Doing it for Doddie - the Rugby club motorcycle charity ride

Two bikers in their seventies with a passion for rugby are planning to tour every senior rugby club in Great Britain to raise money for the ‘My name’s Doddie Foundation’, which supports research into motor neurone disease.

Len Bage and Robin Down were spurred into action following the death of Scottish International rugby player Doddie Weir, who died of the disease at the age of 52 last November.

The tour, which starts on August 14, will see Len take his Triumph Tiger 850 Sport and Robin his BMW R1250GS to three countries, over 1300 miles, and will take a week to complete.

“We are liaising with the clubs to arrange ‘welcoming committees’ hopefully, with a few famous players for when we arrive at each one and will try to involve local press, radio and maybe even TV,” said Len. “The more people know about what we are doing, the more money we can raise for the cause.”

He added: “I think that the hardest part of our trip will be the inevitable necessity of doing a lot of miles on motorways. If we had more time, we would do what we always do – look for the country routes and the twisties but, sadly, deadlines and arriving at the various clubs at suitable times during each day, dictate that we will have to just grin and bear hours of motorway riding some days.

“Thankfully, quite a few motorbike clubs have shown an interest in having riders join us at various points along the way for some of the ride so maybe it won’t be so bad! We are both incredibly heartened by people’s willingness to join in and support us.”

To help the pair raise a £2000 target visit their JustGiving page.