Scottish Classic club Autumn meet

A cloudy but dry start to the day and quite warm for this time of year which was good. Our run two up to St Fillans on the T3 Guzzi was enjoyable, dry roads and not too many lunatics. I like St Fillans, looking out over or riding along the side of Loch Earn always reminds me of Mandello looking over Lago Di Como (well apart from the people, the architecture and the weather) An excellent turn out and a superb mix of bikes, once again I met up with many people I hadn't seen in years which was great but with the numbers there it was a bit like speed dating, a paragraph then move on to the next friend, maybe we should think about an overnight meeting but then again I suppose when the drink kicks in nobody remembers who they spoke to anyway. Good turnout from the Tay Valley NOC which was great and a special mention for Don on his Dr John Daytona, last seen him on this bike in 2002 so I'm glad he managed to remove it from his house, one of only 20 imported to the UK! Also worth a mention was the Matchless Silver Hawk, a 26 degree V 4 build between 1930-34 , rarer than hens teeth. The one great thing about the day was that ALL the bikes were ridden there, no trailer Queens and that in my opinion is how it should be!

My T3 in exalted  company

Rare beast

Loch Earn

Derek Wilkies RGS BSA

A brace indeed of desirable BSA's

Fraser's Lightning, pretty

Cooking Matchy

Nice Rig

Shiny Velo

Singles seemed to be in today

Tony's take on a Falcone Nuovo

More BSA's

Rarer than an Aberdonian buying a round of drinks, Matchless Silver Hawk

Single Vincent

Shiny 650ss

Original T150 Trident

Sandy's Cammy Norton

Me like very much but I still have the mental scars from clutch pain when I had its fiercer brother the Jota

Blokes and Girls looking at bikes

What Sundays are for!

Jake, grupenfuhrer of the Falcone forum shadows us back home (sorry it's blurred Jake, taking live shots from the back of a T3 isn't easy :-)

Indian 4

I had to post this to show how sweet the bike runs, enjoy

Town Yetholm Norton meeting

So the annual meeting starring the mighty Tay Valley, Edinburgh and Northumbria branches has come around again so it must be September, unbelievable its been a year since the last one. We set off after work on Friday only to be confronted with rain, wind and crazy traffic on the Edinburgh bypass. Not a great start to the weekend however we got to Kelso and it dried out a bit and then even got our tent up dry!
Unfortunately the pub wasn't dry (in an alcoholic sense) and this meant we partook of copious amounts meaning Saturday was a bit fuzzy. Great to see everyone again, I had been secretly lusting after a Falcone recently (maybe just a phase) and Bert nephew Ian turned up on a mint example, Bert turned up on his "Indian Four" a masterpiece of engineering, I've seen it through the various stages and am very impressed by the workmanship. The fact it ran like a watch (a Swiss one rather than a dodgy rip off) made it all the more impressive. Toon and his pal from Belgium turned up on the Saturday after a week travelling around Scotland so it was great to see some younger guys along (not that any of us are older!!!)
Fantastic weekend with great company and old motorbikes, whats not to like.  

Guzzi's at rest, Fi was on the V11

A brace of Mk3 commandos

Alan, up from Hull on his ES2

Robin up from South of Manchester on his Fastback

Bert stole the show though

Campbell down from Aberdeen

Ian's new Falcone

Forfar John's fine Commando

Windy, Forfar John and Philly getting into it

Alan looks like he's getting out of it, good to see Robin back on the scene

Story telling

Just excellent no matter where you look

Sandy Bloy's sidestand modification

Not a bad part of the world

Kirk at Kirk Yetholm

Pretty

George Martin paid us a visit to drop some oil

Euan's sidestand mod, he though it might blow over!

Ardnamurchan

This weekend we are normally in Belgium for the Begonia Rally but this year for a variety of reasons we couldn't go so we decided to spend the bank holiday weekend in Ardnamurchan. Pressures of work (yes I know ridiculous!) meant we left on Saturday to head up the A82, luckily we avoided some of the insanity by going up via the back road to Comrie then joining the A82 at Lochearnhead. The polizia were out in force trying to extract money and causing misery to mainly motorcyclists from what I could see. Gav Smith was standing half way through the village having obviously been pulled, I shouted encouragement and stopped short of a rant about facists and dubious parentage! Now I understand the dangers of speeding but every year the constabulary go out and generally make themselves a nuisance by proactively targeting motorcyclists, it really pisses me off, when was the last time you saw a very badly driven car or motorhome being pulled, never I'd say. The pattern was repeated all the way to Fort William with sleekit bobbies hiding in hedges hoping to make someones day even more miserable than it already is because the roads are so congested with retarded tourists. Anyhow after crossing the Corran ferry to the peninsula life got immediately better, empty roads and quite splendid roads at that. We camped at Sunart camping at Strontian, the owner is also a keen motorcyclist so as well as the site being clean, well kept and nice facilities knowing you are helping a fellow motorcyclist earn a living is the icing on the cake.
A couple arrived on a Vstrom, Ian and Fiona from Gourock, nice people and we shared a few drinks on the Saturday night in the local pub (well more than a few!!) Another rant, I often wonder why Applecross is so busy and popular whereas The Ardnamurchan peninsula is so quiet despite it being arguably  every bit as nice and in fact easier to get to. I got my answer on the Friday night when we almost didn't get fed as they were "busy, it's a bank holiday weekend!" now thankfully we did get fed but over the weekend I saw many groups of people being turned away, in my mind ridiculous and unfortunately I can probably guarantee not many of these people will return. So if your heading up (which you should) book a meal or take your own!
Ian and the two Fionas and I retired to the bothy on site for a few more drams after closing time which is just what we all needed. I have to say the weather on Sunday was outstanding so I took full advantage by doing nothing, perfect. Another (but thankfully quieter) night in the pub Sunday and more banter with the locals and our new Gourock pals meant I could almost face the midges this morning! A fantastic run down the road, eerily quiet and one of these days when you just never get held up and in sunshine, perfect weekend again!
 

The Mandello mauler ready for the off

Corran ferry, escape from the masses

Guzzi having a cruise

Land ahoy Captain

Our weekend house!

Fi pulling faces

Pretty sunset

Surprised to see this Tesla in the campsite, I got the full rundown from the owner who is very impressed, drove up from London that day with 3 electric stops (and they were camping!)

Bonnie

Ian & Fiona prepared to go escape the midges

Empty roads

With nice bends 

Fi disembarking

Glencoe & sunshine, perfect