If ever we needed a positive start to the scootering year, the annual Burton Brewers Custom Show provided it last weekend. Record crowds, beautiful sunshine, a very packed car park full to the brim with scooters and plenty of tasty custom scooters and stalls. Perfect.
Video: A drone’s eye view
According to one of the organisers, there were around 2500 people there throughout the day and I’d certainly not argue with him, it really was buzzing when we got there just after lunch, having had a nice meandering ride down the back roads with the Kimberley Outcasts.
I’ve been to the Burton show many times in the past but can honestly say I’ve never seen it busier and that’s despite around 300 scooterists being away in Lanzarote at the same time. Anybody arriving by car at peak times would struggle to park in the vicinity of the National Brewery Centre. Scooter riders were well looked after though and the whole event seemed to run like clockwork, proving that this club really does know how to organise a piss up in a brewery.

The Brewery Centre and its museum is the perfect place for an event like this, with cafes, bars, indoor, outdoor and marquee space there’s plenty of places to chat to mates, or peruse the stalls outside before you even get into the custom show itself, where 64 scooters filled the marquee. Apparently, there were quite a few ‘no shows’ on the day (annoying for an organiser) but the show looked pretty well packed to me.

In the courtyard between the main building and the marquee were a good selection of trade stands and the odd garage clearance stall, plus the VCB and ScooterNova with the latest issue of their magazine.

Nankang Tyres

One stand that quickly caught my eye was Nankang tyres, it was hard to miss with a tasty rusted hot rod and some huge tyres. Plus a selection of new scooter tyres available in most popular sizes. We’ll be testing some out during the year and will have a competition to win a pair coming up soon, plus if we’re happy with them you’ll be able to buy them directly from our SLUK Shop soon.

The overriding feeling throughout the day was one of ‘It’s good to be back!’ seemingly people have been sick and tired of waiting for events to be cancelled, plans to be foiled and the general uncertainty surrounding the dreaded bug. It was great just to see so many scooters and scooterists out and about on a February day and to catch up with so many friends. It finally feels like we’re coming out of hibernation, let’s hope Mr Putin doesn’t throw a nuclear spanner in the works!

Have a flick through the Burton Brewers Custom Show Rallery below

What about the custom scooters?

Of course, it wouldn’t be a custom show without a few tasty scooters and 64 of them graced the inside of the marquee. You can see most of them in the Rallery above. One of my personal favourites was Oiltek’s Ali-Bretta, an engineering masterpiece featuring aluminium frame, tank and a few other bits of magic created by Paul Gillow. It also featured a Casa 265 engine with a cutaway side casing.

You can have a look through the photos to pick your own favourites and check out the show results in the Brewers video (link below).

As the show came to an end and the scooter park emptied, the organisers just had enough time to get ready for the nighttime do. The full results of the custom show can be found on the Burton Brewers Facebook page where they’ve put together a couple of videos showing all the winning scooters.

Hats off to the Brewers for a brilliant start to 2022, long may it continue.

Words and photos: Iggy
Drone and aerial shots: Dan Ginge