It’s hard to remember a time when major scooter events weren’t advertised months and months in advance. The internet and especially social media, helps to spread the rally information countrywide (worldwide for that matter) within minutes of the news being announced nowadays.

But can you imagine the internet backlash if the UK’s largest scooter rally on August Bank Holiday was delayed by a week through no fault of the organisers, and travelling scooterists were given only two weeks-notice to change all of their plans!

If you’re heading to the Isle of Wight in less than a fortnight, and you received a letter in the post today, to say it was now on the week after (i.e no longer the Bank Holiday weekend) would it affect any of you? You’re damn right it would.

The above scenario did bizarrely happen 30 years ago last week in 1992, and to be honest the fuss caused to scooterists attending the rally was minimal. How times have changed.

*PLEASE NOTE THE ISLE OF WIGHT NATIONAL SCOOTER RALLY 2022 IS ON AS NORMAL*

In this instance, the then and now comparison isn’t a fair one – but if you read on things will become a bit clearer.

A common belief within scootering is that the Isle of Wight National Scooter Rally has been on August Bank Holiday (ABH) weekend continuously ever since the early 1980s. In fact, that is incorrect. Up until the middle of the 1980s, it was the ABH rally, but for the first 6 years of the 1990s there was no National Rally on the island at all. The infamous riots at the 1986 rally made organising events on the island more difficult than ever.

Bottom of the pops

The three rallies that followed – May 1987 and Easter visits in 1988 & 1989 – were not well received, or overly well attended by normal standards. And, at the end of year NSRA opinion polls the I.O.W rally was voted as one of the worst events after each of these three years. It seemed that the rally going scooterists of the time had fallen out of love with rallies on the island, and so it was simply dropped off the National Rally calendar for a number of years.

Whitley Bay was always a rally favourite

August Bank Holiday venues used between the Isle of Wight

1987 Scarborough
1988 Morecambe
1989 Morecambe
1990 Whitley Bay
1991 Whitley Bay
1992 “Delayed”
1993 Parthenay (French NSRA Euro run)
1994 Bridlington
1995 Bridlington
1996 Melbourne Drag strip (near York)
1997 to Present – Isle of Wight

NRC National Runs Comitte scooter ID card from 1992

ID cards

By the time the 1992 rally season came around, the National Scooter Riders Association ID photo card system had been in operation for a hand full of years. Only card carrying members gained entry into the official night dos at the National Rallies. Information as to where each rally was came via a newsletter delivered in the post to the No1 of each affiliated club. It nearly always arrived three weeks before the rally was due to take place and it was then up to the No1s to pass on the info to fellow club mates to start making plans. (I realise a lot of you reading this will remember all of the above, it’s just a heads up to anyone that wasn’t scootering in that period).

Back in 1992, many riders thought that a third August Bank Holiday visit in a row to Whitley Bay would be on the cards. But, because riders didn’t know for sure, few, if any made bookings to head there (remember, there was no Booking.com with free cancellation back in those days and most people camped anyway). It’s because of the uncertainty back then that people didn’t book digs or ferries (where needed) in advance. And so because of this, the very surprising announcement of Great Yarmouth a week later than the regular Bank Holiday caused minimal fuss to the loyal travelling band of scooterists that would head anywhere at short notice.

The newsletter at the top of the page shows that the August Bank Holiday rally for 1992 was due to be at Great Yarmouth. But, due to opposition from the police and local councillors not wanting us there, it was decided to delay it until the weekend after the Bank Holiday, so as not to upset normal holiday makers as much.

At the time, Yarmouth was the longest continuous running National Rally and since 1982 had always been one of the Bank Holiday rallies using the St Nicholas car park on the seafront as the official campsite. But for a number of years planned development meant each rally could have been our last time camping on that classic rally site.

Police road blocks

The police and council regularly asked the NSRA to miss Yarmouth off the annual rally calendar, and they nearly always set up road blocks to check the details of riders entering the town on rally weekends. But for many of us, Yarmouth was a favourite rally. This often showed in the end of year opinion polls where not only would Yarmouth regularly get the most votes, but it would on occasion get twice as many votes as the not very popular Isle of Wight rally (hence the I.O.W being dropped as a rally).

The Isle of Wight and Mersea are your next two big events…

I genuinely miss the great times I had attending the Great Yarmouth rally over the years (maybe a SLUKback feature beckons). But I still truly enjoy the massive spectacle and atmosphere that is the legendary Isle of Wight National Scooter Rally. This year’s has been 51 weeks in the making from the hard-working organising team.

No doubt many of you SLUKers are heading to Sandown Airport in next week, I hope to see you there

Ride safe Col