VCB Western Region Six Counties Ride 2021
Missed a good run due to Covid?… That all changed with the VCB Six Counties Ride!
When the VCB Western Region announced the Six Counties Ride, and that it would correspond with the lifting of restrictions, I couldn’t send my ticket money quickly enough! The idea was brilliantly simple. Sticking to groups of no more than half a dozen, we rode around the West Midlands area visiting a venue in each of the six counties that comprise the region. Get given a sticker at each and register, get sent a patch to show that you visited them all.
There was no set route, no set order to visit them in, and no start or finish time. This complies with all the regulations but gives us a chance to get out, ride and socialise… to a limited extent. I left home at eight, with a steady two-hour ride down to my first stop at Coastal Trippers Scooter Workshop in Tamworth, Staffordshire, a small business run from the back of the house. We were welcomed with a cup of coffee, a couple of other scooter riders were already there, and on their second stop, having been out since nine and taking it steadily.
From there, it was a quick journey across the industrial north of the Midlands conurbation to West Midlands’ 2nd City Scooters and its showroom full of modern Vespas, despite the lovely Spanish Li parked outside.
It was rapidly becoming clear that the GTS series was going to be the scooter of choice for most riders today, its engine and design being well suited to this kind of work. A bottle of water was gratefully received from the shop, and it was time to hit the road again and get into the countryside
– a 50-minute rideout to the Ironbridge Museum at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. After skirting Wolverhampton, it was time to do some proper riding. I jumped on the A5 and headed up through the wonderfully named Weston-under-Lizard, then cut across to Shifnal and on to the A4169. Twisty roads and glorious scenery, beautiful April sunshine and very little traffic, despite it getting on for a Saturday lunchtime. This is the scootering that I live for. An open road, a perfectly performing scooter… How I’ve missed you!
Arriving at the museum, I found my first non-auto Vespas of the day, a brace of well-ridden P-ranges parked up with a beautifully turned-out old timer. A wander round and a bite to eat followed a quick chat with a Facebook acquaintance about another common interest – home brewing! It makes a change from discussing engine tuning, music and making suggestions as to how to repair a scooter enough to get home. Time for a bit of proper cross-country riding now. Sat nav set to ‘shortest route’, I found myself heading up through Much Wenlock, a town that could be used to define ‘quaint’, and then it’s back roads time.
I have to say that the B4378/B4368 stretch is one of the best roads I have found in a long time. Fairly straight, well surfaced, wide and with just enough hills and curves to keep you awake, I could have ridden that road all day. All good things come to an end though, and soon enough I joined the A49 for the run down to Dom’s Bike Stop. This is a brilliant little venue. Just outside Leominster in Herefordshire, and right on the main road, it’s a cafe with outdoor seating nestled among trees, and a very relaxed atmosphere – the sort of place that you’d head off to just for a rideout for the fun of it.
There were probably more scooters here than anywhere else on my ride, but as I was aware that time was starting to get on and I had another two stops still to do, I grabbed a quick chat with one of the event organisers who was pleased with the way it was going, and then it was another good run up to Readspeed in Stourport-on-Severn. More good, fast roads, the warning signs to motorcyclists to take care told their own sad tale. The A4112 led to a short stretch of the A456, then on the A443 and into the oneway circuit hell that leads to the shop. Two wrong turns later and I was there. Only one other scooter was in attendance, although they’d been busy earlier in the day, so it was a quick sign up and collect my sticker, and back off again. It was really getting late by now, so I abandoned my plan to avoid motorways and jumped on the M5/M42/M40 for the last stop at Hatton Locks in Warwickshire.
Sadly, by the time I got there at about half four, everyone had gone, leaving me all on my own. Ah well, I’ve enjoyed the day out regardless, and a photo of my scooter there will suffice. Now, how far is it home? Hundred and twenty-five miles? Best crack on then… too tired by now to trust the motorways, a run up the A46, bouncing the scooter off the rev limiter and bouncing my head off caffeine.
All in all, a brilliant day out. The GTS300 proved its claim to be the mile-muncher of the current day, the modern-day version of the P200 or T5, not missing a beat for more than 11 hours and 500 miles on the road, unlike me who was mildly hallucinating for the last hour. Not great when you’re riding a scooter!
Right, where can I go next?