Milton Keynes biker John Wallis has completed a 26-day charity ride around Britain on a 90-year-old Brough motorcycle, raising £4,000 for Sport Relief, MK Web reports.
Leaving from the Milton Keynes Museum on 25 June, the 65-year-old biker took his classic bike around the UK – from the farthest parts of northern Scotland to the southern Welsh coast. During the trip the Brough bike performed almost flawlessly – to the point that Wallis got a speeding ticket in Wales.
Wallis said that, without having a speedo, he usually determines his driving speed by that of vehicles around him but on that particular road he had a wide open carriageway. He added that he felt very embarrassed by the speeding incident. Another trouble he experienced along the journey was that he lost his wallet while passing through Scotland.
Quoted by the local news site, Wallis explained that the north of Scotland was the part of Britain he was most looking forward to seeing, but he also loved north Cornwall and the Welsh coast from St David’s to Aberystwyth. Asked if he would undertake a trip like that again, he said that he would do it for the bike’s 100th anniversary – only this time, he’d try to do the trip in the opposite direction.
Brough Superior motorcycles were manufactured in Nottingham between 1919 and 1940, and the one Wallis rode was made in 1924. He said that the bike was unearthed by his father from a back garden in the 1960s.
Image: Stefano Tinti