Isle of Wight 2008

The weekend started with Mr Wakelam waiting for someone to be recovered, and it finished the same....

Craig Leeder from the AFSC broke down but eventually fixed his scoot and made it to mine on Thursday night. On waking up the next day, overcast skies failed to foretell the deluge of precipitation about to befall us literally as we got to the bottom of my road. 5 minutes later on the outskirts of Chelmsford for the initial RV.  We were fucking well soaked. The rain followed us down the A12 and across mid-Essex to the 2nd RV, where I was extremely unimpressed to find the rest of my local club bone dry.
Previously mentioned the scenic route being planned by one of the lads and I had initially been happy to take it.  However, after he then led us around Thurrock and the fucking Lakeside shopping centre, I was starting to be filled with dread.

I'm not some kind of speed demon by any shakes, but my scooter does not do slow. Not at all. It does 30mph in 2nd, 50mph in 3rd and upwards of that in 4th.
So on finally getting over the QE2 Bridge, I found an excuse to wait for a mate who'd fuelled up and let the rest of the club go scenic whilst 4 of us hit the M25.
Bloody great fun, 65mph round to Clacket Lane Services, with an hour stop for massive brekkie and fuel.
Round onto the A3 and down to a fuel stop at Petersfield. We were at the Ferry port at 11.15.
The rest of the folks arrived at the port in time for the 1230 ferry having made a couple of brief fuel and Gingsters stops.  Total ride time M25/A3 2.15hrs, Scenic route approx 4.5 hours.

The 2 can ferry journey passed off without incident and on to the Hotel in Sandown.  We've been there 4 years now and the Indian folks who run it look after us pretty well. so having removed soaking bike clobber, we sat on the hotel veranda and enjoyed a few cold beers in the warm sunshine.  The weather, thank God, stayed fine all weekend, except one enormous deluge on Sunday morning. Thankfully, we were all tucked up in the wank chariots and missed that lot.
Friday night we headed into Town and caught up with Shane for a couple of beers in the Ryde Free festival, which was an excellent addition to the weekend in my opinion.  Also had a nice chat and a beer with Bish and a geezer called Dog, who was a complete fruitcake of a Sapper (officer as well!).

We then hit the Wight Rock bar to watch a couple of bands before hitting the Ice Stink to watch Secret Affair.
A strange choice of bands for VFM here in my opinion.  And a bad choice of gig for the band.  The Arena is massive and cavernous, and the acoustics are shite.
SA are a band that has for years thrived on quality musical production and their live gigs were always of the highest quality sound.  Not here I'm afraid and after 4 songs me and the lads exited the arena.  The sound was actually better outside.  I did manage to bump into Uggy here though which was good.
So it was Hipshaker next and met up with more of my old pals from the London Mod scene way back in the day, and had a nice dance and a cuddle with my lovely girlfriend, who does the Rally with her sister rather than with the club.
By 2.30 am, a very well oiled crew made its way back to the hotel for some well deserved kippage.

Saturday arrived with bright sunshine...and stayed like it..
After visiting the parts fair at Smallbrook and a walk around Sandown we rode up to Newport and onto Cowes to check out the marina and the powerboats.
Very amusingly, as the 10 of us rode away from the parts fair, some geezer tagged onto the back of us.  Now Smallpox stadium to Cowes is about a 40 min ride. When we parked up, he stopped his bike, looked at us and then put his lid back on and rode off. Wrong Club then mate???

We then returned to Newport and had a superb Italian meal. Really nice and relaxing.  Back to the hotel for more scoops on the Veranda and SSS.
Into Ryde, we went back to the Wight Rock and watched the same bands as Friday, except this time we stayed there.  Till 2.45 AM and got totally trolleyed on Sambuca.
As previously mentioned, Sunday morning saw significant rain hit us, but as we were asleep, it mattered not.
Scooters were firmly locked away for the day, and after a very later breakfast on the beach, we had a game of cricket on the sand.  I am not joking.  This is now the 2nd time my local club has done this, and to be honest it's hilarious.
We all then retired to the front of the hotel as the RideOut was about to come past.
With shorts and Sunnies in place and a cold Fosters in hand, we watched the huge procession of scoots go past.
At this point I will say that we were awarding prizes in the following category.

Fattest bloke on a Scooter
Most outrageous Hobby mod
Most outrageous Hobby mod on a modded up PX
As above on an auto.
Oldest and dopiest looking SkinHead
Best pair of tits.


I've not had so much fun in years to be honest. I'll never do that ride again as we were slaughtering people from the road side (to ourselves I hasten to add).

We had a bite to eat, literally in my case, and then headed down to Ryde for another night on the piss. This time we went straight to Hipshaker and sat in the Garden for hours, talking total rubbish and having fun.
An early night of 0130 and back to the hotel after saying our goodbyes to mates past and present.

The way home was a bit more interesting...not.  I'd decided to join the rest of the club and go back the scenic route.(mental note, never do that again Blocky).

Spence broke down on the way home and needed to be recovered (I'll let him tell that story.), but at 1530, we were still only at fucking Dorking, so me and Craig Leeder did a bunk and went round the M25, eventually arriving in Chelmsford unscathed and dry at 1700.

A quality weekend.