So how did midlandscooters.com get to where it is now in 2008 ? well ….

The idea for ride out in the midlands was not a new one, back when our restorations were brand new and then of course in the revival days of the 80’s there were plenty and local clubs holding events and having ride outs and have been doing them ever since.

Mark Baker had the original idea for midlandscooters.com back in 2001 whilst out for the day in Stratford-Upon-Avon the idea was hatched, in his own words:

"In the summer of 2001, I sat with my kids in a restaurant in Stratford-upon-Avon, gazing out at the line of race bikes which always flock there every sunny weekend. I sat there thinking how I wished the regular Sunday ride outs from Birmingham still took place, as with commitments, it’s difficult to get away for weekend runs.
My eyes ran up and down the large line of bikes as I began to imagine what a feeling I would have, if I was part of a large group of scooterists riding past with pride.
The bikes seemed to disappear into obscurity as the thoughts whirled around my head. Surely there must be many scooterists like me that have a burning passion for scooters but due to responsibilities and/or circumstances the passion is currently being curtailed ? “

So there was the start of midlandscooters.com and by 2002 the starting place, venues to ride to and the website was all up and running. The website was an ideal place as a main point of contact and could be argued that the attendances of the ride outs would not be so great without this valuable little piece of technology developed by the military for us scooterist to use !

This was not going to just be an opportunity to have a ride out though. With many scooterists coming from all over the midlands it would be good to put some of the money brought out on the day into some of the local charities. Midlandscooters.com has always supported the local Acorns Childrens hospice in Selly Oak and has also supported Cystic fybrosis and Marie Cure which it is doing alongside Acorns in 2008.

The money raising has been a joint effort of collection buckets, do’s, patches, annual ride out pin badges, t-shirts etc .. to date midlandscooters.com riders have raised several thousands of pounds for these charities.

There has also been one off fund raisers outside of these events for riders who are unfortunately no longer with us and to support fund raising for other local clubs.

Since that first ride out to back in 2002 (the support of which which slightly overwhelmed Mark and his helpers) the ride out calendar has evolved of the last few years and now has its’ signature ride outs of the VMSC Custom show, Easter Egg run, Stratford-upon-Avon (the Great midland ride out), the memorial run (Mark Harris), and the Toy Run to Selly oak Acorns Childrens’ Hospice.

There have been some cracking venues since day one and it’s difficult to get rid of a favourite to make way for a new venue but those few have always been in the calendar.

The VMSC run to Coventry is always a favourite and gets a fair few people turning up despite some of the iffy weather you can still get early on. It’s the first reasonably local show and a time of year when a lot of people are just getting their scooters back from under the covers (not everyone rides all year around, rain or shine). Brian Crook and co always put on a good display and the set up over in Coventry is great.

The Easter Egg run is the first opportunity to “put back”. The usual place is Heartlands hospital as they have a large kids ward and isn’t that far from the start point in Birmingham. Other hospitals have been run in the last couple of years, good hope and the kids wards at the Royal Ortheopeadic in Northfield have also had eggs delivered. Everyone is asked to bring an egg and the support is fantastic.The kids in the wards are eating eggs for weeks and then there is an opportunity to distribute the spares to local special needs schools and centres.

This run has become one of the highlights of the year at Heartlands so much so that the kids, staff and families talk about it regularly and always look forward to the next visit.

Stratford-upon-Avon has become the largest in the calendar seeing 500ish scooters every year one year of particularly good weather rough counts were well over 600. There are many local scooterists who only have time to do a small amount of scootering outside going to the shops and back but make an effort to come to Stratford. A lot of the families meet up for lunch and a wander around too, the whole day has a really relaxed family feel to it and has become a firm favorite in the calendar.

The memorial ride out started out as a one off in memory of Mark Harris a local scooterists who sadly lost his life to cancer. This then evolved into a ride out which has the Mark Harris trophy presented for the best scooter of the day, picked by the Harris family and has a minutes silence for all riders to remember the friends and scooterists who they have lost. Despite the reason for this ride out it always seems to be an upbeat day and there are always lots of smiles and laughs.

The toy run is the chance to deliver the money raised throughout the year and to meet the staff, that do such a great job at Acorns Children Hospice and to meet some of the kids. The kids love to see the scooters and midlandscooters.com very own Santa who gets booked in early to deliver the presents. As well as some presents which are chosen by the staff to fit the childs needs, money is given to the hospice in vouchers so they can put it towards something rather than going in in the “day to day admin pot”. Previous purchases with our help have been specialist electronic equipment, games consoles and a juke box for the older kids. The weather is usually rubbish and it’s a bit of and emotional day when you see how ill some of the kids are and realise that some are probably not going to get to Christmas, but all the more worth while for bothering to put your water proofs on and breakdown in the rain on the way home.

Everyone has their favourites but I think of particular note some of the others would be :

The Bourton-on-the-water ride out record attempt in 2007 was another interesting day out. The idea was to break the existing record of longest line of continuous scooters (something like that anyway), which didn’t quite happen. There were enough people there but the line of scooters had to be continuous to be counted and a local bobby took side with an impatient motorist towards the end and scuppered the plan. A good day out was had by all and I think the record was then broken at the Isle of Wight, well there would be enough scooters !

Atherstone where the whole town got behind us and the Mayor came out to present some trophies

Upton-upon-Severn when the weather was just fantastic and no one seemed to want to go back home, scooters whizzing about around town all day.

Kinver, which was late in the year but the turn out and the support from the town was great.

The transport festival at Ludlow, had a great route there and then plenty to have a look around when you got there.

All the Cotswolds runs just because they are pretty !

In Summary so far :

2002
Walsall, Stourport, Bridgenorth, Kidderminster, Shrewsbury, Evesham and of course Stratford-Upon-Avon when over 300 scooters were out in force.

2003
Custom Show and Vintage Show at Bloxwich, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Stratford Upon Avon, Ironbridge, Cannock Case, Worcester, Selly Oak Children's Hospital Toy Run.

2004
Easter Egg Run, Custom and Vintage Show at Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Swancote Club and Lido, Stourport-upon-Severn, Milford Common, Warwick, Selly Oak Children's Hospital Toy Run.

2005
Easter Egg run, VMSC - Custom Show, Evesham, Swancote, Stratford-Upon-Avon ,Waterfront at Kingsbury, Milford Common, Selly Oak Children's Hospital Toy Run.

2006
Easter Egg run, VMSC - Custom Show, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Treasure Hunt, Broadway, Upton upon Severn, Ironbridge, Milford Common, Atherstone, Selly Oak Children's Hospital Toy Run.

2007
Easter Egg run, VMSC - Custom Show, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bourton-on-the-Water (record attempt) ,Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Sourtport-upon-Severn, Milford Common, Kinver, Selly Oak Children's Hospital Toy Run.

The organising of all these days takes a lot more effort than most would realise. The start point at Mc Donalds is always the same so there is just the ride to sort, easy then ! Well you need to find a place to go then approach some places that might want 300 or so scooterists upsetting their Sunday lunch trade. Then there is the route which can be straight forward and can also be very tricky when there aren’t many options to take. Right turns can be hazardous, busy towns, traffic lights etc .. all need careful consideration and then there is trying to keep everyone together so arrival in the chosen town is suitably dramatic. It is not unusual for a route to be “dry run“ 2 or 3 times before the day to ensure everything will go a smoothly as possible and when you have 8 or 9 in the season that’s a lot of dry runs. There is always the unknown on the day, which can cause a headache but without the committee and helpers on the periphery these days could not be run so smoothly and could easily slip into chaos.

Don’t forget these aren’t just a once a year one off ride out.This year in 2008 there are 11 ride outs which don’t just organise themselves.

The atmosphere created in the early days still remains and many club members and solo scooterist alike from the first ride outs can still be found at Mc Donald’s on the ride out mornings.

A big part of this is due to the fact that there is a lot of socialising on the ride outs there isn’t any them and us between scooter clubs or riders and everyone wanders about talking to everyone else and help reinforce existing relationships and has made many, many new ones. Solo scooterists can come along and have a day out and remain anonymous if they wish or get chatting to the local clubs if they are looking for one to join. There is also no obligation to come either, no subs or memberships just bring you self and your scoot for a day out. Not everyone can do all the scooter events they would like, some can’t make the nationals and weekenders because of work and family commitments with the midlandscooters ride outs it give the flexibility of being able to get out and meet people and you can drop in and drop out as your commitments allow. If you can spare some change for the charity bucket all the better.

Recently the chairman role has been passed to Dave Lewis to continue the good work.

On a personal note I have always felt part of midlandscooters.com from day one. I met Mark Baker in Solihull, when he stopped me passing a pub in Solihull after I had done some repairs on my scoot and was out for a test ride. Mark explained the idea behind the ride outs and I went to my first one and was amazed. I have meet some great people through scootering as I suspect many others have too.

I have been constantly impressed by the generosity of scooterist digging deep again and again and offering help for a worth cause and generally how welcome we have all been made to feel wherever we have been.

I took over the midlandscooters.com website for 3 years and was chairman for 2 and still thoroughly enjoy the days out.

Midlandscooters.com is just one of the cogs in the big 2stroke engine that is scootering, long may it continue.

Ted Dale.
www.midlandscooters.com