| Lands End to John O\'Groats run report, and fund raising report. How the Multistrada performed.
For any newbies or anyone who has managed to avoid my deluge of postings it was and end to end run in a day on a Multistrada TO RAISE MONEY FOR FRANCIS HOUSE HOSPICE FOR CHILDREN, AND MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE.
Its still not too late to make a donation, so far i've raised about £2500, and it would be nice to reach the £3000 mark if possible.
THE ACTUAL RUN.
Once the good old weatherman promised a few dry days i was off. Gotta admit after sitting out August because of the constant rain it was a real relief to get going. Having said that as the Multistrada's annoying fuel light coming on after the normal 100-120 miles i thought ********, should have borrowed a Pan European from my mate with the Honda shop. When you've got miles to cover its annoying, having said that experience shows that you can do another 50 miles after the light has come on before filling up. Its just hard to ignore the bloody light.
That annoyance changed when i had rattled of a few hundred more miles heading upto my start point of John O'Groats. The roads got progressively more fun the further north i got and it was a case of great roads and far less traffic than darn sarf. Mile after mile of smile inducing brake, slam it on its side (very easy with the Multistrads big wide bars), apex and use the lovely torquey engine to further enchance the grin on the exit.
Northern Scotland is also littered with some absolutely delightful road signs such as "Let quicker traffic pass safely"
"Use laybys to let traffic get by" and "Queue's cause frustration" I nearly bought an aerosol to spray "Oi, you, yes you, the **** towing the caravan, get out the F****** way now"
I'd never been further north on the east coast of Scotland than Inverness before, but it was really pleasant untill i got to Wick, 10 miles south of J O G, and it looked like the land that time forgot, and if i did the run from here it would have been Ar$e End to Lands End.
Pulled up in John O'Groats after 495 miles, had a quick look around, not very impressive to be honest, necked a couple of pints and went to bed early in preparation for an early start.
All things considered (fuel light aside and average mirrors) i was incredibly pleased with the Multinumpty. It had covered miles quickly and in surprising comfort, whilst being real fun to ride. Sod the idea of a Pan European. The couple of changes i had made to the bike had paid off, namely the higher comfort screen, essential for lanky gits like me, and i had donated the standard seat to a Newcastle supporter and replaced it with a Sargant seat, which is 10 million times better than the standard instrument of torture; but its an absolute swine to change the seat.
DAY 2.
My body was in a state of complete shock crawling out of bed to leave the hotel with no breakfast, in the dark at 5.45am. Sort of time i'm still normalling snoring away under the duvet. To make matters worse it was absolutely brass monkeys.
Within 500 yards of leaving the hotel 2 kamikazee deer run across the road in front of me. Oh ****, Mum gets across the road, Bambi gets half way then runs back, sees Mummy has got across, then runs back over again. Certainly woke me up properly so at least i could see all the bleeding suicidal rabbits that Honda had employed for me not using a Pan!
Sunrise was spectacular, but brought no real warmth at all, indeed at the first petrol stop there was actually a bit of ice. In fact it was so cold that as i passed each sea loch and fresh water loch the were clouds of steam rising up from the water as it was obviously warmer than the air. Marvellous, i did think about going for a quick swim to warm up.
Northern Scotland really is sparsely populated and i couldn't find an open cafe for breakfast until i'd done nearly 200 miles!!!!! and the weather had worsened, very grey, overcast, damp and cold. I was now planning on torturing the first weatherman i could find. Funny the thoughts that go through your head when you're travelling, or maybe i'm just a fruitcake. Traditional Scottish breakkie was superb, stopped me grumbling for a while and very fortunately by the time i got between Perth and Glasgow Mr Sun put in an overdue appearance, Bill Giles was saved and my spirits shot up with the temperatures. Layers of clothing were being tucked away in the topbox.
By now i'd started texting reports to guest1 who would probably be keeping half a dozen interested people updated, and annoying loads of others who were probably sick to death of hearing about the frigging charity ride.
I crossed the border into England at Gretna having already done 380 miles. Scotland really is bigger than you think, but it was also a bit of a physcological barrier being back in England, nearly there, less than 500 miles to go, less than yesterdays ride now, easy.
I also had a prearranged text date with DCR at junction 36 on the M6. Wha hey, something to relieve the motorway boredom, but unfortunately he wasn't there.
Not a lot you can say about the M6/M5 motorway run, it was pretty boring, not as much fun as up north in Scotland but far more effective at covering mileage. Traffic was flowing remarkably well, even around Birmingham in afternoon rush hour. Somewhere south of Bristol terminal numb bum began to set in, but by now i'd done over 600 miles today, but it still didn't get as excrutiating as the standard seat after 100 miles.
As you get to the end of the M5 at Exeter it felt as if i was almost there, whereas in actual fact there's nearly 120 miles of A roads left to Lands End.
Got onto the A30 and followed as fast local car at some distance in the dark and used him as a gatso detector just in case i strayed over the limit. Everything had been going well untill darkness fell and with it came athunderstorm for the last 50 miles, and the roads get progreesively worse the closer you get to Lands End.
I finally reached my goal, the Lands End Hotel to quite a feeling of elation having covered 850 miles in16.5 hours.
The one good point about the rain was that it had put the bonfire out so the locals couldn't re enact "The Wickerman".
In fact the receptionist didn't bat an eyelid when a dripping wet biker got blown through the door in the gale force wind. even though the kitchen was closed they rustled up some food and i downed one of the nicest pints of lager i've tasted in ages.
Turns out Anita the receptionist and her hubby are bikers and she said we'll keep the bar open as long as you want being a resident. I only had 3 pints, rang the wife, texted half the world then went of to bed. Although i was a bit tired i didn't feel half as knackered as i expected.
HOMEWARD BOUND.
The return trip was a mere 379 miles, but really brought home to me how lucky i had been with the previous 2 days journey. Traffic conditions were dreadfull, bad weather, tailbacks all over in Devon amd Cornwall, 2 accidents on the M5 and to top it off Birmingham was absolutely gridlocked as the M6 was closed in both directions. Obviously God, Allah, or Ogri was looking out for me on the big day, but felt i'd used up my fair share of luck with the traffic yesterday!
I've got to say the trip was not about riding too fast or a re-run of the Cannonball Run. It wasn't a race or case of seting records as i haven't a clue of any other times to do the run. It was a case of being incredibly lucky with the traffic and weather conditions, and keeping stops to a safe minimum for food, fuel and rest. It was all about raising money for charity so there would have been no point in doing something stupid (can't account for the deer in the dark though).
For any Multistrada owners i'll post a few thoughts, facts and figures later on, along with details of where to send money if anyone feels so inclined.
[Edited on 21-9-2004 by BDG]
[Edited on 21-9-2004 by BDG]
[Edited on 22-9-2004 by BDG]
[Edited on 23-2-2005 by BDG]  |
21-Sep-2004, 11:21 
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