Confirmed in magazine Bike this week which I read today while the wife was shopping.
Two of the best rds are up north and can be easily linked to provide a decent holiday route.
The two rds are the corbridge to penrith rd via alston and hartside and then to follow on go past Carlisle-Dumfries up the coast and cross on the ferry to Dunoon up by lock awe, inverrary then to fort william.
I can feel a decent long weekend away being planned for the summer. Cheers Mally

PS, the other rd is in the midlans, boston to somewhere

That was the road that we didn't get a chance to do the last time. Loch Eck is spectacular.

dont suppose it mentioned the fact that EVERY power ranger(read twonk) uses this road, the police ALWAYS have a covert prescence there on a weekend (green & blue pans, vascar & camera bikes)
still a cracking road though, one of my all time favourites, road surface is a lot better than some round here & if you look closely you should spot the odd DEVILPAINT card in the cafe at the top of hartside!(thanks Mally).

One of my favourite roads is the A590 through Cumbria leading to Barrow-in-Furness. A dump, I know, But you can always turn around and ride it again
But its a wee bit far for me so I content myself with the A82,83,84,85, parts of the A77 etc. The road from Newton Mearns to Stewarton is also brill, but you never get out of second gear

If you want to know about the roads Banana Sheene is talking about then go here. They are crackers.

http://www.uk-roads.org.uk/f99/

A49 is a good road

due to some bike mag or other boasting our roads are great 4 bikes amd free from the police the local police have got there hands on 2 camera bikes (lothian & borders) and are giving the local bikers a right roasting

i dont have points (yet) and i dont want them

had a close call last weekend, the bas**rds were hiding behind a hedge, I dont do stupid speeds but nobody on 2 wheels rides at 60mph? ..... do they??

Wales and the lakes are bad areas in the summer them daft camera vans everywhere

Am going to take in all the sites this Saturday! Start off at Rivington Barn, then get up to Devils Bridge via Gisburn. Then if I have an arris left, ill do the run upto the top of Hartside.

Thats a good 200miles of some of the best roads around, should be a good day out. Police, pissing rain and power rangers allowing ofcourse!

The police seem to be out in force (no pun intended) all over the place at the moment and not just looking for speeders. The bus lanes in Edinburgh have until now been checked maybe once a month and errant drivers stopped and fined. This week they have been out every day and are varying where they stand from the usual places. This coupled with some serious road works causing congestion and therefore increasing the temptation to use the empty bus lanes must be swelling the coffers somewhat.

I agree with Ian, theres been loads of those speeding vans parked up on verges, behind bushes and allover, but especially lately. Well it is the season for people to be well, more cheerful, lets hope Im not caught being cheerful

Jeez, they are employing unmarked cars now and not your high speed pursuit type but the nissan micra with a removable blue light they just stick on top when they've seen you type .

Even I can outrun a Micra

Not when you are in a car in a bus lane behind a bus waiting to pull onto a roundabout you can't

Hidden cars, what a pain in the arris!

If (by law, in theory) they are to have marked camera areas AND visible cameras that arn't obscured by vegitiation/man-made structures then why can they park cars behind bushes and have cars with no markings everywhere.

Just goes to show that Gatso's are in it for the ££££, if they REALLY wanted to reduce speed related accidents they would make every camera and speed wagon fully marked up!

If people don't know traps are there, they will do as they please- but if they know that cameras are there and that they WILL be used against them then the tempation to hit the throttle will be reduced greatly.

This wasn't for speeding it was for that heinous crime of using the bus lane when in a car. What they seem to have overlooked is that if you take a two lane 3 mile stretch of road that was congested and make one of those lanes a bus lane in which you only get one bus every 20 minutes and force the same volume of traffic into the remaining lane it will only make things slower for everyone. It also increases polution because instead of the traffic moving it is simply sat there for 20 minutes going nowhere. Did you get the impression I'm not a fan of bus lanes in Edinburgh?

I think in some cities, Bus lanes can be used by Buses, Taxis, pushbikes, Motorbikes and cars what use "alternative fuel".

Sounds good to me

Remember the copper woh got off scot free a few months ago, because the sign post didn`t have the correct border on it

I did some research a few years ago that showed pretty conclusively that gridlocking increased the aerosol (particle) production by traffic. Oddly, it was based in Edinburgh city centre, and used some data provided by the city council. It was published in a peer reviewed journal, and a summary of all our findings were sent to Edinburgh City Council.

Nice to know I wasn't wasting my time

Try going to Barnard Castle from Alston on the B6277. Great road and usually quiet. watch out in the area of the Bowlees visitor centre, it can get busy in the summer.
Steve

We are going up to the superbike round at Knockhill in June and then taking a bit of time to look around the area.

Staying in Hawick on the Friday and going to watch the racing and riding onto Pitlochry for the saturday night. Leaving Pitlochry and across to Glencoe for a couple of days on the A82 and then back to Ayr.

Any advice on roads to avoid or try would be appreciated.

Have a look here. I've just been putting these together for the weekend after the Knockhill round when there'll be a mass of FJRs flying around the area. You'll enjoy all of these and easily in reach of Pitlochry.

Thanks Ian,

We,re staying in Glencoe for two days so we might try some of those routes.

If you,re going to the superbike round give me a ring when your there and i,ll buy you a pint.

LOL I have to agree with sv4me, the run to Devils is just, ACE! I was dragged up in that neck of the woods and its still one the best rides out. Id recommend the weekend before Bank holiday to get a good runn with out the boys in blue!

Kirby Longsdale to Skipton {A65} to Buckden{B6265}{B6160}then left along un graded road to Hubberholme (the George, Great pub food) Nice and tight! on down to Hawes(?still make sme smile!) to Kirby stephen {B6295} Long and fast... Down to Sedbergh {A683} to Kendal {A684} Bowness accross the water and back to ableside...
From there you and work the rest out!!!!

Loads of fun

Ian, good to see that you have got the route that we took when we went on our weekend. Kilchoan - MAllaig. Dp n Bikerlass will confirm that this is indeed a route to remember with a varied amount of rd surfaces, sweepers (was 120mph mentioned)and flowing corners.

yes all of the above-take your weather gear-it ALWAYS rains in Scotland.
brilliant roads tho..

Bods n Boddesses. Just to stop you getting carried away with the misconception that Southern roads are best I thought I might wet your appitite for a Scotland trip. Attache are a few pics from my recent trip. Cheers MAlly





and it was Sunny.

gosh darn i just did that run tother week, the mist was a bit thick over the top on the drop into hawes but you can't let that spoil your fun can you?
next time you get up this way when you leave hawes take the b6255 to ingleton for some switchback fun. priceless

Ooh I did that one lots last year giggle a minute - all Mally's fault 'cos he showed me where it was
I'd love to do it with a video camera onboard cos all the best views are just when the road needs your attention and theres no place to stop

bus lanes aren't about increasing traffic flow, they are about restricting traffic flow to such a standstill that you decide you would rather get the overcharged, unreliable, incompetent bus service which they have no other means of trying to encourage you to take because at least then you might move more than a bike length every 20 minutes.


not that i am bitter or anything...