ah yes the isle of mull is very quitethe weirdest one i stayed at was just outside SabaudiaI arrived very late and it was a massive campsite with tents and caravans left permanently on site, no one around but lovely grapes growing everywhere, I wandered around the 6 acre site and apart from the owners castle, the place seemed dead ? also the caravans and tents had sun covers over the top, I walked onto a deserted beach and examined the pier, with a huge bit blown out of it ?? later I noticed a giant oven, like the boiler in the Burbs, I must admit I was very tired and edgy and it all seemed odd, I wondered if they were going to do me in during the night, shades of the wickerman !! and burn me in the oven and leave my tent and bike in this ghost town !I slept fitfully but no one burned me, no naked maidens danced around my tent, and the next morning I sussed it out, its not so far from rome, so people leave their tents there and caravans and come down on a fridaythe pier ? well just out back I could hear tinny commands over a PA system and presumed it was a prison, nope it seemed a nuclear power station had gone bang and they were working on itthe pier was blown by the army to stop people fishing in the radioactive waters !!! mind I have a good swim in ita really nice campsite, in the morning a fruit and veg lorry came around, a small cafe by the bridge and lovely showersit was named after that american film of a ship that sank ( the Posiedon affair)spooky omens indeed
rapheal glynn2014-07-03 21:30:35
this is the link for Metz, Ihad tried to get a F1 however they were full as the government were using them to house refugees as the new one had just opened (full up) a nice gendarme on a motorcycle suggested this one, its gated easy to find on the bridge by the parkused it several timeshttp://www.mairie-metz.fr/lieux/lieu-1941.php
aaah you poor rattly old thingheres something to cheer you up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4QzHeUE-CM&feature=youtu.be
I will confess to being a little confused but that’s fairly normal
Surely once one gets to the camping destination, one ditches all the kit, by pitching, and then you enjoy your nonloaded machine
Our last trip comprised staying in an old mill, in order to enjoy the great roads around where we were based, then camping at the excellent pfalzfeld rally
An overnight ferry took us north, we had a night in a hotel and then we were camping in the Lake District
We finished off with rain and an overnight at the Snakepass inn
Yes we could have done the trip in a van… But where in earth is the fun in that?
This time we took two bikes with hard luggage and we each had a canoe bag strapped to the pillion, once pitched, we could ride the bikes minus the panniers
A properly loaded bike piloted by one person, probably weighs less than a bike with two people and luggage doesn’t grumble, or poke you if the pack is correct
If you don’t like camping, you don’t like camping, fair enough, but most of us do, so why rail against those who do, just because you don’t?Halfnut2014-07-05 16:53:13
OK, I don’t have any problem at all with any of you who enjoy camping rallies; good luck to you and I hope you have a marvellous time. What I am now having a problem with is those who either choose not to or who can’t understand a perfectly simple post stating my own personal views and reasons for not joining the rally scene. Perhaps the real problem is my temerity in suggesting there may be an alternative and more civilised approach to the traditional UK boy scout, post war economy style rallies? I would like to attend the V Twin Rally but not for an entire weekend, and I’m quite happy to contribute something towards the costs of staging the event but not to the tune of £30.00 for a day out. If you do choose to take this as a personal attack on your views and life style then that’s your problem not mine. Try actually reading and understanding what’s written instead of going straight into standard motorcyclist inferiority complex mode. Happy camping; and BTW nobody is “railing against” anything or suggesting rallying in a van, and only use “quotation marks” when you’re quoting something someone has said or written, otherwise what you’re trying to say makes no sense at all.
Hang on hang on, you suggest that it’s easier to use a van, bob, so they those who ride can enjoy their bikes
Question? Who is going to drive a van? It’s sure as heck not going to be me 
As uki sez, there are rallies like the French one, where you can have a chalet, or pfalzfeld, where you can kip in a railway carriage
Or even bum in the mud, where you can sleep in a shed, well it seems to me to be a shed, sure they call them bunk houses tho
However the quandary remains, where do you find a place that can sleep 500 not in tents, cheaply?
There is butlins… Harly D club do butlins rallies or so I understand
I know they have a rally at sandy balls, near to the vtwin, the good folk of fordingbridge,aren’t impressed,the hd club stay on site apparently and barely venture to the town at all…
Meanwhile, yes, the rest of us will carry on having a marvellous time, camping at rallies and not getting food poisoning
Sorry about thatHalfnut2014-07-05 20:50:38
Go on Bob, ya mite enjoy it… V Twin…or .AGM in Oxford …?
On the other hand he might enjoy a night in a comfortable bed followed by a long hot shower and a cooked breakfast in the morning and a paper to read with it. I would. Then a blast on the bike to celebrate
One day in the company of a group of ardent enthusiasts, regardless of their particular passion, is about as much as I can happily contend with. Like I said, £30.00 for a day out is too much for me especially as there is a perfectly good motel (with a cafe and pub) not 20 minutes ride down the A31. Anyway I don’t think I could stand all the self righteous indignation from the camping diehards (as is evident from some of the posts), if I didn’t turn up with at least a sheet and a stick of wood.
Funny how suggesting freeing up a group of bikes by transporting everyone’s gear in one vehicle is such an alien concept that it can only come from Satan himself! Perhaps the invention of the motor car with its’ benefits of safely carrying more than a motorcycle can has escaped the attention of some. Or maybe co-operation is frowned upon and the romantic concept of one man/woman riding alone in a harsh world still has traction within the motorcycling fraternity and is therefore to be fiercely guarded?
Spot on!
Who would want to drink cold beer anyway? Showers are overrated- let’s face it nobody is going to pull at a Guzzi rally unless they really do fancy a hairy old fat man.
Bring on the mud, misery and bad bands!
How the hell did you know I was a hairy old fat man?!
I dont disagree with your ideas Bob and have not shouted you down, its just I hate a sterile life I like being outsideI know a few people who take the bike on a trailer and then enjoy the ridesI am getting to the point where I have problems gettingona dn off a motorcycleso I may need to downsize to a scooter or small 2 stroke guzzithat might entiual 4 wheels if I want to get to mandellobut knowing me I would probably rid eit all the way for the challenge
pot kettle black.
Don’t you blokes sleep… 
The H/D club did run a event at the Sandy Balls Camping/Caravan site close to Fordingbridge but have not used the site for a few years, it appears that they let the Sandy Balls managerment team run the event with the H/D Club not really getting involved in the running of the weekend, the funny thing was when the H/D Club moved to a different site the shops, cafes, pubs of Fordingbridge did not notice they were not there anymore such was the low input they had on the town.
Bob, i ask again, who is going to drive this van with everyone’s kit inside?
Within my rally going group of pals, we all ride our own bikes, yup, even the women (shocked look). the only pillion passed her test earlier this year and couldn’t be happier riding her own machine
Nobody has, as far as i can read been righteous or indignant
you have asked for a discussion by posting your op and now you are having one, ok so you are having one with a lot of people who don’t share your point of view but does that make you right and the rest of us wrong? Nope it means we don’t agree
Camping doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, a base camp thermarest sees to that and personally that option is often way more comfortable than some saggy soft hotel beds I’ve kipped in
Beer doesn’t have to be warm, supermarkets sell ice
And ice from supermarkets can be used in a blender, powered via the guzzi, to make daquiris whilst at a rally
You can attend the vtwin without paying, the campsite is open to the public, so you could, if you wanted to wander round, looking at bikes, chatting to people etc, but you can’t go into the bar, which apparently serves warm beer and has crap bands so why would you want to (irony mode off)Halfnut2014-07-06 07:31:56
I know most of us generally try to be inclusive but sometimes not everyone’s partner or friend in the group is quite as enthusiastic about an outing as we think or hope. There’s no reason they couldn’t drop off the gear and then go off to do what they want. We did that one year when I went to the Festival of Speed and my wife and her friend had a very pleasant day out in Chichester.
BTW, my wife alway had her own bikes after passing the test some 40 years ago. Unfortunately she doesn’t enjoy riding anymore.
By suggesting there maybe alternative ways of doing something it appears that I may have shot someone’s sacred cow. As in politics, the line between discussion and dogma can become blurred, and some reactions to my suggestion have been well, strange. I thought I was offering a simple way of making a trip more enjoyable, but obviously what I see as the drawbacks others see as part of the experience. That’s OK, I haven’t changed your minds and you won’t change mine.
As for the V Twin, I was under the impression it is a paying event as most are, and I’m not a fan of sneaking in. The Fordingbridge area has many excellent pubs and cafes so food and drink is not really an issue.
But you aren’t sneaking in, the site is a public park, with a playground for kids etc, the public do wander round the rally site and they are more than welcome to, I have chatted to quite a few members of the public, having a wander round the site over the years, I dont see that as cheating, its a great advert for the club and for biking in general, make a donation at the gate if you wish, have a beer in fordingbridge, I know we all do
My group of rally chums all appear to enjoy a rally equally, and want to go there on their bikes,
We have had people turn up in a car in the occasion when their bike wouldn’t start, (then they are a bit fed up) one of my pals who has a daughter brings her in her car when the occasion arises (she’d rather be on her bike and her partner travels there on his bike…) and we have had the non-biking sister of a pal come to a rally in her car, more than once and have a whale of a time
but as most of us dont live near to eachother, we can’t do as you suggest
In August the Bloke and I will load three bikes and a load of other stuff into a van, with the camping kit, to attend the classic motorbike track based event at Cadwell park (two days of track based event)
For the last three years we have done this for the 1000bikes at Mallory, however we do it like this because of the kit we need to take (tool boxes, one piece leathers, camping kit etc) and because we want to take three machines
The Vtwin is a paying event but its on a sports playing field Bob so it is as Eliza points out, open to the public. If you chose to visit on your bike you could park off the field as indeed you could your van.You can attend the rally on four wheels prebooked, but the groundsman doesnt like cars on his field…for obvious reasons…
As the club members collective ages increase there are more people attending in campers etc, have no issues myself with this…they are still enthusiastic which can’t be bad…guykate2014-07-06 11:00:25