Here's a few photos of last weekends biking break to the Highlands, set off from Liverpool Thursday afternoon and was back home Monday at 10am after 1400 miles.
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Here's a few photos of last weekends biking break to the Highlands, set off from Liverpool Thursday afternoon and was back home Monday at 10am after 1400 miles.
Sent from my EML-L29 using Tapatalk
Last edited by Zoidburg; 18-07-2018 at 13:54.
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
A few more
Sent from my EML-L29 using Tapatalk
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
I guess this story starts around 20 years ago when my Dad decided that he wanted to get away from things (mainly a recent divorce and probably mid life crisis) and it would be a good idea to head for John O Groats on his 250cc MZ motorbike. At the time he was living in South London, He had other newer and much bigger bikes but seeing the country by MZ (at nothing more than 60 mph) appealed very much to him and seemed like a bit of a challenge. To cut a long story short he completed his original round trip of about 1800 miles in 10 days and went on to write a long story about it which was published in (I think) an MZ owners magazine.
After the trip the MZ remained in the family but was never really used for much except pottering about on by Dad, then as other hobbies and interests took over (different bikes, a new wife / house, his love of fishing & golf etc etc etc) for a lot of years it wasn’t even used and lived in a barn on my brothers golf course, then for about 5 years it was under a sheet in Dads back garden. However at the start of this year Dad realised that it was soon to be the 20th anniversary of his original trip and he had it in his head to revisit John O Groats again and recreate his journey.
At that point the MZ was wheeled back into Dads garage and over the course of 2 months or so given a nut and bolt restoration by him. The engine was stripped and sent off for a full rebuild, every worn or rusted component was serviced or replaced, eventually it was put back together and with some gentle encouragement it sparkled into life. Another Month or so of road testing and fettling and fine tuning passed and eventually Dad felt comfortable enough with it that he set off North again.
Its at around this point that I decided that I really wanted to be there to meet Dad at John O Groats, I live in Liverpool and had for a while been reading up about the North West 500 route around the highlands and thought I could probably kill 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak. Thus after a night or 2 on booking.com I had some cheap accommodation booked and a route sorted out in my head. I casually mentioned this to my middle Brother Sam at some point and a day later had a text from him saying something like “see you Wednesday sort us out some twin rooms, I’m coming too”.
And that was that really. Thursday lunch time I rushed back from work, the pair of us jumped on the bikes and away we went with the intention of meeting Dad at John O Groats on the Saturday Morning.
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
Dad, at John O groats July 1998. And his neglected ETZ250 at the start of this year.
Sent from my EML-L29 using Tapatalk
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
The plan for the Thursday afternoon was that Sam & I would head north sticking to major motorways just to get the miles under our belts. Id picked a place called Crieff (just west of Perth) as our first stop as Id stayed there a few years before and it seemed like a nice ride of 260 miles or so.
After a relaxed night in Creiff we fired up the bikes at 9am and headed west and upwards again with the intention of staying just below Ullapool at the end of the day. The weather was warm and sunny and we soon found ourselves on some stunning roads. By this point Motorways had given way to A roads like the A82 and A830 both of which went past in a flash. We encountered minor bits of traffic but it seemed like a lot of the roads we had to ourselves and as such we made the most of it with some seriously "spirited" riding
Its probably been a few years since me & Sam have ridden together as both usually have our wives riding pillion, in fact when Sam told me he was coming alone, sans-wife I almost fell off my chair! Its also a running joke in our family that as he's gotten older Sam's also gotten slower. Our of the 4 of us (3 brothers & dad) he was traditionally the fastest, his lines were usually spot on and he had a habit of just being quicker than all of us
Anyway to come back to the story at the end of the day as we sat chatting over our fish and chips reflecting on the days ride, the roads, some of the speeds we *might* have hit and some of the twisties we *might* have carved through Sam's sign off was something like "f*ck I haven't ridden like that in about 10 years". I could only agree
Saturday saw an early start heading up the East coast towards Wick & then John O Groats. We were aiming to meet Dad at 9.30 am and then trundle up & around the north west coast looping back towards Ullapool.
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
John o Groats
Sent from my EML-L29 using Tapatalk
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
And so we made it.
We arrived before dad and set about having a coffee. I'd not even told Dad that Sam was coming and so the look on his face when he saw us both was quite magical. And it top it off it was exactly 20 years to the day that he had last visited John O Groats. Same bike, Same Bag, Same Boots even. Just slightly older looking lol.
I live 5 hours away from all my family and even though I speak to them almost daily I don't actually see a lot of them. So to find myself on a trip like this with 2 of them was something very special for me. The reason I'm a "biker" is cos of Dad, his love of bikes and travelling has been passed on to me and my brothers and its a bond we will always share. There are parts of this holiday which I will remember forever.
Technics SL1210 with
SME IV Arm & AT OC9XML,
Firebottle modded Tron Convergence Phono Stage,
Bluesound Node 2i, Technics SL DZ 1200 CD
Denon PMA1700ne amp
Yamaha NS1000M Speakers.
Thanks for sharing, that was a great read, and pics.
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 714
I'm Andy.
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That old bike cleaned up well. Looks like you even had good weather on some days.
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