It was a very special year for me, and, turned out to be quite emotional as well. Once or twice, I had to separate myself from everybody, and compose myself. From the moment we arrived, to the moment we left, the weekend was magical. I can only describe the atmosphere as incredible, the friendship and camaraderie superb. We were all Mods together, and it seemed like we had known each other all our lives. Endless hand shaking, constant “you look good mate”. Getting to the scooters there, nothing short of magnificent some wonderful machines, many museum quality, in terms of restoration and presentation. One stood out, a series two Lambretta in blue and lashings of chrome, wow, what a cracker! I told the owner so. I should also mention the attractive girl from Germany, on her leopard skin Vespa, which she had done herself. I expect we all saw Marilyn Monroe, who looked great, and posed for many photos I should also mention the two Jimmy Lambrettas, both good replicas. We saw all the scenes, streets etc. used in the film Quadrophenia, not forgetting ” the alley”, where we all posed for photos. We also gathered outside the clothes shop Jump the Gun where we met some great Mods, and saw some nice scooters. The weekend passed far too quickly, an experience I shall never forget!
with a very high price tag these days!) It was a very dangerous time to be on 2 wheels back then as we were allowed to get straight onto a very fast bike without what I call proper training, and as a result came off many times but surprisingly with only a few scrapes and bruises! I wasn’t a Mod for long and it was all over too soon when family commitments became priority! Moving on approximately 32 years to 2003, and I decided to try one of the new modern scooters that I noticed were becoming very popular on the road. I enjoyed it greatly but could recall how much more fun it was riding those classic Lambretta scooters!.
Every summer I would ride down to BMAD (Bikers Make A Difference) on Paignton sea front on my Gilera Runner VXR200 and until the summer of 2006 when I pulled up alongside a couple of Lambrettas parked in amongst the Harleys and got chatting to these guys (Will and Ian I think there names were). When they departed, I asked if I could follow them back through town before going home, which I did, and I think it was smelling that 2 stroke petrol and hearing those engines as they pulled away that inspired me to buy a Lambretta again. So you could say that these 2 guys were partly responsible for the birth of our very popular club!