Ping ping ping, the group chat is pinging like mad, it’s all the baw bags on whats app that are trying to figure something up for a run, we had agreed at our last meal we had together that we were going to go a run on the last weekend of The month, this was meant to be a camping weekend but due to the predicted weather the chat was just saying a run-on Saturday. Only one big drawback, my bike and my dad’s bike were still sitting in Stirling at my dad’s work and unfortunately my dad’s health is not been the best, he gave me and Watty a run through to pick it up, we also had some one extra in the car going through, when he found out we were picking the bikes up he grabbed his new helmet, jacket and his gloves. We arrived in Stirling and pushed the bikes out, it was at that point I remembered how much of a heavy beast my dad’s pan was, that fired up straight away and the V4 just ticked over like it should. Then I pushed out the Deauville, I tried to start her, but she wouldn’t spark to life, just turned over and over, I tried the choke off but nothing. My dad causally walked across after noticing my stupid mistake. I had forgot to turn the fuel on! A proper blonde moment. I got Declan all set up and ready to go, I was more concerned about getting him ready I completely missed strapping my helmet up, whoops. We ran them back; Watty took my Deauville back to the house and I took the pan with Declan on the back. It was a good we blast back but wasn’t enough to blow the cobwebs off. Then I looked at my phone when we got back to garage..
We were all meeting up at McDonald’s at 11am, the only downside was I was working until 11. This meant me leaving the house at 5:30 on the bike, something I haven’t done since I started back as a HGV mechanic. Surprisingly it was dry and not to cold, I thought this would be a great day out on the bike then, just, after I brought the bike in to the workshop to check the tyre pressures, the heavens opened. I got on the bike, had a quick splash and dash and seen them all at the Golden Arches enjoying the breakfast, I was 10 mins to slow and missed the breakfast menu. I was gutted, we left and headed up to Kinross, I stupidly put the sat map on my head phone’s and did not refresh after Kinross, for the next 40 mins after we passed there it kept redirecting me to go back, this drove me insane, luckily I was following Watty and Callum as I was at the back, Watty got lost which meant we stopped for a min to look about, I turned the sat map off then noticed Swifty, I shouted Watty to follow me and caught up with then. We had another quick stop to empty the tank, this is where Calum ended up hugging his bike to put his hands on the engine casings, sports grips vs heated grips,I will be sticking with the heated grips. We then headed up towards Pitlochry down some awesome jaw dropping roads which were smooth and just so flowing from corner to corner.
When we stopped at Pitlochry and went for a quick bite to eat at a small café. I ended up getting a toasty and most of the others had soup. We had a joke about the toilets as you do, then it turned to the conversation of getting a heat in us, as we were all froozen when we stopped. When I managed to get in to the only bathroom in the café, I was thinking about putting my boots in to the hand dryer as my toes were going numb, luckily for me, my toes were the only part that were uncomfortably numb. We ended up in mountain warehouse when some of us bought jumpers and socks, I never, I did change my riding position which lifted my toes away from the air flow.
After we left it was on the the way back home, we rode through Aberfeldy we we passed at least 12 Austin 7’s, these where cool like vintage cars, I must say I was jealous except from the guy who passed in an Austin 7 convertible with the roof down, he was just as cold as us with a big hat on. We made our way down to Callander and stopped for a quick Costa then jumped on to the motorway for the final leg of our run which we all started parting ways at separate exits to get home, the bike was finally home to rest in the freshly painted garage.
Here is a short 15 min clip of our ride down below, please make sure to subscribe to this blog and the YouTube channel which me and Declan are planning to do other things on, just hopefully get the time for it all.
Garys motorcycle and travel adventures 