Op Storm Bonny Scotland 16-18th August 2013

[Flatline]

Sorry to have missed this one

Glad you are having a good time

[adyf]

W T F ? with you in spirit hope you've had a great time ,me and flatty got a bit wet near settle good ride though apart from the 6am start .

[lloydie]

Looks like he's had a hair cut !
Good pics guys

[agentpineapple]

I think we spotted ady up here, standing in the background



Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

whats yeti/ian doing up there?

glad you had fun guys.........

[VTRDark]

Not exactly The Angel of the North.

(:-})

[AMCQ46]

Home now after 10hrs on the bike today Just trying to un sieze my knees!

Cracking 3 days riding, and even the rain on Saturday morning didn't spoil the party, we still had a great ride, you just couldn't see the scenery

Hope ziggy and grumpy got home ok,....... Did you enjoy that road to the Buddist temple

Will post my photos when I can walk

[grumpyfrog]

I'm still walking like John Wayne. . probably nothing to do with the bike! !
I'm going to have to admit it; those are the best kept secret roads in Scotland.
The road from the temple was great but looked like they had just been resurfaced, smooth as, but really slippy in the wet. and the wind was pissing me off.
This will make you laugh, came round a corner to find a old messerschmitt "bubble" car in the ditch. being a gent I turned around to see if all ok. very posh couple managed to roll the thing coming down the hill. he's got busted rib, gashed forehead, she's going to have a right black eye . cars only got a cracked screen. 3 of us lifted it out the ditch. The 2 of them were dressed up in 50's gear. must have looked funny as.

anyway; apart from the weather, thanks to you all for the weekend and reminding me I still ride like a fairy.
(p.s. just seen the news up here: looks like the guy in the pub didn't make it, looks like we were drinking in the right one)

[AMCQ46]

after worshiping the Tarmac ribon we has a go at meditation




Trying make a change from eating at petrol stations we started using garden centres
Ziggy had just caused the 2 cars to crash into each other...he says it wasn't his fault


The Wickerman lookalike contest runners up....ady still wins


Packing up to come home

[lloydie]

looks like you guys had a great time

[AMCQ46]

Loaded up ready to go on Friday at the start of 10hrs in the saddle


Heading up Holme moss. From Glossop side... That bridge is the main road..

The view from the top


These is a lot of reservoirs up in the moors north of manchester, some get very close to the roads


Campsite on Saturday morning before the rain started


Now that's a holiday house



Then it stopped raining, but still gray skys


And then 20 mins later we had to stop and take off our waterproofs as we were stewing

[Miztaziggy]

Cracking weekend all in all lads. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Ady could have been there.

I was gutted when I knew the weather was going to be bad on the Saturday, but in the end, I really enjoyed it. Tried to follow Alistair's advice and it worked. I picked up quite a bit of confidence in the wet, who would have known tyres would grip a wet road?

The roads back today were just unbelievable. I can't wait for the next Scotland trip now.

Only downside is my puncture, which was fixed roadside by our on call mechanic thanks Alistair - btw PM me your address please ill order a kit sent direct to you. I have read up on the puncture repairs, and I think ill just do the whole day on that in the end. Lots of people saying they have done the same or similar repairs and it's lasted as long as the tyre.

Then my fork seal blew. When I got home I stripped the forks from my bike and have them ready to take tomorrow.

Alistair - I found a small orange patch of residue on my trailer, right under where my left fork would have been last time I used it. I think what must have happened is I blew it at Cadwell, that picture of me up in the air coming over the mountain was totally unintentional, and I dropped it down really hard as I thought I was going over the back. My guess is that it popped the seal, and some has leaked on the trailer. It must have been leaking out all weekend if that's the case. Anyway just sold a load more bitcoins to pay for it all, so it's all good.

Our camp site:





Somewhere in Scotland, by the coast, we're all a bit wet....










The budhist temple

[AMCQ46]

looks like you guys had a great time

It was bloody great laugh, good campsite, great food, great pubs (town full of drunks due to the parade, but even they were fun), great company from Helen, neil, Stewart, and chris
Oh and great, great, great roads, and scenery, and no traffic

We will repeat every year on Ady's anniversary now

Ziggy, most of the roads we did are shown to the google links on 2nd post.

[VTRDark]

Nice to see some pics. I like the Temple. You cant beet a bit of back wheel sliding around in the wet. Great fun. even more fun than causing car accidents but two car crashing into each other is not enough. My Storm almost got taken out the other day.
http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 45#p288102

Roadside puncture kits with the tapered rubber and tool to clean the hole and poke the rubber in with are superb. Then fill with little CO2 cylinder. 30mons later your away, get to petrol sation and put a bit more air, you just need to keep a little less air in for the first few hundred miles and take it a bit easy untill the excess bit of the rubber patch wears down to the depth of the tyre tread. Also with a bit of tyre hear the rubber patch melts into the rest of tyre becoming one. It sort of welds itself together. I have had a couple in the past where I have not trimmed down the excess sticking out enough, and then rode a bit too heavy straight away and the excess sticking out can catch on the road surface and pull it back out or cause it to leak again.

(:-})

[AMCQ46]

Just back home from this - sadly the weather in the morning put a bit of a dampener on things... The wife and I travelled down from Paisley, but by the time we reached Ayr, we were both soaked through! When the group set off, you could tell within a few hundred yards she wasn't up for the cup... she knew it herself, so after a quick chat in a layby, she was dispatched to the parents house to warm up and dry off while I tried to chase down this lot!


Unsurprisingly for the Scottish weather, by the time we left Prestwick to head home, the sun was out and splitting the sky. Glorious!

Was great to meet you all and put some faces to the names, hopefully next time you make it up this neck of the woods we'll be able to come for a longer run!

Safe travels south!

Matt & Gordie, Great to meet you all, thanks for coming out despite the weather. Took the waterproofs off 5miles from Girvan, and despite a few wee showers, they never went back on.

Hope you and the wife dried out ok

[AMCQ46]

Ziggy, these are the exact routes we did.

this was how we went home on sunday.
http://goo.gl/maps/Fxk0i

Going up Friday was similar, but we cut out the Buhdist temple loop up the A7 from Carlisle
http://goo.gl/maps/7O22H

the Saturday ride was cut down to this:
http://goo.gl/maps/NYeFO

And this is how I went from Midlands to Settle avoiding all motorways.
http://goo.gl/maps/I8pJh
I reccomend it on a clear day as the places it takes you are truely stunning...........but very very remote, and if there is low cloud it is a waste of time.
It is also slow going as there are lots of little towns and 30 + 40 limits to link the great roads together up on the moors, so it took me 4hrs to do, and that is not too good for 180miles