We’re skidding quickly towards New Year already and what a year it has been.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that this year felt pretty ‘normal’ at last (or as normal as the life of a scooterist gets). We’d suffered two years of COVID-enforced lockdowns and event cancellations throughout 2020 and 2021. They were followed by another year of trying to get back to how things were as people slowly started getting out and about again.
Mammoth Parts Fair
After the sad passing of Kev Walsh and Eric Tudor, scooter parts fairs disappeared for a while. They’re back with a bang though with Scooternova and EMSA providing two mammoth parts fairs. The next one is at Melton Mowbray on Sunday, March 3rd.
Back to what we know
The 2023 National Rally calendar consisted of eight BSRA events, which included a new venue for Big 7. It was a welcome return to Aberystwyth as well after over three decades. Both events were well received.
It was great for organisers and scooterists to be able to plan events again without the fear of them being cancelled by the government at the last minute.
Trade and Custom Show
A change to the end-of-year BSRA event saw us in beautiful Llandudno with lots of pubs and a great venue that could accommodate all the weekend’s VFM entertainment and the LCGB Trade & Custom Show. The rally and town were buzzing all weekend, which was great to see. We’re back there again in October 2024 and I for one will be looking forward to it.
Col’s factoid: Where are the Vespas?
Col quite rightly pointed out that back in the day geared Vespas easily outnumbered Lambrettas on the rallies, at a ratio of about eight to two. Look at any old rally photos and you’ll see loads of PXs and T5s on a rally campsite, with the odd Lammy here and there. These days the opposite is true and the majority of Vespas are modern autos.
It’s not fair
I always know some random snippet of information is heading my way when Col starts a sentence with “I’m sure you already know this Iggy but…” Invariably it’s the kind of trivia I’d not ever considered. In this instance he was quite perturbed to find on this year’s official National Rally patches, there was only one Vespa amongst eight Lambrettas.
Back in the day patches would usually be alternated with Vespa/Lambretta. As you can see on the board of Paddy Smith’s above, the mix was certainly much more evenly spread back then.
ScooterExpo
May saw us heading to Alfreton for the long-awaited return of ScooterExpo – a joint venture between ScooterLab and Scooternova with the largest amount of custom and classic scooters on display anywhere in the world. The event was very well received and we had some stunning machines on display. You can read about it here and see lots of photos.
Lambretta Euro Lincoln
British Euro fans weren’t quite as excited by this year’s Euro Lambretta on home soil as they would have been to be riding abroad. Even so, Lincoln Showground proved a suitable late replacement for the cancelled Peterborough event (although neither were as exciting as a trip across the water). Our resident anorak, Col pointed out the fact that this was “The first time in the Euro Lambretta’s 33-year history that the event has been back to the same venue twice.” The LCGB committee did well to pull the rally off at all after Peterborough pulled the rug out from under them.
Racing
Aside from scooter rallies, we’ve had lots of race action as well. BSSO and BSEC have given us high-octane freaks a good dose of adrenaline and provided some fantastic race action. Scooter endurance is going from strength to strength and provides a playing field for all riders, no matter whether they’ve been on a track before or not.
Currently, SLUK Racing are in semi-retirement so if anybody needs a rider for next year give me a shout…
The price of friendship
Not everything as a scooterist is rosy though and life throws up challenges and upset along the way.
As a lifelong scooterist, it’s been an honour to meet so many fantastic people over the past 40 years since first becoming obsessed with these unsuitable transportation devices. Chance meetings at events, rallies, racing and through scooter clubs have changed the course of my own and I’m sure your own lives.
Casual acquaintances soon became firm friends, rally mates became best friends and that girl I met in the Barking Smack became my lifelong partner.
As scooterists, we’ve known and grown up with people from our teenage years, all sharing that common bond but now it’s much more than ‘JUST’ scooters. We’re family, and stick together through thick and thin. I’d not want to be part of anything else.
We can walk into a pub at a rally in any town, in any country and know people. If we break down in the middle of nowhere we can get help or parts from fellow scooterists. These once undesirable misfits of society have been brought together by the humble motor scooter. We have hundreds of friends (and many close friends) to show for the massive investment we’ve put into this scene. That friendship is precious but sadly it comes at a price. It’s no shock that the average age of scooterists is getting higher, 60 seems to be the new 40 and we’re losing good people regularly. Attending funerals will soon outnumber attending scooter rallies. Fact. Even in death, we stick together.
Although it’s awful to hear of another friend’s passing, or watch others deteriorate we need to take some comfort in the fact that we’ve shared some amazing times together. We’ve been part of things ordinary people couldn’t comprehend or even believe. Most of these ordinary folk have a handful of friends and have hardly left their own town or village throughout their lives. We’ve travelled the world, had some amazing experiences and have hundreds of friends to share those experiences or memories with. Statistically, that comes at a heavy price but we’re still privileged to have that everlasting bond.
Thanks to you
As 2023 draws to a close we’d like to thank you all for tuning in to ScooterLab this year and say a big thank you to the people who support the website by buying our products. As a free online magazine buying our stuff helps to pay the bills. Also thanks to the contributors, freelancers, photographers and supporters who help bring you the news, rally reports and features.
Merry Christmas
A special thanks must also go to the people who have advertised with us this year, some of them have supported us from day one of SLUK way back in March 2016. We wouldn’t be here without you. If any businesses are reading this and want to get seen by around 350,000 scooterists next year you can get in touch at advertising@scooterlab.uk
Have a great Christmas and we’ll see you back here in the New Year…
Iggy
Happy New Year Iggy and the SLUK team, hopefully see you at a track meeting in 2024