It’s mid-November, cold but not too cold and there’s a rally on (in fact two rallies on the same weekend but we’ll bring you the Warmwell write up in a few days time). Even so, there were a fair few hardy scooterists who braved the elements to ride to sunny Mablethorpe on the East Coast Riviera. Sam Booth sent us this write up, take it away Sam…
Ten of us left Manchester at 11 am on Friday and headed through the beautiful Woodhead Pass. The TS1s led the way, as usual with a standard PX200 and MK1 T5 holding up the rear, along with my trusty HM Submarines Series 1 rat sitting back with them just in case I needed to shoot ahead and stop the lads.
Throttle to the stop
As it happened it was my engine that had problems first with the throttle sticking open sending my Mugello motor into a frenzy as I headed towards a bend at 65mph, before pulling the clutch in and turning the key off. With that sorted, it was plain sailing and apart from going right around the houses, we made it there in just over five hours. Pretty poor considering it was only 148 miles away but we got there and the standard scoots kept up at a healthy 60-65 the whole way.
Gladioli it’s all over?
The Smiths Ltd played on Friday (I think it was Saturday actually but Sam maybe got excited) and as a massive Smiths fan, I wasn’t alone in saying that they sounded like an episode of Shooting Stars when Vic & Bob did their pub singer impression. They were followed by The Style Councillers who went down well.
People were up and dancing either way. In the other bar, next door, the DJ had the dancefloor bouncing with a good range of Ska and Reggae until the early hours of Saturday morning. Upstairs in the soul room was the same and the tunes kept coming until 3 am, with scooterists dancing most of the night.
All mod cons
After waking up in the poshest caravan I’d stayed in yet, it was down to the custom show and parts fair. I dropped my S1 cutdown off next to Howard’s cutdown PX, the pair has been suitably nicknamed the twins AKA Danny and Arnold, with Ady’s all original MK1 T5 earning its place in the lineup.
Despite the time of year, there were some really tasty scooters on show, which included the awesomely engineered Vespa, Lower Class. Also on show were the usual offenders, Start Me Up (ridden from Essex), The Sentinel, and a strange yet appealing creation. A Vespa (what was left of one anyway) with an X9 engine bolted into it, which the owner claimed to top out at 125mph! There was only one chopper on display, with some clever trick parts such as a motorcycle style foot gear change mechanism.
Later, we ventured into town and discovered a few bars then went into the packed Jesters bar for one before getting some scran and heading back to the site, leaving the majority of the club there.
Saturday night take away
It was back into the main room for The Salford Knights as we watched the evening’s bands. The do was busier than the night before and the dancefloor was bouncing as usual. The queue for Papa John’s Pizza kept the room looking even busier, as we scooterists only usually eat low-fat healthy food in between our low-fat lager.
The soul room again played host to the lovers of Northern and the room was bouncing all night. In the Ska room, it was twice as busy as the previous night and the dancefloor was heaving with young and old. I even spotted a young girl (about 9-10 years old) dancing about in her cherry Doc’s and the beer was flowing even at £3.70 a pint (no beer for the nine-year-old though).
Exhausted
The rally was on until Monday but the majority of the Salford Knights left at about 9:30 Sunday morning, with those that stayed reporting there only being a few in the do that night. Ten of us left and headed home via the motorway and into Manchester. Only 40 miles in and Howard’s exhaust had practically fallen off and it took almost an hour to get it sorted in the services and all of us had a go. It was like a bad joke, “How many blokes does it take to fix an exhaust…”
With no other dramas to report we made it back into town and went our separate ways back into Salford and Manchester. The cutdown didn’t miss a beat on the way home, which saves a winter rebuild. All in all, a great rally, decent turn out and cracking tunes. Oh and a Pappa John’s Pizza on site, what more do you need? See you next year.
Words: Sam, Salford Knights Scooter Club
Rallery by Iggy
Rallery by Sam Booth
SLUK Shop – great for Xmas gift ideas
It’s mid-November, cold but not too cold and there’s a rally on (in fact two rallies on the same weekend but we’ll bring you the Warmwell write up in a few days time). Even so, there were a fair few hardy scooterists who braved the elements to ride to sunny Mablethorpe on the East Coast Riviera. Sam Booth sent us this write up, take it away Sam…
Ten of us left Manchester at 11 am on Friday and headed through the beautiful Woodhead Pass. The TS1s led the way, as usual with a standard PX200 and MK1 T5 holding up the rear, along with my trusty HM Submarines Series 1 rat sitting back with them just in case I needed to shoot ahead and stop the lads.
Throttle to the stop
As it happened it was my engine that had problems first with the throttle sticking open sending my Mugello motor into a frenzy as I headed towards a bend at 65mph, before pulling the clutch in and turning the key off. With that sorted, it was plain sailing and apart from going right around the houses, we made it there in just over five hours. Pretty poor considering it was only 148 miles away but we got there and the standard scoots kept up at a healthy 60-65 the whole way.
Gladioli it’s all over?
The Smiths Ltd played on Friday (I think it was Saturday actually but Sam maybe got excited) and as a massive Smiths fan, I wasn’t alone in saying that they sounded like an episode of Shooting Stars when Vic & Bob did their pub singer impression. They were followed by The Style Councillers who went down well.
People were up and dancing either way. In the other bar, next door, the DJ had the dancefloor bouncing with a good range of Ska and Reggae until the early hours of Saturday morning. Upstairs in the soul room was the same and the tunes kept coming until 3 am, with scooterists dancing most of the night.
All mod cons
After waking up in the poshest caravan I’d stayed in yet, it was down to the custom show and parts fair. I dropped my S1 cutdown off next to Howard’s cutdown PX, the pair has been suitably nicknamed the twins AKA Danny and Arnold, with Ady’s all original MK1 T5 earning its place in the lineup.
Despite the time of year, there were some really tasty scooters on show, which included the awesomely engineered Vespa, Lower Class. Also on show were the usual offenders, Start Me Up (ridden from Essex), The Sentinel, and a strange yet appealing creation. A Vespa (what was left of one anyway) with an X9 engine bolted into it, which the owner claimed to top out at 125mph! There was only one chopper on display, with some clever trick parts such as a motorcycle style foot gear change mechanism.
Later, we ventured into town and discovered a few bars then went into the packed Jesters bar for one before getting some scran and heading back to the site, leaving the majority of the club there.
Saturday night take away
It was back into the main room for The Salford Knights as we watched the evening’s bands. The do was busier than the night before and the dancefloor was bouncing as usual. The queue for Papa John’s Pizza kept the room looking even busier, as we scooterists only usually eat low-fat healthy food in between our low-fat lager.
The soul room again played host to the lovers of Northern and the room was bouncing all night. In the Ska room, it was twice as busy as the previous night and the dancefloor was heaving with young and old. I even spotted a young girl (about 9-10 years old) dancing about in her cherry Doc’s and the beer was flowing even at £3.70 a pint (no beer for the nine-year-old though).
Exhausted
The rally was on until Monday but the majority of the Salford Knights left at about 9:30 Sunday morning, with those that stayed reporting there only being a few in the do that night. Ten of us left and headed home via the motorway and into Manchester. Only 40 miles in and Howard’s exhaust had practically fallen off and it took almost an hour to get it sorted in the services and all of us had a go. It was like a bad joke, “How many blokes does it take to fix an exhaust…”
With no other dramas to report we made it back into town and went our separate ways back into Salford and Manchester. The cutdown didn’t miss a beat on the way home, which saves a winter rebuild. All in all, a great rally, decent turn out and cracking tunes. Oh and a Pappa John’s Pizza on site, what more do you need? See you next year.
Words: Sam, Salford Knights Scooter Club
Rallery by Iggy
Rallery by Sam Booth
SLUK Shop – great for Xmas gift ideas
