Scotland at 45mph

In 1984 I visided the West Lothian,if on day you go to Broxburn,you can make photos of this city to see if she changed a lot

thank

End of the month. All been a bit of a farce. 3 days before I was due to go the last time the instructor quit/got fired and the other dude was on holiday. Will likely be next year before I get a proper go on my new bike.

I've never been to Broxburn. The motorway bypasses it. If I'm ever there i will make sure to take photos.

Long time, no update. Rather frustratingly, I can see that all my pictures have disappeared from the site. I host them through my Facebook page as it's free and there's no limit to how many times they can be viewed. The problem is that occasionally Facebook change their layout. So while my Facebook page still has all my photos, the individual urls have been changed. So all you get here are broken links. I'll go back through the thread and sort them soon though.

I really should get a proper photo account somewhere but I'm really just to cheap to pay for these things!

On the licence front; I did pass my Mod 1 exam. When trying to get the second and final part booked the first available slot that was convenient for me and my instructor was towards the end of November. I decided I'd wait til spring because the weather will suck. The Mod 1 lasts for 2 years before I have to re-sit. Not that I'll be delaying it that long mind you.

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Today was the first time I've been on the bike for a while. October and November here are not exactly ideal for biking and most bikes are in hibernation. Started a new job a few weeks back as well which means that even on nice days I haven't had much of a chance.

The lack of bike action has seen me spending more time on this site than usual looking at everyone's photos and whatnot so I decided that as long as the weather today wasn't awful I'd get out for at least a short while. It's likely to be the last ride I get til spring.

The journey to my new job takes me over the Kincardine Bridge every day. This was a bridge built when men were men and bridges were big and made of iron. It's only a 20 minute ride away and as it was raining I decided that was far enough.

Construction on the bridge ended in 1936. It crosses the Forth River just like the other bridge that I'm fond of taking pictures of. It's a swing bridge but no longer gets 'swung' because bigger ships don't get as far up the river anymore. They only need to go as far as Grangemouth which sits right between this bridge and the ones at Queensferry. The bridge might have been built when men were men but it was also built before cars were the primary mode of transport in Britain. Congestion was terrible until the second bridge was opened a few years back. It used to take my aunt about 45 mins to cross the bridge when heading to her work in the morning. I'm over it in 30 seconds.


Finding a place to take photos of the bridge is a bloody nightmare. The south bank is just a mud flat so is no use. There are a few viewing areas (specifically for the bridge, with info boards and everything!) on the north bank but they've all been fenced off for whatever reason. So most of the photos I have are taken with the camera sticking through a gap in the fence.

Kincardine Bridge:





Here's the view from the other bridge. You can see Grangemouth Oil Refinery in the background. It was taking these pictures that Irishrover63 from these very forums drove past me. First I knew about it was when I received a PM checking if it was me he'd seen!







Here are 2 boats. One is in considerably better shape than the other.






And here is the Clackmannanshire Bridge. Compared to the beautiful industrial lines of the Kincardine Bridge, this is nothing but a road on some poles. You might not even be able to see the bridge here as it blends in with the grey sky.



I decided that maybe the beauty of the newer bridge would be captured if rather than simply photograph it, I tried to paint it.




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Anyway I have about a hundred picture urls to amend in this thread so I'll get on with that.

Welcome back.

Nice job Matt, I like the old Kincardine bridge it's got that well built ruggedness about it. I will stop off next time I see you, now I know it was you. Tomorrow is forecast to be nice weather, hope to head out on the bike myself with the camera. Get yourself a Flickr account like I have, a free account lets you post 200 pics, then as you upload the oldest image is hidden, but you always have 200 images available to view if that makes sense.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23892420@N06/

Good to have you back.

FWIW your bridge looks far more exciting than the Clackmannanshire Bridge

Well done on passing Mod 1, take it your over 24 then Matt if your doing DAS as thats the new age from jan 19(doesnt matter if youve passed mod one or not), dunno why, thought you were doing it on a 125:huh, yes the mod 1 lasts two years............but its from the date of your theory test pass in reality which the examiner should of told you, so if you did that 18 months ago you only have 6 months to get it done or youll be resitting the lot

Wouldnt be bothered about the weather after this year, youve only gotta suck it up for 40 mins and the bugger you can ride safely

Tyvm.

Typically, the weather is great and I'm working. Hope you manage to get out.

Yeah you mentioned the Flickr thing before but at the time the Facebook thing was working fine. If I'm going to lose all the pictures from the thread every time they have a redesign I'll need to find something else. I'm sure I have more than 200 pictures already though so if I'm going to keep the thread as updated as I want, I'm just going to have to suck it up and pay someone to host.

Cheers man. Tbh, if the Kincardine Bridge didn't have that swing section in the middle, it wouldn't look all that different. But it does, so that's kinda moot. As much as it was a godsend for easing traffic congestion, it's a pity they couldn't have made it even a little bit pretty.

Yeah I'm 30, doing DAS.

Yeah I wasn't aware of the theory thing. Only did that in June though so it's not going to affect things. Thanks for the heads up though.

My worry with the test was that it was going to be icy or snowing. My instructor was amazed that my Mod 1 went ahead as the test centre was flooded. This got me thinking that the examiners will only cancel a test in the worst conditions. It was more a case of the test being quite expensive and me not wanting to lose a load of cash because of bad conditions.

I also wouldn't really be using the bike much even if I had booked the test for this year anyway.

I'll get it done in march.

If they cancel then they pick up the restest fee and not you, can be blooming annoying as youll ride all the way in the same conditions they wont take you out in because of a risk of high wind/ice/standing water/risk of snow etc etc........but if you didnt turn up then you gotta pay for it, does our bloody heads in because youve still gotta ride back to the training centre in the same conditions they wont take you out in

Hey Matt,
just checking back in to see how you are doing.
Well done on the test part 1 (of 759...). If I was cynical, I might think that they are making it so complicated, and expensive, to get a bike licence as some sort of deterrent. Surely not?
Good on you for ploughing through all that crap.
It sure was different in my day, I think my test took about 10, maybe 15 minutes at the most... but the price I have to pay for that is being veeery old. :)

Safe miles mate!

Just spotted the thread today, fantastic! I lived in Inverness for a while but unfortunately didn't have a bike at the time. Going back up from "sunny" England in the New Year for a couple weeks of drifting about on my bike. Can't wait.

Keep 'em coming!

Nope your right Windmills....legislate off the roads to so say reduce accident stats........sorry for the hijack Matt

I'm slowly getting through the thread, re-activating photos. I'm done for the night though. Post #45 has 30+ pictures in it which will have to wait til tomorrow.

Thanks man. I think though to be fair, not everyone's test experience is as drawn out as mine. I was just unlucky in that regard.

There's no question the variety of tests on offer is needlessly complicated though. I'm just glad I'm old enough to pick Direct Access. It's the simplest one of the lot.

Thanks man. Inverness will be one of the locations I visit next year hopefully (it has a bridge!). Been through a few times in the car.

Education and entertainment is the goal of the thread so no problems there!

Just blundered onto your thread and I'm hooked!! Day trips are great and give lots of ideas to those who want to set up a base for a while and then branch out to a different destination daily. Thanks!

Thanks man. I'm off the next few days so I should be able to get more of the photos fixed. There are quite a few!

Where is it you're from?

Stunningly beautiful. Thanks for posting.

Matt.....New York.......did a bit of car driving in Scotland a few years back. Came up past B'ham, dinner in Glasgow then B & Bs in Port William(? I think it was) and a nice one on Skye. Loved that place. Then over to Edinburgh for a day and a half and finally roll back down into England. I'm itching to get over there with a bike. Ride during the day and relax with a wee dram in the evenings. Your experiences lead me to think that an interesting approach would be to choose a good B & B or small hotel which is centrally located to a network of good day rides. Then use the lodgings as a place to to roost at night, reducing the need to carry a heavy load of gear. Just tools, water, snack, and of course....rain gear. Looking forward to your continued reports.

New York? You'll be the only person looking to come over here for the better weather then. Hope you got through Sandy unscathed though, in all seriousness.

Yeah Scotland is small enough that loading up the bike with a ton of gear isn't totally necessary. A handful of well chosen locations to stay for a day or two will give you access to the whole country.

Fort William (with an 'F') is one such place and hopefully when I do a full tour of the country next year that's how I'll be doing it.

Hey Matt.....sorry to have spelled "Fort William" wrong! Tough to proofread my own stuff! And thanks for the good words re Sandy. Me, I was fortunate to live far from the devastation so here there was just a bit of a breeze and a few periods of heavy rain but no damage at all. The coastal zone, though, they got kicked in the bollocks. There are still folks there without electricity or even a roof over their head. I really like the idea of not having to bring a full camping kit to Scotland and just working out of one or two bases. Sounds brillant. One of these summers.....which for Scots means about half an hour in August?

Finally got the thread up to date with the photos so for all the late comers that have only seen the first few pages, there are a load more pictures for you to see.

Glad to hear you're safe. I've been to NYC and loved it and the people. Sad to hear so many are having such a tough time there. I'm also guilty of thinking New York = Manhattan. So apologies for my ignorance there!

Summer is long gone by August, man! The nice days are in May these days. After that it's just storms.

And funnily enough, the most consistent month for nice, sunny days this year so far has been October!