Ace Cafe Burn Up And Bognorphenia 2019

This was a busy weekend in the scootering calendar, but we sadly couldn’t attend our planned rally for family reasons so our dose of scooter fun came from a ride to the Ace Cafe Burn Up in Brighton followed by Bognorphenia.

The day started with a slight hiccup when I dropped the Lambretta getting it off the stand and it fell on my knee! Lee rescued me and normal service resumed, him on the GTS with Daniel on the back and me leading the way to meet up with the others. After a quick petrol stop we headed to the Toby Carvery in Worthing for breakfast where we met up with Jez and Andy, and then young Sid joined us on his motorbike for his first rideout with the scooter gang.

We hadn’t attended one of the Ace Cafe Brighton Reunions for a few years and I’d forgotten how massive it was. From Shoreham onwards the convoy grew bigger and bigger and when we reached Hove it was like a scene from Quadrophenia! Unlike in the film they were friendly bikers, luckily, because our scooters were soon outnumbered by swarms of bigger-wheeled machines and it was brilliant fun buzzing along the seafront towards the pier.

Once we got to Madeira Drive we made a beeline for Volk’s Bar, the traditional parking spot for scooters and it was already busy. We recognised John Barnett’s GTS sidecar combo and Shaun Jeffries’ gorgeous classic Vespa but there was no sign of them.

After a quick drink we wandered up Madeira Drive towards Black Rock, through the motorbikes which lined the road on either side. There were machines of all shapes and sizes, from tiny monkey bikes to enormous trikes with VW engines within. Rows of Harleys, BSAs and Triumphs as well as modern Ducatis and Yamahas.

There were numerous stalls too, selling all sorts of motorbike tat accessories, as well as new machines and even the odd scooter. There were stalls offering a shoe shine, jewellery, helmets, safety gadgets as well as enough leather to give Morrissey a heart attack!

There’s some great street art in Madeira Drive including this Rolling Stones-inspired piece by Glimmertwin32, aka Sean Lyons. Although I usually prefer to place scooters in front of murals for a quick photo I had to make do with a classic Triumph this time!

This trike was a monster machine! You can certainly travel in comfort on it, but it’s not ideal for filtering through the queues of traffic like a bike usually would. It was grabbing everyone’s attention though, a real eyecatching machine.

Scooters at the Ace Cafe Burn Up

Although the focus of the day were the hundreds of motorbikes, there’s always a good scooter turnout too.

There was a Quadrophenia stall, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film’s release, which was selling signed memorabilia. It featured a Union Jack Lambretta which had originally been hand-painted for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Its owner Roy, from South East London, was a main extra in the film and the scooter has since been used for personal appearances by The Who and at various events and photoshoots.

It is still in the same condition today that it was in 1978 during filming, and is the only original scooter from the film which is still going. To find out more about this historic scooter check out Roy’s website here.

While looking at Roy’s stall I bumped into my lovely friend Jo who was in Brighton for the day, a complete coincidence, so we headed back to Volk’s to catch up and hang out with the rest of the scooter gang.

Brighton is just the perfect place to pose on a scooter, and I was really surprised that this mod who’d ridden down from Sutton in Surrey knew about my website when I explained who I was!

Riders at the Ace Cafe Burn Up

It was nice to photograph a few of the riders as they whizzed past, with the odd scooter in amongst the bikes.

By 1pm it was time to leave, and my very kind clubmates indulged me in another street art photoshoot on the way back. Photos will follow in a separate blog post!

Full Brighton Gallery

The ride to Bognorphenia

I think every single one of the dozens of traffic lights between Brighton and Bognor were red, it was quite astonishing! But eventually we arrived back home where Lee swapped the pillion-friendly GTS for his chop, leaving Daniel with his big brother while we rode to Hotham Park.

It was the sixth Bognorphenia and the event gets bigger every year. Whilst many of the scooters had left by the time we got there, there were still many on show. Bognorphenia is a charity run by Kez Bridger, and the aim of the day is to raise money to support local young people. There were bands playing to a very appreciative crowd as well as stalls offering fun and games for all the family.

It was really busy and I had a lovely time catching up with old friends, reminiscing about the early 80s when we’d pose outside the amusements on our Vespa 50 Specials. It seemed like half the town were there, soaking up the sun and having a few drinks, as well as scooterists from Worthing, Portsmouth and beyond.

Simon from Selsey was on his lovely old SX which he bought 20 years ago for £250! It’s a lovely, original scooter, with a sticker from the dealer who supplied the scooters for Quadrophenia at the top of the horn cover.

Lee had the brilliant idea of photographing the Lambretta with a nearby vintage campervan which had the same colour scheme and it looked even more stunning. There are lots more photos in the gallery below.

And so it was time to go, having had a fantastic day at both events. Well done to the organisers and to everyone we met up with – it was great catching up with friends, old and new.

Bognorphenia Photo Gallery

Here is the full gallery of photos from Bognorphenia.

Rally Guides
If you’re planning your scootering calendar for 2021 then check out my 2021 Rally Guide to get the best choice of accommodation.

For an in-depth guide to the biggest scooter rally in the world, here is a link to my Isle of Wight rally guide.