Harleston and District Round Table riders take vintage mopeds to Maastricht world meeting

A member of a quartet of vintage moped riders who successfully made it back after a three-day road trip to Maastricht for a world meeting has spoken about the trip.

Harleston and District Round Table members Rob Vincent, Tom Banks, Jim Collins and Scott Stewart began their epic journey from the Louis Marchesi pub in Norwich – close to where it is said the Round Table was founded in 1927 – on September 18.

Covering more than 240 miles on four vintage mopeds, the group took a well-earned rest on a ferry from Harwich, before travelling from the Hook of Holland to Eindhoven and then on to Maastricht for the world meeting of the Round Table.

Mr Vincent said: “The journey was very good, though we did have a few hiccups along the way.

“One of the mopeds, even though they were fully roadworthy before they started, needed to have three repairs – two in different workshops and one on the road – before we reached the ferry.

“But as soon as we got to the other side, it was a very smooth ride.”

Around 1,500 members of the world organisation attended the meeting, with the four riders meeting people from the likes of Denmark, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, USA and India.

“It was an eye-opening experience to see how big the Round Table movement is,” said Mr Vincent.

“What was mind-blowing was that some of the people knew about us and our ride before we got there.

“It turned out that some members had been talking about our ride in a WhatsApp chat, so we would start talking to people and they would say ‘Oh, you are the moped guys’.”

The quartet also used the trip to raise money for MensCraft, a Norwich-based charity for men’s mental health, by selling 200 limited edition moped pin badges to members at the meeting.

Mr Vincent said he and the other riders took so much from the trip and the meeting as a whole.

He said: “There were a few times on the trip, where I looked around and thought ‘if you get offered an opportunity to do something like this, just go and grab it’.

“This is something the four of us may never get a chance to do again. It was such a great adventure and will be an interesting story that we will all be able to tell our grandchildren.”

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