Unexpected Scottish Week

Ride-outs & Events Ride Reports
1

A couple of months ago me and my girlfriend have been thinking where to spend our last week of holiday at the end of August. I was pretty surprised that she was brave enough to suggest Scotland. On the motorbike!!! There were some doubts and problems. First of all, unpredictable weather - obviously you can not see much when it is raining. Another was the complete lack of bike gear for her - praise for Lidl “bikers week” here, their bargain textiles have passed the exam in heavy conditions!!!

After a week of “ebaying” I managed to turn my naked streetbike into a GranTourismo with about 80 litres of luggage displacement, SatNav and a cigarette lighter socket (just in case, smartphone batteries go flat quite fast :slight_smile:

When D-Day has finally come we woke up grumpy cause of the rain… Luckily it stopped for good when we passed Luton.

First of our stays was Keswick, Cumbria. We booked some B&Bs a week before and they were pretty good. After a short Lakeland break we came back on the M6, passed Glasgow and found ourselves on the Loch Lomond shores.

Next day we followed A82 from Tarbet to Fort William, then A830 to Mallaig. Apart of a stunning Highland scenery we could see well known to Harry Potter fans railway, silver sands of Morar and famous Monument. In my opinion if you want to visit Scotland this route is a must!

In Mallaig we boarded a ferry to Isle of Skye. Unfortunately heavy rain forced us to choose the shortest way to Portree where we slept.

Loch Ness was our next day destination. Monster did not appear but we had a chance to see famous Highland Games in the Drumnadrochit village. From there we went to Inverness, then visited a couple of distilleries and finally Aberdeen - back to civilization :-P.

Having over 500 miles to home we decided to take a break in Yorkshire and finally after passing a couple of delays and accidents on M1 we came back to London…

Oooops, I did not intend to make that report a novel :slight_smile: Sorry…
Anyway - Highlands are well known biker destination and if you have a chance - go there!

1500 MILES AROUND THE COUNTRY

DERWENT WATER, CUMBRIA

LOCH LOMOND

A82 TO FORT WILLIAM

LB MILITARY ARM :wink:

NESSIE… AND TWO OTHER MONSTERS!

MOST IMPORTANT DESTINATION

ABERDEEN UNI

2

Nice pics, some great roads around there.

3

a single track to Mallaig was amazing - deep forest, no human for tens of milesif you just murdered someone and want to drop the body it’s a perfect place :crazy:

4

Great pics and route Ralph. You know I’m jealous. :hehe:

Next time we go together… :cool:

5

very nice pics

How long did you need to arrive there?

Ema

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Cool journey the_bat! LONG ride… Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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Ema - London to Glasgow takes probably a day - 409 miles. And that was the first idea that we finally abandoned deciding not to force ourselves too much in a first day as it was our first longer journey. Whole route took a week.In Scotland we were doing about 120 - 150 miles a day, stopping in POIs. There’s probably much more flexibility if you go with the group and decide to take tents but we were alone and a tent would take too much space.

Naked Bandit is not a real tourer but mine’s done well!

Pav - next time we’ll go to Pyrenees, you always wanted to visit France didn’t you? :hehe:

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Sure mate, Bandits rules! :hehe:

9

I’d LOVE to have a go at something like that…

I’m just sick with envy, mate.

Great shots…thanks for sharing.

10

Looks like you came back from Skye and the Kyle of Localsh along the A87? That’s got to be one of the best biking roads in the world.

Good on you for tackling that. It always seems to be raining in Portree…

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Yes, that Bandit on German plates picture’s taken at Kyle of Lochalsh viewpoint. I’ve noticed there are many bikers going to Skye to race at its twisted roads.

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oh so jealous. I was supposed to have gone to Lairg a couple of years ago and it was cancelled. And you did it on the bandit… shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit that’s alot of weather wear on a naked bike. I get knackered doing 50 miles with all that lorry-slap.

Great picture of you by the lake… really jealous. Looks like you both had a brillient time. What were the B&B’s like enroute, any you would recommend/avoid?

one day…

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B&B’s were great! I can recommend’em all, especially Maes Howe in Drumnadrochit (Loch Ness) - it was the cheapest (20pp) one, house and garden were beautiful, and of course lovely Scottish breakfast.

Lakeland View (Keswick, Cumbria) - 30pp, biker friendly as you have designated shelter apart of car parking.

Mrs Taylor (Tarbet, Loch Lomond) - 20pp, men are served first and they get more bacon for breakfast lol :slight_smile:

Mrs McDonald (Bernisdale, Isle of Skye) - very pleasant welcome, we found the heating on, hot tea and homemade shortbreads after we called that were running late cause of heavy rain (25pp). Skye was the most difficult place to find accomodation, We called about 10 B&B’s.

Beeches Guest House, Aberdeen (24pp) - nice hotel-like rooms, closed guest parking.

After all I had to spend about couple of hours cleaning leathers and helmet of flies and mosquitos :smiley:

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guys we need to arrange a trip to scotland with loads of us.Count me in:)

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Get organising then Dave :wink:

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Blimey looks like the miles gonna be racked up next year what with day trips to france, possible rideouts to Wales and now haggis land, oh well its gotta be done :smiley:

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Love this post :slight_smile:

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Debz did you have to use a picture of westy for your avatar ? young kids might view it and be scared lmfao :slight_smile: teach westy to get pic of my shiney bonce !! :stuck_out_tongue:

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I couldnt even run a bath let alone a trip i will leave that to the proffetionals:D

would still love to go scotland;)