General News
31 July, 2025
Rain cuts Harrow Vinduro short
DESPITE significant rainfall on Friday and Sunday, the 15th running of Harrow's Vintage Enduro Riders event last weekend was still a huge success, with 210 riders gathering to navigate a 51-kilometre course through the local farmland on motorcycles built in 1988 or earlier.
Vinduro secretary, Peter Drakeford, said even with a reduction in the rain on Saturday (24.2 millimetres on Friday and 2.6mm Saturday), the return on Sunday (15.4mm) affected conditions to the point where he decided to shorten riding time in the main event by an hour.
"Of course, it was extremely wet and sloppy with rain throughout the day, and so conditions were pretty difficult, to put it quite mildly," he said.
"Little soaks and stuff like that, that were just nothing on the previous week (but) once they fill with water, they just become bottomless, and they got pretty chewed up.
"After most of the guys had done two laps, I actually did cancel the event.
"Normally, the guys do three laps of the course, and that's enough for them, but the boys were getting very wet and very cold, and the sweep riders were having a lot of trouble pulling guys out of bogs and stuff.
"So we decided to cut it at about one o'clock instead of the usual two o'clock."
Asked how much of a positive the last few weeks' winter rainfall had been to change the ground, Mr Drakeford agreed that the prevalence of mud and wet was a better overall result for the riders compared to a dry track, but everything had its limits.
"We were so relieved that there was some moisture too," he said.
"But enduro riders are a funny bunch. They'll bitch and complain about it, but it'll stick in their minds, and within a week, it'll be the best event ever.
"They always grizzle and grumble, but they seem to like adversity – it's quite funny.
"The events that we've had, that have been really wet and rainy, the checkpoint crews say, 'they're all nuts – they're all coming in ... just laughing about it.'
"They think it's fantastic, waters running off their noses down through their underwear and so on."
With such a great proportional turnout from the 230 financial members, he said the organisation was more than happy to welcome others into the fray, provided they manage to find a qualifying old bike, and consider which of the Vinduro calendar events they want to turn up to.
"Harrow rewards bikes that are agile – not the big 490cc monsters that a lot of guys enjoy riding," Mr Drakeford said.
"They might do well at other events that we've got, but for Harrow, you need something that's light and that handles quite well, like an XR200 Honda, or a DR200 Suzuki."
He said returning riders were getting very good at preparing their vintage bikes for the weekend, with very few failing the event.
Harrow even saw a rare appearance of a historic Spanish brand, Bultaco – but unfortunately, one of the two motorcycles "couldn't even light the fire to get it going, so we just leaned up against a tree near the start area and that was as far as it got".
Another famous brand represented from Barcelona was Ossa, with two 74-year-old riders turning up to turn back the clock and complete the course with their bikes – appropriately also from the mid-1970s.
Mr Drakeford said Harrow was a great town for the event – "it's a very friendly and welcoming place" and was happy the organisers were able to reciprocate for the hospitality.
"On the Sunday night, we had 100 riders stay behind, and the local cricket club put on a sumptuous meal for us, and that was just so well received," he said.
With money raised from the weekend going towards the hall, the local progress association, bush nursing centre and sporting clubs, Mr Drakeford said he was glad "everybody gets a slice of the pie" and was looking forward to planning another new course for next year's event – after a well-deserved rest.
"It won't be long before we're scouting out other areas we can possibly use," he said.
Read More: Harrow