The Isle of Wight scooter rally is every year over the August bank holiday, its one of the biggest gatherings of scooters in the world, where on average 6000 scooterist come visit the island and have a great weekend, some years there is up to 10,000. The first Isle of Wight scooter rally was back in the 1980s. Starting back with the early ‘80s, Smallbrook Stadium was the rally’s first official campsite and I believe it was used for four years in a row, and always on August Bank Holiday Weekend. It was always controversial, but things changed and in 1984, the island’s council and police tried unsuccessfully to get a court injunction to stop the rally going ahead. I’m not sure where the campsite was in ‘84, but I think another different one was used again for the 1985 rally, also held on August Bank Holiday. The ‘86 rally changed things and the headline “The Isle of Fright” , The 1987 rally was unexpectedly changed to the Spring Bank Holiday at the end of May, the rallies in 1988 & 1989 were both at Easter weekend. From 1990 onwards the Isle of Wight was dropped from the National Rally calendar, and didn’t make an appearance again until the summer of 1996. That rally was planned very last minute and took place at the end of July. A couple of years later numbers were massively on the increase again, and it soon became the well organised mega rally that it is today. The event lasts all weekend from the friday to the Sunday, where on the Sunday the ride-out leaves Ryde Arena on the Esplanade at 1pm, and the route is towards Puckpool, through Nettlestone to St Helens, then down Latimer Road to Bembridge.
From Bembridge, it’s to Yaverland then through Sandown up the High Street, towards Shanklin.
From Shanklin, the scooters will go to Apse Heath then turn left into Sandown Airport.
ryde scooter rally 2023
Here is a picture from this years Isle of Wight 2023 scooter weekend on friday 25th August around 12, midday. The front of Ryde is looking so much better after all the building work is now complete.
This is a picture from last year at the Isle of Wight 2022 scooter weekend, during the works, it looked very messy.
Scooter rally 2021, this was before any works were started, I definitely think it looks so much better now, and not much grass was lost.
Leave A Comment