2022 Irish meeting 22nd July

[sirch345]

Many thanks Al for taking the time to write all of that, and for posting up the photo's


Chris.

No problem Chris, I like to do a write up for a few reasons, the main one is to keep the forum active and encourage new members to come join any of our operation Storm weekends, but it's also a great way to help manage the comedown from such a fun week by allowing me to relive all the memories.

For any new member reading this, it may sound daunting to come and join in, as it could be read like everybody knows each other and we are all racing hooligans. But there are riders of all levels in the group, and the 2nd man drop off marking system means everybody can ride their own pace and not get lost or left behind, and more importantly, none of us knew each other till we took the plunge to come along to our first weekend..... And now we are addicted to the laughs.

When James, MickCurley and I were sat in our B&B in Sligo drinking Jameson's, I was trying to explain to our host Mary how the Englishman, Scotsman & Irishman knew each other, and it's so random it made her laugh. when I said I had only known them because they were each a friend of separate person who happened to be an owner of a particular motorbike (both of which I only knew through the Internet) , who had come along to an owners weekend and out stayed the original friend. She also couldn't work out how the 3 of us had only been in each other's company for a total of about 10 days over the space of 5yrs, yet seamed to be such great friends.
The easy answer is we found out through riding a motorbike together that we have similar values and character, and even though none of us know much else about each others history, the way you are on a motorbike says a lot about a person, and based on that we have a high level of trust in our short relationship....

You can tell we had been drinking

I like to keep a note of good times on motorcycles myself, so I know what you mean Al

Any interaction with a Forum has to be good to keep it going

It's amazing how the love of motorcycling can bring people together like that, but I can see how any outsider reading the 3rd paragraph may find it hard to believe even though it's totally true, just like your host Mary

Chris.

[Duffy1964]

Great review Al sounds like it was a blast. I loved my first weekend away in Devon and can’t wait for Wales in September


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[AMCQ46]

right, now its too hot to be outside here is the write up for the Operation storm NI "after party" ... West to SLIGO, which is in the south!

plan was to spend the day (Monday) getting to Sligo, Tuesday sightseeing, Wednesday getting from Sligo to Rosslaire (for Pete & I) then on Thursday catching the 7am ferry back to Fishgaurd and then a play through Wales to get home.

weather for the Monday was .... SUNNY ... result

Pete, MickCurley & I met up with James about 10 miles west of Newry, and I was leading on a 150 mile route I had plotted using the Kurvigar app set to its 2nd of 4 settings for windy roads. I found out last year that in its higher settings, it takes you onto single track roads! I then modified the suggested route to keep on the B roads in NI and the equivalent R roads in the south.. and making sure it took in the R200, which I had found last year and spent the whole time on it thinking this road is made for James's Supermoto

and what a day we had! ... there were some roads that we all recognised from pervious NI meetings, and some new ones, and they were all perfect biking roads but as we got onto the R200 there was a bit of a downer .... fresh gravel .... SH1T, that was not in the plan!! good news is that it ended before the road got to its best bit and James and I went from gravel special stage mode (sorry for all the stones I fired at you James!) to full attack mode and we caned it down to the little hamlet half way and pulled over laughing our heads off!.

we stopped there a bit to calm down and James talked Pete & I into having a blast on the Husky. Stepping off a KTM superAdventure onto a real supermoto is a total shock, there is nothing infront of me, and it reacts to the slightest input, but the up and down quick shifter is great as are the brakes. By the end of my ride I had converted to James's riding style of taking tight turns with the bike laid down into the turn and you sitting upright with your foot dangling, it works best .... and the tyres just grip.

then about 30miles from Sligo we came onto the R286 following the edge of Lough Gill..... sh1t this was even better than the R200. James and Pete chased me through that avenue of trees and curves and crests and after about 20 mins of pure rollercoaster there was a big loughside viewing point and we stopped to at least have some idea of the views we didn't have time to look at.

we all needed the stop to allow our internal gyroscope to stabilise

At this point the 3 of us agreed that it might have been the best road in the world, and we needed to move the base for next years OP Storm over to the west coast. Later that night Kev had the same conclusion, as he said, even in the van he was loving his route to Sligo.

a few beers and a meal near to where Pete, Ads & Kev was staying, then Mick, James and I got a taxi back to ours till we realised that we needed Euros to pay him, so we stopped at a garage that had an ATM and an off-licence (this is where the bottle of Jamesons comes into the picture) and back to our B&B.

we were only going to have 1, but in the end the bottle was empty and we had had a great chat where we put the world to right and talked about deeper and personal issues before our host Mary joined us ... but you already know that bit of the story.

next day we just did a sightseeing tour north of Sligo and up into the mountains north of Donegal, this time with Pete leading ... mostly we were all in sightseeing mode and trying to avoid the rain which caught us a few times.

A cracking curry in the least inspiring curry house I have ever been in, but luckily we trusted Mary's recommendation and ignored our 1st impressions, and a then a fairly early night.

Wednesday was dry but overcast and James headed back home whilst Pete and I took our tour diagonally south east, again following a Kurigar route, with great results and we arrived at our castle B&B with time for a walk round the farm and then a 2 mile walk to the pub when we found out the Castle don't do evening meals anymore. .... a couple of pints of Irish red to close out our week in Ireland and bed.

Thursday up early (before breakfast was available ) and then onto the ferry with a few adventure riders and a large group of Harley riders!

breakfast and a snooze on the ferry, then arrived in Fishgaurd to more sun I had a further 160 miles on some great welsh B roads (again Kurvigar) and Pete and I rode together for the first 50 miles in Wales before he headed east, and it was strange riding alone after group riding for so many days and I could feel my energy drop, so stopped for food in cross gates and took the A44 route home.

got home tired but buzzing, from an epic week on the bikes but made 10 times better by the company ....

photos to follow

[AMCQ46]

Stopped half way down the R200 to giggle like kids.

Was a bit worried by the service at lunch.



James looking at the view


The problem Children


Me trying to calm the gyro.


Then a wee dram before bed.

There is a donkey theme starting,

The sightseeing day at the end of the one road we went into play mode

Last night in a castle

And more donkey fun




The ferry
And home to empty the last can that I bought in Sligo



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[alanfjones1411]

Classic case of that’s me in the middle with the donkeys eh Pete.

[Pete.L]

I’ve been called worse and often get pointed out as being a bit of an butt

What a week fellas! Ireland is such a lovely place to ride in and the company was too notch.
Like Alistair said, it was vey strange splitting off and starting the final stretch home. Almost like an instant come down and realisation the week was over.
Decided to just follow the sat NAV home and almost instantly ended up on a single track road with gravel and grass in the middle pointing me down into a steep valley. A couple a miles in I glanced at my fuel gauge, only had 17 miles left in the tank. Programmed the sat NAV for a fuel point. Nearest fuel 30 miles away!!
Lucky for me I had programmed for no U turns. The lane was so tight after a 5 point turn I was on my way back out of the valley and more major roads. Nearest fuel 13 miles.
Made that one, probably with the most sedate ride of the week, and headed down to the Brecon’s.
The rest of the ride was pretty much uneventful and it was more than a little strange finding my own apexes after using Alistair’s and James for so many miles.
Once back into the groove the miles melted away and befor I new it I was sat in Abergavenny at my favourite coffee spot for a drink and a snack.
Had a quick chat with some of the locals. One had done 40 miles to get there! You should have seen his face when I told him I was in north west Ireland yesterday!!
Anyway. A quick blast around some of my favourite lanes and 40 minutes later I’m pulling up outside home.
A little over 1400 miles, tired happy and already thinking of the next one


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[sirch345]

Al, many thanks for posting the follow-up, great to hear how it all went, and to see some more good photo's
What are you using for taking the photo's as they are all looking nice and sharp

Pete, good to hear you didn't run out of fuel, but I know the feeling all of the panic when you're in a situation like that

Chris.

[AMCQ46]

Al, many thanks for posting the follow-up, great to hear how it all went, and to see some more good photo's
What are you using for taking the photo's as they are all looking nice and sharp

Pete, good to hear you didn't run out of fuel, but I know the feeling all of the panic when you're in a situation like that

Chris.

It's just using my new iPhone, and it's camera isn't as good as the top of the range one like my wife has, but is a lot better than my old phone was.

[sirch345]

Al, many thanks for posting the follow-up, great to hear how it all went, and to see some more good photo's
What are you using for taking the photo's as they are all looking nice and sharp

Pete, good to hear you didn't run out of fuel, but I know the feeling all of the panic when you're in a situation like that

Chris.

It's just using my new iPhone, and it's camera isn't as good as the top of the range one like my wife has, but is a lot better than my old phone was.

That's the main thing

Chris.

[fabiostar]

better late blah blah but havnt been on in ages

it was a tad wet to start with granted (i dont do wet) but a real fun day as i was only able to do the saturdays run , and the fact my b8stard yamaha i had planned on using crapped itself,,

was just nice to get out a proper ride as iv done very little proper riding this year, and it showed, i got more flies on the back of my helmet than the visor, must try harder next time, which will be next year all being well lads and also make a full weekend of it .

cheers folks one and all for making the effort to come to our little wet rock yet again. it was prob the only rain we had for weeks this year

cheers

[AMCQ46]

better late blah blah but havnt been on in ages

it was a tad wet to start with granted (i dont do wet) but a real fun day as i was only able to do the saturdays run , and the fact my b8stard yamaha i had planned on using crapped itself,,

was just nice to get out a proper ride as iv done very little proper riding this year, and it showed, i got more flies on the back of my helmet than the visor, must try harder next time, which will be next year all being well lads and also make a full weekend of it .

cheers folks one and all for making the effort to come to our little wet rock yet again. it was prob the only rain we had for weeks this year

cheers

Dori still looked better than all the other new stuff there

[sirch345]

better late blah blah but havnt been on in ages

it was a tad wet to start with granted (i dont do wet) but a real fun day as i was only able to do the saturdays run , and the fact my b8stard yamaha i had planned on using crapped itself,,

was just nice to get out a proper ride as iv done very little proper riding this year, and it showed, i got more flies on the back of my helmet than the visor, must try harder next time, which will be next year all being well lads and also make a full weekend of it .

cheers folks one and all for making the effort to come to our little wet rock yet again. it was prob the only rain we had for weeks this year

cheers

That sounds like it was when I went to the IOM TT years ago,

Chris.