Wednesday 29 June 2011

The day after Yesterday.

The LSD End to Enders...


We have had time to get a bit of rest now, have a bath and clean up, see our families, eat some decent food and reflect on the breathtaking adventure behind us. We had hoped to update the website with photos and text along the way, telling the story as we went but we didn't bank on the foulness of the weather for late June, the lack of easy access to the internet in the remote places we visited, and the amount of time we would have to spend in the saddle. The other problem was the sheer volume of material and photos on a daily basis with often more than one group experiencing interesting stuff in different places at the same time. We met a larger number of people and scooterists than we expected and many acts of kindness but all helped us, supported us, or just cheered us on. So we will start to update the website soon adding photos to the gallery, writing the July article for the Scootering magazine, and updating the acknowledgments. There will also be an LSD movie coming soon once we've had a chance to collate all the clips and photos.

The final destination at Beachy Head was an emotional affair with the 12 riders who started all finishing and being photographed by the local news media along with the many scooterists who had gathered from Kent, Sussex and even further afield to enjoy the homecoming ride. Jan Francis the actress joined us for this celebration and the Patron of the Charity, Alastair, gave us a congratulatory speech. One scooter was taken out with terminal engine failure but was towed the last two miles into Lands End so the rider could finish, one was put out of action for a day during the ride, several ended up on the bench at Dumfries Scooters, Scootopia and other places, and others all ended rattling and with many defects. The final mileage reading was 1964 after the furthest away got home.

We take our hats off to everyone who played a part, riders, scooterists, ride-support, back-office, media, those that put on do's, donated a little cash, or long suffering families of the Riders. Beccy will shortly be providing an update on the total to the Charity, but you can rest-assured it will be a worthy total.

This is not the end of LSD, watch this space for more exciting events in the field of extreme Scooter Touring.

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Mission Accomplished!! 

WE NEED YOU.TODAY... Tuesday 28th june at around 2.30pm we have a major photo shoot planned to mark the end of our 1664 mile ride across Great Britain. Local news teams will be contacted and photographers have been approached to come and help us celebrate the home stretch of our ride.
We would like as many scooterists and scooters there with us as possible!!
If you would like to ride some of the way with us, have a photo with us etc we`d love to see as many of you there.  Even a couple of actors from Quadrophenia have been invited too....  Photo will be included in the write up we have been asked to do by Scootering Magazine!
Meet at the Beachy Head Pub! @Beachy Head!!!!! 
See you at Beachy Head!!! Ride safe xxx
Today is the day!! The Longscoot Down riders finally scoot back to their loved ones.......Well done to them all they have acheived an amazing task... Raised thousands of pounds for Find A Voice and had a blast doing it!! Ride Safe today Guys ........xx  Steve`Marmite`,Karl, Gary,Mark,Becky,Kai,Jon n Sue,Al, Mick, Steve,Shaun,Kelvin......CONGRATULATIONS XX 


Monday 27 June 2011

The Long Scoot Down and the Scheming Bitches SC Charity do.


by Ian Rossiter on Sunday, 26 June 2011 at 13:43




 

 After counting the money collected and rechecking numerous times I can confirm that a Fantastic total of £675.81p was raised on the night giving each charity £340.00p each (raided my daughters piggy bank for the other 0.19p).

And the biggest thank you goes out to everyone who attended, It was you guys that made this possible.

I would like to thank all the DJ's Gary (OLAS), Pip, Jack and Darren, Bernie Edwards and Colette Chambers for the loan of the DJ equipment and Marcus and Aneta for running the door AND THE LOVELY Nicola Baldegger for helping me organise and doing the fantastic posters!!!! All gave their time free of charge

KTF.

Ross

The LSD boys are the guests of honour at Sandford, Park Dean Holiday park. Having our own Modra. 


Have a great Eve Guys, goodness knows you all deserve it!!..... Back to reality tomorrow..:)

Day 8 Mileage checkin! on Karls Odometer...

Sunday 26 June 2011

Congrats long scoot down peeps on reaching your final destination! Great weekend with you all x

Well done to the Longscoot Down Riders that have just arrived at Lands End... Beautifull sunshine to go with it.at last!!.. Thanks to them all for their hard work and determination. Its been a very long week for most of them but loads of money raised for the charity Find A Voice im sure has made it all worth while..! :) Suze xx

                    Andrew Hall Congratulations everyone! :-)

We did the end to end - the hard way

Well we made it triumphantly to Lands End today, completing 1400 miles in 6 days. Thanks to the Trogladytes SC and Stu, Danny, Barry, Alex of Westcoast SC for joining us for the ride in from nequay making it a proper mass scooter ride and adding to the ovrrall vespa breakdown total lol. Also for contributing to the charity fund. A heroic finish from mick who had to be towed in the last 2 miles. Thanks also to marylin from Austria for demonstrating her underwear in a freak breeze. Stay tuned for photo and video shortly.

Day 7 Bright Sunshine at last!!....Last few miles to Lands End......

Riders queuing for an ice cream in illfracombe! :)

Day 6. Exmoor..

Friday nights Charity Fund Raiser. Brilliant night. Thankyou to all the organisers for their amazing Hospitality  

Thursday 23 June 2011

Our trusty van driver

Meet Kelvin the captain of our support vehicle. Sent out on an emergency parts run to Ellesmere port today.

Thanks to the Woolybacks.!

Towards the end of day 3, the LSD riders were really pleased to meet up with some really great scooterists from The Woolybacks scooter club in Bsrnard Castle County Durham.
Blackie, Dave, Simon, & Ron. Blackie sorted us out with an emergency exhaust for one of our P ranges as well as presenting a donation for find a voice. Ron told us about his JoG to LE experience in 1960 in 25 hours on his GS150 - what a feat. Then we were treated to what can only be described as a surreal ride over Tan Hill pass to our quarters for the night at Tan Hill pub on the mqoor. This place puts Royston Vasey to shame. Its not the pub from american werewolf in london but it might as well be. We were also treated to a blinding set from dj marmite playing george formby and glenn miller back to back while the punters all had a skank. Classic scooterist sounds from the 40's
Gary made friends with some four legged individuals and Shaun and Karl sawe a dog walk through a wall. Debate still rages about the lambretta v vespa breakdown score with supposedly 14 vespa breakdowns to one lammy, but we also have to add autos now as they have started to fail as well. All good fun!

Day 4 is finally over..All safe in Bala, Snowdonia. 

Latest Status update from Kai Elliot
Were in welsh wales!all arrived,whole longscootdown team reunited!garys scoot being restored!hacked it thru mountain rds with al into bala,awesome,hardcore scootering :-D

Day 4
Jon & Sue are back on track and waiting the arrival of the other riders...Well done guys xx

Morning of Day 4.....Rain!

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Tonights Stopover....

Nice comfy beds tonight..Hope no one snores!!...
Day 3 thoughts from Jon & Sue Kavanagh

"Day whatever - watery fuel ditched, tank cleaned of debris and appears to be running fine, back plate on front wheel is loose and grinding on hub, will keep goi
ng regardless stopping at every vespa dealer on route. We're not giving up until either we finish or scoot dies! :-)"

Ullswater 

Quick update from one of the riders. Kai Elliot....
honnister pass last nite,steepest thing iv ever ridden down,wat a buzz!we rode over mountains all morning and had first crash!big steve hit a fence,steve didnt seem to mind nor did the fence!thru ambleside and the lake district,hit durham and the heavens opened again!were taking shelter in a pub in castle barnard!hoping to meet up with riders who broke down later:-D


The boys having a well earned break! 

Keswick, Cumbria

FW:

Day 3
The riders are taking in the views of Ullswater as we speak..:)



Tuesday 21 June 2011

Some poorly scoots being fixed in the Dumfries Scooter Shop. Amazing Guys there. Even bought a Fish n Chip supper!!

Dumfries Scooters
16-18 Friars Vennel
Dumfries 
DG1 2RL
01387 263603

Jon is off to the garage...Be back soon!!

Day 2 First Breakdown. 

Day 2 Glencoe Campsite Early Start!

Sunday 19 June 2011

Roll on Monday Morning!! Good Luck Guys xx Ride Safe

Alls well in John o Groats


All arrived in jog. Tents up and settled in. Seen mp john thurso. Lovely fella. Met the buchan coasters, thanks for joining us guys. Only three bits fell off steves scooter. Garys the only skinhead in orkney lol and played tambo with an inverness folk band. Jaeger bombs in the only pub. Marks scooter very loud.

Friday 17 June 2011

Scooters why aye

Just been informed scooters and transport are now in Newcastle. All OK.

Thursday 16 June 2011

A MASSIVE MASSIVE thank you to Roger at T.A.S.S. for his enormous support for Long Scoot Down. TASS have donated over £300 +worth of goods, including:-
Raffle Prizes 4x lambretta tshirts
2x bottles of 2 stroke oil
2x £10 gift vouchers
all our tips from customers have gone into your lsd charity box .

Sponsorship
Gary - A deal on new 2 tyres and rims, as well as a free scooter service and rectifying faults found .
Steve - Free waterproof suit and various small parts for his scoot.
Mark - donation to his charity fund £40.00
 
Call for scooter servicing and accessories on 01843 292440.

Loading the Scooters



Tuesday 14 June 2011

The van and scooters are now in Essex and leave for Inverness tomorrow.

Scooter Pick Up in Progress

The scooters are now in the process of being delivered to a staging point for pickup by the Couriers. Baggage also being loaded into support van.

Monday 13 June 2011

First Major Breakdown

We've had our first major breakdown and the ride hasn't started yet. Mark's PX bit the dust on the way over to the Scooter pick up point. He's now been kindly loaned a scooter from Chel Parker one of LSD's biggest supporters. She says if she can't do it, at least her scooter can. Thanks Chel

Wellwishers - A Thank You

Thanks to everyone who wished the LSD riders well at the White Cliffs Weekender last weekend. We are really bowled over by the interest and support our little ride is attracting and we appreciate everything that people have done to donate and support us so far. If you haven't donated yet and would like to support either a rider or the charity directly, please go to the HOW TO DONATE page on the website.

Sunday 5 June 2011

LSD2 - The South Coastal Ride

Thanks for all that came along and did The South Coastal Ride to Brighton & Beachy Head -  also known as LSD2. What a superb day that was. See photos in the Gallery.
The Scootering season is powering ahead now with fantastic rallys at 1066 Scooter Skirmish, and Sid James already behind us and next up the White Cliffs Weekender, then off we go up to Inverness. Before we know it the travel weary will be back at the seasons premier rally at Camber Sands.