Meeting at Nigel's House

Sunday 26th April 2009 – A day to remember for me – I actually allowed Nigel to persuade me to tag along on my trike on a Scooter Rally.

Nigel, being an ex-mod in the dim and distant past, has fond memories of smelly two stroke exhaust fumes and Lambretta Scooters, in particular, an  SX200.

He has not grown out of this and all sense seems to leave him when he sees a scooter go passed.  He actually got back into two wheels about 10 years ago when he bought

Mustering at the start

a grown up scooter, a Suzuki Burgman. This eventually led to him buying a bigger ‘scooter’, a Honda Gl1500 GoldWing, from which he has progressed onto the biggest one at this time, an 1800. He still refers to it as his big scooter.

It was announced recently that the North Wales Nomads were holding a Run to Betws Y Coed from Abergele, and sure as eggs are eggs, Nigel was interested enough to want to form a group ride of Wings to accompany them.

The organisers at the start

Somehow, despite my better judgement, I ended up along with Paul and Jan, Ted and Margaret and Den, accompanying Nigel and Joanna, to the start point of the Run at Llandulas.

Despite my trike taking up the parking space of 3 or 4 scooters I was welcomed on the run by one of the organisers, who had a very nice Vespa 4 stroke Scooter, complete with matching top box, and a decent sized motor of 250cc.

In the not very nice inclement weather, the ride set off through to Colwyn Bay via the old road, and continued along the old road to Glan

Parked in the Free Car Park ( for motorcycles)

Conwy, and down the Conwy Valley to Betws Y Coed, where they abandoned their scooters in every conceivable spot, including (and especially,)  the pavement, while the Wings all went down to the nice free car park.

Time for a picnic for the rest of us Wingers while Nigel, the man with a pole, was in his element taking photos of the scooters, and I have to admit, their owners seem to have spent a lot of money on some of them, from the condition and attention they appear to have been given.

They are everywhere!

Many were quite vintage in age and it was obvious that they had been very well preserved and looked after. It was also obvious that the range of owners, like Wingers , goes from the young to the ancient, and also they were just as passionate about their scooters as we are about Wings.

One conversation I heard between two riders sounded exactly like the technical discussion two Wingers would have had over different oils and best tyres.

It was also interesting to see that the clothes from the 60s and 70s were still considered to be stylish enough for scooter riding, especially fish-tail parkas.

Even on the pavements!

All too soon for Nigel’s liking, the scooter riders started to depart in groups to their various home destinations. It was time also for the Wings to hit the trail again. Due to quite heavy traffic and the roadworks on the A55, all thoughts turned to alternative routes – so Denbigh Moors it was again. I managed to lead the solos with my trike and I think it is fair to say I didn’t hold them up.

A nice trip back along the A541 to Mold and we split up our different ways.

I enjoyed the ride and looking at something different. It made a very pleasant change to mix with a different genre of two wheel rider, and to have an insight to their club scene.

Perhaps we should do it more often as a club.