Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2016 | Page 34
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Interview
A wheely good
time had by all!
The Isle of Wight Scooter Rally was another
roaring success this year, attracting over
5,000 scooters to the event.
Amongst the thousands of devoted
scooterists were retirees Roy and Carol Eales,
who travelled almost 250 miles to the Island
from their home city of Sheffield, Yorkshire.
Not that the couple drove the scooter
all the way from Sheffield – they sensibly
brought it on a trailer!
We asked Roy, a 68 year-old retired excoach driver, why he and Carol chose the
Isle of Wight when the Brighton scooter
rally would be closer for them?
“It had to be the Isle of Wight” he
declared. “Nothing compares to the Isle of
Wight’s atmosphere, it’s iconic.
It’s a classical event, epecially with the
ride-out. Personally, I wouldn’t care if the
ferry was three times the price, we’d still
come over to the Isle of Wight!”
Roy and his wife have been involved with
scooters for many years, and Roy still recalls
the early days when he caught the bug. “
Carol took the view many moons ago that if
you can’t beat them, join them” he said.
Asked if she feels safe sitting on the back
with Roy, Carol said: “It’s like sitting on an
armchair, but just cruising along - its lovely.”
Roy and Carol come for 7-10 days for the
event and make a holiday of it, staying at
Hermitage Farm in Chale.
Roy said “We ride out round the Island
every morning from the farm, stopping off
at different places to have something to
eat, and just taking our time. At our age
we can’t go fast anymore! We took a trip
out to the Steam Fair at Havenstreet, and
anything else that takes our fancy, it’s just
10 days of riding and eating, I suppose.”
Roy has had the passion for scooters
since the age of 16, when he was part
of the original Mods and Rockers scene.
“It was fantastic” he said. “In those days
we watched Diana Ross, the Four Tops,
Temptations and Stevie Wonder all live, as
at the time we lived down the road from
a large Social Club, and of course in the
1960s most of these artists who are now
legends were gigging round the northern
clubs trying to make ends meet as they
couldn’t make a living in the States.”
Roy has no plans to retire from his
scooters anytime soon - in fact he’s just
bought another scooter to restore, a Series
Two, which he wants to restore to look like
the exact scooter he owned when he was
17. “I hope to be here next year on that
scooter” he says, “so fingers crossed that I
don’t hit any problems with it!”
Roy Eales with his
daughter-in-law, son
and grandson
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