Month: Aug 2023

After a series of good rally results it was time for a closing event of the 2023 rallying year: the Brit Butt Rally, a 35 hour rally through Britain. I had have participated in every BBR since 2011 and won it between 2015 and 2018, coming second twice and third once. In the year after 2018, I had a series of mishaps and errors that had annoyed me. I like riding through the British countryside, so it was time to travel to the rally HQ in Coventry. However, I wanted to avoid stupid errors this time to get this monkey off my back.

The rally’s topic was “chart music”, the rally book was simple and I finished my planning at 11 pm, having time for a beer before hitting the sack. A luxury.

My plan included the Welsh coastline, Dorset, London, East Anglia and Northumberland; actually I was ahead of my ambitious plan which allowed me to include two extra points that were crucial in the end. I had no issues except some dying auxiliary lights. Traffic, as usual, got painful in the afternoons. But I stayed in the flow and had a nice ride. The BMW behaved perfectly, as ever. I arrived 30 min too early as I ran out of locations.

After the dinner, the ceremony revealed the ranking: I was called to the podium with Scott and Arjen. I had no lost any points this time and even Arjen’s strong route and execution could not prevent me from winning the BBR for the fifth time! Nice! A long evening with a lot of chatting and pints ended this good weekend.

So the 12 Days Rally is done and dusted and in the rally books. 12 days of riding through 22 countries of about 13.000 kilometers. Visiting 123 bonus point locations. Numerous twisted roads and a spectacularly performing K1600GT that never missed a beat. I avoided most of the bad weather that haunted the continent and devastated Slovenia and parts of Austria, riding in sunshine in moderate temperatures for most of the time. There could be lots of tales to tell and I will decide later if I’ll do that. However, I have made a vow to myself to not comment on details of the rally and how it was organized. A gentleman never tells.

Some of the places were great locations though. I had managed to carve out a plan that combined most of the high combos and made only two small errors (one wrong picture and one transcription error that cost me two combos). But all in all the plan was a good one and very well executed.

A big thank you goes to Stefan and Simmerl had formed the “Hutzlmandl Service Team” and changed my rear wheel/tyre and did an oil change at the checkpoint at the Passo Tonale on day 5. I had no technical or physical issues (thanks to my fitness trainer Thomas) and kept the quick pace I showed during the Iron Butt Rally, even keeping the long, generous rest breaks.

My plan to travel super light with only one top case and a small bag worked out quite fine. A thanks also to the organizers for putting together this event and to IBA Benelux President Michiel for hosting a cozy start and finish event.

Here is a selection of some of the 123 locations I visited and some additional pictures I took: