Hey all,
What a fab time I had at Bridlington on the east coast of Yorkshire on Friday. Bridlington is the yearly venue for the famous Bridlington Scooter rally weekend and is held usually in early Autumn. I attended last year for the first time and decided that this just about the last weekend of bike fun fo the year. (and oh what fun)The International Motorbike show at the NEC is in late Autumn but it’s not really a biking weekend , it just about looking at brand new motorbikes, looking at what the big firm want us to purchase in the following year and replenishing bike clothes at a decent price. (this is always worth the trip) There are some winter biking camping weekends around but they are deffo not for me these days.
I said bye to my Julie on Friday, I would return sometime on Saturday afternoon. I waved and set off on MISTRESS MABLE II. Tom and Michelle had kindly invited me along for a night with them and the rest of the guys from the Keighley Scooter club. I crawled through Thorne at the rear of a long row of ten or twelve cars, at the head was a chugging old motor home driven by the oldest bloke in Christendom. Why oh why do these people drive these things so slowly? It’s so infuriating to everyone stuck behind. Eventually I was able to clear the line of traffic and the damned relic at the head driven by the Bates like character. The A614 straightened out after Thorne and invited me to “crack on” which I did!
Rawcliffe, Boothferry Bridge and Howden came and went, the road ran low flat and twisty with the River Humber just off to my right, these roads around here are just brilliant for motorbikes, the cars and lorries move along without much opportunity to pass, we on the other hand sit higher up and have the clearer view and the instantaneous power to nip round everything in front. This went on for a while, eventually slowing down to 40 MPH and less to pass through Holme-upon-Spaldng-Moor..Shiptonthorpe..and onto the ring road at Driffield before climbing up the long ridge that seemed to run from Scarborough right down into to Lincolnshire.
It was a climb of a couple of hundred feet the temperature rose in tandem as if you didn’t know you were now closer to the North Pole! The blue sky and white clouds gave way to a thick grey sorry-looking soggy mesh curtain hanging from beneath thick grey overcast. I looked in the distance to the left and right but the damn stuff hung like a huge dirty soggy grannies underkegs blotting out the beautiful east coast ahead. Every now and again I passed a clutch of scooter boys with the obligatory white van in tow, these carried sleeping bags, bike spares, crates of beer, wives, and a “show bike” or two. I gave a thumbs up as I passed them on my Honda Goldwing 1800cc scooter! Now and again we were held up by a farm tractor as it made its way to the next field and scattered bloody mud all over the road…bstard!
Up ahead yet another huge farm implement blocked our progress. This was much bigger and had caterpillar tracks FFS! I tucked in behind a scooter and slowly followed, it was so big it filled the road from the grassy edge right up to (and sometimes over) the white line, mud flew everywhere! Matey boy on the scooter shook his head, I wound mine further in as the cold reached into my jacket. Finally the huge machine turned into a farm and we got a move on again…into the next rain squall! Bridlington came up soon enough and the rain stopped. I picked my way to the North bay seafront and the flat, I was just in time to see Tom and Michelle get out of their 4×4…Good timing or what?
In double quick time the food and drink was carried from their silver 4×4 to the flat. We did this quickly, the biting wind was fairly snapping at our heels! Once inside I peeled off my layers of bike kit, changing into “ordinary” clothes then consumed a couple of hot coffee’s before making our way to the pub, it was after all Friday and 14.30hrs!
The guys began to arrive as the afternoon gave way to early evening.
Lots of folk were here already, more would be arriving as the day turned to early evening. Toms pal from York was soon here, John had come on his old scooter and he needed to warm up too. Have you noticed how warm and friendly pubs are when one is chilled to the bone? Dennis, came next with Brian wife son and girlfriend, we moved to The Greyhound as the weather outside deteriorated and hailstones shot-blasted Brid Hight St and any poor soul who stepped outside in it!
It’s not very often I have got Tom an Michelle in the same photograph, so this photos is rare…who will start the bidding??
Soon the atmosphere as got everyone in the groove. Northern Soul is blasting out of every pub,,,except Witherspoons…my god what dismal pub, they are always open early and cheap enough but are deffo soulless places..Next!
Please remember guys that for the small or medium-sized photographs, place your cursor over the photo and double left click, this will make the photo LARGE
Above and below are some photos from The Greyhound pub..always a popular haunt
The dress code is very much scooter gear and a Northern Soul theme all weekend. Dont they look smart?
The boys are keen to get in on the act!! Our Brian looking happy after their late arrival, not everyone can take Friday off unfortunately!
Everyone was just so happy to be indoors and having a great time, the last visit of the night was to The Harbour Lights pub before we had to step into the hailstones and the bitter winds blasting up the High St. Fortified with mucho beer and feeling numb from the neck down we tottered outside. Tom gets ready to face the elements waiting just around the corner!
The next day the view outside was of blue skies and rough bouncing green grey sea, the wind was still pretty gusty and it was still cold. We tucked into a fine hearty BIG breakfast in the flat, thanks girls! Yet more Scooter guys arrived and the flat filled up, my bike outside was soon surrounded by scooters, it just looked like a bigger cousin! They all got chatting and caught up with each other and talked scooter stuff so I took myself down to the show at the Spa and took some photos before it got too busy.
Pink is not my colour but I can see it works for some people. Old Lambretta’s are much in evidence as well as newer Vespa’s and the “Twist and Twat” plastic scooters.
The parking outside was exclusive to visiting scooters of all kind, it was well worth a walk round with the camera’s
This couple had just arrived, I remember wearing such a Parker when I was a lad, I wasnt into the scooter thing but Parka’s didn’t just appeal to scooter folk back then. I never had such a huge Union Jack on the back.
All around The Spa venue all the pavement space was given up to scooters, in fact it was wall to wall Scooter’s. The diversity of type was as varied as the colour and style.
Mirror mirror on the wall which is the fairest scooter of all?
This weekend it deffo was cool to be bald!
The entry fee to the show was just £5 a head, different rates applied if you where a member of a scooter group. I thought it was money well spent for such a feast that lay before ones eyes! Welcome to the 2012 Bridlington Scooter show. Below is a link to the show as shown on U TUBE, you can get a better feel for it all if you care to take a look?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Gh1drrT80
A lot of the scooters on show have fantastic paint jobs which leave one just gobsmacked!!
Some of the paint jobs are soooo brilliant that many of the bikes are not used as regular runners of the road.
I’m sure there is an Insurance issue with many of these fantastic examples and the insurance companies probably just cannot get their £££ heads around what is being asked of them!
One such example (not the one above) is said to have £30.000 worth of art work and engraving on it. It’s a runner for sure but you can bet your bottom dollar the owner doesn’t do toooo many miles on it!
My pal Mark over in Blackburn does this kind of artwork, in fact two of his examples won TWO awards at this show last year, have a look at his site if your interested….Eees good you know!
https://www.facebook.com/custompaint.airbrushing?ref=ts&fref=ts
I took the flash off the camera for this as it had its own lighting arrangement, I guess I could have used a tripod but the base was spinning the scooter round so’s we could see every angle…so maybe not.
The whole engine casing of this tricked out scooter was chrome and engraved as was practically everything else! Check out the intricate detail of the levers and handgrips.
Could this in fact be a fashion show for scooters?
This took several minutes to take in there was so much detail!
I couldn’t make up my mind if this was actually a real scooter or not, what do you guys think?
For me this was the best paint job of the show, I thought the depth of the paintworkwas so deep. I felt like I could almost step into the colours and wrap myself in it.
I sat upstairs for an hour and took in the whole atmosphere, the people the clothes the scooters before making my way back to the flat.
I said goodbye and thanked Tom and the guys for a great night but now I had to go back home early. I had a family event to attend 70 odd miles away in Barnsley, it was my Aunty Margaret’s birthday bash and was going to meet some special people for ANOTHER great night of fun.
I got on my rather plain-looking Honda Goldwing zipping up my jacket I clicked into first gear and rode MISTRESS MABLE II out of Bridlington and head up the ridge before dropping down to warmer South Yorkshire…Yes I saw snow in the hedgerows, especially around Sledmere House, and YES it was bleeding cold too!
dd
Allmyownstuff.. 