Isle of Wight National Rally – 24th - 27th August 2001
The big weekend came, the weather looked promising, looked like we were set for a good one.
Some of us went down on the Friday and the rest of us on the Saturday. Seemed like Saturday turned out the best day for travelling as Friday saw a little rain.Friday’s travellers were Mark Gill, Bri, Deck, Andy, Andy’s mate, Chris, Michelle, Bri’s mate Steve and his Mrs and Louise. All got down with no problems except Bri, whose engine decided to gradually self destruct on the way down.
First it was his exhaust, which had to be welded up, then his flywheel’s fins decided they wanted to spin at a different speed to the stub in the centre, sheered rivits !!
Luckily Steve and his Mrs had set off later and brought down Bri another flywheel.
Saturday morning came and us ‘remainders’ set off. Us being Graham and Craig on the scooters and Nicola, Linda and Pete in the car. We had a trouble free run down, except a near miss with a road rage incident between Graham and a BMW driver, who wanted to mate his beamer with the back end of Grahams Lambretta. By the time we reached Southampton it was red hot.
Lucky for those who had travelled on Friday, they got to enjoy the brilliant sunshine whilst sampling Ryde’s festivities on Saturday.
Meanwhile, back at the ferry terminal we bumped into Angie and Staffs, who had come down in the car. Graham and I managed to get an earlier ferry than Nic, Linda and Pete in the car, so we got to the site and met up with the others. After catching up on Fridays events we put up our tents and the others soon arrived.
We all got changed and headed off into Ryde to sample the evenings offerings.
We did the High Street pubs, bumping into the usual suspects, Mossy and Marvo included. Nic and I called it an early night and headed back to Kite Hill, Nic’s pregnancy was taking its toll and she was cream crackered.
The others ended up at the Squadron and by all accounts had a reasonable night.
Sunday morning came and we were up and about early.
Some of us headed into town for refreshment the rest of us had brought it with us so Graham and I played chef and served up what I thought was a quite decent breakfast, considering we did it on 2 little stoves.
During Saturday we
all headed off in different directions, Balby and Conisbrough possie went
for a ride around the island, the rest of us headed into Ryde to either
watch the ride out set off, or join in it!
Mark, Craig and Nicola (2 up) joined the ride out which was slow in places, but still enjoyable. The locals certainly make you welcome. We got as far as Shanklin until the heavens opened and it started to pour down. So we headed off into a café and had some dinner. Later riding back via Newport to the site. We had planned to ride round the island and see the Needles, but the weather put those plans to bed.
Graham, Linda, Pete, Louise, Staffs and Angie had stayed out of the rain in Ryde’s pubs all afternoon. Only sensible ones among us !!
So we all met up back at the site late afternoon and caught up on the day’s events.
Later we headed into
Ryde, once again, and did the pubs one more time before going for an indian
where we managed to take over the upstairs of the restaurant. Nice
tukka.
Monday morning came and the Balby and Conisbrough Hunters possie got off first, the rest of us a couple of hours later. Once again the weather was spot on, shame it had to be so bad on Sunday.
Now, we all nearly
got home okay, at least most of the way home that is. Once again,
the gremlins struck for Bri, he holed his piston (Bri’s new hobby).
Deck’s bike seized up and made the final leg of the journey on the back
of a truck.