mcatrophy
Privileged to ride a 2018 FJR1300AS
Anyone who has followed this other thread will realise that this ride has been very difficult for me to do, it's only a little over four months since my wife passed away. Had it not been for the title of that thread I wouldn't have gone. It has possibly been the least enjoyable of any of my rides. However ...
This little ride was organised by my Guernsey riding friend R (for those whose geography is as bad as mine, Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the English channel, much closer to France than England). Those taking part were (obviously) R on his Multistrada, M, another Channel Islander from the island of Jersey on a F800ST, my son on his Monster 821, and me on my FJR1300AS. All of them are good riders. M normally rides a Triumph Trident, but apparently it had a hissy fit, so he had to rapidly sort a new front tyre for his BMW.
Day 1, Sunday 1st October, Derby to Killin.
We met up in Killin. Son and I from our homes in Derby, R after a ferry from Guernsey and an overnight stop on the mainland, M similarly took a ferry from Jersey and an overnight stop.
Son's and my trip started in light rain, which petered out by the time we reached the M6 motorway. The M6 was not as busy as it often is, but we did do a couple of miles of filtering where traffic was near-stationary because of an accident. We came off the M6 near Carlisle onto the A7. The road had obviously had a lot of rain, the surface very wet, several rivers running across it, and occasional deep puddles. No problems riding through any of it. Apparently R got caught up in some of this rain (he'd gone along a bit earlier), said some of it was torrential.
We decided to go over the new Queensferry Crossing bridge over the Firth of Forth, only recently opened. This was a mistake, the traffic was horrendous (I think every man and his dog had decided to do the same). Once in the traffic we had no option but to sit in with the cars, the lanes were too narrow to filter. Also the views from the bridge were disappointing, there were wind-breaks along both sides so you couldn't see down at all. The speed limit was 40mph, we were mostly doing between 0 and 4. Anyway, no harm done, just a little frustrating, though son's wrist was hurting him with all the clutch work (he suffers from RSI in his wrists, prolonged clutch use exacerbates it). I was very thankful for Yamaha's YCC-S.
The last few miles were in fairly heavy rain, just to prove we were in Scotland. R was already at the bar when we arrived, so a quick shower and we joined him for a welcome drink. M turned up a little later into the evening.
The day's route (route photos link to interactive route map):
The day's stats (Tomtom's screen still wet!)
(Click on image for larger view)
To be continued ...
[edited to change the interactive route map link]
This little ride was organised by my Guernsey riding friend R (for those whose geography is as bad as mine, Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the English channel, much closer to France than England). Those taking part were (obviously) R on his Multistrada, M, another Channel Islander from the island of Jersey on a F800ST, my son on his Monster 821, and me on my FJR1300AS. All of them are good riders. M normally rides a Triumph Trident, but apparently it had a hissy fit, so he had to rapidly sort a new front tyre for his BMW.
Day 1, Sunday 1st October, Derby to Killin.
We met up in Killin. Son and I from our homes in Derby, R after a ferry from Guernsey and an overnight stop on the mainland, M similarly took a ferry from Jersey and an overnight stop.
Son's and my trip started in light rain, which petered out by the time we reached the M6 motorway. The M6 was not as busy as it often is, but we did do a couple of miles of filtering where traffic was near-stationary because of an accident. We came off the M6 near Carlisle onto the A7. The road had obviously had a lot of rain, the surface very wet, several rivers running across it, and occasional deep puddles. No problems riding through any of it. Apparently R got caught up in some of this rain (he'd gone along a bit earlier), said some of it was torrential.
We decided to go over the new Queensferry Crossing bridge over the Firth of Forth, only recently opened. This was a mistake, the traffic was horrendous (I think every man and his dog had decided to do the same). Once in the traffic we had no option but to sit in with the cars, the lanes were too narrow to filter. Also the views from the bridge were disappointing, there were wind-breaks along both sides so you couldn't see down at all. The speed limit was 40mph, we were mostly doing between 0 and 4. Anyway, no harm done, just a little frustrating, though son's wrist was hurting him with all the clutch work (he suffers from RSI in his wrists, prolonged clutch use exacerbates it). I was very thankful for Yamaha's YCC-S.
The last few miles were in fairly heavy rain, just to prove we were in Scotland. R was already at the bar when we arrived, so a quick shower and we joined him for a welcome drink. M turned up a little later into the evening.
The day's route (route photos link to interactive route map):
The day's stats (Tomtom's screen still wet!)
(Click on image for larger view)
To be continued ...
[edited to change the interactive route map link]
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