Scotland - Milton to Rest and be thankful route

We decided to do a run starting in the Glasgow area, this was Mauro’s 1st run with us and I came up with this route to make sure we don’t go to quick, the traffic made sure we didn’t. We met up at the services in Milton next to the Little Chef, Ann was chatting up the other bikers that came through while we waited for Jamie. Roundtrip of 78 miles.

The route:

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Stops:

Parking on Glenfruin Rd, overlooking Faslane.
Rest and be thankful
Various times behind temporary traffic lights
Lunch was @ the Crown Carveries in Milton, carvery for £2.95, great lunch!

Verdict:

Great wee route, if it wasn’t for the cars on it, the traffic on the A82 was annoying so we turned off on Glenfruin Rd, a couple of miles with great surface, no cars, fantastic! We continued on the A814 to Arrochar, another blast up the side of Loch Long and around to Rest and be thankful. The scenery was just spectacular, making it harder to avoid getting too much air and hitting the wee stone wall stopping you from driving into Loch Long.
We hit some rain on the way back, and numb nuts (aka Lawrence) thought it would be advisable to go down and drive through Cardross on the way back for lunch, bad idea, there were so many temporary traffic lights we had to occasionally switch the bikes off to stretched our legs waiting for it to turn green. At least the views of The Clyde made up for it.

Photos:

Lawrence

Mauro & Jamie, Faslane in the background

Mauro

Food!

I am tired

Scotland - Livingston to Kelso route

For our 1st run we decided to go to a BMF event in Kelso and met up in Livingston once the torrential rain in the West subsided. We actually never entered the event as they were packing up just as we arrived, so decide to spend the £20 per head in a local pub on some nice lunch.

Roundtrip of 110 miles.

The route:

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Stops:

Smoke break at the windfarm on the A68
Had lunch in Kelso @ The Cobbles Inn, awesome lunch I have to admit, I would definitely recommend it
Smoke break at the windfarm on the A68

Verdict:

A very enjoyable run, once you hit the A68 you are just enjoying the ride, the road surface was good, the corners were great, the traffic was lite considering we went to attend an event.

Photos:

Jamie

Jamie & Ann

Jamie & Lawrence

Lawrence, Jamie & bikes

Who are we?

A very good question, we are:

Lawrence – I have no hair, which saves me £360-00 a year on haircuts

Mauro – I eat anything

Jamie – I fucking know everything, if I don’t know it, I will google it!

Pete – When I am pished I refer to myself as John Francis Bongiovi

Ann – I pack dry underwear

Tyla – I don’t have anything on Tyla yet, watch this space…

Bike aboot

Living in Scotland, spending the majority of my time infront of a puter, I decided I would get back into biking.

As a rehabilitated biker, meaning, I started riding again after an absence of 10 years. It came about when Ann jumped on the back of our neighbours’ Fireblade and decide it was time for her to get her license and join me on a journey of a lifetime.

• a journey that makes new friends
• a journey that gives you stories to tell
• a journey that is a passion
• a journey that never ends
• a journey we share with great friends

Returning to biking was more daunting than I thought it would be, I have been back in the saddle for about 3 years now and it has taken me that long to make a conscious effort to ride more, now you could argue that the Scottish weather played a big part in this, which is probably true, that is why I decided I will start commuting with the bike.

I have only been actively commuting this summer, which is not a long time, that is when I decided I need to make up the lost time, there are 10 years of riding I need to catch up on.

I had a couple of options to do more miles, solo it (not as much fun, but still great), me and Ann (its great fun been doing it for 3 years), join a club (I cba with politics associated with clubs), but then I decided to I ask a couple of friends if they would be interested in joining Ann and I on weekends when we hit the road, and obviously the answer was yes.

We did our 1st run two weeks ago and that is the purpose of the blog, I want to record our routes and share it with the wider community.

Please note, we are casuals riders doing it to stay sane, not riding to show-off, not riding to scrape knees (however it does happen), we ride because its a passion, a new lifestyle, a resurrected lifestyle, an established lifestyle.

Enjoy the journey with us, ride safe…

And to all the sky riders, we salute you, especially Hein Hattingh!