Thank you to everyone who attended this event, it appears to have been a great success.
There were various plans hatched by everyone to congregate at various points over the weekend. Some setting off on the Friday, others very early Saturday, a group run from Bowtrees picking up a few along the way, most with challenge sites in their sights. Along with John & Moira riding through the rain on Sunday to join us for dinner, that’s dedication.
After a broken Saturday night’s sleep due to a fire alarm, and unpredictable weather forecast for Sunday, we again split into various group sizes and planned our days expeditions. More challenge sites were bagged by some, others enjoyed a leisurely run to Ullapool for a bite to eat for lunch.
A total of 16 attended the dinner on the Sunday night, enjoyed by all. With a few impromptu speeches, a cake & lots of chat brought the evening to a close.
Monday morning arrived, again with everyone having various plans how to get home, some rode directly home, more group riding and others making the most of another dry day to visit more challenge sites along the way.
One of the best biking weekends I’ve personally had in good few years.
With it being impossible to have just one person’s point of view about the weekend, I would like to invite others who attended, to add their summary of the weekend too.
Run date 26-28.04.25
Peter Johnson
Firstly, we owe a big THANK YOU to Peter and Mandy who made all the detail arrangements to set the thing in motion, as well as leading & TECing the Sunday run. Well done to you.
Secondly, I thank all the rest of the party for the good conversation, jokes and company.
I did 711 miles and nine Challenge sites. So far I’ve logged about 70 Challenge visits but there should be more to come.
Great weekend and thanks to Kenny Anderson for organising the package with the hotel as well – you really did get us a good deal!
I rode up on my own on Saturday as Peter was off mile munching with a 7.5hr trip on the way up to visit challenge sites so I left at a more civilised time of day with a stop at The Garden Cafe in Pitlochry (I must have looked cold and they took pity on my and let me have some soup even though their lunchtime menu hadn’t started yet!). Then a quick nip up to Aviemore and onwards to Strathpeffer unexpectedly meeting Peter about 10 miles before I got there as he had finished his route and saw where I was on the bike tracker and waited for me.
Saturday night was great catching up with everyone before we headed our separate ways, only to meet again at 1am at the front of the hotel when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate! Apparently everyone had the same thought when the alarm went off and we were all scrabbling for our phones to silence alarms / find out if it was a bike alarm etc whilst still being half asleep!
Sunday’s run was fab – over to Ullapool and then the road after was full on twists and turns on a decent single track road and we were all glad of a little leg stretch after an hour or so it had been that intense!
Sunday dinner was again good catching up with different people I hadn’t had a chance to speak to and the cake we had arranged was lovely and thankfully there was no fire alarm overnight!
Peter left early on again for another 9.5hr mile muncher and I headed down the A9 and had fun filtering at roadworks and overtaking – I don’t ride on my own very much (not that it’s a problem) so it was nice to be me, on my own, singing along with Bon Jovi and even bopping away when we were stopped at road work traffic lights (much to the amusement of the lorry driver behind me!).
Thanks again everyone – it was a blast!
Many thanks to Mandy, Peter and Kenny for organising a fantastic 25th anniversary club weekend. The weather gods were kinder to us than the weather reports indicated, allowing us all to enjoy riding on fabulous roads all weekend.
As I also take part in the “Scotia Challenge” organised by the Scottish Classic Motorcycle Club, I headed north on the Friday. This enabled me to visit 25 challenge sites over the four days which was just brilliant. I had a pack of Tigers 🐅 on my tail for the Sunday run, Gerti, Kenny, Grant and Ewan 🤣 who all enjoyed the winding single track road from Kylesku to Lochinver.
A throughly enjoyable weekend in excellent company 🏍️🍻🍰😂👍