Scotland at 45mph

Seems like them only spar if you pay your fee.

I can remember an evil dude character in a movie with a four horned headset. Now I see that was not costume overkill, he was imitating a sheep. Great.

Stirling Castle never fails to impress.

No brummie accent for me (thank god), gloucester boy originally so its a south west(farmers) accent.....sort of, having lived in different parts of the england with the RAF its quite watered down....plus having geordie family I can speak that as well

Keep it coming

Talk about anything. I think you can talk about whatever then edit the rest out.

I subscribed to your channel, the only vids I have are from my old muvvi mini cam which is broken. No external mic on that though.

Aberfoyle is a frequent pass through for me. My usual quick ride after work etc is from here to Callander, I go over the pass on the way there and the quick way back.

Git it up ye Ewan McGregor

Saw you today going through Callander at 1.00pm

Haha aye you will have done. Were you in the car park? At 1pm I would have been arriving to head to Loch Lubnaig. I stopped for 5 mins in the car park to attach the camera to my helmet.

Didnt see you.................but did spend all day teaching on a Deauville

No I was in the 'square', sitting under the kirk eating a Greggs and I saw you ride past, I put my gear on and thought I'd try to catch you up. I slowed down at all the lay-by's on the way up to the Welly but I must have missed you

And don't you feel like you've got a spring in your step? Like summer has come early?

Mate, you would never have caught me!

You probably went past while I was in the car park. I say it was 5 but it was more like 10 or even 15 mins.

I had planned to go to Crianlarich and come back down past Loch Lomond but the weather wasn't looking too good the further north I got so I called it a day at Killin. How far up did you go?

I have videos but I'm finding the quality is so good that they take forever to save and upload. That video of The Duke's Pass is STILL processing on Youtube, three days after I uploaded it. Can't decide if it's crashed or just taking its time.

I just got passed the Rannoch Moor, where I pulled into a lay-by and watched a Royal Navy helicopter winching some guy off a mountain, don't know if it was a training exercise or the real McCoy but it was cool to watch . Ironically the weather got better further north I went, noticeably milder compared to Callander. The Welly was packed also, Ducati had an open day there and folk were taking some new models out for a run.

I really need to start taking my camera with me

Its weird Matt, ill spend all day on the D and then hop back on the Versys to go home, two very different bikes. The D is being sold off by the bike school monday and then ill be using a NC700.....direct comparison time, but it has the DCT auto box so will be a bit weird

I was telling myself to take a camera for a year before I ever did. I recommend it!

The helicopter thing sounds pretty cool. Would love to have got that on camera.

And missing the Ducati thing is quite annoying. Not sure they'd let me take a bike for a test run since I've only just got my licence though. Would like a go on a Multistrada or Diavel.

Yeah it's weird switching between bikes/cars. At least it's not a BMW with the 3 indicator buttons.

I've heard that Honda are no longer making Deauvilles so my guess is they'll replace it with a commuter/tourer version of the NC700. Not sure about that DCT. Is that the automatic clutch thing that they have on the maxi-scoot version? I read in a few mags that it's crap. Will be interested to hear what you think of it.

I have lost all hope that the Duke's Pass video will ever come to fruition. I might upload it again at a slightly lower resolution and see if that works. It's very annoying.

Anyway, as I said to Fraser2312 I had planned to go to Crianlarich and come back via Loch Lomond. However while the weather in Falkirk was very nice, it got duller and windier the further north I got (this turned into a bloody terrifying storm overnight). So I decided that since overcast skies don't help when taking photos I would cut things short and go to Killin instead.

First stop was a quick one in Callendar. Had to chuckle at seeing all the bikes there (hundreds on the roads as well) as the last time I was here it was empty. But now that the snow has gone everyone comes out to play.




The road up Loch Lubnaig is a great one as I've said many a time and now I have a helmet camera I can share it here. So here it is in its entirety. The fish eye lens does make the hills and mountains seem further away and smaller than they are but not enough that you don't get an idea of what it's like.

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So as I mentioned, I was heading to Killin. I have upwards of 5 million photos of Killin in this thread and all on much better days than this so I didn't bother taking any. Or I didn't, right up until I was getting a drink. I was standing in a car park admiring the beautiful lines of the Deauville when I heard a group of women calling out to each other. I turned to see one of them was trying to shepherd a frog off the road. It wasn't going particularly well and it's a shame I didn't have a camera handy at the time as the footage would have gone brilliantly with the Benny Hill theme.

She eventually succeeded in getting it to safety and it hid by a wall. I saw a few cats wandering about in the area and it was no where near water so I'd be amazed if it saw out the night. It was cool though, seeing a frog. It was only the third frog I'd ever seen in the wild despite them being abundant. I'm probably walking past them everyday without realising. Oddly enough having seen my first frog in years in Killin I nearly drove over one when heading to my girlfriends. I'm surprised I recognised it actually as it just looked like a leaf. I guess my brain was on frog watch.

He's likely dead now:




I wasn't taking photos (unless frog related) but I was taking video. Thought this might give a better understanding of the layout of Killin for those who've only seen it in pictures.

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I have a couple more videos from the way home coming but they're uploading right now and that takes an age. Original plan was to add the videos to the reports they belonged to but with them taking so long to edit, save and then upload I might just end up uploading them as they are ready. We'll see how it goes.

Should have the other two up tomorrow.

That frog must have been so freaked out that he for sure welcomed the peace and ease from the cat.

Here it's toad hype: roads are lined with plastic and dug in buckets. At dusk parents lead out the kids to inspect buckets, count toads and swap the content with the othersiders.

In my world Toad rode...

Another from the trip to Killin. This time I'm riding south through Glen Ogle and Lochearnhead.

See me thwart the local police.

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Hey Matt,

enjoying the vids mate and your commentary is entertaining, keep up the good work.

I have been on a good few of the roads you are showing, stayed at Killin and Lochearnhead last time I was up, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Hearing you talk about dodging sheep took me back. On certain of the smaller roads they had a habit of using white painted, sheep sized rocks as a sort of marker for the edges of the road. "Is it a sheep poised to do a sprint across the road, or is it a rock?"

Your Dad is always with you.... never think you are riding alone.... as he loves you and the bike..... so keep the bike & Ride close to your heart... the back set of your bike is always accommodate with your dad... wish you good luck for every ride,,, and 100 salute to the great soul. he is always there feel him..in every part of you.

Haha I think bikers up and down the country play the sheep/rock game. It's a game well worth playing. I was up in Glen Coe yesterday in the car and there were sheep lining the roads the whole way. I'm going to look into who to notify when I find sheep on the road. Everyone drives/rides past and forgets about them but it's pretty dangerous.

Thank you very much.

Least the coppers were in the 30, no complaints there, good few bike sout so guess there were a few friendly nods

Matt, just be aware that the roads you travel, especially around Glencoe, are favourites with the Scottish Police Driver Training Unit!

Sweet pix!

I've been to Scotland and it's amazingly beautiful, disarmingly so...
We spent a week up on the North Coast, around Kyle Of Tongue. There was so much open ground.... you see something and think "I'll just walk out there for a closer look"... two hours later, it still appears to be about the same distance away! That North Coast area is awe inspiring.

Riding a motorcycle in Scotland must be a real treat, in spite of
the weather.