BSRA #2 Tenby National Scooter Rally 2018 | RALLERY

Tenby was chosen as BSRA #2 for 2018, it’s one of the most scenic seaside towns in the UK, with a stunning coastline, pretty pastel-coloured cottages and a small but friendly town as well. Hosted by the SCSW – Scooter Collective South Wales, and with scorching sunshine booked the 265-mile ride was one I was certainly looking forward to.  

Club rally

Our club, the Mansfield Monsters, chose Tenby as one of our designated ‘club rallies,’ that means we try to encourage as many of the club members as possible to attend and we also take a back up van (always handy). It was just as well we did because one of our lady members blew her GTS up within 10 miles of setting off. Aside from the odd GTS/GTV and Gilera Nexus we also had a TS1, my Quattrini and the other half’s Lambretta S2. 

It made a welcome change to leave home riding in glorious sunshine and with good weather forecast for the whole weekend. In fact it turned out to be the hottest May bank Holiday weekend since God was a lad.

The first 100 miles for us were a bit monotonous, M1, A42/M42, M5, M50 but once we were off the motorways we still had 165 miles of stunning A-roads to keep us entertained. If you enjoy riding a scooter, this part of the route was fantastic, pothole free roads paved with seemingly perfect tarmac. I’m not sure what the Welsh do differently to us but their roads are fantastic in comparison to pothole ridden England. Aside from the GTS issue early on we had no other problems en-route and I thoroughly enjoyed opening the still fairly new Quattrini 210 up properly for the first time, this thing shifts and makes mincemeat of TS1s and GTS’. Great fun (you can read more about that in part 2 of the Eibar story soon). 

8-hours later

Aside from stopping for a slower than planned pub lunch we didn’t mess around too much on the way there but still didn’t land in Tenby until 6 pm, eight hours after leaving. Scooters were hastily chained up on the pavement outside our B&B (the friendly local council were allowing pavement parking for scooters over the weekend), a quick beer with friends in the hotel bar and a refreshing shower and we were ready to hit the town. There was also a campsite just on the edge of town and as it turned out it was a perfect weekend for camping. 

Tenby is a compact little place so you’re never more than 10-minutes walk from anywhere and the pubs are all decent and welcoming. No wall-to-wall cover bands or over the top scooter themed entertainment, just a good place to have a few beers and see your friends.

Deliverance

Rumours around town were that the main do at The Devalence Pavilion was at capacity, not bad for a Friday but not so good if you hadn’t already got a wristband and wanted to get in. We arrived late and got in ok but quite a few were turned away after us. The venue had half emptied after the band finished so it was hardly full and a better idea would have been to do the old ‘one out, one in’ system to get the late do-goers in and help to create an atmosphere for the DJs. 

Saturday 

We were up with the birds on Saturday morning, a 6 am stroll back to our B&B, fighting with the seagulls for last night’s discarded chips after being cajoled into an after-show party by Col (will we ever grow up?). A couple of hours in bed then up for breakfast, followed by a couple more hours in bed and we were ready for the afternoon around town.

Mod life crisis?

The ride out passed us as we headed into town for refreshments, I’ve never seen so many Scomadis, AJS Modenas, accessorised PX’s and open-faced £30 crash helmets in one place. Middle-aged men (and women) fulfilling a mod life crisis, middle-aged wifes sitting either stony-faced on the pillion, or proper getting into the excitement of their hubbies new found passion. A theme replicated in the custom show where a blue PX with chrome accessories won the coveted Punter’s Choice trophy, a trophy usually reserved for a full custom masterpiece. It just goes to show how the demographics of the National scooter scene have shifted over the last few years and all that glitters isn’t necessarily gold. 

Our afternoon was an enjoyable affair, everybody seemed to be in good spirits and laughter could be seen and heard everywhere you looked. Despite Tenby only being a small town we managed to unintentionally avoid lots of people over the weekend but still managed to have more than our fair share of fun. We also managed to miss out on the do on Saturday night because it was full early on and we opted to stay around the pubs until closing time instead. Although by all accounts the live act, Blondie went down well (especially with the lads). 

Hometime

Sunday was a hot one, perfect for the ride home and the majority of rally-goers had the same idea as us. In fact, the roads were full of scooters for the A-road part of the journey. With beautiful scenery, sunshine and fantastic roads it soon blew the cobwebs away. Our van had two more casualties on the way home, the first was Linsey’s S2 with a suspected oil seal failure, followed by my Eibar… we’ll know what the problem was with that later this week. 

Both scooters need to be back in action and ready for their next adventure three weeks today when we head off to Spain for the Euro.

All in all, a great weekend in a great location put on by fellow scooterists, keep up the good work SCSW.

Words: Iggy, main photos: Booga, additional images: Iggy & Col

Rallery by Booga

Rallery by Iggy

Rallery by Col

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