Sunday at the Isle of Wight scooter rally means only one thing : THE RIDEOUT!
After last year’s torrential rain I was determined to make the most of this one, and it seems I wasn’t the only one. We started the day on the green (yet again) which filled up really quickly with scooters arriving all the time.
What’s been so great about this rally is meeting people who’ve followed me on social media. There’s nothing like meeting ‘in real life’ so when I spotted Lucy, aka Loopy Loo from Twitter I grabbed her for a chat. I also made her sit on my scooter as her colourful outfit suited it so much better than my boring black t-shirt!
Lee also made a new friend, a lady who’d been raving in Brighton all weekend and just got off the ferry to hang out with the scooterists. She’d made a beeline for his chop as it matched her dress! She was absolutely hilarious and entertained us for a while with her stories before giving us a group hug and wandering off.
There were a few sore heads, particularly for Spooner who’d made the most of the free refills in Wetherspoons and had 15 cups of tea! Lee didn’t have a hangover but was struggling with the heat so spent as much time under the tree as possible!
There are still many mods at the rally despite the lure of Brighton, especially this year with it being the Quadrophenia 40th anniversary. I’m actually quite grateful for the mirrors when I’m attempting to restyle my horrific helmet hair! I didn’t take that many photos as I was too busy chatting, but here are a few of the interesting scooters I spotted.
Isle of Wight Rideout
We rode to the ice rink which was already heaving, and then proceeded to fill up even more. I’ve never seen so many scooters crammed into that space, it was incredible!
I spotted Lorraine Marshall who was here for her first experience of the rideout, but only managed a photo of her scooter! You can read Lorraine’s full story here but a scooter rideout was on her bucket list and although she rode with 200 scoots last weekend I was confident that the Isle of Wight version would blow her away!
We had a lovely chat with John and Jane from Scoots and Soul, with Lee admiring all the lovely finishing touches on their Series 1 Bobby Womack tribute. It seems that Jane can make ANYTHING, which got me really excited at all the possibilities, so watch out anyone with a birthday soon as I’ve got tons of ideas…
I met more people who knew of me from the website, including John from Coventry who even subscribes to my newsletter! It was great to have a chat and he was really enjoying being back on the scene after a break.
And then it was time for the big ride. This year we were being led by the Armed Forces SC with some British Legion veterans walking in front, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The ride itself was the biggest and maddest ever. It took forever just to get to the end of the esplanade, with so many scooters and thousands of people lining the streets. And even once we got moving, I was overwhelmed by all the onlookers waving from the entire route. We peeled off just past Bembridge Airport to make our way back to Ryde, but when we passed through Brading the frontrunners of the rideout caught up with us, with even more locals waving at us.
And then it was time to head for home. We stopped off for petrol, picked up our gear from the hotel and rode to the ferry port at Fishbourne. We just missed one ferry so had to wait around for the next one, and then it was a quick ride home to Sussex along a scenic route which avoided most of the A27.
It had been a superb weekend, living up to my very high expectations. Rumours are rife yet again about how long it will continue here, for various reasons. Andy from ScooterNova posted photos of poorly-disguised increased prices in the fish & chip shop next to the King Lud. Why are businesses so greedy on a weekend when they’ll have so many more customers anyway? Everyone wants a piece of the pie, it’s so commercialised, all the traders in Ryde with their badges, t-shirts and stickers. Hotel prices are massively inflated. We did a quick calculation and the rally must be worth £3million to the local economy, probably more.
And yet the best bits of the weekend were when I was having a laugh with my mates in the pub, dancing in the tent at Smallbrook and simply riding my scooter around the island. Simple, old school stuff. If the rally does move elsewhere I’ll be gutted, because the Isle of Wight is so special for lots of reasons. I will understand though. And at least we will go out on a high!
Riding My Scooter
I’ve had some great photos of my scooter shared with me, including these of me riding from Portsmouth-based scooterist and photographer Jayme Mason. You can follow him on Instagram where there are many more great photos from the rally and other events!
Here are my other Isle of Wight articles :
Friday at the Isle of Wight
Saturday’s news including full custom show results
Hedge your bets!
To see what options are available for the Isle of Wight next year check Booking.com here. There are no guarantees whether the rally will be on but you can book a room with cancellation to hedge your bets!
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I hope it stays put for you all next year.
Thanks Jo, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Although I wouldn’t like to see it move it would serve the islanders wright if it moved, as you said there is no need to inflate prices that’s just another example of rip off Britain, let’s see how they like a wet bank holiday weekend WITHOUT the scooterist money, Great write ups though, have really enjoyed reading them, I was at Brighton but did pop over to the island on the Thursday and saw the early arrivers.
I completely agree Matt! I’d be gutted to go elsewhere but can see some advantages of keeping it small and within the scootering community.