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First National run of 1983, Morecambe Bay, we all slept in a car park on the seafront, it was the first time I had ever slept in a tent in a snowstorm { I kid you not}, my best memory of this rally is forming strong links with the Eastfield scooter club which remain to this day.
I never made it to Yarmouth in 1983 as it was a choice between being able to afford a nearly new P200E from Dowsons Motorcycles in Scarborough, or spend the money on lager in Yarmouth. EWY 3Y won and the trusty Vespa served me well till it's demise enroute to the MSC open day in Nottingham in 1987. Thanks to Simon ''KID'' Skaife for use of his photos.
My first trip north of the border to Scotland, on the way there we came across a guy with a broken leg who'd ridden up from London on a S11 TV175 , dedicated or what.on arrival in Dunbar we rode onto a campsite only to be ejected a few hours later by the local Police, good move really as all the scooterlads just pitched up on an old army barracks in the centre of town. we then found out that unlike England in 83 the pubs did'nt shut after dinner. spent the rest of the day on my first allday drinking session, not bad really as I still was'nt legally old enough to drink yet...
Scotch Billy from Eastfield got a mention in Scootermania on the way to this rally, he'd lent a rally 200 to go on with the instructions if it broke down take the number plate and tax disc off and dump it, such was the value of this classic scooter in those days, the name on this scooters sidepanels was '' FRACAS'' which by the saturday night summed up Westons seafront as it turned into a battleground.
I thought it was a really good run, by saturday night there was a lot of singing and chanting outside a big pub but no trouble that I saw personally, then a lad on the pub balcony was arrested and the spot erupted with pint glasses flying everywhere, the carnage continued very Quadrophenia style down the seafront and was only brought under control when a line of mounted police charged in. trouble was 2 lads from our club found themselves in Sunday morning special court, the fines were horrendous definately over £200 each, remember this was nearly 25 years ago, it was a long journey home that weekend.
I have'nt really got any decent photos from this event as the cheap camera I always used was rubbish indoors, I felt that this event if any deserved a mention as to the best of my knowledge it was probably the first properly organised scooter only custom show and the forerunner to todays bridlington & VMSC shows, so you'll just have to make do with a couple of pics of my travelling companions that weekend.
It was my 18th birthday this weekend and my local rally. Scorching hot. Pernod and black washed down with lager then down to the allnighter at the corner cafe where most people were using it to sleep in rather than dance.
Wish I was still 18.
I could say this run was the worst ever, but I had'nt been to Porthcawl yet. a big pack of scooters from Pickering and Eastfield went to Southport in the rain, the official campsite consisted of waterlogged sanddunes and I know scooter runs were'nt welcome in 80s seaside resorts but Southport pulled out all the stops, all I care to remember is 144 arrests on the same charge. roll on Skegness.
Well there you have it the 1983 scooter season, hope it brought back some good memories unless you were in that court room at Weston, can't really remember much about the Skegness rally, maybe a bit harder to get a drink and did good old Edwin Starr sing, who knows, who cares soon be 1984 wonder if George Orwell turns up.....
