Southern Scoot goes International !
Plans are a foot to attend this rally with the - Modern World Scooter Club – stay tuned !
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The annual scooter rally at Ryde on the Isle of Wight is now apparently the largest of it’s kind in the world, and has been taking place for over ten years. The condition and presentation of some of the machines must surely represent many, many hours of effort for the owners.
It is always a very friendly event, and visitors are free to wander through the bikes parked on the green at Ryde’s esplanade in order to admire them. It is a great spectacle. It seems that Lambrettas and Vespas are just as popular as ever they were!
The scooterists have been coming to the Isle of Wight every August for over a decade and the rally has increased in size annually. Incredibly, 2008’s turnout of around five thousand bikes for the ride-out on Sunday afternoon smashed the Guinness World Record for the biggest uninterrupted parade of machines.
The previous record stood at 449 machines, and organisers VFM confirmed that in 2007 more than 1,100 were present in a continuous line. There were in fact 1,600 scooters in the parade, but as a spokesperson for the scooterists’ organisation VHM pointed out,the rules state that the line has to be unbroken, and unfortunately a car did break the chain.
Other events staged during the weekend to celebrate the International Scooter Rally’s presence on the Island included a scooterist dealers market at Smallbrook, where enthusiasts were able to find everything from scooters to t-shirts and memorabilia on sale. The same location also hosted an end of rally stunt show and fireworks display on the Sunday evening to which members of the public were welcome to go along to.
Besides the rally itself, another not-to-be-missed spectacle of the great bank holiday biking weekend was the International Scooter Custom Show on Saturday daytime at the Planet Ice Arena. This event showcased what had to be the best collection of custom scooters from across Europe and the British Isles ever gathered under one roof, including top custom scooters that cost in excess of £15,000 to build!
With such recognition and a series of prestigious trophies up for grabs, it was easy to understand why owners of some of the hottest scooters around took the trouble to transport their prize processions across the Solent. Multiple classes were set aside for a multitude of extraordinary tastes and innovative ideas spanning decades of scootering lifestyles. For anyone with a previously limited knowledge and appreciation of scooters, the Custom Show, together with the weekend’s varying activities, emerged triumphant in turning heads and transforming attitudes.