What an event!!! Where do I start on what was a remarkable weekend.
Who would have thought that an idea of Mark Young's and members of the Grimsby and Cleethorpes SC would turn out to be such a memorable and enjoyable experience.
In total I travelled 185 unforgetable miles during this event. Not alot of miles I hear you say, but so much seemed to happen during the whole journey.
Included in the mileage was a meetup at Whitby RUFC with the Dutch Lions SC, lots of members of the Yorkshire Scooter Alliance and scooterists from all over the North of England, who had also travelled in atrocious weather conditions on the Friday and Saturday morning. I was amazed to hear that some of the Dutch guys had travelled over without waterproof gear!
Not for the first time, Fylingdales Moor, on top of the North York Moors National Park, tested my riding capabilities to their limit. Beautiful it is when the sun shines, it can be hell on earth when either the rain, wind, snow and fog prevail. I have had the pleasure of coming off my scoot and sliding along the road towards Whitby in a blizzard, so I know how unforgiving this Moors road can be.
After drying out at Rich Martin's shop, it was time to set up shop at the Rugby Club. Guess who was first there to set up camp and wait for the bar to open? Good old Steve Randall of True Brit fame.
The weather got a little better during the afternoon although the wind picked up as campers battled to peg their tents into the ground around the rugby pitch. Over 270 people arrived to spend the night in Whitby and many stayed in the club house to enjoy our favourite YSA Djs doing their stuff well into the night.
Then on the Saturday morning at 5.45am, after a night socialising with the Dutch guys, I said goodbye to Rich (who kindly put me up in his son's bedroom) and made the awkward ride down the Yorkshire Coast in torrential rain to the Humber Bridge Country Park at Hull to help set up a record attempt across the Humber Bridge.
By the time I got to Hull, my hometown by birth, the sun came out to play and would stay that way for the rest of the weekend. This was just what we needed, because when the sun comes out, so do the scooters. If we were going to smash the previous record of the longest unbroken line of scooters we needed as many scooters to turn up from all over the North of England.
And turn up thay did! From Mid morning they started coming and kept coming.
By 2.00pm nearly a thousand scooters had registered and were strategically positioned, by hardworking YSA staff. They could then feed out in order, after each other, at precisely 2.30pm in the direction of the 2 mile long Humber Bridge just beyond the carpark.
By 2.20pm all the scooters were in place. We just needed someone to lead them all out over the bridge at a set speed of 20 mph.
For some reason I was chosen to lead them out with Big Al from the Bradford Discharge closely following me. No pressure!!
All ready all the scooters had been cranked up and the Humber Bridge Car park began to fill with a low two stroke fog bank around all those that were assembled.
It was time!! 2.30pm arrived and we were off. Everyone cheered, people waved and cameras were flashing, as we left the carpark in the direction of the suspension bridge. What a send off!
Not quite the same, but it was reminiscent of the IOW 2007 attempt at the record.
Speed low, so that everyone was together, we entered the bridge and our own dedicated bollarded lane southbound toward Linclonshire.
People gathered along the full length of the bridge to support us and observe our attempt on the record.
Constantly watching my speed, looking over my shoulder and in my mirror, just to make sure that the line of scooters was together as we crossed the 2 mile bridge span was not at all easy.
My speed on my Garmin Forerunner satelite governed speedmeter varied from 20 to 22 mph. Over my shoulder everyone was together as we neared the southbank and the A15 into Lincolnshire came closer into view.
Ahead was the finish point. The first bridge over the dual carriageway. On it was a finish banner and a multitude of people ready to vocally congatulate us on our achievement.
Gotta say that it was quite emotional passing under that bridge. Dont know why, It felt like I had climbed a mountain and stuck a flag in at the summit!!
The view from that bridge looking down towards the Humber Bridge must of been pretty amazing.
Five miles down the road beyond the M180 roundabout we pulled into Barney's Cafe carpark to congratulate ourselves on our achievement. The word was out that over 840 scooters had formed a line over the Humber Bridge.
Subject to clarification we may well have broken the record. Lets hope so.
What happened next.? Many that had taken part in the record attempt went home whilst some of us continued onto Cleethorpes, to camp at the Stamford Club courtesy of the Grimsby and Cleethorpes Scooter Club. After a night of celebrating our achievement, listening to live music from the Finnlys and top sounds from my good friend DJ Johnny Wood, I was bushed and like a wimp, I sneaked back to my B&B, instead of roughing it with the rest of the YSA crew on the campsite. I slept really well. Back to the campsite Sunday morning, I said goodbye to the Dutch contingent and the YSA guys and was homeward bound. Just time to take a couple of pics of me on the southbank of the humber, before taking the M62 back to Selby in North Yorkshire. An unforgettable weekend I wont forget in a hurry. Thank you to everyone that turned up and made it all happen. Got to thank all the guys and girls of the YSA for making it such a memorable and dare I say a emotional experience. This was a logistical nightmare to organise, but once again we did it. I cant thank anyone individual because it was a team effort. You all know who you are. With so many negative vibes going around in the scooter fraternity, its so refreshing to be part of something that was so worthwhile, positive and satisfying. Long may it continue. On a personal note I have got to thank Rich and Maxine for once again putting me up, rather than making me camp. Hope you got your Coast TShirt Maxine.I know I am a softy but my bad back wont let me camp anymore, Thanks also to Kenny the Beard for carrying my gear. A big thanks to the Humber Bridge Authorities for letting us stage the record attempt. I hope they liked the fantastic trophy that Andy Macdonald created with the help of Rueben I forgot to mention that all the two pounds bridge tolls collected from each participant of the record attempt to cross the bridge will be going to the Air Ambulance charity. What a great cause. Derek Cooper Yorkshire Scooter Alliance Selby Moving Targets SC.