Mk5Centurion

All Together Now - The Farm

Cat and fiddle - Its local and famous(ish) Ponderosa - North Wales is stunning Tan Hill - Highest pub in England with great roads Seaways at Fridaythorpe. Any cafe in Hawes Hartside near Penrith Squires, Newthorpe, Sherburn in Elmete Coastriders Cafe, Wimbourne, Cropper Road, Blackpool, Lancs. FY4 5LB LONDON ROAD INC, 63-65 London Road South, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR330AS The Green Welly, Tyndrum, Perthshire FK20 8RY The Pit Stop Diner, The Pier, Arrochar, G83 7AB Carbeth Inn, Stockiemuir Road, Blanefield nr Glasgow G63 9AY willingham woods just outside market rasen Ace Cafe, London - crap roads but fantastic atmosphere and food Oasis cafe, Abergavenney bus station. Popular stop any weekend. petrolheads bagilt north wales The Buccleuch Arms Hotel, High Street, Moffat, Owned by bikers, fantastic food and drink. The Glen Cafe, A708, St Marys Loch, Beautiful location amongst some of the regions best roads. The Green Tea House, Moniaive, DG3 4EJ, Eclectic food and drink, good roads nearby. The Burnside Tea Room, Glasgow Road, Sanquhar, DG4 6BZ. Close to good roads The Drovers Inn, A82, Inverarnan, G83 7DX, Historic hostelry, lots of character, good food The Seaforth Pub at the Pier, Ullapool, best fish i ever had, the A835 is one of the best roads ever.

I went up north last week to attend the ABR magazine rally/pi$$ up in Ullapool Assuming it works heres the googlemaps link: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=ll Left Glasgow on Friday morning in torrential rain and headed up the A82 as far as Crianlarich before heading towards Callandar but coming off the A82 and heading to Killin and along Loch Tay towards Kenmore where it began to dry up. Before i got to Kenmore i headed up towards Foss and through Tummel Bridge before stiking towards the A9 which i joined at Stuan (north of Pitlochry). Now i know that all seems a bit strange when the most direct route to Ullapool from Glasgow is to go straight up the A82, but the ABR magazine forum is doing a photo rally this year of all the country's national parks and forrest parks. The basic premise (apologies if i'm telling you how to suck eggs ) is to go to said national park (usually the visitor centre) or forrest park and get a picture of the bike, with your rally plate for your "tick" and to upload your picture to the gallery on the forum, kudos etc for as many completed as possible, so i used the rally as an excuse to go to the Cairngorms National Park - in this case though the location was the Mountain Ski Centre. With the "tick" duely collected i stopped on the way back at Loch Morlich for a jam sandwich and a coffee: http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/DSCF0579.jpg After that it was back to the A9 and north towards the heelan capital that is Inverness (or Inversnecky as us jocks sometimes call it) just in time to hit the queue of traffic heading over the Kessock Bridge (which came with obligatory high wind warning ), a quick splash of fuel at Torve and then north west towards Ullapool. The last 50 or so miles along the A835 are amongst some of the best that i have ridden. Fact. The only downside was that this little journey had taken 6 and a half hours and i was pretty tired. Arriving at the Broomfield campsite ( http://www.broomfieldhp.com/) there were a fair few who had braved the initial bad weather and it was starting to fill up (one chap arrived on Thursday, got blown about by the wind, and left on Friday but made the mistake of posting it on the forum ) http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/DSCF0580.jpg I wandered off to find some food and had the most amazing Scampi Supper at a chippy called the Seaforth overlooking the ferry port, mmm The campsite looks over Loch Broom http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/DSCF0581.jpg http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/DSCF0582.jpg The rest of the evening was spent imbibing various beverages and generally having a laugh A leisurely approach was needed on Saturday morning but folks were wanting to get out and about to see the highland roads, and there were 4 organised rideouts to choose from but many others just did their own thing....all very relaxed. As for me, it was my sons 2nd birthday on Sunday so rather than risk being in the bad books with the wife, and lets face it its not every day you're 2, i headed back home at a more leisurely pace. This time i went back along the A82 and took in Loch Ness http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/24092011883.jpg Stopped for a very poor meal in a cafe in Drumnadrochit which was disappointing, but hey ho. Stopped at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/samcrow_photo/24092011884.jpg Its been 15 years since i was there last, before we were dragged into illegal wars and all that guff, so to see all the recent memorials to the Commando's killed in Iraq and Afganistan really brought home what a difficult job those boys do. The road down through Glen Coe was, as usual, spectacular and there were bikes everywhere (it was a glorious day after all). Stopped for the last time at the Green Welly which was heaving with bikes too and got home about half 4. Sunday saw me dancing about like a numptry and eating lots of cake, but no-one wants to hear about that 'cos this is a bike forum All is well in my world

I was up Glen Douglas a couple of weeks ago, me bash plate is still covered in $hite from the herd of cows i almost ran into, gravel and dung made for a slippy trip. Home via Glen Fruin was better

Thankfully not, but the Tiger's a big old girl when she starts fishtailing!

F**k**g greasy roads, f**k**g diesel. F**k it!

I cant believe i got from Clydesdale to Clydebank without getting wet I'm a happy wee bunny, only downer is that i've got the Tiger's battery sitting charging up as we had to jump it earlier, aparantly they like a new one every now and again...but i'll charge it first and see. anyone else brave the elements today? - saw a fair few on my way back

Well i'm getting ready to head down Lanark way to pick up this Triumph Tiger.....could not be a more miserable day; do i care? Not a chance! Though it'll be a different story when i get soaked

Weather looks lousy over there as well - was it last year or the year before it was washed out? Ill put it on anyway - if its wet my money's on Rutter......

Crap, i totally forgot - was in the shop last week as well

get yourself down and try them on - they won't bite you. I don't have waterproof leathers but i can vouch for HG gear (used to work there in another life) the leathers i had were top notch and i've still got the Tuareg gore tex suit which is 7 years old and has performed faultlessly. Ratser makes a good point about underlayers for leathers - they make all the difference; EDZ are good and i use one of their all in one suits but i just bought a load of compression tops and windproof stuff ffrom Aldi so i'll need to see how that works out.

TT again this year? Your turning into an addict..... Just ignore me - i'm just jealous 'cos i didn't go back last year

I'd love to go back to the IOM but need to watch the £'s as we are doing some work to the house. Might have to make do with a couple of long weekend's away up the west coast of scotland.....its a hard job living in gods own country!

Anyone catch the start of series 3 on Tue?

Be careful on the way to Ireland; D&G plod will have the speed traps set on the A75 on the way to Stranraer

Bashed my newly painted petrol tank on the way upstairs to let it harden - F**ck It! Ar$e

Funny you should say that - i took the wife to inverary for her birthday a few years back on the ZZR (before the kids) and ran out of petrol at the back enterance to Loch Lomond golf club....was a long wait

Its Raining - F**k it!

Thankyou chaps

So a while ago i painted my frame - was pretty straightforward. Got myself a nice solid petrol tank from the bay of e (99p ), but painting this is a different ball game. I've sanded it down, filled in the dent and smoothed it over. Its been primed (1.5 litres) and the primer rubbed down with 1200 grit. Now i'm painting it gloss black (non metallic) - the question is, once the paint is on does it need levelled off? do i smooth it down with wet and dry again? do i use a finer grit than 1200? Any help muchos appreciated muchachos

Not going this year Did have a ferry pre booking for the 3rd to the 9th but with call offs etc its no can do this year. Maybe thats why i'm being slow getting the bike ready.....no deadline! You going back to the rugby club this year?

In todays standard: Bikesafe with D&G police on Sunday 23rd May at Cornwall Mount, places to be booked by calling 0845 6005701 or e-mail: [email protected] Its free and informal and probably quite good

Just checked the old Twitter account (keep forgetting) and Kurt Sutter (SOA creator) has Steven King as a guest star in one of the early season 3 episodes and he has also signed James Cosmo (Scottish actor) for 8 episodes of series 3 as well.....can't wait till Sept!

I'm watching season 2 on Bravo as well but i watched it last year on the old tinternet here: http://www.yidio.com/show/sons-of-anarchy I believe that episode one of season 3 is in the bag according to Kurt Sutters blog

Have you had a look at the ZZR International Forum? Its a real nest of info - i've got a 1991 600 D2 that i'm putting back on the road and its been fantastic for technical stuff. You'll have to google it though as its bad form to link directly to another forum from here......