We took advantage of the break in the weather and decided to move the ride forward to start early on the Saturday. Rode up to Middlesbrough to meet Alan then headed oop North. Our route was based on visiting as many Triumph dealers who had agreed to donate a small prize to our raffle. Our first stop was M&S Newcastle, onto Edinburgh Triumph then Shirlaw’s MCs in Aberdeen. Shirlaws recommended a great campsite at a place called Alford about 30 miles west of Aberdeen so we rode over, Alan explained our cause and managed to negotiate us some free camping.
After setting up for the night we decided to check out the local hostelry as you do. A great night was had, the beer flowed and we met some really good folk, who as well as donating on the night, have decided to hold there next charity dance for the GNAA!
Needless to say we had a late start Sunday and after deciding we might be safe enough to ride again set off for the 200 mile run up to John O Groats. Must say the best roads and scenery I’ve ever ridden to be honest. There was one road however through the Cairngorms that was a bugger, patches of loose gravel everywhere, Alan nearly came a cropper. It’s probably at that point we decided it might be a good idea to replace Alan’s rear tyre, ahem.
We reached JOG around tea-time, in the mean time Alan’s rear pads had worn down to the metal also. I should say despite a fairly recent service where it had been said that tyres/ pads should last the ride, Alan admitted he'd rode a few miles since then...
Conditions were fairly bleak at JOG so after a bit of deliberation we decided B&B was the way forward. That night we met a guy and his daughter who were doing JOG - Lands End on a Goldwing, coincidently we met up with them again later at Lands End.
Due to Alan’s problems we took it steady down to Triumph Glasgow the monday morning, caught some heavy rain through the Northern Highlands and were delayed at Loch Lomond due to a ditched logger and two artics managing to jam themselves together. Big tailback, the police had asked some bikers of the Celtic Thunder chapter to sort out parking for the rest of the bikers so we reached the accident parked up and bided our time for a while, we didn’t mind, it was a glorious afternoon.
Reached Triumph Glasgow around 4.30 pm. They kindly changed Alan’s pads without charging labour and had a look at my spungy front brake too. We decided to head on down to Carlisle and stopped the night at a B&B there so we could catch KC Superbikes first thing to get Alan’s tyre replaced.
KCs kindly moved their bookings around and only charged Alan the price of a discounted tyre. I got in touch with Ray while we were waiting and met up with him and Mal near Lancaster for a short but rather fast (sorry lads!) ride to our next stop, Philip Youles at Blackburn. We parted company with them at around lunchtime and headed first to Robinson & Sons at Rochdale, then on down to BS Bikes Ltd. Stoke on Trent arriving around closing time. While we were there they recommended visiting Wylie & Holland, Telford also which we decided to do first thing the next morning. So we rode toward Telford and managed to find another great campsite in a beautiful small town called Much Wenlock and again managed to negotiate free camping.
Wish I’d had chance to take some pics there to be honest but it was getting dark, well worth a visit though.
The next morning after leaving Wylie & Holland we rode down to our next dealer – Robert Bevan & Son, Cardiff, took the opportunity to lube our chains there before heading on to Bridge MCs, Marsh Barton Exeter. After visiting Bridge MCs we decided to make the final run to Lands End. After taking a few pics headed back up to Penzance and found a great B&B to stop the night. We treated ourselves at a Chinese, came as a bit of a shock though when we realised the price for the set meal for two was priced per person, doh!
The next morning, we headed off to GT MCs St. Austell. We agreed to part company there as unfortunately I had to get back due to other commitments. So I left Alan and started my 400 odd mile journey back up to York - the A30 had been closed however, and there were road works on the A38. Being the only two direct routes out of Cornwall, the traffic was chaos. Ended up on a long diversion that probably delayed me a couple of hours. Arrived back home at around 10 pm after a couple of small delays around Bristol and Birmingham also.
All in all a fantastic ride! Clocked around 2100 miles and we'll raise the best part of £2000 for the GNAA. Here’s a link to a few pics:
John O Groats - Lands End Didn’t get chance to take many unfortunately as we were on the road most the time. Alan’s going to post some more pics when he gets back. He managed to visit four more dealers yesterday and plans four more today on his way back. Thanks Alan for a great few days riding and companionship, had a great time mate. Also many thanks to all of you and the Triumph dealers who have contributed to our charity ride, much appreciated.
