BSRA #4 Kelso National Scooter Rally | RALLERY

Regular readers here on ScooterLab will have likely heard of the Kelso scooter rally, if not attended one or more of them over the years. It’s one of the ‘set in stone’, ‘always on the calendar’ kind of rallies.

Every year, its future existence as a rally is questioned, with rumours rife saying “This is the last one.” And yet, season after season, the Kelso Scooter Rally just keeps cruising along. The number of riders that have attended this rally since the first one in the mid-2000s must run into the tens of thousands, literally.

Four nations in nine weekends

The 2024 rally season is jam-packed with scooter events, including a bumper ten BSRA  National Rallies. So you would surely think that numbers attending rallies would be down on at least some of these events.

Here in the UK, the first three Bank Holidays – Easter and the two in May – seem to come around in quick succession. But, when you consider this year, the Portrush rally was squeezed in between Easter and May Day, it meant that Kelso would be the 4^th National Rally in the space of nine weekends. And the Margate rally in a few weeks, is the start of three National Rallies in a five-weekend period. Added to this, is the large amount of club and members’ rallies that take place. A scooter rally-goer’s lifestyle is neither cheap nor boring.

Scooter only entrance

The showground at Kelso is a great venue, and one of the plus points of visiting somewhere regularly means that the rally organisers can make tweaks and positive improvements after each rally. This year’s decision to make the main entrance a scooter-only entrance worked very well. Visitors in camper vans and motorhomes were guided to a different entrance gate. This simple, but effective, change made arriving on to the campsite a whole lot smoother and less congested.

Tom Hingley

A damp ride for many, but the venue’s main building provided good cover from the weather until the worst of it passed. A decent number of pubs in the town entice some thirsty travellers away from the campsite for the evening. But, equally, many stay on site to make good use of the onsite bars whilst waiting to be entertained by the headline act – Tom Hingley (of Inspiral Carpets fame). Friday night really does seem to be the night that ends up being the excessive one of the weekend, and the Scottish scooterists never fail in their attempts to have a party.

Tennent’s breakfast

As Saturday morning dawned, the weather improved. Some campers enjoyed an early morning cup of tea to start the day, but the usual hardcore Scottish suspects start the day with a can of “T” –  Tennent’s lager to be precise. Believe all the stereotypes readers – they’re true!

As the morning arrivals flood through the main gates, the dealer’s village sets up, and the custom show starts to take shape. It’s always housed in the main building, and always neatly and uniformly set out to allow spectators to get a full view around each of the scooters on show.

Varied selection

Entrants looked to be up on numbers from previous years, with quite a varied selection of styles. With so much colour and bling on show, you wouldn’t think that bare metal or matt black scooters would even get a second glance, but quite the opposite. A trio of matt black Lambretta choppers from the Bradford Discharge SC gained a lot of admiration. Subtle and quite plain looking in comparison to some scooters, but reminders of a time when the rattle can ruled the campsite for many of us.

Keep it up

Diversly, the number of full-blown custom Vespa and Lambrettas seems to be on the rise again. A very healthy number of them all aiming for trophies, and the scooterist’s love affair with street racer style shows no sign of wavering all these years on. The cutdown PX ‘Viagra racer’ generated a lot of smiles, especially from the females in the crowds. Traditional geared scooters fitted with motorcycle engines, or automatic scooter engines also seem to grow and grow in popularity.

The one thing that will never be in doubt is the sheer amount of colour our scooters bring to the roads. I defy anyone to think of a colour that isn’t represented somewhere in a scooter custom show.

40 years of Macca

I have always been a massive fan of the Armandos P range Vespa specials in all their guises – perfect tributes to the legendary Sheffield scooter shop. The show featured an original DTC 80s scooter painted vivid red, that one really grabbed my attention and came complete with period accessories. But then strangely my eyes were drawn to the fantastic blue Lambretta GP Animal Instinct, one of the New Breed of DTC specials. This got me thinking that situated a mere six feet apart in the show, were two entirely different scooters painted nearly 40 years apart, both by the same legendary paint sprayer “Macca”. Very few people can boast this longevity in scooter customisation, or indeed such a massive number of painted scooters.

It may sound a little cliched but every scooter in the show was in my opinion worthy of a trophy.

Diverse scene

Equally, the campsite had some very tidy scooters parked beside tents – some previous show winners as well. The amount of modern automatic scooters is massively on the rise also, and not necessarily just the Vespa GTS range. All different manufacturers’ models on show. Scooters that maybe once wouldn’t have seen acceptance on a scooter rally.

Sleeping on the job

While walking around the campsite, I stumbled across a familiar face, and at this point, I ask you to spare an amusing thought for SLUK’s resident rally photographer, Pete Booga Davies. A 400-plus mile journey with his fellow “ever-present” Portsmouth club mates from England’s south coast was a doddle by all accounts. As was a heavy drinking session with them on arrival at the campsite. But poor old Pete’s relentless “Rallery photography antics” got the better of him, and he was found virtually lifeless, or so it appeared, crashed out on the campsite! Thankfully he made a full recovery as the day wore on. And so, thankfully, he will be armed with his camera at a rally somewhere very soon.

Seriously though, Booga goes to great lengths to capture great photographic images of the rallies to share with us all here on SLUK. And, so, if you see him why not acknowledge this and buy him a beer?

The scooterists of tomorrow

From old folks who need a lie down after a beer or two, to young scooterlads like Connor. An 800-mile round trip on his trusty PX but he’s still fresh-faced and ready for a new day. Also sporting one of our fine SLUK ‘Scooterist’ t-shirts. 

Basketcase

The town centre pubs had a very busy afternoon, and before we knew it afternoon became evening. The headline act on the main stage at the showground was Basketcase. These guys really are a rally favourite band. They attend and entertain at more scooter events than pretty much any other act, for one simple reason – they’re extremely good at what they do! If anyone can get a room full of people bouncing it’s this lot.

Silent disco follows, before another night and the rally weekend draws to a close.

A miserably damp campsite with intermittent rain woke many people far too early on Sunday morning. Most were packing up and heading for home, but a fairly large number of riders I spoke to were setting off on a mini tour of Northern Scotland for a couple of days of sightseeing

Third decade

Scooter rallies and the people that attend them may have changed and evolved in recent years, and the Kelso National Scooter Rally is now taking place in its third different decade, which is a very scary thought. But it would seem a very odd BSRA rally calendar of rallies without Kelso. Can any Scottish venue replace it? I doubt it.

Behind the scenes

Thanks go out as ever, to the entire Scottish Number One’s committee that make this rally what it is. It would be delusional to think that it just takes a few people in Hi-Viz vests to stand around for a few hours to make everyone smile and enjoy their weekend. The behind-the-scenes work and planning of this massive rally surely outnumber the number of actual hours we are at the showground enjoying the rally. And for that very fact alone, we applaud you.

Words Col

Photos Col and Booga