Ahhh, i bumped into a load of Dutch motorcyclists at a petrol station near Oldham on saturday. I did wonder why on earth they were here. I did comment that if I was Dutch, I doubt i would ever cross the English channel on my bike though. Yeah, Scotland has some nice scenery, nearly as nice as hundreds of places in europe much nearer to Holland. I find the french generally more welcoming than the scots, maybe its because we have not pummeled them as much in the past...........
Maybe so. And whose gonna pay all those pensions when we get independant or are we gonna all get shipped back lol
I often see dutch and german tourers round the west coast when I am holidaying. I wouldnt take my bike up there. Its too noisy and would disturb the peace. I love the silence. Ardnamurchan now that place is freaking silent.
20mins? My arse. Other side of ferry and it took us an hour and a half to get to the cottage in Sanna bay. wee windy roads at night....after a 9hr drive from London. I fly to Inverness now and hire a car.
Yep, I loved the ruggedness of the whole place. Barren yet beautiful. I prefer it further north, round Lochinver or Ullapool or Melon Odrigle
deffo. the north coast is probably the most barren place i'v ever been, need to google melon odrigle never heard off it. off to loopallu in September. best festival in the uk.
Looks fantastic, Saturday morning and I am off north for my week tour discovering the west coast of Scotland ! Can`t come soon enough I need a break from work etc......
instead of heading up glen coe, head for arrochar, inverrary, lochgilphead, oban. the inverrary to lochgilphead to oban I.M.H.O is probably the best bike road in Scotland a bit off the tourist track so a bit quieter and never once seen plod on the oban section exceptional road surface for 90% inverrary to lochgilpead 21mls 15mins fast corners with plenty visibility lochgilphead to oban 38mls 38mins no plod. oban to fortwilliam 50mls no traffic 50mins
But if you don't go up Glen Coe, you can't keep on to Rannoch Moor. I love that in winter. Its gets real middle ages.
magical i winter your right. a right pain in the azz in summer v.busy and speed traps every where you look. when heading down to glasgow on the bike i go via inverrary dunoon greenock. does me napper in doing lochlomand its a real slog.
Only place we saw speed trap was Glencoe. Couldn't believe it considering there was an inch of snow at the side of the road after an overnight fall, middle of May. We were trying to stay warm and dry and anything over 60 too much wind chill lol We were lucky enough to get the stunning Durness to Ullapool section in blazing sunshine the day before though Also love the Fort William to Malaig road.
There can be only one. Driving over Rannoch Moor in a blizard in my youth I came across a car about 20ft off the road on it's roof, with it's lights on, doors open, and the cassette player playing and no one there. Spooky.
I'm glad this thread is up as i was just about to start another. In a nutshell, next weekend I was meant to be heading to Assen and taking the Mrs on her first tour on the multi, however to do that trip in the time frame we have it works out as purely motorway and as much as id like to go I don't think she'd enjoy the scenery and monotony of the trip as her first. As such we've decided on Scotland, I've only ever been Glasgow/Edinburgh on business so really wanted to get to see more of the place before the wall gets built and us brits cant visit I've decided on a couple of routes (i think) but as Ive never been it'd be nice if somebody can help with advice and places to stay/visit. We'll travel up Thursday night after work and thought we'd stay somewhere near Gretna for the Thursday night and then do this 'Castle run' see link below: Scottish Castles - Motorcycle Routes | Motorcycle Scotland I thought maybe Gretna then west following blue route but instead of looping back around we'd head up along the coast (girvan/ayr) and stay in/near Glasgow for Friday night. Then Saturday morning I fancied doing this next one (blue route) which takes us up past Loch Lomand and through the national park, out towards the coast and then loops us back around. We may have to do a smaller loop as id like to get back around for Saturday night if possible as Sunday we'll have to start making our way south again and back to Nottingham. This map shows the Lomand route: So does anybody know either of these routes? We only have a short 3 day weekend and I'd rather do the Loch Lomand if anything but was hoping both routes are achievable if a day taken for each? That way we can have a nice ride back down Sunday, maybe drop back through the Lake district before hitting the M6 and across home to Derby/Nottingham area. what do you think?
You can't go wrong in much of Scotland really, particularly compared to south of Kendal. The flavour of Dumfries and Galloway and Argyle is different from the far north but still very nice. North of the Great Glen, a line drawn between Fort William and Inverness (it is a major geological fault line with a 70 mile throw), the character changes to bigger landscapes and north of Ullapool it is quite otherworldly (Toridonian sandstone overlying Lewisian Gneiss which itself is some of the oldest rocks on the planet at over 3 billion years) but that would be too far in the time you have available. I have no doubt you will have a great time if you do those two routes. The second day would be a big day but doable depending upon how many stops you take. Paralleling the M74 between Glasgow and Carlisle is the B7076 / B7078. It is deserted and although it will take longer than the motorway due to going through several villages with 30 limits it is a fast road with good visibility and much more relaxing than the motorway. Get on or off south of Hamilton because the motorways are the best way to get through Glasgow but it can get very busy at certain times of the day.
very good run, inverarry to lochgilphead to oban, in my mind the best biking rd out there. the road is in perfect condition. your second route looks about 7hrs riding. if you had the time. instead of turning off at lochgilphead another 14mls down the road theirs a little fishing village called tarbert, v.nice place to stop for lunch. then back up for oban. you can get a ferry from adrosson (first day) to arran then on to kintyre then up to oban. if you wanted to see Scotland in a day, just ride round arran.
