A riding year in Scotland

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Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
619
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298
Location
Inverness, Scotland
Bike
BMW R1100GS
Warning, lots of pictures of Laverdas.

Thought I'd share a few posts of my travels nearer to home this year.

First ride was on the long suffering GS in February.  Barking cold on the Beauly Firth just west of Inverness.



By April it had warmed up nicely and I took a run along the Moray coast to Lossiemouth.



There's a big RAF station there, this Buccaneer is by a petrol station...



Invergordon - went up there to have a look at the murals.  And oil rigs.



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By April it was warm enough to persuade Mrs Three Dawg to come out to the west coast and Gruinard Bay.





More lovely weather at Glen Affric

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Picking up photos for the Owner's Club Challenge.  You may be familiar with this dram...



Strathspey steam railway and the Cairngorm mountains.





Organised a Laverda presence at the Loch Ness Rally to celebrate 70 years of the marque.  Think we rounded up 15 of them.





Managed a ride on the Cromarty ferry.  It's tiny - two cars and a bike or two.



Cromarty from up near Sutors Heads.  Lovely 18th century fishing village and er, oil rigs.



Over to the west coast again.  This time down towards Kinlochewe and Loch Maree.  That road really is as much fun as it looks, especially when pulling hard coming the other way.



Gairloch beach.  Bit crowded in late June...



The Destitution Road



These staues of 'Oor Wullie'  suddenly appeared all over Scotland.  Some charity thing.  Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club.

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And down on the River Ness



Out with a mate on his lovely SF750 twin.  Redpoint Beach with Skye in the background.





The Gairloch Sitooterie.  Nice spot sorted by the locals.





Had the GS apart to prep it for the upcoming South America trip.  All this because the gear position indicator wasn't working.



Bung on the heavy spring...



Make sheepskin cover.



Another dram.





Out with Mrs 3D again - Ardmair, north of Ullapool.





Rounded up some new boots for the SA trip.  Mitas E-07+ and TKC80.  Any problems I have now can only be laid at the feet of my inability to ride a GS properly.



One of my favourite runs is over to Skye and then taking the ferry to Mallaig to ride down through Glenfinnan and back up to Inverness through the Great Glen.  This is at the ferry terminal at Armadale on Skye.



North of Arisaig on the old road a few miles south of Mallaig.  Skye in the background.  One of my favourite spots on a decent day.



Some wierd shit happened later on in the year - I bought this thing.  Factory pipes, factory chip, RSV swinging arm and shock, it's a lovely old thing and goes very well.



GS suited and booted for SA.  100000km and it still purrs along like it's barely turned a wheel.  Looks quite dainty compared to a 1250 I think...



Me and this bike are bonding well.  Just need to get the forks revalved.



GS off to London to be flown out to Santiago in Chile via Mexico City.  Wish it got frequent flyer miles!



Although judging by the news it looks a bit hot out there at the moment. :eek7:



Anyway, that's it for now.  Off to catch up with the GS on Thursday to ride from Santiago to the Atacama desert, the Bolivian salt pans, Route 40 and the Andes, the Argentinian winelands and Northern Patagonia.  Good way to end the year.  Even if I did sell the mighty Laverda a couple of weeks back. :sad2:



 
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