Like many of our readers, I’ve been doing this for a very long time but there are certain rallies that still get me excited. Weymouth is one of them.
First resurrected by the lads and lasses of South West Scooter Clubs back in 2022, we’ve since paid a biannual visit to this lovely seaside town in Dorset.
Topless scooter rider causes a stir in Dorset!
Garage gremlins
With Great Britain experiencing a heatwave like no other, it was no surprise to be getting ready with summer gloves and jackets for this one. None of our group of four even bothered to pack any waterproofs (usually a sign of impending doom).
All ready for the off, I kicked my Series 1 up, or at least I tried. Garage gremlins had decided to eat the kickstart piston since I parked it up after Porthmadog five days earlier. With 230 mostly motorway miles to cover, I wasn’t going to risk it (or at least not after my new wife said I wasn’t allowed), so I quickly swapped my luggage over to Linsey’s Series 2 for a 2-up ride instead. That probably saved us enough fuel and oil to fix my scooter and have change leftover.
Park at your own peril
Aside from being very warm and moist on the inside, the ride went well, and we arrived in Weymouth for around 4 pm, parked up on the pavement outside our B&B and headed into town after a quick shower.I think we all know we’re running a risk when parking somewhere we shouldn’t, but we hope common sense will prevail and the local council will suspend usual parking restrictions.
Which do?
SWSC use a couple of venues for their evening dos, and they also try to ‘cajole’ local pubs into cooperating by running any live music earlier than 9 pm so it doesn’t interfere too much with the rally.
Gloucester Soul
The nearby Gloucester pub was heaving and would later become the venue for the soulies to shake their talc around. Down towards the harbour, The Pavilion was the place to be if you wanted to see a live band or enjoy a more varied selection of music.
Campsite
A traditional seaside summer rally needs a campsite, and the Rugby Club was commandeered by SWSC for the weekend. It’s a decent enough place for a campsite, has plenty of space for a custom show and the traders can also ply their wares.
Daytrippers
The campsite was also the meeting point for the afternoon ride out; it was very well supported with hundreds of daytrippers bolstering numbers and giving the tourists something to point camera phones at. We were sat down by the harbour when the ride out came through, and there were loads of scooters, almost 400 by the official count. Always good to see.
Blessed
Saturday afternoon, sat by the harbour with friends, just watching the world go by whilst taking part in a little drink or two was one of those times when you know it’s great to be alive. We scooterists are blessed with the places this mild obsession has taken us to and the friends we’ve amassed along the way.
A life well travelled
In the past few weeks, it’s taken me on a road trip to Austria, I married the girl I met in the Barking Smack 27 years ago, went on a long weekend/honeymoon with a few thousand Vespa fans in Rome, had a weekend in Wales and went down to Dorset.
During my active scootering life, I’ve visited most parts of the UK and lots of places in Europe (or further afield) and have friends in most towns. I’m sat here on a beautiful day, with friends from England, Belgium and France, knowing I can walk into any pub in any far-off rally town and know somebody. We’re sitting around discussing events next year in France and Italy, knowing that we’ll have plenty of other adventures lined up before then.
Aside from a plethora of insults, inebriated scooterists like to push their physical limits from time to time…
Hurty words
The afternoon saw us sampling a few more bars along the beautiful harbour; conversations got dafter by the pint, and topics ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, with insults bandied about in a manner that only scooterists would appreciate. The harsher the better. If the hurty words police turned up on a rally, they would have a field day!
Jay was drinking for a sprint rather than a marathon, bed before dark…
Time out
As evening became night, over-exuberance meant we had to put one of our friends to bed early before we headed up to The Pavilion, and another was tucked up before 10 pm.
It’s coming home
Tonight’s live band were Dad Manners, a healthier-looking tribute to Buster’s finest. They sounded great and performed well, but sadly it was to a sparse main room audience. The odd few were up dancing, but the majority were standing around the perimeter. The evening wasn’t helped by England playing in the World Cup play-offs; around 150 were sat in a room upstairs watching the game. Football is a sure-fire way to kill a do.
Sleep easy
With a decent night’s sleep, a full English and the scooters packed up, it was time to mosy on out of town. We’d heard a few scooters had parking tickets issued over the weekend (it was fairly isolated and they were only ticketed after a complaint to the council). Thankfully ours weren’t done. A couple of traffic wardens sauntered past as we were getting ready to leave; they exchanged pleasantries and asked if we were leaving. Whether or not they’d have slapped a ticket on us will never be known.
Refunds
A social media outcry, a local paper, and public support after the event led the council to do a U-turn and agree to squash any fines. A great result by SWSC and everybody else who complained. If you did receive a ticket over the weekend, you still need to pay it and then claim it back from the local council.
Homeward bound
With the rally over quicker than I’d have liked (another day by the harbour would have been perfect), we started our hot ride home. Jay’s PX started playing up around 30 miles out of town; we pulled over and thought we’d fixed it, but he vanished soon after on the M27. We pulled over and gave him a call; it sounded terminal, and he told us to carry on. This was at 12:30 pm on Sunday.
Not fit for purpose
His recovery service, Autonational Rescue, messed him about all afternoon. After a few hours of being sat in blazing sunshine, he was taken off the motorway and dumped at the nearest services. Then he was pushed from pillar to post, and at 1:45 am he was told to book into a hotel at the next services he’d been taken to. He finally got home at noon on Monday, after five breakdown trucks.
How bad have our breakdown companies become? During the same weekend, somebody with the AA was stranded for 19 hours on the way there. It’s getting ridiculous. Let us know your good and bad breakdown stories in the comments below.
The fifth emergency service
Now down to two scooters, we carried on and had a decent ride until we were about 45 miles from home. Matty’s SX decided it wasn’t playing any more and conked out on the M1. Rather than him waiting for one of these dodgy breakdown firms, I rode home, picked up my van and went back to collect him. At least he could rely on this breakdown service!
All in all, a great weekend in one of my favourite rally towns. Well done to all the SWSC for helping to keep our seaside rallies going.
Words: Iggy, photos, Booga & Iggy
Weymouth 2028?
SWSC have already released the date for Weymouth 2028. The rally will be held over the weekend of 14th-16th July, make sure you’re there!
