Article in issue 225 of 100% Biker 
Another first for your erstwhile reporter this time the Reading Lion Rally “Cracking it wide open “ bike show.
My friends regularly extoll the virtue of the Lion Rally run by Reading MAG, but my fear of all things Berkshire (the county that hates me) have invariably put me off, so this year I decided to pull on my “be brave I’m off to Berkshire Pants” and give it a go. But only to the bike show as my little legs and insurance company loan bike, which is a fraction on the tall side for me with my camping gear on I could not clamber on.. grrrr why do insurance companies think a 1250 Bandit is a suitable replacement for a Harley!! Rant over but feel better.
Nicely signposted and on a nice level field I found out immediately why my friends love this rally, neatly set out it was easy to navigate and everyone had a smile, the sun may have helped here, but those camping had put up with an awful night on the Friday with gales and rain, this is possibly why so many were having a siesta, or was that after affects of the beer tent I have to say the range of ales looked tempting?
Normally the bike show is part of the rally but for the first time they opened it up to all comers and this brought in some cool bikes from small to huge. A Honda step through served its purpose of making people smile at the small end to huge trikes in the big end.
The vote is by the public with best Brit/Yank/engineering/Trike /paint / Classic/Rat and overall best in show amongst the range. I was very impressed at how promptly these results were counted as well and so the prize giving went ahead on time. of the winners those I recall are the bantam as best Brit, Best Classic and Rat to the lovely Indian I have seen at many shows and which is steadily getting nicer and nicer in its old age. Best Trike and Paint went to the “Frozen” themed trike. It’s the owner’s first rally too and she was having a whale of a time. And deservedly best in show the Suzuki GT750 which was immaculate.
Strolling around the site I found many familiar faces and some other cool bikes, and lots of friendly smiles and greetings. I loved the TR1 Chop which looked a real 80’s survivor and possibly the bike I would have ridden away with if I was to pick a bike of the day, it would also be lower than the Bandit, ooops sorry promised I wasn’t going to mention that again.
The lion rally is due to return the second weekend of June 2018 and you never know I may have to stay just that little bit longer to savour some more of the special ambience.
2 albums of photos
