While the world of motorbikes might still be new to me, this weekend was one to make that world stick in the forefront of my head. I had the pleasure of being invited along to Malle Mile 2023 at Grimsthorpe Castle by the team at English Electric Motor Co. While I have worked with this team a few times over the years to cover their stands at events for them, Malle was much different.
To start we should take a back a little into what Malle Mile is, and where it came from. Starting 10 years ago, between a pair of designers who found themselves working in New York, drinking at a bar into the early hours. Where they struck upon the idea of needing a really tough bag to use on their motorcycle adventures, with their first collection being a success, receiving great reviews, they doubled down and continued on into the world of producing great, hard wearing motorcycle bags, apparel and other adventuring accessories. You might wounder where the events come into play?
Well in late 2015 the team pondered upon how the world of racing is always expensive, risky, and often rather exclusive to a few. So, they set upon making events that would be inclusive to everyone involved in motorcycle culture (obviously risk being the only thing you can’t leave behind, but we’re okay with that, we all love a bit of risk), so if you attended to you had to race. And as they dubbed it “an inappropriate motorcycle” race, no classes, no experience brackets, just turn up and be apart of the fun! Growing from just 37 motorcycles racing in the first race, to a few thousand now. Along the way over the years a few other events have joined their roster, including a beach race and adventure rally’s!
So that brings us to this year, the 9th running of the Malle Mile. A 4 day weekend full of bikes, racing, live music, art, great food and many laughs. The races including sprints, time trial, circle track and a good round of motopolo.
My assignment for this weekend was to capture English Electric’s time there over the weekend, from the booth in the main village of people trying the bikes we had on display (with offerings from Energica, RGNT and Ubco), the vibe of the festival itself as well as the team taking part in the races on their EV offerings. There was a slightly chaotic spot to the weekend, the weather. Perfectly sandwiched by days of sunshine was a day full of rain. Turning everything into a mud bath, but I can’t really complain, it did make for some stunning visuals.
My main highlight for the weekend was finally getting on a bike, and I had instantly fallen in love with the RGNT No.1 Scrambler. I was already a big fan of it visually due to its classic styling, so it was great to get to ride one around the festival when I was taking the bikes out to capture some photos and videos of each of the bikes around the castle grounds.
I’m now massively looking forward to what next years events, even more so being the 10th running of the Malle Mile and the team have promised to pull out all the stops for it!
