Scotland Tour - Day 2 - Isle of Skye

We landed on Skye and headed north to Portree where we looked for accommodation. Eventually we found a B&B.

Making to most of the glorious weather, we dumped our gear and headed up the northern loop.

Up and across a spectacular single-track mountain pass and we were at Uig by 21h00.

Scrumptious dinner at the pier on Loch Snizort and we carved the roads back to Portree in the twilight. In Portree we found a folk band playing at one of the Inns to round off the night with a pint... a great day on the road!

This is just after 22h00... at 57.58 degrees north and so close to solstice, it's still light at midnight...

Good Luck

... to Travis Newbold, Marco Belli and all those heading off to conquer Pike's Peak!

Scotland Tour - Day 2

More sunshine and we headed north to Oban. More breathtaking scenery and awesome roads.

The S4R Monster is the perfect tool for those roads... sweet handling, kadoodles of torque and more top-end power than you can use. And... it just looks cool!

From Oban we pressed north to For William before doubling back to get the Corran Ferry across Loch Eil.

 

Tight, windy, up-and-down single track through a forest along the shores of Loch Sunnart was a bit slow going but only lasted 15 miles... more natural beauty.

This is the railway line and steam train used on the Harry Potter films

Up to Mallaig where we caught the afternoon ferry to the Isle of Skye

White sandy beaches, clear waters

Mallaig

Scotland Tour - Day 1

Finding myself out of work, I'm making the most of it and my friend Steve and I headed oooop north to Scotland for a wee bit o touring last week. I took the Monster and Steve was on his newly aquired Royal Enfield. Bit of an odd couple.

Tedious motorway travel is dispatched comfortably in the Chevy 

We drove up to Edinburgh, dumped the van and headed west after lunch on Monday. The monster's battery was a bit flat from non-use and had to be jump-started. Steve slaps me on the back and says: "One - nil to the Enfield!".

First rest stop on the shores of Loch Lomond

Once past Stirling, there is little traffic and fantastic sweeping A roads through beautiful scenery... and some sunshine. The way riding is supposed to be.

 'Rest and be Thankful'

Boats at Inverary harbour on the shores of Loch Fyne

We got to the village Ardrishaig just south of Lochgilphead and found the last two rooms at the Grey Gull Inn for the night. A good day on the road!

A memorial to a local missionary who was eaten by cannibals in Paupa New Guinea only a hundred years ago

Stones on the shore of Loch Fyne 

Scotland... picturesque around every corner

Flattrackin - GNC at Silverstone

This post is more than a week late... but been busy... more to come...

The second round of the GNC Flatgtrack Championship was held at a new track at Silverstone during the MotoGP last weekend.

 Promising weather in the morning...

The new track was tight and rough as a badgers arse - only the Junior and Pro classes were being run. There were 56 entrants and only 36 heat places so we had qualifying on Saturday afternoon. 20 riders wouldn't make the cut. Qualifying is a timed lap with the riders going out in numerical order from #99 (Pete Wilky) to #1 Ade Collins.

 About 10 laps free practice is all we got before the timed qualification

#40 - I was somwhere in the middle. 10 minutes before I got out it started pissing down... bollocks! It stopped raining as I sauntered out for my timed lap... stalling twice (buying time for to track to dry ;-)

A slippin, a slidin and wheels a spinnin!

Braaaaaaaap! Braaaaaaaap! The bike just spins up on the slick surface and slithers through the bumpy, inconsistent turns. I completely forgot about the 'hand-up-try-again-at-the end-rule' and gave it my best shot. 

Furious action during the heats...

I didn't make it. Looking at the riders that didn't make the final 36... most were numbers in the 40s and 50s. The gods were not smiling on us.

Good crowds being ooohed and aaahed by the action on the dirt - there were twice as many peeps on the embankment this shot was taken from

The track improved as it was ridden and the racing was fast and close... but becasue of the rough track, it was not as spectacular as it could have been for the big crowd... but still great with Dougie Lampkin on his trials bike and a freestyle outfit entertaining the crowd between heats. 

 With the MotoGP in the rain, the flattrackin was the best racing all weekend! Awsome ride by the Texas Tornado (Colin Edwards) to bag a podium with a broken collar-bone.

An entertaining weekend... thanks Steve and Alex for the help and support!

Plod Stop Play

Been nursing the HCL sprain decided to get out on the fourfiddy on Saturday past to test it out for flattrackin this weekend. They have erected a 9ft fence around the vacant lot I've used before so I went to an abandoned dry ski slope about 15 miles way. Some guys from the old vacant lot recommended it.

Esay up the front... a bit trickier at the back

When I got there there were no other bikes... just a 4x4 which left 5 mins after I arrived. I had a gentle pootle about. Knee is feckin sore when twisting inwards to change up the gears... but otherwise ok.

There are two challenging climbs at the back of the slope... both with the base obstructed by a mountain of dumped rubble and the one with a 4ft verticle in the middle of it. Both with loose sand.

View from the top

56 minutes into the ride and I was pulling the fourfiddy out of the bushes after failing at my third attempt to conquer the last climb... (After popping up the verticle, I just lose too much momentum and lose traction on the sand) ... and along came plod.

The copper on the DTX bike tells me that it's private property... blah... blah... confiscate bike... blah... owner not happy... blah... blah. He was alright about it. I packed up and headed home... on the way out... 2 patrol cars hurried onto the lot. They wouldn't have been alright about it. Two patrol cars and a bike to stop someone riding on a vacant lot that no-one cares about... this is why we pay taxes!  The cops are just doing their job... but those that called them are wankers.

So, another riding place closed down :-( It was a good ride out and the knee held out. Still a bit sore but getting better every day. :-)

Belli the Stylemeister

Checkout Raffaele Paolucci's fantastic race photography on his streetracker blog...