Quote:
Originally Posted by brando
Scooters were never a good subject to raise with a bunch of old rockers here in Southern England. A historical enmity, based on sharp mohair suits, parkas and excess mirrors; versus leather, grease and, er, real bikes 
But I always had a liking for people who did strange things on two wheels - like a mate who bought a bike and rode up to Yorkshire, in mid-winter, to meet us at the local bikers' pub.
By about 10 p.m. we had pretty much forgotten that he was due, until someone, more sober than the rest, said 'what's that noise?' Big Ernie kicked the jukebox into silence and we all listened........and there it was, the sound of someone strangling a very tired duck, and we poked our heads out into a newly snowy world. Out front was a cobbled courtyard with our bikes parked around, and in the entrance stood a dismal, shivering figure astride a BSA Bantam (a 125cc 2-stroke). It was our forgotten guest, so cold that he couldn't even switch off the engine, let alone dismount. Only his thumb was showing signs of life as he fired off another dismal squawk from the underwhelming 6-volt horn.
We all tumbled out into the snow and plucked him off the tiny bike and carried him into the bar. He was so frozen that we just stood him up against the fireplace, and laughed as the blazing logs thawed him back into the world of pain. Heh heh. After he'd finished screaming we listened amazed as he recounted buying the bike from a famous Chiswick dealership that afternoon and then heading straight off up the M1 from Scotch Corner and up to Yorkshire. Apparently he only messed up once, navigation-wise, but it was enough to leave him on the wrong side of the Pennines. But he pressed on regardless into the darkness, up over one of the most serious mountain ranges in Britain, and only got worried when the blizzard started! How he did it we never really understood, but he was living proof that naivety rules - it was his first bike, and his first major journey anywhere.
To paraphrase Billy Connoly's jojoba shampoo joke - what the f***'s a latte? |
Lol this takes me back to the only (brave) mod in my early 80's time who owned a Scooter ... we hounded this poor lad to extinction in my fair sized town in NE Scotland, there is this road from my town to where he lived that is quite a few miles of straight road ... when we saw his scooter go past us at our resting place in the town we would invariably follow him home and sit behind his scooter with all his mirrors (about twenty of them it seemed) on full beam headlights ... he was flat out at about 50MPH wobbling all over the road
occasionally we'd draw up beside him and reach over and flick his aerials or try to pinch his ignition keys ... All those scooters of the time had lots of mirrors and pointy things.
This went on for a while and I just considered it harmless fun, one night we were doing this to him and one of my mates went too far, he rode along side the guy on the scooter and kicked out at his wobilly machine and the guy ended up in a ditch ... unhurt thankfully as we later heard ... a bit later we heard from friends of friends through the grapevine that this poor guy was absolutely terrified of us and sold his Scooter after that incident ... I feel a bit bad about that.
Some of the Mods of the era were worse than us though and at a rumble they torched a mates bike ... one incident I recall was walking into a music shop in Aberdeen and the place was full of Mods ... there I was with my Biker gear (if looks could kill) I was after the latest UFO (British rock band) album and just shrugged and asked for it ... the owner of the shop was obviously a Mod too, but he sold me it ... bit hypocritical IMHO ... but it was a very frosty atmosphere and I made a very hasty retreat.
BTW Brando ... I rode down to your neck of the woods in 1982 on a Suzuki GS1000 as part of a John o Groats to Lands End run, great part of the country you live in.