I was lucky enough to have attended three excellent rallies; the SWSC’s Farmyard Bash, Glevum Stax’ rally and VFM’s Isle of Wight National rally in the previous few weeks leading up to Colchester DVLC’s Mersea Island rally.
It almost feels like normal service has been resumed and the dreaded lurgy is finally behind us, but let’s take each rally as it comes just in case BoJo decides to put us into hibernation again.
Usual Suspects
As is usual Mersea follows hot on the heels of the Isle of Wight and after 2020’s cancelled rally it was evident that the Colchester DVLC and many scooterists were really up for a party to make up for lost time… it certainly didn’t disappoint! For once I had the Friday afternoon off so I could have a leisurely bimble down to catch up with the usual suspects on the campsite.
I only really slowed down to help lead a fella to the island and also whilst filtering through the busy A12 traffic I couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop and abuse a well known yellow fetishist scooterist who was being a van wanker for the weekend and was stuck in traffic……oops lol!
Darkside cabin
Arriving at the gate, as always I was greeted by the ever cheerful DVLC crew, wrist band applied and I quickly found our lot and erected my home for the weekend. As is the law at Mersea on Friday evening it’s new Darkside t-shirt launch time and after a t-shirtless 2020 expectation was high. Matt, Loz and the crew didn’t disappoint, with a great new design that went down very well with the punters.
A wander round drinking and chatting shit with fellow scooterists it was clear that everyone was up for a party with us all being spoilt for choice of places to drink, eat and be entertained.
Sour krackers
Mersea always attracts a decent number of German scooterists and this year even despite the lurgy it was no exception, although it’s a shame the border control didn’t confiscate the bright Stripey knitted shorts they were wearing!
That’s entertainment
The night entertainment was the usual choice of live bands, scooterist sounds in the main room, Moonstomp ska and reggae in the mess hall and of course those cheeky scamps in the Darkside tent. They were joined by another of the SIR DJs, top fella Dave Lloyd for the night and the legendary silent disco after midnight.
All rooms were busy all night with the Marquee heaving during live sets from Mystery Action, Rude Six and the Epileptic Hillbillys. As is the norm at Mersea a lot of people partied hard into the small hours of Saturday morning, leading to a lot of thick heads when we finally succumbed to the early morning scooter starter alarm clock that seems to follow us around the rallies.
Fun and games?
Saturday is a day for mooching around the various stalls, heading off out for the ride out, watching the fun and games which are always a laugh… even if it is the sight of a tattooed 6-foot fella in a dress projectile vomiting during the beer and banana race.
Controversial history
Credit to Martin Meuser and the DVLC team as they always draw a top selection of custom scooters to their show, the marquee was rammed. The results are in the picture section along with a number of the scooters on show. Many were drawing a lot of attention, but the main talking point was the return of Sieg Heil, which Dave Oakley has again reworked since its last outing at the SLUK/ScooterNova show at Alfreton in 2019. Dave picked up best of show against stiff opposition.
58 bhp Vespa – let’s thrash it
Outside the marquee, Jonny Gilbert from JG Scooters was offering a dyno service for power runs or set up advice. Check out the photo in the gallery of the board displaying the bhp achieved from each scooter that was run… the one that jumps out is the 58.47bhp which was achieved by a standard looking PX with a beast of a BFA306 engine shoehorned in. The owner had built a very strong motor and confirmed it’s a beast to ride, but still useable for rallies, etc. It sounded gorgeous and went superbly well, check out the video clip above.
The live music kicked off with The Beatniks and then Senior Class went down a storm and ended up playing an extended set to cover for the missing headliners. The rooms all seemed a bit quieter probably due to the excesses of Friday night and many faced the ride home early in the morning… are we getting sensible in our old age? The SIR DJ’s took over in the main room with Dave and Minxy Porter joining Dave Lloyd to play a proper mix of tunes which kept the sawdust flying.
Bring ’em back!
Back in the Darkside tent glow sticks and illuminated headphones were bouncing again into the early hours. Unfortunately, I am told a couple of sets of headphones went missing from Mersea and also from the Isle of Wight silent discos so can you please check if you still have some brightly coloured headphones on your bonces or in your kit. If so can you please let us know so they can be returned, they are no use other than for the specific disco set up. The organisers have to pay out for them otherwise. Thanks in advance.
