[kj] Sunday Trip Report - Scotland

[iPat]

Well that's summer been and gone. What a brilliant weekend and what a
run it was! Nothing fancy, plain and simple but a joy to do!

SWMBO had taken the dog and the car up to Inverness for the weekend at
her parent's house and after my duties teaching at the gym I was going
to meet up with her. I pulled out of the driveway at 1505 hours only
making a stop at the local petrol station to check tyre pressure. I
left Aberdeen at 1520pm.

The route was the simple A96 which goes high up into the mountains
around Keith but generally skirts around the Cairngorms mountain
range. The nature of this road is that up to Keith it's quite wide and
un-congested but after that it's a narrow road, causing many tail
backs of traffic. Driving by car usually takes 2 1/2 hours.
 
This is the bikes first foray since autumn and I was glad to be giving
it a run to clean it out. The weather was great and I donned the
sunglasses to cater for the brightness. Heading out on duel carriage
way for the first 20 odd miles I started to get myself back into the
mindset for longer journeys. The bike responded well to being let off
the leash and soon I was approaching Huntly. Here I had a choice to go
inland and over the mountains, slightly longer but a more enjoyable
route but my main consideration was getting from A to B asap. Still no
one had passed me and I kept my eyes peeled for police cars.

I concentrated on best practice, working my knowledge of how to take
corners and I enjoyed some of the sweeping corners flanked by high
tree with the strong sun breaking through. On the way up I was
averaging 80mph with me taking the bike easily up to speeds that I
thought it best not to stay at for legal reasons.

As I passed Fochaber's I was joined by a biker with a pillion on the
back. I followed him, taking advantage of his knowledge of the road.
Comparing what I thought might be a GSX12000 I was amazed with the
Sprints ability to open up and simply leave the other bike behind. The
Suzuki was punchier and was able to nip past the traffic with ease
although that could come down to different riding attributes. At
Elgin, I passed him in the traffic queue wrongly presuming he had
reached his destination. Five minutes later I saw his light in the
distance and let him catch up. After a while I made room to imply for
him to pass and take the lead and he did so.

At times we passed other bikes out on short runs but no one really
bothered us. The traffic was heavy so I was lucky to have him with me
with his knowledge of the road. Approaching Inverness a BMW car
started to scream up to us and we both opened up the throttle to keep
it at bay, but again the ST almost overtook the Suzuki
unintentionally. I was in the house and changed 2 hours after taking
off, 110 miles away.


After a good night, an early morning walk with several Boxer dogs to
clear the head I set off midday to return home, hopeful my 16 year old
son had not had a party at the house. I contemplated a different route
but by missing a turning out of Inverness ended up on the same route
home. The traffic was busy and so while I passed the queues of Sunday
drivers easily I did nt thrash it and looked at different riding
positions at different speeds. Below 80mph I could hear the iPod,
whereas the day before it didn't matter what speed. I think I got the
ear plugs in better today with the iPods ear buds not properly
sitting. At 60 I could sit up high and take in the country side, at 80
I was starting to be buffeted by the wind and at 90+ I had to drop
lower to the tank.

The closer I got to Aberdeen the chillier it got, so I came off the
duel carriageway and made the last 30 odd miles in on the back road,
small single track twisties that required a lot of quick breaking and
keeping vision a long way ahead, scanning the road for traffic coming
a long way off. The bike was simply loving this and responding well
with my technique returning to standard.

For anyone who wants to see the map for reference:
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=350000&Y=850000&width=500&height=300&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&zm=0&scale=1000000&out.x=6&out.y=6

wonder if i can get away this sunday?

-- 
iPat
live for today, live for tomorrow
"Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any
organisation, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual,
nor through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He
has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the
understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and
not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection..."