Trigger Happy
A voice from the Young Guns SC YGSC European Tour! For most of our party it was their first scooter trip abroad; personally I’d attended several Euro rallies already, although ‘grown ups’ did the planning on those… so this trip was relatively unknown terr
Our group of riders originally consisted of six club members, but by the time of departure it was only five. Myself, Lydia, Scottish Liam, Ben and Jake. Having shelled out a small fortune on the ferry from Hull, we’d decided pretty early on to take in a fair few sites and places of interest while over on the continent. Our itinerary would mean we would take in three countries, and see Scooter Center Köln, Second World War battlefields and an obscure Flemish clock tower…
The night before our North Sea crossing, Liam, Lydia and I were planning to converge on Ben’s house in the rural outskirts of Doncaster. As we set off from Preston, the weather was truly abysmal and the thought of crossing the M62 was not appealing. To make matters worse, I hit problems before even leaving Lancashire… my normally grunty Lammy was spluttering and could hardly pull past 60mph. I went through some mental diagnostics, narrowing it down to either two problems: a failed stator plate, or a loose exhaust manifold. I was close with the latter as my inspections at the next service station identified a seriously cracked exhaust. Not really having the cash to throw at a new pipe, I rang Ben hoping he may know someone who could weld… thankfully he did – his dad!
An hour or so later we rocked up at Ben’s and stripped the exhaust off for the surgery to begin. In the end it needed that much weld that it resembled a piece of weld in the shape of an exhaust, rather than an exhaust that had been welded! Scottish Liam arrived safely, with just some minor concerns about his plug colour (which was rather light). Credit is due to Ben’s parents as they put on a rather nice pasta meal for us all, which was just what we needed after the sodden weather earlier that day. After which we retired to one of the (many lovely) reception rooms in the house and cracked open the vodka. The atmosphere was chilled, or it was until the ghost stories came out. Normally, I wouldn’t find things like that too creepy, but this was a 300 year old farm house with plenty of ‘character’. I won’t say too much, but Liam looked like Casper and was hoping to share a room with someone else…
Fast forward to the next day: we ride to Hull, meet up with Jake, have a meal in Spoons, board the ferry, have a few beers and crash the quiz. What we were all really looking forward to was getting going on the other side, with the night on the ferry merely a means to an end. I don’t think any of us could have anticipated how unbearably hot it was going to be when we landed; it was sweltering! Anyway, I led the charge with my gaffer-taped directions and hoped for the best. It’s surprisingly difficult to navigate abroad. It’s the simple things that make the differences: slip roads, road signs, road markings and place names are all different enough to make things confusing. This first leg of the trip was the highest mileage of them all, 170 to SCK and then another 20 to the campsite.
The heat made the ride almost unbearable; however SCK was like an oasis in the desert! As soon as we arrived Philipp sorted us out with water and cold drinks, just what we needed after sweating our body weight into our riding gear! Philipp gave us the grand tour and it’s hard to put into words how impressive the place was.
Scooters, scooters everywhere, in the office, in the corridors, in the warehouse... basically anywhere you could think of there were scooters! It was also particularly nice that owners Oliver and Ulf took time to share the story of Scooter Center and pose for photos.
Once the grand tour was completed, Liam took his PX into the workshop to sort out his weak looking plug. Here SCK went above and beyond what you would expect from any shop, they helped him strip and rebuild his carb, provided the tools and parts for nothing and taught us youngsters some nifty tricks!
I could honestly talk about SCK for hours it was so impressive, but space is running rather low, so I’ll save that for next time! Anyway the campsite I’d found was great, right on the Rhine... which was ideal in the temperature. Let’s just say we couldn’t resist a dip!
The exhaust needed that much weld, that it resembled a piece of weld in the shape of an exhaust, rather than an exhaust that had been welded!