My Triumph Tiger 900 needed its annual service, so I booked into a dealership in Carlisle. Using the A74(M), Carlisle is about 75 miles and an hour's ride from home. However, there's no fun to be had on a motorway, so I decided to revisit some of the roads I used to ride back in the mid-70s when I started biking. My current home is in Lanark in the Scottish central belt, and I decided to follow a mixture of A roads, B roads and some unclassified single-track roads. The route, through the Scottish Borders, is 185 miles long and takes about five to six hours to ride.
My journey starts at New Lanark, a model village built around an 18th Century water-powered cotton mill, intended to be a worker's utopia and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It also has a café, restaurant, bar, sports complex, a unique hotel and Youth Hostel.
I take the A73 out of town, then follow signs to Biggar for 12 miles of smooth, sweeping road. Biggar is a lovely wee town and has an amazing piece of Victorian steampunk engineering. For over 130 years, the Biggar Gas Light Company provided coal gas to the town. Similar 'Town Gas' plants were in every town in the land, but this is the last survivor. Biggar Gasworks is now a museum and well worth a visit.
Leaving Biggar on the B7016, turn right at Broughton on to the A701 south. These are the roads I first visited on my two-stroke, air-cooled, Yamaha RD250. Riding the A701 today is just as glorious as it was in 1977 (but less smoky).
Denne historien er fra August 2024-utgaven av Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
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Denne historien er fra August 2024-utgaven av Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Honda CRF1100L ES Africa Twin
Without panniers he was adventuring nowhere - so at least Bertie's got something sorted now
BMW R 12 nineT
Chad gets a track day surprise when BMW's R 12 nineT turns out to be surprisingly fun on track
Test fleet: VOGE 525 DSX
After testing the Voge's abilities on a long ride, it was time to take it to the Cotswolds and see how it would manage on the rougher stuff
Portuguese Perambulations
Nearly over before it had begun, a brief workshop stint allows Spain and Portugal to be explored
Highway to Heaven
Three friends take on the challenge of riding the length of Canada, from Vancouver in the southwest to Inuvik in the north. The road is long, the conditions merciless, and wildfires are tearing through the country. To top it all off, the final leg of the journey is the ultimate test of gravel riding skills, nerves, and courage - it's the legendary Dempster Highway...
Battlaxes at the ready!
We tend to take tyres for granted, never really looking at them in any detail, or at how they work, just hoping that they keep us shiny side up at all times. Even in the wet
Ducati Riding Experience
When I rode the Ducati DesertX to France last year, I did have a bit of an explore on some easy fire roads and gentle green lanes in the wilds of the Médoc area, but was left with the feeling that, had I the experience, the DesertX would have been capable of taking me along some more extreme trails to some even more exciting places. If only there was a way of finding out just how well the Italian adventure bike could cope with some more extreme terrain...
Four pot flyer
Many said that sports bikes, and particularly bikes in the traditional Supersports class that was populated by 600cc inline fours, were dead. Maybe they spoke too soon?...
Eastern adventurer
With an increasing interest in smaller capacity adventure bikes, the market expands with a new entry
First Time Lucky?
It's ironic that the first all-new MV Agusta model to hit the marketplace right after Italy's No.1 trophy brand was acquired by Austrian giant Pierer Mobility, owner of off-road titans KTM, should be the company's first dual-purpose model of the modern era, powered by MV's all-new 931cc three-cylinder engine that's destined to form the basis of a whole series of new models in coming months and years.
