At the end of any shoot there is a mixture of fatigue, jubilation and the need to relax and recharge. The final stage of our recent shoot was no different… Enter Gavin Bevan aka Gav ‘The Coffee Mod’ who supplied us with an impromptu pop-up coffee stop; just the tonic for tired legs and a great way to mark the end of what had been an epic day.
Once the caffeine started to kick in so to did the banter, you’d expect nothing less when the dry wit of ‘Northern Paul’, Simpson shoot newbie Stuey and Clive, ‘the Punster’ turned up the gas. The colour of Clive’s jersey was easily topic number one on the verbal hit list, swiftly followed by the length of Simpson’s own Creative Director Terry’s ‘still in need of a haircut’ - hair length.
It was at this point Barista supremo Gav stepped in and offered to pace us some of the way back via his Piaggo Ape. Had the caffeine charge kicked in - were we wired enough to take on one of Italy’s finest three-wheeled coffee vending vehicles, (the Italian’s refer to them as trucks), all 200cc of it! Hell yes; ‘let’s go for it’ was the consensus.
While on the road following the Ape any semblance of a formation plan instantly fell apart. Riding close to the back of the screaming two-stroke was deafening. Between us the gaps were too wide, (a bit like social distancing on acid,) no amount of shouting could reform the ‘Simpson train’. As beautiful a thing as it was - it’s lifespan was momentary.
The motto of this adventure could read ‘Listen to the Ape’ - the reality is you have no choice but to do so!
It was definitely still the best way to end an amazing day’s ride out. Full feature story coming soon.
Special thanks go to:
Coffee pop-up main man Gav https://thecoffeemod.com
Photographer Matt Grayson http://www.mattgrayson.co.uk
Camera car driver Russell Ashwell
It was a total blast, let’s go Ape pacing again soon.