02/06/2026
Ready to Raid? The Director of the Rutland Chapter of HOG has a new challenge for UK riders and shares his experience here...
As many are aware, the RIDE365 Dealer Challenge sees H.O.G. members in the UK and Ireland visit as many official Harley-Davidson dealerships and H-D event stops as possible within a single calendar year, taking photos with the designated RIDE365 Challenge signs along the way.
Meanwhile, the Iron Hog challenge requires riders to visit a designated number of UK Harley dealerships within specific time limits. Ian Gornall, Director of the Rutland Chapter, decided to combine the two, visiting all 14 mainland UK dealerships in one round trip. The ‘Rutland Raid’ was born.
“I had a chat with my head Road Captain, Mark Coleman, who said he’d join me with a worried look on his brow!” laughs Ian. “Mark sat down and planned the route and timings for us. Originally, the idea was to do it in two days, but that was going to be almost impossible simply because of the distances involved – particularly going up to Glasgow. We needed the dealerships to be open to get pictures with the signs, so we extended it to three days.”
The pair set off from Sycamore Harley-Davidson in Uppingham on Wednesday 13 May at 7am, joined by Mark’s wife, Lorna. “The furthest she’d been on the back of his bike was to the corner shop!” says Ian.
The first day they travelled north via Robin Hood in Nottingham, HarleyWorld in Chesterfield and Iron City in Leeds, finishing at West Coast in Glasgow at around 5pm “under three inches of hailstones,” recalls Ian. “We headed from Glasgow to Manchester that evening for our overnight stay as we had to be at the dealership when it opened at 8.30am, so we were 16 hours in the saddle that first day. Going into Manchester was a bit hairy because we rode into this Armageddon of a storm. It was just starting to get dark and the sky was black, pink and yellow. We were down to 30mph on the motorway, and I was just following the taillights of the car in front of me – if he had gone into a field, I’d have followed him!”
An easier Thursday followed, visiting Manchester, Sycamore in Wolverhampton, Cheltenham, Riders of Bristol and Guildford. “I rang the dealerships at the beginning of the week to tell them when we’d be visiting and at roughly what time. I don’t think we arrived at any dealership more than half an hour outside of the schedule we’d put together. They were all brilliant and welcomed us with open arms. I took Sycamore poker chips to leave at the shops as a memento. In return, we got things like dealer shirts and poker chips.”
Friday began with visits to Sykes and Maidstone. “Maidstone had a sign welcoming us and a pile of cakes on a table at the front door,” remembers Ian. It took an hour and three-quarters to go from Maidstone to Warrs in London. “It’s only 11 miles!” marvels Ian. “But Rob Warr himself welcomed us once we arrived.”
The route took them past famous landmarks such as Stonehenge and the Houses of Parliament, and some beautiful scenery across the country, but it did get a bit too scenic at times.
“We took it in turns to lead each section between dealerships,” explains Ian. “At one point we were on a lovely main road down south and I was leading, following my satnav. Suddenly, it said turn right. I turned off onto a leafy lane with a one-in-four steepness and grass growing across it! It brought us out half a mile down the original main road. I got chastised for that!”
The ride took them to Newmarket before heading back to Sycamore in Uppingham, where they were welcomed back by the team who kindly cleaned the bikes for them.
“Sycamore supported us fully. I recorded a video at each dealership I stopped at. Shuli Wiffen, in the Merchandising team at Sycamore, was putting them out for us, and she did an end-of-day summary too. They’re brilliant. The relationship between the chapter and the dealership is second to none,” enthuses Ian.
Three days and approximately 1,200 miles travelled, yet Ian and Mark were ready to go again.
“We got back to Sycamore, looked at each other and said: ‘Do you know what? I’m so fresh, I could do that again.’ We were slightly tired on the Wednesday night, but by the end, despite how long we’d been in the saddle and how many miles we covered, we had no fatigue or aches. The bikes [Ian has a CVO Road Glide® Ultra and Mark has a Street Glide®] ran perfectly the whole time and did us proud.”
For the future, Ian is keen to go across to Ireland to visit the dealerships there and hopes more chapter members will tackle the challenge.
“I’ve had some patches made with ‘Rutland Raider’ on them. We’re going to make the route and itinerary available to all the members of the chapter so they can replicate it. It enables me to give a bit of impetus to the RIDE365 challenge. After doing a short presentation at the last chapter meeting, I already have members who are keen to have a go, so watch this space and look out for the ‘Rutland Raiders’ on the road around the UK in the weeks to come. We finished fourth nationally as a chapter last year, third when you do the head count on average, so I’m hoping for the top spot this year,” says Ian.
But why should riders take on the Rutland Raid? As Ian says in his videos: “It was epic!”
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