25 years
Here I go again, constantly banging on about previous scooter rally facts, figures and dates. But surely I can’t be the only person who finds it quite unbelievable to think that the Tenby rally has held National Rally status for a quarter of a century now!
The first one was back in June of 2001, although Tenby hosted a couple of large-scale scooter rallies even earlier, in 1999 and 2000, before rightfully gaining National Rally status.
Welsh beauty
Put simply, this rally is held in one of the smallest towns we visit on the BSRA calendar. It may be small, but it is by far and away the most picturesque town we go to, and it surely has some of the most scenic roads in the UK to ride along when you’re heading to this South West Welsh gem of a coastal resort.
Geographically, it’s also the most westerly destination we go to for a National Rally on the UK Mainland.
SCSW
The Scooter Collective of South Wales are a fairly small group of rally-going scooterists. But the effort they put into the running of scooter rallies in their region of the country is massive. The helpful key information and event details they put out on social media leading up to the rally are second to none.
My journey to the rally was a diagonal line cutting across the UK, from the North East of England to the far South West of Wales. Basically the same route, but in the opposite direction, as the one the SCSW members had travelled to attend the Easter Scarborough rally just 4 weeks earlier.
Not many people beat Col to a National Rally
Early start
I set off on Thursday (as I often do), so it left me plenty of time to cruise along steadily on a small capacity 4-stroke Vespa. Surprisingly, it matched the performance of most factory-standard, traditional-geared two-stroke Vespas that I came across whilst riding along over the rally weekend.
The heavy mob
One thing I hadn’t bargained for was the reception I got when I arrived at SLUK HQ for an impromptu visit. The once very friendly Iggy, whom I always considered a mate and even a boss (of sorts), actually set his guard dogs on me and then got his security guard to slam his tall iron gates in front of me, shutting me out onto the main road. A cold beer on a warm day was my only request.
It seems the head man at ScooterLab UK is saving all of his hosting and greeting skills for his new Italjet UK customers, who, it seems, will be made very welcome to visit. Congratulations on this fantastic venture, Iggy.
Perfect conditions
Thankfully, near-perfect riding conditions allowed a weary traveller (me) to continue my journey for the day without mishap under a glorious, bright blue sky.
The next day, the sheer number of riders heading into Tenby on the Friday morning was eye-opening – reminiscent of the early days of scootering, I would say.
Great campsite
Most rally goers choose B&B or hotel accommodation at the Tenby rally these days, but the town’s rugby club offers a very good camping option with decent facilities and a very warm welcome. This was the third consecutive Tenby rally to use the Rugby club as the official campsite, which also incorporates the outdoor parts fair and custom show for the weekend. Small tweaks have made each visit a bit better than the last. Not forgetting the well-stocked bar as you’d expect at a rugby club.
Heaving
Meanwhile, in town, it appeared that every single hotel and guest house had scooters parked outside, and cliff top railings had scooters chained to them at every accessible point.
Frog march
The nighttime entertainment was spread around town, as it usually is, across three different venues within the town’s narrow, colourful streets. The Devalence Pavilion, the Ex-Servicemen’s Club, and the Rugby/Football Club are all in the general area of the amusingly named Upper Frog Street.
Custom show
Stand out scooters for me were…
Dazzlers Metalflake DTC, Destination Unknown, Vince’s Shed Seven GP, Dave Lloyd’s Rimini 140 lc Lui/Vega, Tony’s Razor Cola apocalyptic bare metal cut down Vespa, old school racing display “Mickeck/MJP Racing” 70s and 80s racing history/nostalgia. Including the yellow SS90 Eddie Dickinson replica.
Ride out
After the custom show, approximately 140 scooters set off from the campsite on the ride out to Cresswell Quay, which is about 10 miles north-west of Tenby. The multicoloured pack of scooters headed through the narrow streets of the small town, causing maximum impact for the videoing and photo-taking onlookers as they passed.
Bank Holiday life
Back at the campsite, the merchandise stall selling the official T-shirt and rally patches had completely sold out by early Saturday afternoon.
Constantly smiling SCSW member, Erica, summed things up perfectly when she said “Tenby is a much-loved rally, as the organisers, we are truly humbled by everyone that supports it, and those that praise our efforts running it, make all the stress worthwhile… but just remember this, no rally going scooterist ever looks back on their lives and fondly remembers the Bank Holiday weekends where they stayed at home and had lots of sleep.”
Saturday night
The Sunday club pub crawl started in the bar of one of the cliff-top hotels situated on the Esplanade, and worked its way through multiple other drinking establishments across the town, finally ending another highly successful Welsh scooter rally.
Crowd pleaser
The large number of sincere compliments and YouTube videos that have appeared on social media since the rally finished goes some way to showing the high regard many of us have for the Scooter Collective South Wales.
The Tenby National scooter rally of 2026 bears little or no resemblance to the first one back in 2000 at the self-contained Kiln Park holiday camp.
It’s fair to say it feels like a completely different rally, but hosted in the same town. But, as good as the first Tenby rallies were, many of the scooterists that attended them seem to prefer the more varied choice Tenby rally offers now, myself included.
One dozen
This was the 12th Tenby National so far, 11 of them being hosted on the May Day weekend, which is virtually twice as many visits than to anywhere else in the UK to host a May Day National Scooter Rally.
Those numbers speak for themselves, really. Tenby 2028? I do hope so.
Ride safe SLUKers
Words Col, image Col & Booga
