//Reviews
Mersea Isla nd
2006
……………so
leaving Brighton, the four of us started off for Mersea Island. Martyn
and Sam from Goole as well as me and Jeannie had taken a good hour to
get the four scoots packed up and once we were finally off made a wrong
turn instantly! Good start eh. Back on the right road and we made good
time despite my slipping clutch. A diversion around Tunbridge Wells
threw us though and it got a bit messy ending up on the M25 for the last
stretch to Dartford where we got a bit split up. Me and Jeannie headed
on though and although the weather was ok I was struggling with a
misfire and slipped clutch. What else could go wrong? – Ahh of course,
my exhaust could snap!!! And it promptly did. After a hasty bodge of
tying it to the scoot, an inspection revealed a hole the size of a 50p
on the expansion chamber. You know you’re gonnae hear that!!!! Filtering
traffic through Colchester was like Moses parting the waves with a wee
blip of the throttle… magic! Getting to the site and the worries started
to kick-in – how come I’m queuing up to get in behind a row of 4x4’s and
cars???? Surely not. A ride onto the campsite confirmed our fears – when
is a scooter rally not a scooter rally – when it’s a fucking car
rally!!!! Seems this scourge of scooter rallies everywhere has finally
affected Mersea as well. Shame. Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of
scoots but it seemed that the poor weather forecasts had encouraged more
than a few folks to venture down in four wheels. I had a wee word with
Martin Leech from CDVLC and he was well aware of problem but to be fair
they had tried to reward the scooterists with a Mersea patch with
“Scooterist” stitched on it – only available to those arriving by scoot.
Nice touch. Once arrived and set-up, I set off on the hunt for a new
clutch. I had made a few phone calls from Brighton and arranged for a
new clutch to be delivered to me at Mersea from a guy called Al (‘wee
man’ to me) who has just opened a new scooter shop in Maidstone called
‘Celery Scooter Innovations’. 01622 664488. Top bloke – gave me the
clutch at trade price and had it delivered pre-soaked in oil in the
scooterists friendly ‘Vitalite’ tub. Thanks to Nick, Kev and Sidcup for
pointing out Mr H the delivery bloke – nice to meet all you guys too.)
The clutch had also been pre-stripped and checked for bent plates
(something I’ve had problems with new clutches in the past). Cannot
fault service like this and would recommend him to anyone. Jeannies and
Martyns Friday venture into town to buy copious amounts of Strongbow
brought a nasty surprise – there wasn’t much! We secured the last apple
pop on the island (2 crates and 6 big bottles) and started to devour it
like wild bears. The night got messy and for me ended early when I
passed out and was sent back to bed (once again!) The rest of the crew
stayed up and put in a good shift though.
Saturday was once again repairs day and big thanks to Martyn who, on his
birthday and suffering with the man-flu took my exhaust away to a local
engineers and had it welded up nice. Cheers mate. (I was still in bed!)
I then had to fit my new clutch for which I used the now empty marquee,
to avoid the nasty weather and hoped the running repairs would get me
home later. The rest of the day was done in typical Mersea style with a
stonking beer and banana race as well as top entertainment from scooter
game silliness. (Germans take notes for future Sweden rallies – this is
how it’s done!) The afternoon also offered the usual dyno silliness
where for the second year running the top award went to a Vespa. This
time a Mk1 GS160 with 210 reed-valve motor fitted with nitrous. Except
he had no gas left. Unbelievably it managed about 28 bhp without
nitrous. He reckoned it would put out 40 plus with the gas. And – more
impressively he drove it 800 miles from Austria to get there. Respect.
(check the pics). Some of our scoots were dyno tested with more modest
results but fun was had. Afternoon blended into evening with more drink
and daft photos and at some point we had to tie the tents to the scoots
to stop them blowing away! Then we had to tie down the scoots as the
tents were trying to tip them over. Really really windy and I know a few
folks didn’t discover their tents were blown away until later on at
night! Nightmare. The facilities at Mersea are always excellent and this
year was no different with a superb Indian Curry van doing, amongst
other things, a ‘Chicken Ring Stinger’ at £6.00. I can only imagine……..!
Classic quote from a pished Jeannie who ordered nothing but a tub of
rice. ‘Where’s the Soy Sauce?’ she says. ‘There isnae any’, I says.
‘What kinda fecking Chinese van is this like?’ - ‘The Indian kind’ I
says!!!! Classic mongo moment!
Saturday night was all about just moving about talking
shite to different folks in a bit of a pissed up haze. I remember
speaking to Ian and Kate from £150 sheds SC, Earl and Sarah, Blackpool
Phil and wee Colin, Giro, Gary Mac and some others. The sounds were
supposedly excellent all night but I never heard much. I reckon three
weeks of constant rallying took its toll and I ended up crashed out not
too long after sending Jeannie to bed. Martyn and Sam displayed a bit
more resilience kicking the arse out of the night until 5 am. Well done
them. Sunday morning and woke up with a bit of relief to find the tent
still around us. Still pretty blowy though. Packed up for the last time
and decided to ditch the tents anyway. I’m sure we’ll regret it later
but really couldn’t be bothered to pack it all up properly. Anyway it’s
traditional and we don’t like change - haha! This year we were splitting
the journey and staying at Goole overnight so a very windy 220 miles
there (with misfire etc all having it large!) followed by a just as
windy 260 miles home on the Monday. Finally nearing home after 3 weeks
away when what do we see? – signs saying ‘Accident on Forth Bridge’!!
That’s all we needed. Never mind – it’s been a good’un although a bit of
an epic that I think for us two lasted 19 days and 1432 miles (and for
me not an AA van in sight! – miracle.) Roll on Bridlington………!
Dunf
Stats
– Mersea Island – 2 September
Club scooters attending:-
Jeannie-Vespa PX200 (T5172)
Dunf-Vespa PX210
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Photo's
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