Well done in going to see Rob
Chris.
2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Al, nice write-up
Well done in going to see Rob
Chris.
Well done in going to see Rob
Chris.
2023 Irish meeting 21st July
As is normal, there was no Firestorms
.
The line up was euro bike heavy.
2 off ktm 1190s
2 off ktm 790s
1 husky 700 (white ktm
)
1 Ducati multi
1 bmw S1000r
1 bmw r1200
1 bmw k1300
1 bmw gs1200
1 Suzuki 1000GT
1 Yamaha 900 tracer
Saturday forecast looked sh1t all day, but early in the day was better than late, so a select group decided to get going at 9 and do a short route to be back by 1. The rest of the group were still wet from Friday and elected to stay in bed or go to the supermarket in Kenny’s van.
We played the weather card well and had a good morning ride. We did both sides of the big lough and headed north over the moors then over the border a few times as we headed back on some great roads…... Well except for one 5mile section of single track with grass in the middle which only James enjoyed on his 700 supermoto.
Back home with about 130miles done after a bit of a scare on petrol when I had only 35 miles left in the tank and 2 gas station had no petrol as there was a shortage!!
Weather forecast was correct for afternoon and biblical rain started from about 3 and didn’t stop.
Meantime down south, dave o d had got his tyre fitted and was riding to us through the storm….. he looked like a deep sea diver when he arrived.
Once fed we got a minibus through the floods to see the nightlife in enniskillen. Stuart’s description was good. “I’ve seen Anne Summers models with more clothes on”
We sank a few beers and went home.
To be continued.
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. The line up was euro bike heavy.
2 off ktm 1190s
2 off ktm 790s
1 husky 700 (white ktm
)1 Ducati multi
1 bmw S1000r
1 bmw r1200
1 bmw k1300
1 bmw gs1200
1 Suzuki 1000GT
1 Yamaha 900 tracer
Saturday forecast looked sh1t all day, but early in the day was better than late, so a select group decided to get going at 9 and do a short route to be back by 1. The rest of the group were still wet from Friday and elected to stay in bed or go to the supermarket in Kenny’s van.
We played the weather card well and had a good morning ride. We did both sides of the big lough and headed north over the moors then over the border a few times as we headed back on some great roads…... Well except for one 5mile section of single track with grass in the middle which only James enjoyed on his 700 supermoto.
Back home with about 130miles done after a bit of a scare on petrol when I had only 35 miles left in the tank and 2 gas station had no petrol as there was a shortage!!
Weather forecast was correct for afternoon and biblical rain started from about 3 and didn’t stop.
Meantime down south, dave o d had got his tyre fitted and was riding to us through the storm….. he looked like a deep sea diver when he arrived.
Once fed we got a minibus through the floods to see the nightlife in enniskillen. Stuart’s description was good. “I’ve seen Anne Summers models with more clothes on”
We sank a few beers and went home.
To be continued.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
AMcQ
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Meeting at kevs on Thursday.
Ferry Friday morning
Looking out the window at the digs. It is probabaly raining
Going into the south to find a petrol station with petrol.
It’s pissing now
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Ferry Friday morning
Looking out the window at the digs. It is probabaly raining
Going into the south to find a petrol station with petrol.
It’s pissing now
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
AMcQ
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Glad you all had a great time and got back safely 
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Duffy1964
Yellow 1997 Storm R.I.P. Orange 2000 Streetfighter (Rufus), Red & Silver 1968 Triumph Trophy 650, Blue 2003 Storm Project, Red 2007 Montesa Cota Trials 250 & 1959 BSA D7 175cc Bantam Trials Project
Yellow 1997 Storm R.I.P. Orange 2000 Streetfighter (Rufus), Red & Silver 1968 Triumph Trophy 650, Blue 2003 Storm Project, Red 2007 Montesa Cota Trials 250 & 1959 BSA D7 175cc Bantam Trials Project
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Not back yet duffy!! A few of us followed grumpy frog to Forfar and are playing in the Cairngorms.Duffy1964 wrote:Glad you all had a great time and got back safely
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Enniskillen to Forfar was 12hrs door to door
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AMcQ
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Al, thanks for posting up the photo's
I hope you're having better weather at Forfar,
Chris.
I hope you're having better weather at Forfar,
Chris.
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Now where was I? Ah yes, Sunday.
Sunday looked like it might be an OK day weather wise, so a bigger ride was on the cards for today.
We split into 2 groups as Kev and a few others, who didn’t go out Saturday wanted to go up north to the National park north of Donegal, but this was going to cover a lot of the ground we did already on Saturday. so Kev went north with Mark and John and i took the bigger group west and south to take in 2 of the best biking roads I have ever been on (the R200 and the R286 along the side of the Lough as you head into Sligo).
Unfortunately on the saturday run James’s supermoto started to develop a slipping clutch, and in an unknown fit of mechanical sympathy, he decided to spare it a further beating and went wild swimming instead.
The roads were as good as I remembered when I found them last year, and I think the rest of the guys were impressed too by the smiles. even though they were damp, the tar was good so you could still throw the bike around.
Back home and another feed cooked up by Kev and a relatively early night as our monday ferry had been brought forwards from 11.30 to 7.30am. Considering it was about 2hrs drive to get there and checkin closes 45mins before, Suart, mark, Kev & I said our goodbyes to the Irish contingent and those that were on different ferries and packed our bags for a pre-dawn exit.
Monday was dry, but to save time we hit the main roads to Belfast to get to the ferry port. The only good thing about the ferry change was there was an incentive thrown in for those that took the early boat……. we were refunded the cost of the return and we had a reclining seat AND a breakfast included, so we got the bikes strapped down and got our seats to go back to sleep.
Once back on the mainland, we were on a magical mystery tour up to Grumpyfrogs house for some Scottish hospitality and to play on the epic roads in the cairngorms.
We showed Kev & mark the joys of Dalveen pass and then headed up through Biggar, over the Forth Bridge, then over the Tay bridge and onwards through a maze of single tracks to Stuarts to be greeted by his mad dogs. We got there at 5,30pm, so a 12hr door to door trip from Enniskillen!!!!!
Food, beer and sleep.
To be continued
Sunday looked like it might be an OK day weather wise, so a bigger ride was on the cards for today.
We split into 2 groups as Kev and a few others, who didn’t go out Saturday wanted to go up north to the National park north of Donegal, but this was going to cover a lot of the ground we did already on Saturday. so Kev went north with Mark and John and i took the bigger group west and south to take in 2 of the best biking roads I have ever been on (the R200 and the R286 along the side of the Lough as you head into Sligo).
Unfortunately on the saturday run James’s supermoto started to develop a slipping clutch, and in an unknown fit of mechanical sympathy, he decided to spare it a further beating and went wild swimming instead.
The roads were as good as I remembered when I found them last year, and I think the rest of the guys were impressed too by the smiles. even though they were damp, the tar was good so you could still throw the bike around.
Back home and another feed cooked up by Kev and a relatively early night as our monday ferry had been brought forwards from 11.30 to 7.30am. Considering it was about 2hrs drive to get there and checkin closes 45mins before, Suart, mark, Kev & I said our goodbyes to the Irish contingent and those that were on different ferries and packed our bags for a pre-dawn exit.
Monday was dry, but to save time we hit the main roads to Belfast to get to the ferry port. The only good thing about the ferry change was there was an incentive thrown in for those that took the early boat……. we were refunded the cost of the return and we had a reclining seat AND a breakfast included, so we got the bikes strapped down and got our seats to go back to sleep.
Once back on the mainland, we were on a magical mystery tour up to Grumpyfrogs house for some Scottish hospitality and to play on the epic roads in the cairngorms.
We showed Kev & mark the joys of Dalveen pass and then headed up through Biggar, over the Forth Bridge, then over the Tay bridge and onwards through a maze of single tracks to Stuarts to be greeted by his mad dogs. We got there at 5,30pm, so a 12hr door to door trip from Enniskillen!!!!!
Food, beer and sleep.
To be continued
AMcQ
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
It sounds like you are all having fun Al, a shame about James’s clutch starting to slip on the Husky.
I won't mention the weather, as if it rains badly you'll be blaming me
Chris.
I won't mention the weather, as if it rains badly you'll be blaming me
Chris.
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
I think we are onto Tuesday now, and Kev, Mark and I are up at chez Grumpy and he is keen to show us his favourite roads, and boy are they good.
If you want to get a view of the roads we did, then you should watch the cycling world championship road race on Friday 4th, as by the advance warning signs we passed on almost every road we were on that day, it looks like they will use that as the route for the road race.
We did a shorter route today because Stuart had to get back for a dentist appointment, but as it worked out we were still running out of time, so somewhere near the head of loch Tay, I agreed to take over leading us out to Crief so Stuart could go directly back to Forfar for his teeth.
That road from Aberfeldy down to Crief is just fecking awesome
, then I found some back roads to get us into Perth. A bit navigationally challenged in Perth as I tried to force the satnav to avoid the main roads back to Forfar. We got through rush hour and over the bridge and we are back having fun. Probably 40 miles to get home now and although we were in sun, we could see heavy clouds over to the north west and they were coming our way….could we out run them?
Er…No. we got caught in a downpour for 10mins, but looking at the standing water in some places, we could have been much worse.
So back to the house for some beer and a curry
When I set off on this trip I could see my back tyre was wearing though I figured it would make the distance, but even before we left enniskillen it was looking like this was doubtful. By the time I got to Grumpyfrogs house on the Monday I knew it wouldn’t make it home, so I made a few calls and a local tyre guy ordered me a road 6 and said he should be able to fit it on Wednesday evening (he is a retired bike cop who works out of his garage at home), so knowing that that issue was resolved, I could plan to give the remaining rubber a good thrashing on Wednesday.
Marks Ducati rear tyre was looking better than mine when we left Ireland, but by the end of Tuesday, it was already shot, so he needed to get it changed on Wednesday morning. As his was a more popular size than mine, another place had one in stock, so him and Kev went to get it fitted with the plan to meet up with Grumpy and I in Braemar after lunch.
Stuart and I headed north all the way up to Huntly, and had dry roads all day. As with yesterday the roads, the scenery and the lack of cars made for great a motorcycle ride….. far better than the NC500 in my opinion.
Anyone who has ridden with Stuart will know he needs regular coffee recharges, so we tried to stop at a transport museum in Alford as it said it had a cafe, but they wanted £15 entry for the museum so we went to another cafe, but not before sneaking a photo of the rc30 they had on display in the lobby.
Not long after that Stuart slows down and is fiddling with his intercom ….. my guess is somebody has just phoned him, and sure enough he eventually pulls over to continue to deal with the work crisis that he needs to stay updated on throughout the day.
Next stretch of road is from Huntly past all the whisky distillery’s past Dufftown and Glenlivet and into Tomintoul, and after an IrnBru and more calls its down south to Braemar to see if Kev and Mark have made it……. As it turns out, no they haven’t! With the use of live location on WhatsApp we can tell they have stopped 50 miles east in Ballater. Kev is adamant that this is where Stuart told him to meet, but Stuart says it was defiantly Braemar, and checked with his Mrs to make sure he wasn’t going mad….
As I had to get into Dundee for 5 to get my tyre fitted, there wasn’t time for us to go east to find the dynamic duo, So Grumpy lead me down a very diverse range of roads from single track all the way to fast sweepers past the skilifts and we are back home after about 240 miles.
No time for beer, i get the wheel off the KTM using Stuarts paddock stand and he takes me to the tyre man in his car.
Tyre fitted for £192 and we pick up fish & Chips from a harbour front chippy in Arbroath.
Once home we meet up with Kev & Mark and it turns out they had a right mission with the Ducati. Although Mark has the socket needed to take the wheel nut off the single sided swingarm on his bike, it is torqued up so tight that the tyre man breaks his socket extension and also bends the pole his wife uses to tension the washing line!!! So they then go to find a truck garage to get the use of a serious impact gun to slacken it off and then ride back to the tyre shop. …. So a 30 min job took about 2 hrs!
Thursday was our ride home day (well ride to Manchester which is home for Kev), and it was going to be wet all day. In fact the weather front looked like it was spending the day over the parts of the UK we needed to be on, so we didn’t rush to leave.
By 11am it was light drizzle and off we went. As it was wet roads and poor visibility the Plan was to be boring and to use main roads down and over the third Forth Bridge, go round the bottom of Edinburgh, then A7 down to Carlisle and finally M6 to Manchester.
We hadn’t even got to Edinburgh when we got split up on the early parts of the M90 due to me not paying attention to Kev in the front. We were close to an exit and my satnav was telling me to stay on the Mway to get to the bridge, Kev indicates last min and I assume he is just moving from middle lane to inside lane, so don’t instantly follow him….. bugger, he just took that exit!
So now Mark and Kev are off the Mway and I carry on to the next junction, i put my live location onto the what’s app group, try and phone mark (who has an intercom) and then leave a message to say I will wait the other side of the Forth Bridge and press on alone. Just before the bridge Kev phones and says his satnav has not routed them over the Forth Bridge so we will meet up on the first services on the M6 south of Carlisle. …. So I crack on in the wet making good progress through the traffic on the A702 back through Biggar and onto the M74 until it becomes the M6 and I pull over into the services. Looking at what’s app, Kev & Mark are 50mins behind me and only half way down the M74!!! He needs to give his satnav a good talking to!
Back in formation we blitz the M6 and get to Kev’s about 5pm. When I was at Carlisle i was thinking I felt ok to make it to Worcester, but once we stopped at Kev’s I was glad I hadn’t as it would be at least 3hrs more and it had been a long day.
Friday morning, Kev had a visit from @Freeridenick and then I went round for coffee at my daughters house (before you ask why I didn’t spend the night at hers, its not the kind of street where you would want to park your bike overnight, so hence me abusing Kev & Sues hospitality), then time to hit the M6 for Friday lunchtime traffic.
Holy Feck! That was a bad decision…… I must have had to do about 40 miles of filtering through the various bottlenecks and roadworks and that KTM has wide bars, so when 2 vans are side by side and there mirrors are at the same height as my mirrors, then I have to breath in.
Eventually home with just short of 1800 miles in 8 days, no days off, some dry days, some damp days and some soaking days. A lot of beer, laughing and good company, so thanks to all those that did the organising.
If you want to get a view of the roads we did, then you should watch the cycling world championship road race on Friday 4th, as by the advance warning signs we passed on almost every road we were on that day, it looks like they will use that as the route for the road race.
We did a shorter route today because Stuart had to get back for a dentist appointment, but as it worked out we were still running out of time, so somewhere near the head of loch Tay, I agreed to take over leading us out to Crief so Stuart could go directly back to Forfar for his teeth.
That road from Aberfeldy down to Crief is just fecking awesome
, then I found some back roads to get us into Perth. A bit navigationally challenged in Perth as I tried to force the satnav to avoid the main roads back to Forfar. We got through rush hour and over the bridge and we are back having fun. Probably 40 miles to get home now and although we were in sun, we could see heavy clouds over to the north west and they were coming our way….could we out run them?Er…No. we got caught in a downpour for 10mins, but looking at the standing water in some places, we could have been much worse.
So back to the house for some beer and a curry
When I set off on this trip I could see my back tyre was wearing though I figured it would make the distance, but even before we left enniskillen it was looking like this was doubtful. By the time I got to Grumpyfrogs house on the Monday I knew it wouldn’t make it home, so I made a few calls and a local tyre guy ordered me a road 6 and said he should be able to fit it on Wednesday evening (he is a retired bike cop who works out of his garage at home), so knowing that that issue was resolved, I could plan to give the remaining rubber a good thrashing on Wednesday.
Marks Ducati rear tyre was looking better than mine when we left Ireland, but by the end of Tuesday, it was already shot, so he needed to get it changed on Wednesday morning. As his was a more popular size than mine, another place had one in stock, so him and Kev went to get it fitted with the plan to meet up with Grumpy and I in Braemar after lunch.
Stuart and I headed north all the way up to Huntly, and had dry roads all day. As with yesterday the roads, the scenery and the lack of cars made for great a motorcycle ride….. far better than the NC500 in my opinion.
- Rc30
- Tomintoul
As I had to get into Dundee for 5 to get my tyre fitted, there wasn’t time for us to go east to find the dynamic duo, So Grumpy lead me down a very diverse range of roads from single track all the way to fast sweepers past the skilifts and we are back home after about 240 miles.
No time for beer, i get the wheel off the KTM using Stuarts paddock stand and he takes me to the tyre man in his car.
- Old tyre
- New tyre
Thursday was our ride home day (well ride to Manchester which is home for Kev), and it was going to be wet all day. In fact the weather front looked like it was spending the day over the parts of the UK we needed to be on, so we didn’t rush to leave.
By 11am it was light drizzle and off we went. As it was wet roads and poor visibility the Plan was to be boring and to use main roads down and over the third Forth Bridge, go round the bottom of Edinburgh, then A7 down to Carlisle and finally M6 to Manchester.
We hadn’t even got to Edinburgh when we got split up on the early parts of the M90 due to me not paying attention to Kev in the front. We were close to an exit and my satnav was telling me to stay on the Mway to get to the bridge, Kev indicates last min and I assume he is just moving from middle lane to inside lane, so don’t instantly follow him….. bugger, he just took that exit!
So now Mark and Kev are off the Mway and I carry on to the next junction, i put my live location onto the what’s app group, try and phone mark (who has an intercom) and then leave a message to say I will wait the other side of the Forth Bridge and press on alone. Just before the bridge Kev phones and says his satnav has not routed them over the Forth Bridge so we will meet up on the first services on the M6 south of Carlisle. …. So I crack on in the wet making good progress through the traffic on the A702 back through Biggar and onto the M74 until it becomes the M6 and I pull over into the services. Looking at what’s app, Kev & Mark are 50mins behind me and only half way down the M74!!! He needs to give his satnav a good talking to!
Back in formation we blitz the M6 and get to Kev’s about 5pm. When I was at Carlisle i was thinking I felt ok to make it to Worcester, but once we stopped at Kev’s I was glad I hadn’t as it would be at least 3hrs more and it had been a long day.
Friday morning, Kev had a visit from @Freeridenick and then I went round for coffee at my daughters house (before you ask why I didn’t spend the night at hers, its not the kind of street where you would want to park your bike overnight, so hence me abusing Kev & Sues hospitality), then time to hit the M6 for Friday lunchtime traffic.
Holy Feck! That was a bad decision…… I must have had to do about 40 miles of filtering through the various bottlenecks and roadworks and that KTM has wide bars, so when 2 vans are side by side and there mirrors are at the same height as my mirrors, then I have to breath in.
Eventually home with just short of 1800 miles in 8 days, no days off, some dry days, some damp days and some soaking days. A lot of beer, laughing and good company, so thanks to all those that did the organising.
- Trip totals
AMcQ
-
Pete.L
- Forum Health And Safety Officer
- Posts: 7217
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Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
Excellent write up Al. Sounds like I really missed out not doing the Scottish half with you. Thats a hell of a mileage to be posting. Well done you
I'll see you in Dumfries Friday for round three
Pete.l
My new ride is a bit of a Howler and I love to make her Squeal
Re: 2023 Irish meeting 21st July
To be fair you managed 1280 miles in 2 days less riding, so you were on 213 miles per day and I was 217 / day, so we were close on the daily rate.
AMcQ