The Mad Bastard Scooter Rally

If you've have browsed through this blog at all, you'll know that I have a small fascination with the scooter. My first street-legal bike was a 1984 Honda Elite 125 that I dearly loved. At sixteen years old  it was my first taste of freedom and independence. I was no longer dependant on my parents or public transport to get me where I wanted to go. Yes, and I heard enough of the "fat chick and, riding a scooter" comparison jokes to last me a lifetime.

The Mad Bastard Scooter Rally has been on my radar for a longtime. I found out about it when I met Rob from Canada Moto Guide. The rally was one of his evil genius ideas thought up, after I'm guessing one too many scotch fuelled evenings. It started as a trip around Lake Ontario with a long term test Honda Ruckus for CMG and then grew into a crazy assed event that is now run by the scooter giant Kymco. I'll let the original Mad Bastard tell you more about it in this tribute video to the big man himself.


Rob Harris Tribute, MBSR the movie. from TECK VLOG on Vimeo.

The rally is only held every two years, so 2017 is the next one. I'd have to say this is a bucket list item for me, even more so since Rob's passing.

The upcoming rally will be held in London, Ontario at the end of June. Lovely time of year and a lovely part of southern Ontario. It's not for the faint of heart, and is no doubt a riding challenge. Distances are usually in excess of 500km, that's a hell of long way on scooter........ in a day. But nothing worth doing is easy.

So now I need a scooter, preferably 50cc, so I can enter in the straight jacket class. That is of course unless I can find a 1984 Elite 125 in decent working order and I can go the nostalgia route.

There are plenty of used 50cc scooters for sale. The Honda Ruckus which is by far my favourite however it still fetches a hefty price tag, but would be pretty cool set up as an adventure tourer or........

......as the Sons of Anarchy wannabe. After all it is a scooter rally where everything is made fun of, and costumes are encouraged.

Other options are Yamaha's BWS 50

What would be really cool, is to do this with my daughter. Maggie will be fifteen this year and she can get her scooter licence for 50cc and under. However I'm not so sure she'd be up for an adventure of this magnitude. It would be a good trip for her, see a different part of the country,  have some father daughter bonding time, and meet an eclectic group of people

  My youngest, Katie certainly would, but we'll have to wait for the 2019 running of the rally.

How will this shape up? Who knows, might be another one of my dreams that never makes it off the page. Then again something needs to get going soon, it's been too long since I've had a proper adventure. Kill two birds with one scooter, Fundy Rally and The Mad Bastard on 50cc of Fury.