Motorcycles in Scotland: My Observations

Motorcycles in Scotland:
10 days here.
Sportbikes (e.g. R1) - quite a few
Naked sportbikes (e.g. MT10) - loads and loads
Adventure type bikes (e.g. BMW GS lineup) - a fair amount
Sport tourers (e.g. FJR) - 2; one FJR and one Concourse
Full dress tourers (e.g. Goldwing, K1600 GT) - Zero
Cruisers (e.g. HD) - Five

Brand-wise, Kawi, Ducati, and Triumph made up the majority of bikes i saw.

Why is it that the HDs looked cooler in Scotland than in the USA? The riders in Scotland were wearing full face helmets w/ dark shields, proper riding jackets & pants, gloves, and riding boots.
The HDs that I saw were not the giant baggers, but more of the “muscle cruisers” with low/short bars (showing my lack of knowledge of HD models), like a bigger V-Max.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say they looked damn cool.

 

Cheers to anyone riding in Scotland because every vid I've ever seen was raining lol.

TeapotOne does trips there on his YouTube page. It's gorgeous except for the rain.

 

If you don’t ride in the rain in Scotland, then you’ll never ride.

 

We spent 10 days there; zero rain. All sunny days and mid 60s.
I guess we got lucky.

 

My step-daughter married a Scot and they lived in Edinburgh for the first six years or so of their marriage. Wife and I went to visit almost every July. Only rained once or twice out of 4 trips over there. Beautiful city, beautiful country, beautiful people. And the YouTube video of voice-recognition elevators in Scotland makes me laugh till I cry, and I’ve seen it 7-8 times.

 

I remember sitting in a pub on the Isle of Skye on a day it was storming so bad the locals weren't out! Even in Florida, I had never seen "sideways" rain like that. We had to cancel our planned self-tour of the island .

But the next day (when we were leaving). The weather was great and we had a nice visit to Eilean Donan from the original highlander movie (https://www.eileandonancastle.com/). And also stopped in at Plockton from a British series we liked "Hamish McBeth" (https://visitplockton.com/). We weren't trying to go to TV/movie places (except when I saw the sign for Plockton), it just kind of turned out that way. Also, stayed at a hotel where they just wrapped up filming on the latest Harry Potter movie at the time.

Anyhow, I learned on those trips to get ready in the morning (when it was raining) and ride off to your next destination (when it was raining), which I generally didn't do much previously. That said, there were generally good days ahead and they were appreciated more.

On my trips over there (a while back now!), I generally enjoyed riding there. Decent drivers who looked out for motorcycles.

 

Interesting. We're heading over for two weeks in September, it will be our first time. Looking forward to it.

 

This dude is all over that place.

The Flying Scotsman' Motorcycle Tour: An Epic Journey Begins

 

No matter what time of year I went over to visit family and friends, I always had the typical wet weather. I’ve never been lucky enough to be there when they have their freak heatwaves when people are dropping like flies at temps we ‘Muricans throw a BBQ at

 

I have photos from work trips to the west coast of the highlands that you would swear were taken in the tropics (nevermind it was 40 and windy lol)

 

Hamish! Loved those books and the series with Robert Carlyle.

 

The thing I found most interesting is the town loves the association as well. Most places are kept close to what they were in the show. Although the stag pub was dressed *for* the show and is back to its original look. A number of interiors were shot elsewhere as well, but Rory's store was pretty much a working store that didn't look much different from the show. It was really like being an extra in a beloved series. Off the beaten path, so not really a tourist thing. Just town legend that all the locals know.

 

One tip if you are driving/riding and in the highlands. Gas (Petrol) stations are few and far between. If you have half a tank and a chance to fill up, do it. I'm jealous! Hope you have fun.