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Post by stevie on Jun 28, 2011 21:37:37 GMT
day 1
originnally 14 of us were set to go on this epic journey which would take us through scotland, england, holland , belgium, france and back again . But only 6 of us left on the day we were one down already as wee barry hassan had let his passport lapse and couldnt travel what a c*** . myself, garry , robert and big john, headed off for newcastle tommy and karen would meet us in newcastle for the ferry along with the rest of them who had set of the day before to stay in newcastle with friends .
The 4 of us set off from renfrew at 7am travelling down through carluke and into kilncadzow to stop at the famous village bakery which served cakes and savouries off desperate dan proportions so with sausage rolls , pies and cakes bought for the ferry journey ahead we set off heading through some of scotlands most beautifull scenery towards peebles where we filled up on fuel . jedburgh was our next stop for fuel before travelling through kielder forest and arriving at newcastle in plenty of time for the ferry to ijmuden , a visit to motech scooter shop in byker for oil and spare bulbs for our scooters then across to KFC for much needed nosh before heading to ferry port to meet the rest of the lads and lassies . The ferry port was heaving with power rangers as it was the bike race in assen in holland , so we boarded along with the leather clad lovelys , tied down the scoots and headed to our 4 bed bunk room, myself , robert ,garryand john shared this room so with showers had and a quick change we headed for the bar and after a good few shandys later the band came on a 5 piece band 4 guys and a dark headed latin looking lovely who was squeezed into a pair of black leggings the men amongst us couldnt help notice she had a f***y like a beetle bonnet . The band were good and played a varied set entertaining all amongst us , then it was time for the bingo where we came up trumps winning 40 euros also big tommy won 50 euros in a raffle draw "RESULT" . After a good few more beers big marty went to the duty free and bought a huge bottle of grolsch and started drinking it in front of the big blonde bar manager who looked like dolf llundgren He quickly sent over the wee phillipino waiter to tell us to remove it to ur room or he will confiscate it , so what does marty do ? he goes outside onto the deck with it and chaps the window and draws the attention of big dolf to himself drinking the huge bottle of grolsch and smoking a huge reefer even big dolf burst into a fit of laughter along with all of us . the band came back on for a second spell and had all the leather clad lovelys up dancing together in their alpine stars boots strutting their stuff to YMCA , so i did what i do best and took my chair and sit on it in the middle of the dancefloor dancing with the power rangers within 10 seconds i had emptied the floor to the applause of the hords within bar area another RESULT !!
It was time for us to hit the sack as we knew the dutch police would be waiting for us in the morning as we were coming off to breathalise us . DAY 2 TO FOLLOW THIS
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Post by stevie on Jun 28, 2011 22:55:08 GMT
DAY 2
We were woken up by the sound of the tanoid letting us know we had docked so we got ready and headed down to the deck and got the scooters ready for the journey ahead , once off the ferry and through passport control as i said we were all met with the dutch police who breathalised everyone F**K me was i worried as i had had a skinfull the nite before but i passed it thank god. As i waited on the rest of them i remembered marty was next to get the test how he passed it i will never know !! Nine of us on traditional scooters except big tommy and karen who were on the piaggio beverly set off together the other four who were on GTS,S went on seperate ways . craig had set a route out travelling along the dutch coast and taking a small ferry crossing which had us laughing as bikers were charged €5 and as the dutch classed our scooters as mopeds we were charged €1 .15 cents another result . Once over the ferry we carried on through beautifull little towns full of character and charm but trying to find road signs that was a different story !!! we ended up lost a few times and had a few small breakdown problems as well , before heading for the temeuzen tunnel which passes under the sea and was 6kms long a great bit of engineering indeed . Once we were all travelling through the tunnel which would take us within 30 minutes of the belgian border our worst nightmare just happened big roberts lambrettas gp engine decided to give up the ghost half way through and as there was no hard shoulder to pull into so we were at the mercy of the speeding dutch drivers and deemed it to dangerious to stop only big john pulled in to try and help robert . The recovery services were soon on the scene as we waited at the other end of the tunnel there was nothing we could do so robert urged us to carry on as he would get recovery home .
So we set off again and eventually crossed the border and into belgium it was now approaching 9pm so it was quite clear there was no way in the world we were going to make the rally in france !! So we tried to find a campsite but before we could big johns stator plate packed in luckily for him marty pulled one out from his MR BEN BAG , scooter fixed it was really getting dark now so we pulled into a little town called zelzate and looked for somewhere to camp we thought we found somewhere but it was full off roman gypsies so we didnt take the chance and with nowhere to go we remembered our good belgian friend donald from the dirty devils sc whom we had befriended at our rally in rothesay a few years before .
A quick call to donald who stayed in GENT which was only 20 mins away from where we were , Donald came up trumps not only did he meet us but let us stay in his house which he was renovating it was a massive property that not only accomodated our seven scooters in the basement but could accomodate another dozen easily . Once we had settled in upstairs donald took some of us for kebabs and beer and brought them back for us to munch on .
As i said before this house was huge with plenty of rooms with only one being locked it was at this point we told big marty who was known to participate in the smoking of a certain plant purely for medicinal purposes of course !! that behind the locked door we could see a lot of plants and bright lighting . Now anyone that knows marty will tell you hes that laid back hes horizontal !!but you should have seen how fast he moved in excitement at what lay beyond the closed door , much to his dissapointment we were only joking with him ..
Donald agreed to come round the next morning at 8.30 to give us breakfast so we thanked him and tried to get some much needed sleep ... DAY 3 TO FOLLOW
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Post by stevie on Jun 29, 2011 8:42:01 GMT
DAY 3
As promised donald arrived at 8.30 with bacon , fresh bread , jam , nutella and belgian chocolate and to top it all fresh free range eggs from the 5 chickens he keeps out the back .
Fed and watered we decided to play a wee prank on big john whos lights on his p200 had been playing up we told him we had fixed them , he thanked us and went down to the basement to check out our handywork , all we had done was stick a 60 watt house light bulb to his headlight with masking tape the big man seen the funny side of it . It was now 10am and the weather outside was like a grey dull dreech day back home in scotland , Donald insisted on a photo opertunity at the front of his house which we duelly obliged to, that done it was time to set off for the rally in amiens france . we said our goodbyes to donald whos kindness and generosity went beyond our expectations. We were of again sticking to the small roads of the motorways to take in some of the stunning little villages and towns that were on our route .Villages that were like something out of a picture postcard with manicured parks and ponds with wildlife in abundance and buildings with grand architecture .
One little town that caught my eye on the way in was OCHRES on the sign i noticed the scottish saltire proudly displayed on it and in amongst the french words i noticed the word KELSO and immediatly knew that both these towns were twinned with one another . So with our pride given a boost we carried on passing through fields full of poppys that were blood red they looked as if they were still bleeding from the blood spilled by hundreds of thousands of brave war heros who had fought for our freedom on these very fields GOD BLESS THEM .
Occasionally we passed graveyards full of our war dead these places were immacuetly kept with manicured gardens and hedges trimmed to perfection , the white marble headstones glistened in the afternoon sun but somehow managed to send a shiver down my spine and made me feel quite inferior.
We were making good ground and quickly were entering amiens which was a maze of streets and roads going off in every direction once again we found ourselves lost and stopped for fuel and to ask for directions it was then craig noticed kathleens exhaust had snapped at the bracket , i tried to find somewhere open with a welding machine so i could weld it up but as it was 5pm on the saturday everything was shut so we had to make do with tying it up with wire job done we made our way to the campsite which we found after a ten minute drive .
On entering the campsite i think a few people thought we would never make it but we did , tents up beers out we were introduced to our host PICO who spoke better english than big marty who decided to have a bit of fun with pico by trying to speak a bit of the lingo , marty explained to pico that when at school we were all tought by this little electronic guy called PMF he would introduce himself as j,mapelle pumf so marty had us in stitches by imitating pumf by doing a robotic dance and speaking in a robotic french lingo that even our host found amusing .
garry and kathleen had entered there scooters into the custom show with garry deservidly picking up yet another trophy for best paintwork well done mate at least you had ridden it five hundred and odd miles unlike some of them in the show . kathleen and craig picked up furthest travelled trophy well done to both of them and to craigs skills on keeping those two old lambrettas in tip top nick that they made it there
It was time for some food and chinese was the order of the day with us opting for the buffet which went down well they even had the local delicasy on the menu FROGS LEGS which one of our group kept trying to shove in front of ur nozes to everyones disgust , with us now all fed and watered we headed back to the campsite you couldnt help but notice the lack of locals in attendance it was more like an english rally with the amount of our soft southern cousins in attendance , we wondered why this was but continued to enjoy each others company and entered into the dance hall where we were entertained on the dance floor by a wee guy with a shiny two tone suit now he must have been five foot if he was and had the girth of a pregnant woman but to see him perform his moves was a joy to behold .
Pico had given us plenty of beer tokens as he was very impressed by how much we had travelled to get there so we never spent a penny all nite just cashing in on our beer tokens we danced the nite away . I noticed this big french bird that had sat in our company last year at dirty devils rally she came over then and sat with us after having a shower and preceded to drink our wine while sitting on our bench with nothing but a towel to cover her modesty she openly flashed her f**** which in all honesty could have done with a seeing to with a strimmer it was that f****** hairy anyway we approached her in the dancehall and asked her if she remembered sitting with us last year she duelly said NON and walked away woman and drink eh bad mixture indeed !!
We partied on and watched as marty fell through the DJ,S tables without spilling his beer or damaging the equipment it was 3am and time for bed i grabbed marty and we headed to the tent i managed to get him into it and went for a piss when i returned i noticed his big feet sticking out the bushes once again i picked him up and took him to his tent for a much earned kip .
I was sad to hear the friday nights takings from the rally had been stollen by someone that night but glad we didnt arrive till the saturday so they couldnt blame the scots as this is normally the case !!
tomorrow would see us having to make a good part of the journey home and possibly camp somewhere as far as we could get near to holland or in it hopefully DAY 4 TO FOLLOW
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Post by stevie on Jun 29, 2011 13:41:12 GMT
DAY 4
We were all up early except for marty so we made our way up for our free breakfast continental style small rolls, jam , juice ,coffee,tea i opted for a tea and a roll then headed down to wake marty up as we had all packed up we needed him to get his arse into gear so after a good few attempts he was still mumbling for us to leave him and he would catch up with us . Its not my style to leave anyone as people will tell you if we travel together we leave together . So in order to get marty up i decided i would collapse the tent round about him !! it worked he was up looking worse for wear if that was at all possible , big john brought him down a coffee and roll which kicked him into gear .
Once we were all set we said our goodbyes to pico our host for the weekend j,mapelle pumf , we made our way out of amiens and back on the wee roads this time we were making great time as we knew our route having travelled it the day before . once again we were back through the small villages and fields of stunning red poppies and passing by the haunting war cemetarys which housed so many of our war dead . We passed through ochres the wee village i told you about before that is twinned with kelso in the scottish borders i wanted to stop for a photo oppertunity but once again forgot .
The weather was scorching by now so we all took the oppertunity to shed a few layers at the next fuel stop as well as have yet another mcdonalds by now i was getting f***** sick of them , we carried on for another few hours riding into doornik we lost big john , tommy and karen a quick phone call and we were all back as one so we pulled into fuel up again before carrying on we were quickly approaching the belgium border as we passed through the small town of zelzate where we contemplated camping for the nite a few days earlier .
By now we were approaching the van gent canal bridge where we were to be held up for half an hour while the bridge opened up to let a massive tanker ship through it really was a welcome break for us now as the sun was at its highest and the temprature guage was in the 80,s . Once the boat passed we crossed the bridge on the last leg of our journey towards the dutch border we entered holland and once again into the terneuzen tunnel which had already claimed one of our scooters once through the tunnel we stopped to map our next route out to find a campsite for the nite it was at this point we heard from robert whos lambretta failed to conquer the tunnel, he was actually camped at the other side of the tunnel not far from us robert had already arranged for his scooter to be returned to the uk via footman james his insurers and was awaiting a hire car on the monday morning to take him back to the ferry . It was great to hear from him but we wanted to push on as far into holland as possible before setting up camp so we did not have far to travel on the monday morning , we agreed to meet him at the ferry port on monday before pushing ahead past giant viaducts and damms that were built as barriers to hold the sea back from flooding holland these structures were a tremendous bit of engineering indeed either side of these structures were beautifull white sandy beaches with wind surfers , kite surfers , and yachts and boats with kids having fun being towed behind on inflatables of all sorts .
We carried on into the evening sun eventually finding a campsite only a few hundred yards from the beach john and garry done a deal with the owner letting us pitch our tents for €4 each .
The campsite was amazing the toilets and shower blocks were spotless and as we had riden for eleven hours solid we needed a much earned shower so with tents up we noticed we had one neighbour in our little camping area in a huge tent were a dutch couple with 2 small kids one about 2 years old the other only weeks old . When we were heading for the showers i noticed by the look on the big dutchmans face he feared we were party animals who were going to keep him up all night i assured him in my best steve mclaren dutch accent that we would be very quiet he replied in perfect english that there was not a problem .
The showers were great powerfull and warm and you had your own seperate cubicle with a seated area as the showers were mixed . Once showered myself and big john came out to brush our teeth but were immediatly confronted by an old dutch bloke who preceded to point to the notice board but as it was in dutch i couldnt read it and pointed out to him we were scottish so he replied in broken english that we were to mop out the shower area after use , we promptly did this to keep the old guy happy which he was .
We headed back to the tents passing by the big dutchmans tent his misses was sitting outside it breast feeding her youngest i was trying not to look but when she said hello what was i meant to do !!!
By now we were starving and the campsite diner was closed so we were informed that there was a beachside diner on the local beach so off we set after ten minutes we found it just in the nick of time as it was 10pm they were just closing but the beautifull waitress and chef decided to keep it open for us, beers ordered and food chosen we sat and took in the tranquil surroundings the wooden hut was like an octagon in shape and could seat a few hundred easily it was very relaxed with cushions scattered around , out on the terrace there was more seating with the sea only metres away across the golden sands and with the sun setting it truely was a view to die for .
Our food arrived most of us opted for burger and chips with john and craig going for the schnitzell and kathleen going for chicken in a cheese sauce we all tucked in the food was great only kathleens chicken had to go back as it was still laying eggs the waitress apologised and eventually returned with one that was a bit better done we paid up and left to return to the campsite we were all shattered so curled up and fell asleep .
looking forward to tomorrows journey up to ijmueden to catch the ferry .
day 5 to follow
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Post by stevie on Jun 29, 2011 15:50:19 GMT
DAY 5
We were woken to the sound of the big dutchmans baby crying at 7am and here was me worrying about marty keeping them up all night , anyway a few of us decided to take another shower even marty took advantage of them .
we got our gear together and packed up ready for the off and the second last leg of our journey ahead by now it was 9am and the sun was already burning hot , we decided to hook up with the motorway after the village of delft those of you who watch antiques roadshow or who are boring bassas will know that delft is the home of the factory that produced fine china that has become very collectable so if your grannys got a bit tucked away make sure you inherit it , anyway back to the trip after delft we travelled the rest of the journey on the motorway up towards ijmueden to pick up the ferry we were making great time in the blistering heat i chose to ride without my jacket for the last stretch i knew the risk i was taking but didnt care as the sweat was running down the cheeks of my arse and i needed to cool down somehow .
We reached ijmueden in plenty of time so parked up just at the entrance to the harbour in front of the local fish restuarants and took a seat on the free benches , some of us went to buy juice others opted for the hard stuff , suddenly we were joined by big robert who had his own adventure to tell having been laid up in a campsite for a few days while his lambretta was shipped back home , he was enjoying the dutch lifestyle even participating in a local cycle ride round about where he was camped , he made friends with an older couple on the site who treated him well , watch out for the video entitled turnips and tulips !!
It was time to check in at the dock not before we took some pictures of garry and craig and kathleen with their trophies well done to them . We made our way down to the terminal and checked in but were held there for over an hour in temratures in the 90,s some bikers were getting a bit irate including myself eventually we were let onboard scooters tied down we made our way upstairs to our rooms and a welcome shower .
The lads were getting ready for another night on the piss i myself decided to do a bit of this write up before eventually crashing out like a light only to be woken by the lads at 1am coming in half pissed as usual marty was last man standing getting to bed at 4am .
tomorrow would be our last day of our adventure and the final leg home
day 6 to follow
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Post by stevie on Jun 29, 2011 19:48:28 GMT
day 6
The last day of our epic journey we awoke with only an hour to go before docking so we got up showered and ready a quick walk about the boat for the last minute shopping and a breath of fresh geordie air on the deck outside the weather looked promising with the sun shining it looked as if we were in for a dry ride home .
The announcement came to go to the car deck and get ready for the off , scooters started we made our way off the boat i quickly made my way to the lost property as i had left my jeans on the way over to holland . No joy in lost property so if anyone is traveling on the dfds newcastle to ijmueden route and you happen to see a wee phillipino deckhand wearing a pair of lambretta jeans and holding them up with a pair of braces as they will be ten inches to big around the waist for him please take them off him .
Time to head home so we set off for morpeth where we knew we could get a breakfast at asda once there we all opted for the daddy of them all the mega munch breakfast eggs , bacon , fried bread , beans, mushrooms, sausages, black pudding , tomatoes , toast , and to wash it all down a large coke , fed and watered we were on our way on the 68 towards jedburgh which is a great road to drive . half way down the road we came across roadworks as they were laying new tar and chippie stones we slowed right down right behind me and garry a complete and utter f****** pratt tried to overtake us on the inside on newly laid road !!! he then came within a few inches of my back bumper now anyone that knows me will tell you im an easy going mild mannered chap but this c*** was getting on my t**s he wouldnt back down until i rattled his windows with a couple of 6mm nuts he then sped off with me in hot pursuit but my t5 was no match for his honda and he was off into the distance .
Up till now we had one major breakdown and all the rest were quite minor but within 300 yards of the scottish border martys clutch gave in, I was already at the border and cheering as i now classed my self as being home on scottish soil but i decided to go back down and give marty a hand to see if we could fix it as there was no way i was letting him get recovery home after we had travelled so far , I told the rest of them to leave me and marty and carry on up the road home especially craig and kathleen as they had to travel to aberdeen .
marty and me tackled the clutch it was an easy fix as the large circlip had came loose and left the clutch plates rattling about inside the basket , while we had the rear wheel off i also noticed martys rear hub had a lot of hairline cracks in it so with no spare we took it easy to jedburgh where we filled up on fuel and headed off next stop peebles .
When close to walkersburn at the bottom of the big hill at the roundabout we were met with traffic police who informed us the road to peebles was closed ahead as a HGV had overturned by luck i knew of a wee road that would bring us out at walkersburn just past the accident so we set off down the single track road and were going good for about a mile when we turned a corner to be met with garry and big john at the end a queue of traffic about 4 mile long . What had happened was all the locals who knew of the road had now proceded to block it both ways there was just enough room for our scooters to get past so we edged our way by them all one by one and made it through at last .
We arrived at peebles and fueled up no sooner were we out of it and garrys lambretta chucked it again ten minutes later we were back on the road again and approaching kames golf club when martys scooter chucked it again this time just the throttle cable popped off the throttle arm in the carburator , it was then that i noticed my backrest was cracked round the bottom so to save any drammas i put my gear between my legs and off we set .
We joined the motorway and set a good pace through the centre of glasgow as i was first to leave the motorway i waved goodbye to the boys who had another mile or two to go yet before they were home . It was great to get home and in for a bath and an indian meal
if i took anything from this trip it was a few things i have owned a GTS in the past and found these scooters great to drive and believe they do have a purpose in life but NOT for me because riding my T5 there and back and putting 1044 miles on the clock even though i lost all feelings in my hands by the time i had reached belgium put the biggest smile on my face since the day i married big amanda . another thing was true friends are hard to find so once you have them dont let them go out of your life no matter what comes between you
thats the story of our travels
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Post by red on Jun 29, 2011 20:33:22 GMT
Excellent write up mate.
I wish i was there with ya.
have you got any pics and I'll get it sent to the mag if ya want,obviously they'll have to omit som eof your comments ;D ;D
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Post by jim1876 on Jun 29, 2011 20:59:03 GMT
Another excellent write up Stevie Glad yous all had a ball ;D
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Post by polo on Jun 30, 2011 6:25:36 GMT
up that , give me my big comfy auto anyday of the week , charge on !!
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Post by stevie on Jun 30, 2011 8:31:23 GMT
whatever rocks yer boat polo no for me m8
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Post by GYPO on Jun 30, 2011 8:42:35 GMT
:DExcellent write up Stevie, another great read.
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Post by lambrettacraig on Jun 30, 2011 9:09:03 GMT
up that , give me my big comfy auto anyday of the week , charge on !! No for me either, canny beat turning up on real scoot wae all your pals that have all been through the same as you to get there!! that's scootering
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Post by big steve on Jun 30, 2011 9:14:20 GMT
GREAT WRITE UP, ENJOYED IT! GLAD YOUS ALL MADE IT HOME SAFE! ;D
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Post by tommy-t- on Jun 30, 2011 9:36:09 GMT
unfortunatly there isnt a REAL SCOOT out there that will carry the weight of me and karen and all our gear so big bev will do for us,,im just no gonna get into this shitty classic/auto debate again as herd it all before..xx
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Post by stevie on Jun 30, 2011 9:41:38 GMT
tommy your rite m8 as i said gts/autos have a purpose in life and touring twos up is one of them pal
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Post by tommy-t- on Jun 30, 2011 9:44:01 GMT
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Post by lambrettacraig on Jun 30, 2011 16:27:23 GMT
Tommy we all love Big Bev, she stuck with all our slow trouble some scoots to hell and back
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Post by tommy-t- on Jun 30, 2011 16:45:54 GMT
craig i loved sitting in behind you all whether it be 10mph or 60mph,,,absalutly fantastic journey with all of youz and the road you took us was breathtaking especially the big road wae the sea on either side of us ..stunning...xxxxxx
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2011 18:28:27 GMT
Crack'n write up Stevie, thoroughly enjoyed reading about your trip... we’ve started saving towards doing something similar for oor Club's 10th anniversary next year. Some good pointers as to what's involved... But will it be P200 or GTS... I've a year to decide. ;D
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Post by polo on Jun 30, 2011 18:34:08 GMT
fandans , i was bathed , shaved , fed and in ma bed when you's were still tottering about the borders on yer put-puts lol
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Post by les on Jun 30, 2011 18:59:04 GMT
no this pish again
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Post by barry on Jun 30, 2011 19:09:02 GMT
Aye , i was sitting here thinking the same thing Les, and not wanting to say anything, fukin sick listening what we should or shouldnae be driving,and what proper scootering is and what hardcore scooterist do. honestly this snobery pish is kinda puting me aff scootering all together, and dont start yer "you bit pish"
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Post by Mick on Jun 30, 2011 19:10:40 GMT
got sore eyes reading all that last time i rad that much was studying for my hgv anyway gid writeup stevie gid ur all back home and way a few trophys ;D ;D
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gorzo
T5 Classic
its no a scooter unless its seen an angle grinder
Posts: 172
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Post by gorzo on Jun 30, 2011 19:35:59 GMT
this snobery pish is kinda puting me aff scootering all together am needin a few bits barry so if ye urr chuckin it al gie ye 3 hunner fur yer scooter ;D
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Post by stevie on Jun 30, 2011 21:25:17 GMT
this snobery pish is kinda puting me aff scootering all together am needin a few bits barry so if ye urr chuckin it al gie ye 3 hunner fur yer scooter ;D 300
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