insured

Mersea
Island2005
Island
2005
With hardly time to unpack from the IoW,
the next instalment of a hectic ‘scooter
boy’ lifestyle was upon us. Mersea Island
is in its 13th incarnation, and over the
years has set the standards of UK club
rallies. The event is always well attended
as it can be done on a budget.
Our group set off on the 30-mile trip from my
house to Mersea Island. The campsite was not open
until 11am, so we weren’t surprised to find early
arrivals encamped outside the main gate. Swapping a
reasonable £15 for entry (including rally pack, stickers,
programme and wristband) we were directed to the
camping area. Large groups of German scooterists
had already ‘invaded’ and staked their claim. We
quickly set up home in our usual position. Within no
time we were joined by fellow automatics Jessie and
Mark as well as a small posse who had spent the ‘inbetween’
week sampling the delights of France.
By late afternoon all corners of the large field were
occupied. There was a good turnout from the Darkside
and most other groups had at least a couple of autos
in their midst. The organisers have always prided
themselves on putting on a complete event, and this
year was no exception. Entertainment tonight
consisted of four venues, 10 DJs and live music,
starting at 7pm and continuing till the last person
drops! We decided to pace ourselves and try to not
be completely legless by 10pm (well the thought
was there)! We chose the on-site bar as a central
point so we could dabble in each of the rooms as
we pleased. The live band, Uncle Bob, did a good
job of covering various songs from bands such as
the Small Faces to The Killers.
At some point, during the late evening/ early
morning, we staggered back to our tents for some
sleep. But the sounds were still ringing across the
field throughout the night, and the next morning the
venue was still packed with zombie-like ravers
dancing away to a multitude of strange tunes from the
even stranger DJ, Dangerous Dave Porter. I took a
short ride towards Colchester to stock up with beer
and get some rolls for breakfast but the on-site
canteen and tea/coffee stall was into action from 7am.
By the time I had returned the dealervillage
was already trading.
The unmistakable noise of
screaming engines could be heard
from the dyno behind the main hall.
After a liquid breakfast we gathered
up the troops to see who would
perform the best and silence the
critics. Rounding the corner it was
excellent to see a full line-up of
machines ready to partake in the
mêlée. These included a brace of
Dragsters from PSN; a Yamahaengined
Rossa Lambretta;
Freestylers’ newly road tuned Italjet; a Teutonic small
frame Vespa with a rather large carburettor; a couple
of Hybrid LambrAutos, plus a mixture of more trad
custom and classic machines. So the fun began, and
the assembled masses placed their bets! First up was
the Speed Demon Delirium NOS Dragster, which did
not sound at all well, and
was well down on previous
results. Perhaps a winter
rebuild is on the cards?
This was followed by a
mixture of machines until
finally, just before lunch,
the big four stood up to be
counted. The Lambretta
Rossa sounded nice, but
was unimpressive; next the PSN-tuned Dragster
belonging to Paul Robinson pushed out 33.9
bhp/105mph; this was followed by Andy Pearson with
a sidecar outfit race engine clocking 33.5/128mph
with 22bhp left on shutdown. Surely nobody believed
the small frame Vespa could cope with this? If there’s
one thing I've noticed over the years at HiH sprints, the
Germans know their stuff with Vespa tuning. This
machine sounded like a beast and the 37bhp reading
proved this. Not to be outdone, I must say I was
impressed with the double doughnut performed by
Andy after his run on the Tarmac area next to the
dyno! The power of his machine was awesome and it
was nice to see the faces of the uninitiated watching a
non-geared moped frighten fully grown men!
After lunch the fun-games started with a scooterist
‘It’s-A-Knockout’, including the fabled Beer & Banana
race. This was followed by a large and well attended
outdoor custom show. As usual the standard of finish
was mind-blowing and many of the
entrants deserved to win more than
they did. The venue also provided a
large-screen television to allow
punters to watch the afternoon footie
match between England and Wales
but, due to the gorgeous weather,
most people spent the afternoon
outside with a cool beer topping up
their tans.
The evening do started around
7pm, the live bands tonight being
Grasp, Rinaldi Sings and The
Foundations. These all kept the
adjacent marquee like a sweat box and as usual the
bars did a brisk trade. Outside the halls an excellent
atmosphere filled the air and it was good to see lots of
faces from the previous week catching up on gossip.
So there you have it, another mad
August/September
week over, now I must
have some sleep
before the next outing.
The only problem
being to what stage
do I get PSN to tune
my engine so that
next year I can mix it
with the big boys!
Dinnertime Dave
40 NOVEMBER 05