Shropshire TT

Saturday 29th October saw the first (and possibly only) running of the Shropshire TT - something of a misnomer since the course lay nearly wholly within Staffordshire and its only link to any TT was the fact that at 37.6 miles in length it was approximately the same as the Isle of Man TT course. While riders are lapping the IoM in around 16 minutes our times were going to be far more modesty, as the event was restricted to 50cc mopeds.

This idea came out of my rather rash acquisition of a 1977 Honda Camino in the summer. Although 39 years old it had only covered 180 miles and still had the tax disc from 1978 on it!

So I came up with the idea of arranging a ride and advertised it on Facebook - we had 11 entries on a variety of machines although only 9 turned up on the day. machines included a 1959 Kriedler, two Mobylettes from the 1960s, an NVT Easy Rider, a Honda Dax, Piaggio Velofax, Yamaha DT50 and a Ariel 3 (the first time I had seen one outside a museum!). The aim was to complete three laps of the circuit for a total of 111 miles.

I left home just before 8am to ride the 7 miles to the start - the furthest I had ever ridden on the Camino to date! We all set off together at 9.40am, hoping to complete the first circuit together.



Video of Shropshire TT Ride