ABR Festival June 22 Experience

steve hughes

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Well just back from this years ABR and what a blast. Its such a contrast to the last ABR rally I attended , which if I understand was the second. That was at Kirby Stephen it had a set Indian Meal for a fiver, proceeds of which went to school in India adopted by the campsite owners wife/ partner.

Contrast that to this year year which could only be described as a mini Glastonbury. Feedback from last year was apparently more bars and food provision. Well the main bar must have been 80 m long with machines churning out 12 pints of Heinekin at £3 pint. There were crafty beers and ciders closer to £4.50.

The toilet and showers were spotless most of the time with staff working 6am till 10pm cleaning and provisioning them.

Free teas and coffees from 06:00 to 10:00 was a nice touch , sponsored by Metzeler.

In addition to a packed array of speakers was the opportunity to test ride bikes from the majors , BMW / Triumph/ Kawasaki/ Honda / Enfield Ducati / Suzuki and Yamaha.

Then there were test rides from Harley Beta Ktm Polaris and two electric bike manufacturers.

In each case other than Beta and Polaris there were test fleets of 12/15 bikes, so plenty to go around.

The off road course was busy all day and unfortunately attracted a fair amount of Air Ambulances and County Ambulances. I sense this was due to the track being so dry but dusty at times the cornes felt like marbles. Also lost of people test riding big bikes eg 1250GS’s on what was in part a challenging stage.

The new Ducati Desert X was in demand with a fleet of 8/10 Italian reg demonstrators. Ducati had flown in Antoine Meo to critique the new bike. He was interviewed along with Carl Fogarty who had been riding the Desert X

Laid back entertainment like the Inch Perfect trials boys and music in the magic teapot chillout tent rounded out the evening. For just £90 it was a busy three day event.
 

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I can only concur with the above post. :thumb

I got home a couple of hours ago after a terrific three days at the event. I took the Husky 701, had a blast on the trails, didn’t drop or damage the bike which was a surprise but also a blessing.

Highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to attend.
 
Yes and no.
Going to disagree about it being challenging. And no one was testing 1250’s on there as the only BMW bikes there are this years ORS ones and they were all guided.
 
Yes and no.
Going to disagree about it being challenging. And no one was testing 1250’s on there as the only BMW bikes there are this years ORS ones and they were all guided.

Funny, I was on one of the 1250's. The route we rode wasn't challenging, until they turned off the route and went on another few narrow tracks with ruts, mud and a ford albeit on a surface. I Spoke to a novice rider who wanted to ride the r1800 the next day. She tried out an 850 and I have to say she was very able. Apparently only just got he big bike license. She was grinning from ear to ear. I have never ridden a LC or 1250 since selling my 1200 TC. Wow, the 1250 has come on leaps and bounds! That engine is awesome and the box was so sweet compared to what I remember from 2017 when I sold. If I had a large enough solid secure underground storage area...and a large bank balance I'd be tempted. Back to the festival, music started midday so if you weren't riding you could watch some class bands. If not, well you lucked out. Food stalls were all closed last night at 11.30...bummer. Queuing to book rides wasn't easy or quick unless you went for the outliers. Enjoyed it. No water this morning at our showers for the hot ones :) ( This year was very busy. Phone signal remains crap. On Fri you couldn't buy a drink at the bar unless you had cash. They will soon need to provide charging facilities of some kind considering the number of card only purchases by phone being made. Nice weather helped
 
I concur that the festival was indeed a festival. 8000-10000 people !! WOW. With all the noise, chaos and commercialism that goes with it.

Its very far from an 'Overlanders or travellers meeting. But that's fine. 'The Overland event' and the HU mini meetings have that side of things covered in the calendar.

I enjoyed myself. But It was busier than I expected. I needed to hide in my van with earplugs a few times to relax as It's pretty full on. But hey, it's a festival !!

There was plenty to do, see, hear and drink. The quality of the bands was high and there was a good selection of food and drink. Obviously at festival prices. The £3 pint ran out pretty quick then it was £5.50 for a decent lager or £4.40 for the craft ales which they also ran out of on Saturday.


Re, the offroad track. It was incredibly easy. Not really an offroad track at all. Just lots of grass fields and a few farmers access roads. Very easy if you're even a novice trail rider. Almost boring if you're on a proper trail bike. However, the expert route has a couple of tricky drops and climbs but my mate did it all on his GSA with 50/50 tyres. I wouldn't bring a trail bike again and pay to use it. However, the TRF were doing ride outs too.

Showers and toilets were excellent.

Only a few bar ques. Mostly very quick.

Ticket price was £130
Van camping £30
VIP add on (extra night) £60
Trail add on £15.

So, it was easy to spend £235 for the event. Which many did.

And then easily spend £50-£100 on food and drink per day.

It's certainly not a cheap weekend. I don't think I'll go every year. Maybe every 2-3.


I think the Overland event is much more my scene. Far cheaper and way more chilled out. With more of an emphasis on travel and meeting people etc. But ABR has it's place in the calendar. Many people really enjoyed it.
 
I concur that the festival was indeed a festival. 8000-10000 people !! WOW. With all the noise, chaos and commercialism that goes with it.

Its very far from an 'Overlanders or travellers meeting. But that's fine. 'The Overland event' and the HU mini meetings have that side of things covered in the calendar.

I enjoyed myself. But It was busier than I expected. I needed to hide in my van with earplugs a few times to relax as It's pretty full on. But hey, it's a festival !!

There was plenty to do, see, hear and drink. The quality of the bands was high and there was a good selection of food and drink. Obviously at festival prices. The £3 pint ran out pretty quick then it was £5.50 for a decent lager or £4.40 for the craft ales which they also ran out of on Saturday.


Re, the offroad track. It was incredibly easy. Not really an offroad track at all. Just lots of grass fields and a few farmers access roads. Very easy if you're even a novice trail rider. Almost boring if you're on a proper trail bike. However, the expert route has a couple of tricky drops and climbs but my mate did it all on his GSA with 50/50 tyres. I wouldn't bring a trail bike again and pay to use it. However, the TRF were doing ride outs too.

Showers and toilets were excellent.

Only a few bar ques. Mostly very quick.

Ticket price was £130
Van camping £30
VIP add on (extra night) £60
Trail add on £15.

So, it was easy to spend £235 for the event. Which many did.

And then easily spend £50-£100 on food and drink per day.

It's certainly not a cheap weekend. I don't think I'll go every year. Maybe every 2-3.


I think the Overland event is much more my scene. Far cheaper and way more chilled out. With more of an emphasis on travel and meeting people etc. But ABR has it's place in the calendar. Many people really enjoyed it.

No Idea what I paid for the early bird tickets anymore. I had 1 meal on Friday night which was decent, even if was a curry wrap and chips with an onion Baaji for £12. I took some snacks and bought a case of beer. Couldn't spend anymore last night as it was all closed, so a cheap weekend for me. No trail bike so didn't pay for that, but got a free sticker for train access on arrival in any event..never used it but it was a nice mistake...
 
Funny, I was on one of the 1250's. The route we rode wasn't challenging, until they turned off the route and went on another few narrow tracks with ruts, mud and a ford albeit on a surface. I Spoke to a novice rider who wanted to ride the r1800 the next day. She tried out an 850 and I have to say she was very able. Apparently only just got he big bike license. She was grinning from ear to ear. I have never ridden a LC or 1250 since selling my 1200 TC. Wow, the 1250 has come on leaps and bounds! That engine is awesome and the box was so sweet compared to what I remember from 2017 when I sold. If I had a large enough solid secure underground storage area...and a large bank balance I'd be tempted. Back to the festival, music started midday so if you weren't riding you could watch some class bands. If not, well you lucked out. Food stalls were all closed last night at 11.30...bummer. Queuing to book rides wasn't easy or quick unless you went for the outliers. Enjoyed it. No water this morning at our showers for the hot ones :) ( This year was very busy. Phone signal remains crap. On Fri you couldn't buy a drink at the bar unless you had cash. They will soon need to provide charging facilities of some kind considering the number of card only purchases by phone being made. Nice weather helped


We also did the ride out with ORS.
That’s what it was - a ride out as a “taster”.
It wasn’t like the T7, DesertX, etc who had instructors taking people on the AX-41 trail and their own set ups too.
The ORS one was designed to feed people in.
The ford was a big puddle. The part of the route you did do was purely to exit the park onto the road.

Anyway - the rest of the festival was great. A good chilled atmosphere all round.
Trick was to take the camper and cook before heading to the stage :D
 
eating is cheating! PS, we can't all be riding gods. Granted the trail out of the site was easy but better on a bike I knew I wasn't going to pay for repairs on. The rest (I assume you rode it too) was a more challenging route but agree no drops or twisty routes but to a novice on a big 1250, I felt exhilarated and like a riding god. Purely cos I didn't stack it. Almost though, twice. Sideways and little lemon twisty move saved me. Oh and I was on the pegs and not going to Tesco..:)
 
Yes I think anyones opinions of the difficulty of the courses are subjective, I started with the beginners loop, okay, okay, it was just a field with grass but I wanted to get a feel for how the bike performed. I can count on one hand how many times I've done a byway since I got it so I have no experience really whatsoever, I'm a total novice and not ashamed to say so. Anyway I survived the beginners loop so I promoted myself to the intermediate course, I felt I deserved the opportunity and had to take myself out of my comfort zone. Well bloody hell, once I was on it you couldn't get me off the bloody thing, I loved it. I was by no means the fastest but that wasn't my intention, I just wanted to have fun. I wasn't bothered about dropping the bike or damaging it and I think that helped me to relax and just enjoy myself. Worth mentioning though that I didn't drop the bike. (Just saying). :D I envy those riders who seem to have a natural skill at off road riding, I wish I'd started when I was much younger!

I hired a van, took my own food & drinks and a stove, I'm embarrassed to say in three days I spent the grand total of £8 on site, I splashed out on Saturday night with a hot chocolate and a portion of fries. Us Northerners have been known to be frugal with our cash!
 
Yes I think anyones opinions of the difficulty of the courses are subjective, I started with the beginners loop, okay, okay, it was just a field with grass but I wanted to get a feel for how the bike performed. I can count on one hand how many times I've done a byway since I got it so I have no experience really whatsoever, I'm a total novice and not ashamed to say so. Anyway I survived the beginners loop so I promoted myself to the intermediate course, I felt I deserved the opportunity and had to take myself out of my comfort zone. Well bloody hell, once I was on it you couldn't get me off the bloody thing, I loved it. I was by no means the fastest but that wasn't my intention, I just wanted to have fun. I wasn't bothered about dropping the bike or damaging it and I think that helped me to relax and just enjoy myself. Worth mentioning though that I didn't drop the bike. (Just saying). :D I envy those riders who seem to have a natural skill at off road riding, I wish I'd started when I was much younger!

I hired a van, took my own food & drinks and a stove, I'm embarrassed to say in three days I spent the grand total of £8 on site, I splashed out on Saturday night with a hot chocolate and a portion of fries. Us Northerners have been known to be frugal with our cash!

Go on a trail riding school weekend. On a small bike. You'll learn far much and the smiles will be far bigger. I did think it was a bit daft with all these massive adventure bikes riding around on freshly cut grass. It's just not how it is when the pavement runs out. However, it was excellent training for navigating damp campsites and unkept service roads.

It would have been nice to have a company there with small accessible off-road bikes for people to try out on the trails there. Or maybe there was ?

I'm no offroad expert. Far from it in fact. I've dropped my bike on EVERY trail bike ride i've been on. Because I'm shit at it :) I didn't on the ABR trails though.
 
Was indeed a good time. Well organised(apart from the Wi-Fi !)

Didn’t do the trail as I smacked my knee the day before and didn’t want to risk hurting it any more .

Bands were mostly good though I think the AC/DC one should have been on Saturday night rather than the Rolling Stones one, ‘jagger’ seemed to be an impression of an impression! And really shouldn’t!!!!!

AC/DC were brilliant. Even the soul band were good though not my type of music.

Good selection of goodies to buy. Food choices were excellent and not too expensive. Guinness went down a treat.

The early tea and coffee was a nice touch.

And who was the chap with the very loud Harley who fired it up at sparrows fart Sunday and shouted ‘good morning campers’ to be met with a chorus of ‘fuck off’

And if you buy a new tent, put it up before you go then you won’t spend an hour trying, only to find the reason it won’t go up is the ‘spider’ of poles had been put in twisted then you have to try and get them out and put them in correctly …. As one of our group found out. Much to the amusement of onlookers.

And don’t give a bike a bit of welly on road tyres just after a rain shower on wet grass ‘,coming up into the campsite, as the back wheel will overtake the front wheel and spit you off. Luckily he didn’t get hurt and no damage to bike.

We left early Sunday morning and had a good ride back… even the M25 was quiet!

And I need to get a tent I can stand up in…fairly painful crawling on my knees !
 
What a difference a year makes.

The organisers really upped their game for this year. Toilets and showers aplenty and spotless, bars much better, bands on most of the day and into the night, good ones too they were.
Security was excellent and friendly. I was camped up in my tent next to Barney (Neil23) and his mate Martin (thank's for the hospitality guys) in the VIP field so had the benefit of less
busy toilets and showers. Really loved the vibe, and the stalls selling all manner of stuff. The test rideouts were very busy; i took a Tenere 700 out on the road and was impressed by it.
After a "bit of bother" with the off road track gate marshals who refused to let me on as i didn't have "proper motorcycle boots" on (they were my ex German Paratrooper boots) and
weren't impressed when i said that them Paratroopers jump out of airplanes with them on. Barney saved the day by lending me a pair of MX boots that just about fitted and felt very
awkward but did the trick :thumb i took the Himalayan on 3 laps of the shorter off road track and even (by mistake as i took a wrong turn :augie) did one of the experts sections which the
Himmy and i tackled and got through it ok, result :D Anyway, as others have said it was a great improvement on last year. In contrast to last year there was a good stock of T shirts
and other apparel but at 25 quid the T shirt was pricey but, hey, i did get a free cap though :D

Great to catch up with old friends both from this parish (you know who you are) and not, cheers guys.

I'll be booking an early bird ticket for next year when they come out but i may go for the Motorhome VIP ticket this time and have some comfort :D

PS. I know the pictures are on the piss but can't be bothered to sort it :D
 

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Thanks for the write up Comrades.
Based on the above I hope to go next year, probably on the WR. InshAllah.
 
Not sure what I was expecting but was pleasantly surprised by the organisation, detail, entertainment and things to do. Food and beer was excellent as were the bands. Much bigger than I anticipated and bikes being ridden everywhere you went. Highlight was a trip in a Ural sidecar around the off road trail, ridiculously fun :D

Loyalty tickets go on sale soon, I'm in
 
Not sure what I was expecting but was pleasantly surprised by the organisation, detail, entertainment and things to do. Food and beer was excellent as were the bands. Much bigger than I anticipated and bikes being ridden everywhere you went. Highlight was a trip in a Ural sidecar around the off road trail, ridiculously fun :D

Loyalty tickets go on sale soon, I'm in

I forgot to mention the Ural outfits, they are brilliant, loved them, selctable 2 wheel drive and a reverse :thumb2
I didn't go round in one as they wouldn't let me drive it :D
 
I forgot to mention the Ural outfits, they are brilliant, loved them, selctable 2 wheel drive and a reverse :thumb2
I didn't go round in one as they wouldn't let me drive it :D

i looked at them....christ knows how you get the back wheel out if you get a puncture.
 
One of the only criticisms I heard was the poor mobile phone data signal, as several of vendors who where using contactless payments struggled with lack of mobile data to enable them to process the transaction. I know of one vendor who lost a sale for a £600 jacket because of it. I’m sure if the organisers asked the network providers they could install a temporary relay mast to boost capacity, as I’ve seen it done elsewhere
 
I forgot to mention the Ural outfits, they are brilliant, loved them, selctable 2 wheel drive and a reverse :thumb2
I didn't go round in one as they wouldn't let me drive it :D

I went round in one as a passenger, it was a hoot. Sideways on the dusty stuff, flat out up the hills and thoroughly enjoyable, only in one wheeled drive.
 


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