As we were fitting said bracket I discovered that Big Rob (oh he of the reluctant pancreas) and Pam had taken in a Swiss stray called Luka. Fair play to the bloke, it was his first time on the IOW and he had ridden from Zurich to the island on a Mark I P range vespa with a 125 lump in it! Only took him 2 days to do the 700 odd miles.

After a good old chat and a pint of Guinness, courtesy of Big Rob, it was time to get our stuff into the digs, get sorted and come out again to play. Unfortunately the landlord wasn't ready for our midday arrival, but no matter we were able to put our stuff away safely anyway and come back later when the rooms were ready.

Out to play again and look around the green and surrounds where more and more scooters where parking up and the sound of scooters, the smell of two stroke and the sights of lovely women were all around.

There were 2 major things i noticed different on the island this year from my previous visit, the first being the women. Now, any honest bloke that was on the island and wasn't gay (so that's the belgian bloke out) will admit, even to themselves that the women on the island this year were top class. I'm not saying that women in other years weren't, or that they weren't making an effort but this year it was just more somehow. As a side note, if any women reading this are offended at my seemingly chauvinistic remarks, then get back in the bloody kitchen now!

Where was I? Ah yes, the other thing that was noticeable was not so pleasant. Not that it was bad, just that there seemed a very definite police presence on the island this year. Yes they have been present in years gone by but this year they were more obvious. On Sunday alone, I saw a scooterist pulled by a copper in a Volvo on my way to the Tesco near St. Helens, and even on the rideout later that day, a guy in a Vespa Combo was pulled at Sandown by a copper on a bike. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't have been, I'm just saying their presence seemed more "in your face" this year.
Some people would say it's a good thing, but then some say I'm the gangster of love. (I'll get me coat).

Swiftly moving on.

Back on the green we found out that the parts fair at the speedway stadium was on, despite my thinking it was only open on saturday. So, onto the scooters and off to the parts fair were it was £2 for an in, which didn't count for the Saturday or Sunday. Not only that, but I discovered after catching up with Quincy that he'd gotten some sort of VFM goody bag for his £2.

We had a good mooch round the parts fair which was fairly quiet given that it was the Friday and there were several good stalls, selling everything from badges, clothes, parts and accessories to Dobbin working on scooters with his arse hanging out. The girls bought some bits, I got my IOW 2006 rally badge, as did Quincy and Chalky got some LD tools and bits. It turned out later that Pete had also been, he'd bought a complete new Rapido kit as the rings in the old one had disintegrated, ruining both barrel and piston.

And what happens Sunday? 'Tis rideout day!!
So following a lovely fry up, scoffing it down my neck, sitting beside Squirrel who prodded his food in only the way a man that looks like he could spew any second does, I went back upstairs for a wash, shave and put on my camo's, docs and Pilgrims shirt. And that's where it all fell down, both shirts were covered in Guinness; bugger! The only other clean shirt I had would have made me look like a cross between Chalky and action man.

So, it was off to Tesco's for a cheap white shirt and a couple of litres of fresh fuel just to be sure. While filling up I say Icky and Squeaky who were leaving the island, good to see you guys!

We waved goodbye to Luka who was heading for the cross channel ferries and carried on our way, mainly riding as two groups as Big Rob was 5 up and an SX200 gearbox wont happily pull 4th on some of those hills.

When we stopped at the services on the A3 it was evident that some scooters were experiencing problems. Smokey Joe's cutdown was acting up as if it was cutting out intermittently. Checking the plug found it was running slightly lean, so checking the exhaust nuts found that they needed pinching up a little. We also double checked the float bowl of the carb, but it was clean as a whistle.
Pete had had a puncture but fair play, the scooter was going ok considering he was running the new Rapido he had put on it on the island only three days before.
Paul from the Luton Lambretta Club had been spotted in a layby earlier with problems but was now running ok and that was it, until we all fired up and someone's scooter made a horrible crunching noise.

Looking around it was Dr Feelgood's GP. It would start fine, there was a slight whirring noise from the kickstart area which could be the kickstart piston just slightly rubbing, but when he revved the engine and let it idle and die, as it did so there was a short crunch! Bugger. A decision had to be made, carry on or van it. Not being a man used to the interior of vans, he thought he'd chance it.

Again we settled into groups and I ended up with the Quincys, Smokey Joe, Pete and the Doc, though then suddenly Pete was way back and then the Doc was traveling just a little slower than the main group, though never more than a few minutes behind. We nearly lost Smokey Joe at one point when he was well ahead on the stretch of the M25 where there's 6 lanes and the nearside 2 go to the M40. I think he was concentrating on his scooter too much because it was a real Evil Kinevil maneuvre when he realised he was on the wrong route, swinging across both lanes, onto the hatching area, into the layby, a quick lifesaver again and into the first lane!

On the M25 and Smokey Joe's scooter did it again, but the plug was a nice brown colour this time as we checked it with the lorries going past us at well over 60! We also checked that the breather in his fuel cap wasn't blocked which could cause a partial vacuum and cause fuel starvation intermittently. With this done, and the Doc joining us on the hard shoulder, it was time to think about whether to stay on the M25 or come off due to the junctions and not wanting it to happen again if we we had lanes veering off the motorway onto other junctions. Sod it, seeing as we were nearing Watford we figured the last major turn off would be the M1 so shouldn't face the problem at all, we'd crack on to St. Alban's for fuel. Of course, things went a bit tits up there.
Smokey Joe was in the lead approaching the St. Alban's turnoff, then the Quincys with me bringing up the rear as I had no idea where we were. Now, either Quincy was daydreaming, or he figured it was the wrong junction to St. Alban's because Smokey thought it was the right one, I'll never know, but we stayed on the M25 and past St. Alban's. I was confused as was Smokey Joe I suspect as he caught up and a few miles further on we came across another St. Alban's turn off and this time we took it. We ended up at a petrol station to top up and it turned out that we should indeed have taken that previous turn, still, a quick look at the A to Z in the petrol station soon showed us a quick route to the A1 and homewards. The trip up the A1 was uneventful, though a bit blustery with the wind getting up but we were soon at Biggleswade where we left the Quincys, then onto the Bedford Road at Sandy and suddenly Smokey Joe was waving. I thought at first it was the scooter acting up but he was taking the turn off to Blunham, I waved goodbye to him, carried on to Bedford, got in had a cuppa and relaxed.

Right, who's up for Mersea Island!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!