Riding to the Elephant Rally, the start of “ICY 90”



This is “Battleshots” which you play in exactly the same way as the board game “Battleships”…except with beer for boats and some port landmines. 4 pints of beer per game on each side can get quite messy quite quickly!


This is little 90 fully loaded for the Arctic Circle, with two sets of panniers to carry all the clothing.

Trying to shelter from the rain while camping in soggy Europe. My sleeping bag from www.dirtpunk.co.uk (shameless name drop at no extra cost) is filled with down feathers so it needs to be kept dry.


Loading up little 90 with supplies for the 4 days of Camping at the Elephant rally.


And eventually you make it to the Elephant rally…..

This is my favourite motorcycle event in the world. This year there were only 3500 bikers there due to the lack of snow, the more it snows, the more people turn up. 3 years ago, when I went there for the first time, there were nearly 9000 bikers camping in 2 foot of snow!


I love the chaos of the place, there’s always someone setting off fireworks or explosives, holding their engine on the rev limiter or sounding an air-raid siren. Everybody is basically drunk for the entire event and it is expected for you to ride your bike around without a helmet and while very very drunk….probably with 3 people on it…..not that I would ever do this of course……

But this is what happens when people stop worrying and just have fun, and stop listening to people saying “ooo that sounds dangerous, I’ll stay at home and take up knitting instead…much safer”

When walking around you will frequently find things like this guy….

And this is what happens when Andy Walmsley lets me take his C90 for a lap around the event with him on the back….of course we were both very very sober. And we didn’t crash once, although technically Andy did exit the bike at high speed after we nearly high-sided downhill haha.

On the last day there was a nice dusting of snow, but nowhere near what there should be.

And as you saw in the video, my engine was not happy, I forgot to top her up with oil and ran her dry, poor little Honda. But luckily, having the world’s most popular engine meant that within a day I had got a complete new engine for £90 and we were off again. This is me putting my semi-automatic clutch on the new engine.

I need the semi-auto clutch to allow me to ride no-handed and get the camera shots that I need for these updates….the things I do for you guys 😉

Anyway, the next update will be Finland and the Arctic Circle.

And as always, if you’ve been entertained, can you please consider a small donation to my chosen charity, The Devon Air Ambulance? The link to donate is in the top left of this website. (Paypal and cards accepted)


Ed and 90