A few days ago Marcel Schoen send me these amazing pictures and a very cool story about his last 45th Irish National Rally he made with his Norton International 500cc 1934.
This Inter belonged to his late uncle, and had not run for more than 30 years. Marcel just finished rebuilding, did 5 km testing at home, loaded up for Irland and did more than 900 km without any problems.

The Irish National Rally has been bringing classic bike fans to the Emerald Isle for 44 years. Each day of the four-day event covers about 140 miles, taking in spectacular scenery along the rocky Atlantic coastline and through the dramatic mountains of County Cork and County Kerry. That might not seem far to ride a bike in a day, but remember, these are Irish roads — most of them are rough and have grass growing down the middle. With Lot of hill climbing bringing you up to beautiful scenery, Not the ideal roads for a Norton International 1934, even if you are on the world’s best roadholder... more on the blog
http://www.themotart-journal.com/2011/0 ... cycle.html

Nice pix Frank ,makes me homesick

Bravo, Frank! Great to see machines of that vintage being used properly, and yes, some of the Irish roads will test any machine!

Seeing those great photos you took, I wish my Dad was still around to see all those wonderful machines in his own country. He rode pre-war Manxes, Inters and HRDs, and owned a cammy Velo.

I hope you had a great holiday in Ireland, and it looks from the photos as if you had at least SOME nice weather!

Dave

My grandfather was born in County Mayo, in 1875!

Though I have cousins over there, I never considered a visit until now... this rally just made my bucket list, thanks for the post!

cheers,

Don