of view  in the Gambalunga, so there is no need to duplicate that here however we would like to thank Gino and Fiona for doing their travel presentation on Saturday afternoon (part 2 next year perhaps!) and Willie Chrystal, Maxsafe Solutions, for his CPR / AED Defibrillator demonstration on Sunday afternoon.  Also a big thanks to all the volunteers who, without being asked, just muck in to make sure that everything gets done – I am sure that it is this element that contributes to making the event  so enjoyable and successful.

As referendums seem to be the thing these days we asked for a show of hands on Saturday night regarding the venue at Thornhill the result of which is that we will return next year all being well – it would be difficult to find another venue that could match the combination of facilities that we have there.

The weather over the weekend could have been better but it was acceptable and we managed to get everything packed up in the dry on the Monday which certainly makes life a lot easier when you get home and don’t have to start drying out tents, awnings etc.

They say a picture speaks a thousnad words so click on the link to view Elaine's superb photo album of the Rally - 2017 Rally photos

2016 RALLY REPORT

Thursday 28^th April saw the advanced party heading for Thornhill to start setting up for the Scottish Rally. As we arrived the weather turned wet and windy and setting up the caravan awning was a task in itself trying to stop it blowing away until it was safely pegged out. Perhaps there was some significance in the Sea King Rescue Helicopter parked next to us!

We are not able to access the Hall until midday on the Friday so we ensured we had all the external flags and banners etc. in place before then so leaving “only” the Hall to be set up. This is a massive task that needs to be completed in a few hours and only made possible by the enthusiasm of all the hardworking volunteer members.

The weather throughout the country was pretty appalling on the Thursday and Friday and significantly worse than where we were at Thornhill. Reports coming in from members down south saying they would not be able to get to the Rally due to the weather (some were snowed in) were ringing alarm bells with the thought that only a limited number would actually make it.

As Friday progressed things seemed to improve with reasonable numbers arriving having braved the elements to get to Thornhill, so the Hall was reasonably busy on the Friday evening. Unfortunately we had the incident with Alex and the newly acquired AED in the Village was used for the first time and very successfully. Alex has made a good recovery and our thanks go to all those who made that possible.

The weather improved a great deal on the Saturday and a lot more members arrived. Some took advantage of the ride out routes and I picked up some very enthusiastic comments about the magnificent scenery on the "Col de Mount Argyll Lakes" and some of the other routes

The Barbeque set up by the some of the locals as a fund raiser for the trip to Malaysia for Amelia and Laura proved to be very successful, the food they served up was first class and hopefully we can do something similar for next year.

The happy hour at the bar on Saturday night proved very popular as well – to popular in fact as by the end of the evening we had emptied all the barrels despite having ordered extra!!

Baby Issacs gave an excellent performance on the Saturday night demonstrated by the dance floor being busy throughout the night or perhaps it was all that beer that was consumed!

The weather was not so good on the Sunday and a visit to Stirling was required to get more stock for the bar for Saturday night. The two girls put on a quiz show in the Hall in the afternoon to entertain us while afternoon teas were available outside.

Chil, a new group for us, performed a good all round selection of music on Sunday night and again the bar was pretty much emptied which must be a good sign!

Hopefully everyone had a great time and we will be back at Thornhill next year for the 25^th Scottish Rally which should be a very special occasion.

See below for report about the 2015 Rally published in Thornhill Views.