MRS - first 20 years!
By TMX Archives on 29th Jul 11
Malcolm Rathmell Sport is celebrating 20-years in the motorcycle trade this year and during that time the company has built up into one of the most successful off-road distributors in the UK. However, to understand exactly how MRS ticks it's important to do a little research and with this in mind T+MX editor JD headed to the heart of North Yorkshire to delve a little deeper into the story...
MRS is a family run business consisting of Malcolm, Rhoda, Martin, Carly and Sonya and their roots in motorcycling are deep. Malcolm needs no introduction, having been British Trials Champion six-times, the Euro-American Championship (the year before it officially became known as the World Trials Championship) in 1974, the SSDT twice and was six times winner of his beloved Scott Trial.
Malcolm comes from a motorcycle background with his father, Eric, a good post-war rider. He actually qualified for the British Experts (yes you had to qualify!) the year Malcolm was born so he was definitely a talented rider.
Eric posessed excellent mechanical skills and many a good Yorkshire rider could be found at the Rathmell abode where Eric would tune both trials and motocross bikes. As the Service Manager at a major car outlet in Harrogate, Eric was the inventor of a revised valve spring system for a faulty part on a new Jaguar and received a special award. So you could say the young Rathmell had a pretty good upbringing.
At ten years-of-age it was impossible to keep Malcolm off his BSA Bantam, racing around the fields at Timble. If it ran out of fuel any vehicle was fair game! T+MX freelance Barry Robinson remembers the times well and quoted his first experiences of seeing the young 'Rat' with the quip: "Young Malc was better at finding oil than the Arabs and soon found how to syphon petrol from any vehicle visiting the Rathmell abode. Many an unsuspecting visitor left Timble with a depleted fuel supply!
Malcolm's first venture into trials bought early success when he beat the legendary Sammy Miller at the National Clayton trial when he was just 16. His love, however, was motocross and when he signed for Bultaco it was as a motocrosser. He was one of the top racers of his day and came ninth in the 1970 Spanish GP.
However, after he won the British Experts Trial in 1971 with his arm in plaster from a fall at the Scott Trial, Senior Bulto felt that Malcolm was the perfect trials replacement for Miller. Senor Bulto rightly felt that Malcolm's trials talents could take him to the top and he had four good years riding for Bultaco.
When the opportunity arose, in 1975, to switch to Montesa, the attraction for Malcolm was that they wanted to develop a trials bike. This was an offer he couldn't refuse and the fact that the Malcolm Rathmell Replica 348 was the most successfully sold trials bike of all time was justification of his actions.
Malcolm had an 18-year career as a motorcyclist and always said that when he wasn't enjoying the sport anymore he would hang up the handlebars and this is exactly what he did at the end of 1982. He left the sport feeling he had achieved all that it was possible and had no regrets.
At the same time as young Rat was tearing around the fields of Timble a young girl called Rhoda Connor was also heavily involved with bikes at the other end of the country in Twickenham, Middlesex. Rhoda also came from a motor cycling family and their lives followed a very similar path. Rhoda's grandfather worked for a well-known road bike shop, and was chief mechanic for such riders as Tommy Robb and Bill Ivy, big names in road racing at the time.
Every weekend Rhoda would travel the country following her grandfather's successes but when her brother Jim came of age he was encouraged to go into trials to learn to 'handle a bike' before he was let loose road-racing.
Jim never left the off-road scene, transferring to motocross, just like Malc, and Rhoda was Jim's greatest supporter. In later years Jim formed Hook Wood Trials Centre in Surrey and his middle son, Sam, went on achieve brilliant results as a trials rider. Arguably Sam's best result was winning the Scottish Six Days in 2005 on a Sherco with Malcolm and Rhoda, a very proud moment for the family.
Martin Rathmell started his motorcycle life with an engineering course at Harrogate College before getting a job as mechanic for road racer Mick Grant with the Suzuki GB Racing Team and then Rob McElnea with the Yamaha GB Racing Team. Malcolm and Rhoda felt it wise to send young Martin out into the world before allowing him to become part of the family concern, which he did in 1992.
Since then Martin has played a huge part in the success of the company. It wouldn't have been possible for Malcolm and Rhoda to travel the world gaining success for Scorpa and Sherco without the backing and loyalty shown to them by their son.
Carly has forged herself a career in road racing and motocross since the age of 18, taking herself back to her parent's roots – it's a funny old world! Her love of bikes is every bit as crazy as her parents. She started working at MRS in 2003 and her 'baby' is definitely the Gaerne MX boot. There is a competition every month between Malcolm and Carly to see who has sold the most. Carly takes the credit for MX sales and Malcolm trials. This is, like everything in the Rathmell household, a fierce competition and Malc is none too happy that Carly keeps beating him!
Eldest daughter Sonya is heavily involved with running the enduro series, Ride Off Road UK, with husband Wayne Braybrook but still works in the office to keep the books in order.
When mentioning MRS personnel it isn't possible to leave out John 'Killer' Kendrew. Although Killer has only worked officially for MRS for the last three-years he has been a loyal supporter to the family since the business was formed, attending every SSDT and Scott Trial to give his support which has been really appreciated by the Rathmells.
He really is part of the family and is always the 'Master of Ceremonies' at the famous Sherco Weekend Extravaganza each year.
FOR FULL FEATURE AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NEWS JULY 29
