North country blues

Two thousand miles on two wheels to Norway's chilly top? SIMON DE BURTON needs a Bremont Terra Nova

- SIMON DE BURTON

I'm just back from a motorcycle ride: eight days, 2000 miles from Copenhagen to Norway’s North Cape, the place they call 'the end of the world', inset, below.

The Arctic Rally was the latest adventure organised by cousins Robert Nightingale and Jonny Cazzola, founders of Malle London which launched in 2013 as a manufacturer of high-quality British-made biking luggage and riding kit. Two years later the designers added a fresh string to Malle’s bow with the introduction of the Malle Mile, a weekend of two-wheeled off-road antics that attracted 80 machines.

Today, Malle rallies are as big a part of the business as the gear it was built on - the Mile now attracts a crowd of thousands, while The Great Mile (a ride from the southern tip of England to the northern edge of Scotland) and the Mountain Rally (length of the Alps) have become firm fixtures on the biking calendar.