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Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Applecross 2014

Another motorcycling weekend at Applecross in the Scottish Highlands.
 

Pitstop at Achnasheen railway station (and no, that wee building isn't the toilets, they're around the corner!)

The Flower Tunnel - minus the cafe-bar

Bit of a problem this year as the Flower Tunnel café-bar on the campsite had closed for some reason. When we asked about this the answers we got didn’t make much sense, to be honest.

Other Terry and his ZZR1400

Having a drink outside the Applecross Inn waiting on our dinners

However, it meant rethinking our plans for the weekend as we had been planning on eating there and avoiding the pub, which gets far too busy in the evenings. The food is excellent, but there's never enough room. So, the pub it was then.

Everything is better after a cup of tea

Deer foraging on hillside behind the Applecross Inn

Taking the Landie lifestyle a bit too seriously

Gareth inspects a replica iron-age roundhouse

Dutch clogs are called Klompen, much like the noise that they make

A generally lazy few days, with only Stuart and Other Terry kitting up and going for a spin on the Saturday afternoon. 

As usual, the weather was a bit unpredictable. Bright and sunny one minute, drizzly rain the next.  Not to worry, sometimes it’s just good to get away for a few days.

The view towards Raasay and Skye from the top of the Bealach na Ba

The long and winding road

Obligatory photo of the roadsign at the foot of the Bealach na Bà (Pass of the Cattle).
This is as close to an alpine road as you can get in the UK, a single-track road with a very steep gradient and a number of tight switchback hairpin bends.
Normally great fun on a bike, but less so when I arrived on Friday as most of it was covered in mist and drizzle, with very limited visibility making it quite hard work and without the great views from the top. Much better coming back over this morning, though, in the sunshine.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?" 

The Road

(Via: scrambler)

Townie vs The World

The recent BMF Show was a bit of an eye-opener when it came to the adventure bike market. The folk who have actually ridden around the world on their own seem to have invariably done so on small, unsuitable bikes with the minimum of specialist equipment. A number of them were at the show with their Honda C90s and 250 trail bikes plugging their book/video/holiday company.

 

However, alongside the people who had actually done it were all the big supply companies, like Touratech, who insist that in order to do it ‘properly’ you have to do it on a big capacity bike, preferably a BMW 1200GS, and buy all of their hi-tech, and very expensive, equipment so that you don't die while riding to the shops and back.

And then there was this guy. He had been given the stand for nothing to try and help him raise some funds when someone else pulled out at the last minute, his bike was seriously un-cool and the equipment he had was just pitiful. However, he is planning on doing what a lot of people can only dream of. Read about his story, and follow his journey here. The best of luck to him.

Flat Twin

(Via: motomondiale)

Going Home

MZ ETZ250 outside the town in which it was built