Scotland at 45mph

Well,,, maybe he was like me!
An American having trouble with the roundabouts and strange traffic signs!!!
Wife and I just got back from 2 weeks in your beautiful country. We rented a car and drove all around the country while I tried to keep on the 'wrong' side of the road. Turned the rental car back in with no damage though! Sorry if I got in the way of any of you folks!
Carry on!

There is still a Scottish guy running around the NE by a lake and a castle. He owes me a tour of his country. I gave him one of mine. I met him under the STL arch with a backpack. Gave hime a pretty good tour of the middle of the US. Dang, can't remember his name. Thing it was Lourdas, but that could have been the Irish girl I spent the night in Athens with. Memory is fading.

Irish girls will do that to you

Thank you. Come on over. The weather's to be good this weekend but be quick as it's raining again on Monday.

Haha yeah it's not exactly shocking news.

Were you driving a silver Mercedes? how did you enjoy the trip?

It might be Lord Ass. I would Google him but I'm afraid of what I might find!

Been a while coming! The videos take so long to edit, save and upload. I will try to get them done on time though as I'm a while behind.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SqDm57tNWA0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Did you come across the old house that's in Skyfall?

No, a dark gray Vauxhall Astra.
Enjoy the trip?
YES!!! Had a great time! One thing unexpected though,,, really surprised how barren the northwest part was,,, say from Ullapool up to Durness. Reminded me so much of Montana and Wyoming over here.
Very nice folks the whole way!
Here's a pic I grabbed... east of Durness I'm thinking?

Scotland and especially the Isle of Skye area are some of the finest roads I have ever been on in Europe. Been there 8 times but never on a bike. Need to change that someday...

Bloody bike is leaking brake fluid at the front. Through what's likely to be the best weather of the year as well.

Haha I completely forgot about that. Did wonder why there were bits of helicopter and Judi Dench lying about mind you.

Cracking picture. Never been up that far. I will though. When I can stop.

Yep the Isle of Skye is on the priority list for me too. When I can stop.

Other stuff has got in the way of my biking recently so I haven't been out as much as I'd like. Given that the weather is superb right now, I'd like to be out all the time. But as I mentioned in the last post there the front rake is leaking fluid so that's going to have to get looked at before I go anywhere else. hopefully not a huge issue but there might not be any reports for a week or so, depending on what needs done.

Anyway for about the third time this year I left the house intending to go to Inveraray. And for the third time this year I decided against it once I was out on the road. This time the issue was time. I was having a BBQ at 6pm. I could get there and back in that time no probs but I couldn't stop for many pictures or sit down and chill out.

So I decided on the Falls of Falloch. I'm rarely on the road between Tarbet and Crianlarich as I usually head to Inveraray from Tarbet and there are better, quieter roads to get to Crianlarich. However on the few times I've been on this road I've seen signs for a waterfall and always promised I'd go look. Well this trip was as good a time as any so I headed off.

Since I don't particularly like the road up the side of Loch Lomond (from Balloch to Tarbet) so I was heading up the A84/5 to Crianlarich before turning south to the Falls.



I stopped in Crianlarich to stick the helmet cam on. The road south from Crianlarich to Tarbet is pretty nice.

A82 South:




The falls themselves are a proper hidden gem. The car park is tiny (handy for keeping the crowds away) and there's a short walk along a path before you find yourself in your own Herbal Essences advert. It's like an actual tropical lagoon in Scotland. Sadly there were no scantily dressed models in this lagoon, just a family who thought it was best to spread all their stuff over the rocks meaning people (me) had to step over it to get about.

They weren't being particularly loud though, which is a pet hate, so that wasn't so bad.

The Falls of Falloch:








I sat there for a bit thinking that it'd be a cool place to hang out with a few friends and a great place to hang about with some bikini models. But I was due home for food at 6 so I headed off. A nice lady in a camper van gave me some water as I was sweating profusely in my gear (it actually gets hot here sometimes).

Despite my moans about the A82 beside Loch Lomond, you do get some cracking views of the loch at times.

Loch Lomond:









Southern tip of the loch


I stopped at one of the beaches along the loch for a bit. It's also a cool/great place to hand out with friends/models but isn't hidden at all. The car park is always busy and the beach isn't much better. It was starting to cool down though so there weren't too many people by the water.

Firkin Point:







The road home from here is pretty straight forward. I'd done it a load of times. So I decided to shake things up a bit by heading down a road I'd never been on before. And I'm glad I did. It was the road to Aberfoyle and it was pretty good. I was further waylaid when the road from there home was shut and I was diverted to Callendar. It was also a great wee road that I'd never been on before.

It started off with me turning round a corner to be confronted by a huge articulated lorry halfway onto my side of the road. He moved back in when he saw me but never quite got all the way back.

He was a bit further over when I first saw him than in this picture but this is when the picture cleared up.

Lorry:



Things improved from there though and I found a lovely, twisty and smooth road that I'll definitely need to re-visit.

A81:








And home just in time for some salad.

Health Food:

Any pics of the leak? I'll see if I can help you out

Salad? What about the two Scots tarts at Firkin point??

remember the road round loch lomond in th eminibus on the way to nevis thinking that would be good on the bike. ref the leak, from the calipers or master cylinder end? Calipers will be either near the banjo or a seal has popped out on one of the pistons, m/cyl either the banjo or plunger seal

It's hard to find the leak. Will wait til I get some assistance. Step-dad knows what he's doing so will get him to help out when he gets back from his wee break down south. Cheers guys.

Hey Matt. Been out lately?

Hopefully been enjoying this weather....

Great thread and stunning pictures! I will be heading over to Scotland in a couple of weeks and your thread has got me psyched to see some of that scenery. Unfortunately, I will be checking it out from a Vauxhall Astra. Oh well, still can't wait. Keep posting pix of your rides.

Hi fella. Yeah the weather has been great but not been on the bike.

See above!

Thank you very much. You'll still enjoy it. You'd only dislike the car if you'd been round on the bike. Feel free to share a few pics when you're touring.


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My bike is in the garage right now getting its MOT and a few things fixed. Leaking forks were leaking oil onto the brakes and I wasn't going out with dodgy brakes. I'll have it back tomorrow just in time for some nice weather and since I haven't been out for a while I will definitely have some catching up to do.


Since an update wouldn't be an update without photos, here we go:


Inmate Platinumgrit dropped in one day to say hello. We grabbed some lunch and swapped stories/righted the world's wrongs. He's a good guy but I'm kinda glad that Cruella was off the road. There's no way I would have been able to keep up with him! Here's his Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/StewartWild?view_as=public



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There's a new arrival in the fleet. Not mine sadly but Bob the Stepdad's. It a gorgeous Kawasaki W800. I kinda hope he ends up hating it so I can snake in and buy it off him on the cheap.



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I'm going to cheat here and post a few photos of a trip I took in the car. I spent a week on the remote(ish) island of Luing at my uncle's holiday home. It's lovely up that way and makes me want to move house. Falkirk is so drab in comparison. So with sincere apologies to the site mods and administrators here are some photos I took.

Luing:









Ellenabeich:








Eilean Dubh Mor:




I don't really like posting pics from car trips but hopefully with the bike back tomorrow that'll be the last time it happens!

The site mods will just have to deal with it. Those are some beautiful photos. Makes me want a sailboat.

Ryan

Hi Matt,
Your step-dad's Kawa looks like it just came off the showroom floor! Magnificent! I'm looking forward to more of your reports once you've got your bike back. The photos above are beautiful, as we've come to expect from you! Thanks! You were out and about scouting a new route to ride, eh? heh, heh...