Another Scotland June 2010

[Twisted2004]

A few weeks ago a mate and I went for a quick ride round Scotland. Been wanting to do it for sometime but never got round to it. So some quick decisions and last minute hotel bookings everything was good to go!

The plan was 3 nights in scotland and cover about 1200miles.

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Before setting off I bought a set of OXFORD X50 panniers for my bike. I can’t rate these things highly enough. Loads of space. Easy to fit on. Only downside was they are not entirely water proof, although they do come with a water proof cover. This wasn’t a problem really as I tend to pack all my stuff in bags anyway. It just meant they were a little damp on the underside which didn’t bother me at all.

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Day 1 – London > Glasgow Area

An early start. We met up at the local Maccy Dee’s at 5am and on our way by about 5.05am. The only purpose of today was to get to Scotland and first hotel. The total miles for the day was somewhere around 320miles all motorway (M1 > M6). The plan was to take it nice and slow. Ride about 100miles, fill up, bit of food and take a 20min break. We done this and the journey passed really easily. Much easier than we thought it would be.

Arrived at the first hotel at about 3ish. Got checked in. Watched the England world cup game. Had a massive burger and chips and chilled.

Spent that evening chilling and recounting - ‘doing 350miles ish is easy, and we could have gone on for another 200miles quite comfortably’

[One thing to note was my friends bike started making some very subtle engine rattles that it really shouldn’t make for a brand new 2010 BMW S1000RR. We didn’t think too much of it. I mean it couldnt be too much of a problem could it?]

Sleep.

Day 2 – Glasgow Area > Upper Loch Torridon

This was the day of riding. We headed out about 11ish after having breakfast ad checking out. We headed up the A82. Initially the roads or scenary weren’t all that interesting. However after getting out of the built up areas the highlands started to kick in, it all became exactly what you’d expect from Scotland.

The weather was wet but not a complete downpour. We ducked of the A87 at Glencoe around the B863. At this point it started to get quick wet and whipping it round short twisty on a 1000cc didn’t start off great, but once we settled into the rhythm it became quite fun keeping the speed down and the technique good in the pissing rain.

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[Just a side note, i’ve got Dunlop sportsmarts and they handle excellently in the wet and dry. Had no problems at all with them and would highly recommend them. ]

Jumped back on the A87 towards Fort William, stopped off here and there. The weather started picking up that this point. Nice and warm. Picking off cars along the way was nice and easy and great fun.

Decided to pop up to Fort Augustus to tick Loch Ness of the list and grab a fridge magnet for my mum. Then headed back down the A82 to get on the A87 towards Kyle of Lochalsh.

Now, the A87 was one of the best roads. No one on it. Loads of high speed sweepers and loads of fantastic views to keep your peripheral vision firing! The landscapes and roads seem absolutely vast. Loads of clear views of the road ahead making it easy to pick off cars whenever you catch one. Just great!

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Stop for a bit about half way along the A87 to take some pics. After setting off again a few miles down the road my mate starts looking at his exhaust/engine. We pull over. Give the engine a little rev and sounds like bolts are being thrown against the engine case. BAD NEWS! We are in the middle of nowhere so decide to set off really slowly. But about half a mile from stopping my mate pulls over again and coasts to the side of the road. Engine is dead. Wont even turn over. Start button = nothing.

So, we are now in the middle of nowhere (haven’t passed anything in about 20miles), obviously we need to get onto the breakdown company to get his bike picked up. Look at phones, no reception on his phone or my phone. Uh oh! I check my phones GPS, and theres a town about 15miles away. I tell him to jump on my bike and go to the town and sort out a phone call to the breakdown company and i’ll wait with his bike and stuff.

About an hour later he returns, luckily there was a little hotel in the middle of nowhere about a mile down the road. We wait around and the recovery turns up about an hour later. My mate jumped into the recovery van they collected his bike and they headed for the hotel.

This left me to set out the hotel by myself cus obviously i wasn’t gonna hang around a 60mph breakdown truck.

The rest of the A87 was great. Loads of 3rd gear high speed flowing road. Picking off everything going. Again – Just great!
At the end of the A87 i headed off onto the A890. At first this was okay. Mostly 2nd gear quick corners. However as the road progressed it became smaller and smaller. Which meant going slower and slower. At this point I was starting to get quite tired because i’d been on the road since about 11am and by now it was about 7.30pm.

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Then headed onto the A896, and things didn’t get better, they got worse. Now its a single track road, the road surface isn’t great, its drizzling. Also I’m not passing anyone either way on the road. Max speed is about 45mph. And im starting to feel really tired.
I approach a crest, which in hindsight i should have slowed a bit more for, but i didn’t. As i went over the crest the road sharply bent right out of nowhere. My heart dropped. This was no saving this one. Luckily ...luckily...they had tarmaced the road straight so instead of going into a bush or a tree I continued on good old road. Obviously – a massive adrenaline dump and existing tiredness didn’t help. I was becoming exhausted. Checked the GPS again – 20miles to hotel.

I carried on and luckily the hotel turned up. Checked in. Organised dinner. Waited for my mate who turned up about an hour later.
Ate dinner, recounted journey and passed out.

Day 3 – Upper Loch Torridon > South of Edinburgh

Woke up nice and early had a massive breakfast. The breakdown company was going to recover his bike to Inverness. They were also sorting out a hire car for him to get him home. This obviously was not ideal and sort of ruined the trip to a certain extent, ideally a hire bike should have been put in place and we could have at least continued the trip closely to the original plan.
Anyway, 250 miles to get to the next hotel.

The original plan for this day was to head up and over to Inverness via the A896 and A832 then down the A9 a bit and taking time to duck off to some of the nice roads to the west of the A9.
Sigh.....but this wasn’t to be, because my mate was in a car i had to stay with him to a certain extent which meant i couldn’t just overtake all the slow moving convoys of traffic.

On the A9 there was a sign stating ‘frustation can kill’. I didn’t understand this at first but after spending a few miles on this road, i completely understand. AVOID THE A9!! People cannot drive at all! Most of the road is a 60mph single carriage way. The every 10 or 20miles the road turns into a duel carriage way for a mile or two. At this point vans and lorries decide to try and overtake each other at 62mph. Which means no one gets passed and everyone remain frustrated. Hate this road.

Basically made it to Edinburgh, hit rush hour traffic, again couldn’t leave my mate cause im the one guiding us to the hotel. Baking hot in textiles and not filtering. I wasn’t happy at all.
Finally got out of Edinburgh and hit some decent country roads on the way to the hotel.

Checked in. Had dinner. Passed out.

Day 4 – South of Edinburgh > London
Wake up, rubbish breakfast and head out by 12ish.
Hit the B712 then the B701 south to join the A74. The B701 was a great little road. Again, loads of high speed 2nd gear action. Some nice tight turns, sweepers, long clear road! At least of got to a final burn on a decent road before hitting the motorway.
Then it was basically the same routine getting back to London. Do 100miles, stop , fill up, food and chill for 30mins then do another 100ish miles.

Got home about 6.30pm that evening.

Summary

The Bike = The fireblade is just great. Ideal bike for me really. Loads of low and midrange grunt for eating miles but also perfect composure when hitting the high revs round the twists and turns. Also as mentioned the sportsmarts are perfect. After all the motorway miles they were still as round as the day a put them on.

My mates bike = Still being attended to at BMW. Should get it back with a new engine within a few weeks. One of the cams had worn away completely or something, causing everything to just majorly fail. He’ll get the full report soon.

The Total miles = 1308miles

The Total petrol = £176

The Highlights = A82, A87, B863, A712. Also clocking up the miles and getting out and about. Not great having to do so many motorway miles but a nice little local’ish road trip.

Drawback/Avoid = A9 and riding tired (couldn’t really be helped in my situation). Probably wouldn’t head up to the Upper Loch Torridon area avoiding the little single track B roads.

Do it again? = Oh yes. Probably next year. Will head up more to the north and explore more. Unfortunately due to the breakdown, we didn’t get to do as much as we hope to.

It was an excellent gauge to determine how many miles are possible to check off in a day realistically on different road types and how it affects your energy levels.

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Next stop Isle of Man....



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