RIDE THE LIGHTS
It was a really lovely balmy evening by the coast, proving that sometimes you can have an event quite late in the season and not get piss wet through for your trouble. Yes. It was time again for the annual meet up and ride along the prom, courtesy of the Coasties. Each year more and more people are turning up from further and further afar to conga along the prom at Blackpool. According to Howard there were about 140 this year and I have no reason to doubt him at all. Some hardy souls had ventured ‘cross the Pennines from Yorkshire, which is a fair trek from there to Blackpool at any rate.
The meet up location was at the same place as last year, the Tramway pub at Cleveleys; it has a good-sized car park, is easily seen from the main road and has the added bonus of serving up teas, coffees and the like. The route taken was led and ushered by a select band who kept the rest in some semblance of order.
Out from the pub carpark, down the main thoroughfare, a couple of traffic lights and dog legs then it’s onto the prom proper. The destination for the stream of scoots was the Soul Suite, pretty much mid-way down the prom; this too had an ample area where the scoots could be pulled up. Meandering through the growing crowd, I couldn’t help but notice that a lot more of the ‘old school’ boys had turned up on modern automatics, predominantly Royal Alloy and Scomadi.
Now I know that the auto is a marmite point, so I decided to find out more. One chap arrived on a bright orange Scomadi 200LC. It turned out he’d had all sorts of scoots before, but this Scomadi had by far been the easiest to live with. The acceleration was fine as far as he was concerned and the handling beats any prior scooter he’d owned, hands down.
The only problem he’d had was a noted one to do with the 200 – the warning sign being oil appearing in the air filter. Once contacted, the dealer promptly turned up and fixed it. This is what it’s all about. Near enough any new marque will have teething problems, but with decent dealer care there isn’t really an issue.
I think my non-too outrageous past prediction of more and more autos appearing on the scene is coming true… now if we could only get more of the younger element involved as well… hmm, one to consider for the next ride the lights?
Words and Photographs: Rik