Roadrunners Rally

This was the first VSOC Rally of the season and was hosted by the Roadrunners, Centre 13 who serve the North London and surrounding area. The venue was the Rosedale Sports Club in Cheshunt.

Camping was next to the club house with easy pedestrian access although for the bikes it was a torturous route via a couple of rutted paths and along the edge of the rugby field to get to the camping site, nice to see the cars were kept off this one although some aliens did infiltrate security!

Around 270 members had arrived by Friday nightfall and many soon made their way into the club house whilst others enjoyed a few tinnies and chin wags outside in the fresh air.

The ride out on Saturday was approx 20 miles to the roman town of St Albans and permission from the local council had been obtained to allow the 141 bikes that made it, to park at the Civic Centre complete with CCTV and marshal security leaving everyone free to peruse the many market stalls and historic sites that this town has to offer.

In the evening the disco soon got people onto the dance floor and Saturday night saw a young band by the name of Flip Side go through various rock covers and despite some mike problems the dancing never stopped.

A first at a VSOC Rally was the inclusion of a tattooist and body piercing. This went down very well, with many having their skins indelibly adorned for the first time.

Other stalls included Motorcycle Accessories Direct (MAD) run by our very own 'Scouse' from Centre 12 and our merchandise section run by Paul Burdass (Centre 9).

Paul and his merry crew even found a novel way to display the skull Bandanas!

There is little doubt that the Roadrunners did their homework. They applied experiences gained from previous rallies and a lot of preparation and commitment from the Rally team was evident.

Many improvements were put into place e.g. provision of Portaloos (for night time use only), raffle (being drawn in advance), use of radios, assisting in the kitchen, not drinking (furtive swigs excepted, see below) whilst on duty. All this resulted in portraying a very professional approach, the best I have seen at any UK VSOC rally and for that alone they have to be congratulated on.