Argh! The Mods are back!

Well I took Mrs captainsmelly to Isle of wight this weekend for her birthday. I was going to take photos but I forgot to so there are no photos of the Island or my bike or any of the normal carp. BUT I really should have seen what was going on this weekend, it seems there's a massive scooterist meet. Grown men in parker jackets everywhere, a cloud of 2 stroke oil smoke above the island and people asking me 'are you here for the scooter rally dear?' Do I fugging look like I am.
Actually looked loads of fun, some of thier bikes were really cool and the best bit is that I totally had the biggest bike around. Which made a change.

I see them riding round in packs from time to time in/around London, and it is quite nice to see.

Funnily enough, they're actually the reason that I got into bikes - well my friend at uni was from Brighton and suggested we get 50cc scooters cos she was really into the whole mod thing, then i (wisely!!) had second thoughts and opted for a 125cc bike instead...

I met one at a garage at Newark on the A1, the conversation went like this:

him - i like your bike, its a 600 'innit?
me - no its a 650, like it says here (pointing to sticker)
him - ah, but its new right? its so clean!
me - no, its 2000! im just lucky to have spare time to look after it
him - its a triple, yeah?
me - no, v twin!
him - i know about these things cos im about to do a huge rideout down to the Isle of Wight on my Vespa 200
me - wow, that sounds great fun, im sure it'll be a good weekend ......

Anyhow, this guy was a stereotypical trucker, must've be nearly 20 stone and the thought of him on his scooter dressed in his fishtail parker and mod finery definitely made me a chuckle. But at the end of the day 2 wheels are better than 4 whatever form they may take so it sounds like he probably had a good weekend with lots of his mates.

Thats interesting cos i saw some of em going back down the A12 yesterday in a pack . Looked good...

Makes you think - if you were 17 in 1963 , would you have been a Mod or a Rocker ? I think i would have been Mod - the clothes , the music, the city vs country, but dk about the scooters , i would have wanted a Bonneville , least i want one now !

anyone know if that was allowed ?

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[ophic]

Originally Posted by Bluewolf

Rocker. Without a shadow of a doubt

yeah you'd made one helluva'n odd looking mod, it's true.

When I was riding to Scarborough for the racing last month I got a whiff of 2 stroke in my nostrils and wondered where it was coming from. About half a mile down the road there was a convoy of around 12 scooters. They look nice and all but they were only doing 45mph and were holding a lot of traffic up. Full on quadrophenia jobs, loads of lights and mirrors. They looked great but I wasn't riding along behind them. I just overtook at a sensible pace and gave them a wave then was off on my way.