Escaping the rain in the UK

[dazco]

Decided to get off to Scotland on Friday for the weekend.
This would be my first biggish trip on the Tiger.
Woke up and it was pissing it down , it was a case of Do I or Dont I,
bugger it , Got the one pice rain suit on (bought many years ago)
and set off into the rain.
Within half an hour i wished id stayed in bed.
M1, M18 and A1 were Horendous all the way up to Sctch corner.
Once off the main roads things were a little better.
Cutting accross country to Corebridge and Jedburgh on A and B roads there was a lot less traffic and things improved no end.
By the time i got just North of Jedbrugh the skies started to lighten and it stopped raining. filled up with fuel and (220 miles on full tank and still not on reserve) and strech my legs.
 
From here on in the weather got better and better.
Everything dried out and i got to Fortwilliam at around 5pm.
It was windy but sunny and dry
Looking toward Ben Nevis.
 
Next day decided to do a circuit of Skye.
Glen Gary
 
Bottom of Glen Shiel looking down Loch Duich
 

Heading for the little ferry over to Skye.
.





After taking this pic i headed back to the bike and heard a hissing , fuggin hell a snake i thought.

Turned out id got a bleedin puncture in the back tire .
I got 1 1/2 miles down the lane before it was un ridable. out with the mini compressor and off again managed to get to the bottom of the lane and was about 6 miles from Kyle of Lockalsh.
Used my can of Tire Weld (waste of money) , re inflated and off again,
managed to limp into Kyle found a Petrol station and einquired as to wheather there was anywhere that coud get the tire off and sort the tube.
NOPE, not on a weekend any way  
Then a guy on an FJ1300 turned up and he told me of a biker freindly B&B in Broadford, 10 miles the other way, they had a workshop and loads of spares etc.
so off i set, the way i had just come.
Re inlafting the tire about 5 times.
to cut a long story short The guy was out but his missus gave me the run of the workshop to get the wheel off , remove the tire and tube and refit a new one which he had in stock.
It wa a great place and they allow camping round the back of the house if you dont want B&B.
I cant thank them enough for letting me sort things out.
This all took about 3 hrs out of my day so i had a ride down to Armdale.
 
Then back to Kyle o'L'  and back to the mainland over the bridge for the second time :roll:
 
Bak to Glen Shiel and just had to take one of the bike in front of the Castle(how touristy)
 

On the way back into Fort William i noticed a forestry track with a smashed gate so thought what the hell.
Ended up doing a bout 20 miles on the tracks into the forest. Only ending when i got to a spot that was being harvested , Loads of heavy plant around and too many people.
 

 
Setting off back home on Sunday morning i went round to Kinlochlevin just to get off the main roads, weather couldnt have been better.
 
Then a quick blast through Glen Coe and homeward.
The rain started at Edinburgh and if i thought it was heavy on the way up then this was even worse.
Crossed the River Tweed, Derwent and Lauder and all were in flood as were many of the roads.
In all it took 9 hrs to get home.
covered 960 miles.
I was very pleased with how the bike went especially through the rain. I averaged around 51 miles to the gallon.
On the way back down the A1 near Ferrybridge, doing around 75 mph another Tiger came past me, With a bloody trailer behind it, no one off this site was it?
Looking forward to the next run

[HockleyBoy]

Thanks for the report and pics. Looks like you had a good trip and a bit better weather than I had up there in July.

Scotland is a great place to ride your Tiger.  :D