This year's National Rally, jointly organised by the BMF and the ACU, has been extensively revamped to cater for any bike, any rider and any one of a number of routes.

This unique road event, attracting over 1,300 competitors last year, is to be held over the weekend of 5th/6th of July and is open to all riders with a full motorcycle licence and costs just £20 to enter.

Riders can choose routes of 200 to 540 miles to complete in 20 hours, but to combat rider fatigue and keep the event fresh, a number of new elements have been introduced.

Spread widely throughout England, the one hundred plus controls have now been split into four zones, with the three outer zones (North, South and East) open from 14.00hrs to 24.00hrs on Saturday 5th and the inner zone open from 22.00hrs Saturday to 10.00hrs Sunday 6th. Riders competing for trophies must ride in one of the outer zones, plus the inner zone.

To encourage Classic riders and smaller machines, a new class to be called 'The National Medal' requires riders to only complete in one zone covering 200 official miles. Competitors can therefore start and finish closer to home if they wish as they do not need to visit the final control at the famous Uttoxeter Race Course, Staffordshire.

As well as being invited to support the Mencap charity through personal sponsorship, clubs are also being encouraged to take part with a new trophy to be awarded by Carole Nash Insurance to the club whose members amass the most points and Castrol, who are sponsoring Mencap's involvement, will also award a trophy to the rider who raises the most money for Mencap.

These new awards join the existing ones for: Overall champion; Best 125cc; Best Scooter; Best Sidecar outfit; Spirit of the Event and Oldest Rider & Machine.

Regulations and Entry Forms are now available from the ACU on 01788 566409 or you can download them from the official web site www.national-rally.co.uk. Around three weeks before the event, a route/control matrix map will be sent to all the entrants and it's then down to you to work out your route and the award that you're going for.

The MotorBikesToday.Com editorial team will be taking part in this year's event, and the plan is that we're "Going for Gold". We'll be starting from a control somewhere in the south of England, and we hope to see you all at the final control at Uttoxeter Racecourse.

 

Much, much smarter.

Now don't get me wrong. Any earplugs are better than none, and there's a great deal to be said for something that costs almost nothing and prevents permanent disability in the way that utterly disposable foam earplugs do. The trouble is, though, that although we all know that after 2 or 3 trips foam earplugs start to get rather, um, soiled and in need of binning, we all carry on using them for a while. Don't we? And although they still do their job, they start to carry a risk of infection and they become less comfortable and less effective as they get sticky. Yuk. And don't even think of washing them, either, because they'll swell and distort and become useless.

But at this point you just replace them, right? Assuming, of course, that you aren't, say, testing at the Nürburgring and have forgotten to bring any spares. Or touring in Spain. Or wherever. Because you'll always be so confident that you have a fresh set (well of course you packed them - nobody would be that stupid) that you'll have binned the old ones already and so are faced with the prospect of rapid deafness, fishing your soiled, sticky and now really rank foamies out of a roadside wastebin and reusing them or resorting to strips of toilet paper rolled up and stuffed in your lug'oles. Not pretty and definitely not cool.

Enter the silicon earplug.

It'll get just as manky as a foam one, but all you do is wash it. Do it after every ride if you like - you'll not any harm. I use cold water and the dispenser soap you find in pretty well any service station to get the added bonus of putting something cool in my ears on a hot summer's day.

The Motosafe earplugs on test here are pretty deluxe by earplug standards. For a start, you can choose how much noise you want to cut out. Got a big tourer and want to be able to hear the stereo? No problem - just put the little green filters (fitted as standard) on the plugs and off you go. If, on the other hand, you're exposing yourself to rather more noise than that then pop the yellow super-duper filters in and go to that Metallica gig in comfort.

My last silicon earplugs were nowhere near as nice as these, they didn't come with their own nice padded box (complete with keyring) and they didn't have adjustable filters so they were always very quiet indeed, even if I wanted something a little less intrusive. They lasted six years daily use under both bike and flying helmets in some of the noisiest environments imaginable. The only reason I don't have them now is because I misplaced one...

So do yourself a favour. When it's time to replace that foetid mass of bacteria you're about to stick back in your ear, seriously consider spending a little more and getting these instead. You will never look back.

Expect to pay about £12.75 for a pair of earplugs that will last as long as you do. Just don't lose them...

STOP PRESS... You can get these earplugs online from Sensorcom.
Click here to go to their site.