BSRA National Scooter Rally #2 – WESTON 2025

Series 1, Series 2 and a GP – a nice range of Lambrettas…

Sunshine, scooters, a 340-mile round trip and plenty of fun at the seaside, what’s not to like?

I’d been looking forward to Weston for a while, and the great weather made the ride down there even more enjoyable. Unusually for us, we were in a mini gang of just three Lambrettas: myself on my cast iron stage 4 S1, Linsey on her RT225 S2 and Mark on his custom GP TSI.

The finest Lambretta

Despite being relatively standard, the engine in my S1 is outstanding. It was originally breathed on by Ralph Saxelby before I bought it, and it’s just beautiful and quick, so there were no problems riding with the other tuned scooters. It really is the finest Lambretta I’ve ever ridden.

We finally saw some other scooters…

The three amigos

The three amigos made good time and arrived in Weston for around 3 pm. During our 170-mile ride, we didn’t see any other scooters until we were filtering through the usual stationary traffic near Bristol. I was beginning to think we’d come on the wrong weekend. We also filtered past lots of groups of Harley riders who were sitting in the traffic, very odd behaviour on a roasting hot day. Their back patch-wearing “Road Captain” was keeping each group safe.

No super unleaded – it’ll only become more regular…

Ethanol

Like many others, we struggled to get any super unleaded fuel all weekend (apparently due to a refinery problem), but the scooters still performed well on E10, and we stuck a bit of additive in to give a bit of peace of mind.

I needn’t have worried; there were plenty of scooters buzzing around town when I got there and the campsite was already busy

North-south divide

I must say, though, that I hardly saw anybody from north of Birmingham all weekend. It seems like rallies are becoming more regionalised at the minute.

Let the good times roll

Having chained the scooters up at our weekend accommodation at Smiths on the seafront, we were quickly surrounded by friends offering beer and good times.

Those good times continued throughout the weekend as our gang of multi-national mates sampled beverages in many of the town’s back street pubs. We got a bit carried away, though, having fun, and didn’t go across to The Pier until close to the witching hour.

Exodus

Either there had been a fire alarm or the band had just finished because we were caught in a stampede as seemingly hundreds of people vacated the venue.

I think the majority of rallygoers treat the do like they would a gig; they’ll watch the band and then rush off to bed for a cup of cocoa as soon as they leave the stage. At Weston (and at many other events), it left the main room pretty empty, which is a. It’s hard to keep an atmosphere going with only a few people scattered around a massive venue.

Note to those types: Maybe have a drink and a dance after the band finishes, enjoy the rest of the night and help keep scooter rally dos going.

Ageing slowly

Luckily, upstairs, the soul room was still very busy with the movers and groovers doing their stuff. On my way up the many flights of stairs to get there, I saw the less able requiring the use of Sherpas to reach the summit, many of them wishing they’d waited in line for the lift whilst gasping for breath or moaning about their varying ailments.

Bring a mate

Age is certainly becoming a factor for many on the rally scene. I’d say 58 is around the average age now, but there are still youngsters coming through and enjoying our great lifestyle. Looking around the campsite, you could see quite a few Vespa PKs complete with ‘L’ plates and various other young scooterists on Lambrettas and PXs. If you’re one of them, try and encourage more of your friends to give it a try. In the soul room, a stunning young modette gave hope for the future and should certainly help to encourage teenage boys onto the scene.

We all started somewhere

I also overheard one young lad in the do telling somebody it was his first rally. He’d come with his mate, who was into Northern Soul; he’d come along for the crack and was loving it.

Daytrippers

Saturday brought with it even more sunshine and plenty of daytrippers to swell the numbers already in town, including Jon, who’d ridden the 270 miles on his own from Hull on his Lammy for one night out.

The campsite was busy and a decent selection of scooters were lined up for the low-key custom show. The good thing with a show like this (for an exhibitor) is you only need to be there for a couple of hours rather than all day, so you don’t have to miss a full day in town if you want to show off your scooter. You can see the results in the gallery above.

Ride out

The ride out brought the seafront to a standstill as it made its way along the coast; a good couple of hundred or more scooters took advantage of the sunny weather to blow the cobwebs away.

Those good-looking athletes from the Reservoir Gods…

Hey ho, let’s go

The bad thing about staying in Smiths is that you end up staying in Smiths! With a great seafront location and plenty of outdoor space and seating, it becomes a meeting point for all scootering’s waifs and strays; no sooner have you started to think about moving on, but another group of mates turn up, so you end up staying. It’s a comfy place to sit outside on a hot day, and we probably had five hours there on Saturday before finally escaping.

Blonde moment

Having extracted ourselves from the hotel bar, we tried a few other fine drinking establishments before heading up to the do at around 9:30, just in time to see Blondie doing her thing to a very busy main room. Once again, after her set, the room emptied, and I found myself in the soul room, where it was still quite busy.

I don’t want to grass anybody up but Wakka started the ‘kill list’…

Top 10

The drunken topic of the night was ‘The 10 best ways to kill Vince.’ It’s surprisingly hard to come up with ten inventive ways to see off a mate. I think we got stuck at number seven.

Unsuspecting Vince gets tipped off on the phone whilst Scott looks on with a knowing smirk…

Luckily, our good friend Vince was unaware of the hypothetical plot and will never know. It’s a good job ‘Tamper with brakes’ didn’t make the list because when he pulled off the campsite on Sunday morning, the front disc brake on his Lammy had lost all pressure…

Note to self: #8 powdered glass in lager.

Like most people these days, Sunday sees everybody heading home – according to somebody who stayed, there were just six hardy campers left by mid-afternoon!

Hometime

After a hearty breakfast on Sunday morning, it was time to load the scooters up, saddle the weary riders and head north once again. Our trusty steeds were only let down by a loose CDI wire on Linsey’s scooter (soon fixed), but other than that, we had a lovely ride home again.

Well done to all the hardworking South West Scooter Clubs for putting on another great event.

Words Iggy

Photos: Booga and Iggy