I was 16 at the time and had a Lambretta J125, not on the road, I had to be content on riding around my dad's field until I reached 17.
Me and couple of other lads were told by the older lads in the local scooter club to be at the town centre and we'll get a lift on the back of scooters. On the morning of the rally we turned up early, but alas, no spare places for us. We were gutted…………...
We were still up for it, so decided to hitch-hike the 70+ miles to Keswick (that in itself was an adventure!). We got there at dusk and had just enough time to look around the all the scooters parked up in the car park.
The next thing I remember is the trouble kicking off…….. and here's us three 15 / 16 year olds miles from home not knowing how we were going to get away from Keswick and the trouble (molotov cocktails etc etc). We start to walk and eventually got a lift from some lads from Leeds / Skipton area. Complete strangers to us three.
My best memory of that night was riding through the dark country roads being pillion rider amongst a load of scooters. My first experience, we seemed to be flying in the dark and can still remember the noise of all the scooters as they sped along in the dark. I LOVED IT!!! Still remember it to this day.
That night we all ended up staying at a stranger's house who let us in, some lads camped on the house owner's front lawn and the rest of us stayed in his front room.
Of course, this was just the first of many, many adventures I would experience doing scooter rallies over the years.
…………… and I still get excited the night before a rally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
