Glen to Glen Run

This will be the shortest run report ever as yesterday’s ride can be summed up simply as great roads, scenery, weather and company.
The end.

Ok, maybe I should elaborate a bit more on our day out predominantly in Perthshire. It started for me by meeting Kona at Muthill petrol station where she’d just filled up her very unloved Tracer. It had barely turned a wheel since she and Patrick had been galavanting in Spain enjoying their new property (form an orderly queue for Spanish riding trips!). Any lack of riding cobwebs were very soon blown away as we made our way together at a nice pace over to the starting point at Kinross Services.
Here we met the rest of the gang which seemed to have grown somewhat from the six signatories when I’d last logged in. If my arithmatic was right, with the arrival of David McWilliam on his new Honda NC750, we were now at 11 riders. Asking David how he was enjoying the new bike he said he had to remind himself he wasn’t on his Tiger any more. “Getting a bit out of shape” was how he put it. For those in the know that’s much the same as “Getting a bit squirelly” as Revvin Kevin Swantz used to say.
Usual bunch made up the rest of the group with Tim Jenkins on his GSA probably taking the prize for the furthest traveled to the start point. Good to catch up after his dusty ride a little while back. He thought I’d made a terrific job of cleaning my RT up when he pointed at the white one next to us. It would have had to have been the best cleaning job ever to have changed my black one to the white one next to us – it was Alan Graham’s!
Run leader for the day was Tom Sutherland on his RE Interceptor with Ian Beadie on his CB650 as TEC. Tom asked around for a scribe but, as is often the case, there were no takers. Only after he just about succumbed to picking up the virtual biro himself did I involuntarily volunteer (is that possible?) to do the run report.
Off we went, in fits and starts, away from the services and out into the beautiful countryside in blue skies and blazing sunshine. Heated vest on low, grips on 3.
We had such a varied route and mix of roads that it would be hard to detail our ride so I’ll just pick out a couple of highlights as I recall them. I did have a camera running for a fair part of the day so hope to get a summarised version onto our YouTube channel. (Chairman Peter, or anyone else in the know, if you are reading this and can give me a pointer as to how to upload that would be great).
The ride through Glendevon to Gleneagles was good, chasing / trying to keep up with Alan showing what a swiftly ridden RT could do and, similarly, trying to keep Ian Ness on his F900XR at bay directly behind me. He knows that road well and I could tell he was enjoying it. The view as we crested the top of the hill overlooking The Gleneagles Hotel in the distance with Crieff in the background was stunning.
We took the backroad across to Braco – my nemesis as this is where my wife and I came off on black ice a couple of years back – in steadily rising temperatures. Heated vest switched off!
Making good use of the drop off system we were able to pass through all of our junctions with ease, only a couple of times during the whole day stopping briefly to regroup.
Next we were across Langside on our way to Comrie. The moon hanging high in a completely cloudless sky had the barren hillsides looking like something from another planet. The drop down to Cultybraggan is like riding into a landscape painting but proves very difficult to photograph as there are no safe spots to stop on the road. But, today with camera running, I have finally captured it!
From Comrie we headed in the direction of Crieff where I took the chance to stretch the legs of my Africa Twin and enjoy some bends on, what for me, is home territory. Arriving in Crieff we immediately took a left to pass the Glenturret Distillery, Scotland’s oldest working distillery and home to Crieff’s very own Michelin starred restaurant I’ll have you know. Had we taken a right we could have had a Rich Tea biscuit and cuppa at my place 30 seconds away 🙂
The ride from there was through the always nice Sma’ Glen, Amulree and on to Aberfeldy before heading to Ballinluig and our lunch stop at Nae Limits. Only in Aberfeldy did we get. split up a little but, with a bit of judicious use of the buddy system at some temporary traffic lights, we were all soon reunited.
Tom had done good work in reccie’ing Nae Limits and had warned them there would be a number of us coming. It turns out they were also psychic as they had a table for eleven set up for us (?!?!) on arrival. All our individual food and drink orders seemed to turn up in no time which was pretty good going. I ordered an Italian sandwich (?) with brie and bacon. What actually turned up looked to all intents and purposes like a Calzone (folded over pizza). Fairly massive for lunchtime but good value – Nae Limits tae their portion sizes. Lots of chat was had around the table, in my case particularly with Janet and John Moss (our resident KTM Kouple – I’m on fire today!), starting with me providing some thoughts on potential French destination for them next year and Janet providing me with advice on hip replacement and getting on the waiting list sooner rather than later!
Leaving there was a bit drawn out down to one of our group who shall remain nameless (me) being last in the queue for the loo. When I did emerge there was only Iain, our TEC, patiently waiting for me. We caught up with a couple of others who had waited further along the road and were soon at the petrol station in Pitlochry where the other small tanked brigade had filled up.
Leaving Pitlochry we went up through Moulin Rouge (sorry, can’t help it) and on our way to the A93 near to Glenshee. A wonderful stretch of road that was absolutely at its best today. Not even spoilt by the only two camper vans we would see all day as they were quick to pull over and let us through. As I was at the back of the pack at this point (barring Iain, our TEC) the thought occurred to me that I had very close to 500 years of riding experience ahead of me! What a very fortunate position for us to be in on a day like this enjoying our passion in the Scottish countryside. If only some of that experience would rub off on me as it passed in the wind……
By the way, did I mention the temperature had reached the giddy heights of 20C? The heated vest had been ditched to the top box back at the lunch stop and only when I thought I was coming down with something did I realise my heated grips were still on.
Reaching the A93 we headed south towards The Bridge of Cally. Here we took a left in the direction of Drimmie, uncharted territory I think for quite a few of us. What a beautiful little spot this turned out to be and, in fine SMC tradition, we ran up against a Road Closed! Fortunately our tour guide, who knows the area like the back of his hand, soon had us heading in the direction of Alyth. Not before we had crossed a cattle grid into unfenced fields with a herd of cows. Did I see a black bucking cow at the head of our pack?
Later, at the coffee stop, Tom was trying to tell me where we were by describing our location based on a previous ride just a few weeks earlier. I could see by the look on his face that my blank looks told him he was wasting his time. If I didn’t know where I was a few weeks back how would I know today? 🙂
From Alyth to our coffee stop (sorry, I don’t know where that was either. Somewhere on the outskirts of Perth) I found myself behind Tom who was showing us a very good pace on that wee Interceptor of his. Mind you, hats off to the driver of the No. 58 Perth bus in front of us who was clearly enjoying putting that bus through its paces. Not so sure about his terrified passengers though……
Nice wee stop for afternoon coffee with more chat and a few group photos of both riders and bikes. Ali was telling a small group of us how he had enjoyed the ride but felt maybe he wished he had starting riding earlier as he has only been riding around three years. I said I wouldn’t be bothered about that as he was one of the most regular attendees at club runs and was clearly getting bags of riding experience under his belt. Backed up too by Alan in a couple of positive comments he’s seen in changes to Ali’s riding style following a wee bit of advice. “In the three years you’ve been riding your GS850 Ali, how many miles do you think you have done?”
“Oh about 19,000” he said. That would put many others to shame – well done!
Having been out of the country for a few days leaving my wife on her own at home, I thought it only prudent (read as ‘if I valued my life’) that I would depart from home from here leaving the others to continue to the finish back at Kinross services. Alan left for home too as did Kona and David who followed me back to Crieff via Lucarty, Methven and Gilmerton. A nice, uneventful ride home with only the lowering sun, as we headed west, reminding us that we are drawing ever closer to winter………..

Really big thanks to Tom and to Iain for topping and tailing a splendid day out!