Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s Whitburn was what you could call the Mod / scootering capital of  West Lothian, practically every street in the town had at least one scooter owner , these early lads didn’t bother about clubs and were more or less a bunch of mates (a massive bunch of mates). Most other towns in the area had the odd “pocket” of mods, with just a few actually owning a scooter, but back then it was the bike scene that was fairly large i.e.(Rockers, Greasers,  Smellies, Grebos, Bikers, Soap Dodgers, the list is endless).

Further west, and south west were the towns of Harthill and Fauldhouse which seemed to have that extra few scooters, between the three towns close links were made with the Airdrie Mods / Northern Soul lads where weekends would see the Airdrie Boys descend on Whitburn, Whitburn was the hub of activity with 70 or so scooters a common site outside the Crossroads Hotel on the Main Street, the footpath which ran past the Hotel at that stage widened which was ideal for the hoards of scooters to park.

These “original” Whitburn scooterists it has to be said didn’t last long and by late 81 only a handful remained along with the dribs and drabs from the other towns, these lads for a while continued to run around with the Airdrie “lot” who later decided to form a club which was to be known as the Clyde Valley Scooter Club (CVS).

The early Whitburn boys must have made an impression as new younger blood began to appear in and around the town. I  have to say I missed a lot of the early excitement  around Whitburn but did make a few “do’s”, but mainly down to supporting Airdrieonians, living in Uphall some seven miles east of Whitburn every second Saturday I would jump on the bus and travel through to Airdrie, just before my stop you could not fail to see the scooters parked outside the Barrel Vaults Pub many of them owned by Airdrie’s hooligan element the Section “B” Running around with them they soon had me converted and within a few weeks was a proud owner of a Vespa PX 125 and at the same time a member of the CVS one of around 130 what a buzz. The club had weekly meetings every Monday night in the “Barrel” The 40 mile round trip often turned out to be a nightmare having to ride through these shity wee biker towns, if it wasn’t the bikers chasing you it was the local chip-shop boys having a go, they soon got to know when I would be passing and would sit and wait, the dark winter nights were worse, most of the time I travelled myself as the last of the West Lothian  crowd seem content in staying local, a few joining the Edinburgh Blues, but as I mentioned earlier the younger Whitburn boys were beginning to make an appearance along with a few from Livingston, which brings me to a particular night worth a mention.

At the time the easiest route to travel through to Airdrie was the A89, but this meant going through loads of shitty little villages, which had often caused me trouble in the past, so it was decided to travel along the A8, as Harthill was ok.  The other village Salisburgh, you didn’t have to go through the main street, as the A8 was fenced with a footbridge going over the top to link both sides of the village.  One particular night, around 7 of us were travelling through to the meetings on a mixture of 125’s and 200’s. plus one young lad on a 50 Special.  As we approached the bridge, we noticed a gang of youths standing in the middle, with of all things a couch.  We all got under but the 50 Special, which was a little further back was to be their target.  As he approached, they let go of the couch a little prematurely and it fell in front of him ,he didn’t swerve, but drove around it, stop at the other side to give them the fingers, before driving on.  Priceless!! 

Around this time the scooter scene in West Lothian continued to flourish with the odd club springing up from time to time but not lasting long enough to establish themselves Whitburn and Livingston having a good few but one town in particular which had a very healthy scooter scene was that of East Calder with a population of little over 3000 this small village had in the region of around 30 scooters.
 The CVS continued to be the main force and by 1983 the club won best club in Britain award, it was great being part of the club at that time, but with the constant hassle on a Monday night it was time to move on. Fellow club member Kenny Polland had been at me for most of  the 83 rally season to start up a club closer to home, but with me being an Airdrie man I was quite happy to remain at the CVS, but in the end and more or less one attack too many we decided to give it a “go”.

A little flyer looking for new members was placed in C&J Wilson’s (Vespa Dealer) window and by the following week the 21st October the Coyotes Scooter Club was born, meeting in the Dovehill Arms incidentally my local at the time, it has to be said at this point no name had been decided but the seven “new” members were asked to come up with ideas for the following week five out of the seven had written down Coyotes. Member Sally McCabe from Bridgend got a friend a graphics’ designer to design the club logo, which we still use to this day.

With the rally season over the club supported other clubs dances and at the same time promoting the club, over the winter the club raised enough money to buy T-shirts and patches etc and also affiliate to the National Runs Committee (NRC).
By the time Easter arrived the club were sitting with nine members eight of whom made the clubs first national rally, Morecambe, the club continued throughout the rally season supporting all nationals as well as local events.

It was not until the following year that we organised our first event our annual dance which was held in the Highlander Hotel Armadale on the 12 July, a Friday night which turned out a busy evening  well supported by Scottish clubs, little over three months later on the 25th October the club celebrated its 2nd anniversary, with another dance(doubt if we would get away with that nowadays) with yet another excellent attendance, by now  the club was well established and within the first few years membership had more than doubled, the club was to grow even faster when Livingston club New Dimensions packed in, rather than join up with the other Livi club at the time Inferno many opted for the Coyotes which instantly swelled our membership to over thirty, the club was going well and was now a firmly established rally going club with at least a couple of members going to every National event.

After four years to the day the Dovehill Arms owner decided that when the pub was refurbished he no longer wanted the scooter club to meet in his pub, no sooner than he had finished his sentence the club had packed up and left for the Oatridge Hotel across the road . (The Oatridge hotel was to be used for the next eighteen years before we moved back over to the Dovehill  due to the hotel expanding their restaurant)

Around this time the club put on the first of many big events The Scottish Scooter Classic, held in the Forum Arena in Livingston, sadly early on in the night  a large fight started and the club was forced to finish the event halfway through the night.
Middle late eighties saw the start of, off road sporting trials, early events were organised by the Glasgow Vespa Club , events took place just outside Dumbarton before a joint trials with ourselves and the Edinburgh Blues took place at Pumpherston where a large attendance was recorded, the club continued to enter these off road events and a club scooter was built using an old cut down Vespa Primavera with knobbly tyres and painted up with the club colours and logo , these trials eventually fizzled out early nineties. Also around that time club member Stuart McKenzie rode his tuned Vespa around many of the English racing circuits in the BSRA championships and in all the years has been the only club member to do so.

In 1990 the club decided to run its first rally (The Farmyard Party), having noticed local bike club Special K put on numerous rallies at Easterhouse Farm by Auchengray, West Calder, we approached the farmer and were given the go ahead, time was tight and only had four weeks to organise our first event, at the end of the day all went well where just over 200 scooterists attended, this was to be the first of ten Farmyards, a rally which went from strength to strength, the club remained at Easterhouse for five years , god knows how we lasted that long as the farm was rapidly going downhill, by this time Special “K” had moved to a Broxburn farm and we were to join them the following year. Three good years were spent at Illieston Farm by now the club was attracting over 800 scooterists many travelling up from England and abroad, it was also a championship event for the LCGB, VCB and the NSRA, the event was now so successful that we had now outgrown the farms and  were now on the lookout for bigger premises, this was to be right on our doorstep The Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston, this was a brilliant venue with excellent facilities. The club had there final two farmyards at this venue which recorded record crowds (1,400) big bands and brand new scooters for raffle but at a price as, at this point many of the club felt that the Farmyard was beginning to be more important than the club itself and we decided to end the Farmyard after ten good years. But when you look back over the farmyard years it certainly put the club on the map.

The other major event of the year is of course our annual dance, over the years we have had many venues but arguably the best venue has to be the current Whitburn Miners Welfare Club, old traditions die hard , where such a good following from all over Britain continues to make it such a good night, only recently we have been forced to make it ticket only.

Since the millennium the club have had mixed fortunes with at one stage more or less packing in, but the few loyal members that steadied the ship  got over the rough patches to see the club flourish again at the moment the club sit at a healthy 30 members.

So what does the future hold in store ?, Well next year sees the club celebrate its 25th Anniversary and we plan to make it a year to remember, a one off Farmyard Special is on the cards as well as club tour abroad “The Five Nations Tour “, starting of in Scotland before making the trip down to Newcastle (England), ferry over to Amsterdam (Holland) before travelling over the border to Ostend (Belgium) then a afternoon ride out to Dunkirk (France) before heading back up to Amsterdam for a night on the P!$$ then ferry home, could even stop of at Coldingham for the night , new members always welcome, you couldn’t pick a better time to join.

Gus