Scotland at 45mph

And the same to you pal. Spent 6 weeks in WA in 2011 myself actually. My mum and her husband split their time between here and there so I was visiting them. Nice place. Glad you enjoy the thread. It hopefully should get spectacular in the next few months.[/QUOTE]

Mate, if you are ever back over here give me a shout and we can arrange for you to come for a ride with us. We can find you a bike and some riding gear so if you are interested let me know when you are coming. Stay safe mate!

Beautiful pictures

Cracking pics Matt, so you still looking at March for the Mod 2?

Absolute quality bud ,, pictures are shit hot ,, the Buachaile Etive Mor pic is awesome ,, what camera are you using ,, i get good ones with my Nikon but these are way better .. I was driving to Harogate yesterday over the A66 and i had the same sky ,, never seen it like that before ,, fannytastic mate , jim

Thanks man and happy belated birthday. Hope it was as good as mine!

Awesome, thanks! That would be amazing. Spend 3 months in Oz touring mostly by bus and the closest I got to being on a bike was Scooterroo when we visited 1770. It was about as far removed from my normal biking habits as you can get but it was actually quite good fun. And it scratched an itch!

Thankyou very much, sir.

Hopefully mate. It's £165 to do Mod 2 with the cost of bike and instructor included and I don't have it spare tbh. I'm prepping the Marauder for sale right now though so the second I have cash from that I'll get it booked.

Thanks man. I do love that picture. Might be one for the living room wall!

Camera is a Nikon D5100. That picture was taken with the 18-55mm kit lens. F16 - ISO 100 - 1/320 and at 24mm. It always helps to be in one of the worlds beauty spots! Aye the weather was amazing that day. I'll be talking about it for years!

Fantastic pictures ! Makes me yearn to visit and ride Scotland. I just worry about having to ride on the "wrong" side of the road !! Happy Birthday too !

.

You wont be riding on the wrong side of the road.

You will, at last, be riding on the proper side of the road.

Come over, dude. Everyone should ride Scotland at some point in their life.

Tbh I would also feel weird about being on the other side of the road. If I was faced with an issue on the road eg a car coming at me in my lane I think my natural instinct would be to move to the left. That obviously wouldn't be great if you're meant to be on the right hand side of the road. Maybe you adjust naturally but it would definitely be weird I think.

The UK, Australia, NZ, Japan and a handful of other places around the world: Where right is wrong.

hi, that its my kind a way of travel...low cc bike, and time to really see the landscape, you have there some of the most beautifull photos that i ever seen, cheers

sounds about right price wise mate, good luck

Stunning, stunning photos. May all your February's be as beautiful and more so. BTW, hurry up & get yer full license - I'll be in Scotland after I finish with the Isle of Man TT, and you'll be near enough where I'll be staying. If you want riding & exploring company, and a fellow (shite, but not so shite as to be truly shite) photographer, I'd be honored.

I always look for an update here when I drop in on AdvRider, great pictures and transparent pleasure form the act of riding make it a great read.

(I grew up mixing my riding between left and right sides of the road. I found that I fell naturally into the pattern of the places. had I been required to reverse the common usage I would have got muddled, but as it was i knew where to go in each country from force of habit. Driving in the US Virgin Islands is complicated because they use US signage and drive on the left, as much as anyone follows the rules, so that is confusing).

Thank you very much. Plenty people enjoy fast bikes and good luck to them, but I can't help but feel they're missing out at times. There's so much to look at in this country that zipping past it at 130mph is doing yourself a great disservice. Even when I 'move up' bikes I wouldn't be getting anything built for speed.

Thanks man. Info in the next post!

If February was like this every year I'd have myself cryogenically frozen about only brought out for 28 glorious days a year.

Sounds good man. If I don't have a licence by then, something catastrophic will have happened so I think I'll be good.

You doing a RR for your travels?

Thanks man. Yeah I always feel that troubles melt away when you're on a bike. I can't not enjoy myself. Glad it comes across.

Yep you're right about the side of the road business. Many thousands of bikers head to different countries every year and most seem to do okay. Can't be that hard or no-one would get home.

My test is booked for the 28th of March.

Normally I'd keep it quiet so that in the event of failure I could simply not mention it and tell you all that the reason it was being put off was that I was concerned about the weather going bad in November or that I didn't have enough money.


No, I swear this will be my first attempt.

To demonstrate how slow I've been about this, new legislation has managed to come out since my last test (Mod 1). I'm slower than a semi-corrupt semi-democracy. The engine size of the bike I have to use has risen from at least 500cc to at least 595cc so the old Suzuki G500 (or whatever the hell that thing was) has been given the heave-ho and I'll be doing the test on a Yamaha Diversion. I've never been on a Yamaha before but I've got an hour before the test to get myself acquainted with it. I can't imagine it does anything mind-bogglingly radical so it'll just be getting used to the seating position. I'm hoping it's less cramped than the Suzuki.

Anyway so that's my D-Day. It's out there so no hiding when the time comes. If it's 10 o'clock at night on the 28th and I still haven't posted you'll know I'm too ashamed to say!


In the mean time the wee Suzuki has been Mot'd and given a facelift in preparation of her imminent departure. Givi cruiser panniers that I bought a year and a half ago but never bothered to put on due to a complication with a screw and my sissy bar now adorn the rear end of the bike. They were a right bastard to get on but of course the first thing I said once it was done was, "I should've done that ages ago". I'm hopeless at times.

They look alright too. The silver studs then line the side could do with being painted over mind you. They're a bit 'Rhinestone Cowboy'.

Here she is. I'm still waiting on a new choke cable but once that's done she's good to go.

(Also; that isn't an oil patch!)

All the best with the test.
TAM

Good luck mate!

Rod.

Good luck Matt, the divvy is a much nicer bike to ride than the GS500, lot smoother, maybe a touch taller but so much better and the extra power(ok only 15bhp or so) gives it a more fun oomph in comparison and remember.......postioning and lifesavers

Good luck with the test. With the amount of riding you have been doing you should have no problems. Just do not stop to take photographs whilst actually on your test.
I hope to be reading a lot more of your ride reports this year.

Cheers Glenn.

Hey matt good luck for the 28th fella ,, the weather is to break tomorrow but hopefully no snow ,, especially for the 28th .. You will sell the wee sazzook no worries ,, she looks like a mini harley with them boxes on now but looking good,, all the best jim

Some stunning views! I`m down in London.Only had some local trips to south and south west. Exmoor, Dartmoor and other nice places :) I usually pick my places from the national walks website. They have lots of nice places to offer, I always get some nice ideas there. I`m planning to go to whales this spring :) always wanted to go up north though. But it takes a while to get there and with work and all it`s difficult to cough up enough time for exploring Scotland :) anyway - brilliant pictures. I hope I`ll get there someday :)