Our buddies at Malle are nothing if not adventurous. When Robert Nightingale and Jonny Cazzola aren’t designing impossibly trendy motorbike baggage from their London HQ, they’re out on the street testing that gear throughout the myriad occasions they arrange yearly. Events just like the epic Great Malle Mountain Rally.
The Great Malle Mountain Rally is a supported 2,000-kilometer [1,243-mile] regularity rally, stacked with round 100 riders of customized, basic, and modern-classic bikes. Running over six days, the occasion begins in Austria and ends in Monaco. But what makes it so bold, is that it runs throughout your complete Alps mountain vary—from east to west, and north to south.
Filmmaker Charlie Bristow joined the Malle workforce for the newest working of the Mountain Rally, to seize the surroundings, camaraderie, and insanity related to traversing the Alps with 99 different like-minded loons. His 12-and-a-half minute-long brief movie [above], which was screened final evening in London, is a panoramic snapshot of a experience that at the moment sits excessive on our to-do listing.
Charlie documented the occasion from three wheels, strapped right into a Malle’s radical rally-spec Morgan Super 3. That meant he might get nearer and decrease to the riders, immersing himself within the Rally because it crossed the Alps.
This version of the Great Malle Mountain Rally was stacked with all the things from a highly-customized Harley-Davidson Pan America, to different new and previous Harleys, Royal Enfield 650s, Nortons, basic Paris/Dakar BMW boxers, and a handful of Triumph Scramblers and BMW R nineTs. Riders lined round 300 to 350 km [186 to 217 miles] every day whereas crossing 5 checkpoints and being timed by Malle’s workforce of marshals.
That form of each day mileage doesn’t sound too nuts, however when you throw the very best roads within the highest mountains in Europe into the combination, together with unpredictable climate, and it quickly turns into an endurance journey. Riders compete in groups (a few of that are put collectively on the beginning line), the place the main target will not be solely on finishing every stage however taking good care of one another too—all whereas having fun with among the world’s greatest motorbike driving.
As a regularity rally, the aim isn’t velocity, however slightly consistency. Speed limits should be adhered to, so the trick is to finish every stage as near the allotted time as attainable. A minute early or a number of seconds late, and your workforce loses factors.
“On paper, it sounds like a very strange idea—strapping 20 liters of petrol between your legs, then setting fire to it slowly as you embark on the largest game of hide and seek across the entirety of the Alps mountain range,” says Robert. “But when you find yourself 2,500-plus meters up on the side of a mountain, in some remote checkpoint, staring across snow-capped peaks, downing strong Italian coffee and swapping rushed stories from the stage before, with a load of motorcycle-obsessed friends from all over the world… the camaraderie is like nothing else!”
“All of us are in it together, working towards one single goal—to get every man, woman, and motorcycle across that finish line with as much fun and adventure as possible. For that one week, we get to escape the world, we just ride and ride. With a long-distance adventure like the Mountain Rally, it becomes so mediative—body and machine become one and your mind gets into this flow state, taking on 57 hair-pin bends back to back.”
“It takes pure concentration, but you get proper time in your crash helmet to think. Then to see the Alps through the eyes of new riders each year is amazing. When riders from downtown Los Angeles or Tokyo see some of these tiny rural places, it can be pretty mind-blowing.”
The Great Malle Mountain Rally takes on all the well-known mountain passes, like Stelvio, Furkha, Splugen, Gotthard, San Bernardino, Col d’Iseran, and Passo Rollo, but additionally connects many lesser-known roads and Alpine passes. “The famous passes like Stelvio are great,” says Charlie, “but most people just do the famous hairpin bend section on the south side and then go back down the same way again. If you carry on to the ‘dark side’ of Stelvio it becomes really wild, with huge alpine forests that go on forever.”
“When we were coming down the Maloja pass, we just caught the golden sunset at the top. Nearly all of the teams were back at the camp by then, but as the film team, we’re usually the last ones in, with the marshals and support crew. We were coming down to Maloja, and suddenly, as we turned the bend, there was this huge perfectly flat sheet of cloud, maybe 500 meters thick, in the valley.”
“As we plowed into the thick cloud layer beneath us, temperatures and visibility dropped dramatically, and we blindly followed the distinct sound of the three custom Malle Rally Royal Enfields to navigate the way. As we hit the lake on the valley floor, the cloud gave way slightly and I got these amazing shots of the final team all coming into camp. Riding above the clouds is something pretty wild.”
Several customized motorbike builders additionally joined the Malle Rally workforce, together with Alec Padron from Revival Cycles and Calum Pryce-Tidd from deBolex Engineering. “I feel really privileged to be a part of the Malle Rally crew,” says Calum, who’s been the lead engineer on the Rally for seven years now. “It’s one of the best weeks of the year, where I finally get out of the workshop and get to really ride bikes.”
“There are always mechanical challenges and very little sleep, but a big highlight for me was the 2022 Mountain Rally where we had two of our custom bikes on the adventure—a dB25 Ducati and our Kawasaki ZRX1200R. Being tucked up behind one of our projects and watching it dance around each bend was a really special moment.”
The Malle Rallies additionally appeal to their justifiable share of basic bikes. Alex Coco has now accomplished three Malle Rallies on varied classic machines, selecting a 1980 BMW R80/7 this time round. “I wasn’t on the oldest bike this year,” he says, “but it’s two of my favorite things: motorcycles and mountains.”
“There’s a stillness in the mountains that you just can’t get anywhere else. Mountains make you think. One’s riding improves with every bend or switchback. Nothing feels better than the stillness of the mountains against the noise of a classic motorcycle.”
We’re definitely satisfied—which is why we’re marking our calendars for The Great Malle Arctic Rally in 2025.
Malle London | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Shane Benson | Short movie by Bristow Films
Source: www.bikeexif.com