Great trip to Harris/Lewis

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Although I've has the F8GS for nearly 2 years, due to circumstances I hadn't got the chance to give it a good run until last week.

We had booked a few days off, starting off with a run from Aberdeen to Skye (Portree) and then after an overnight stop, over on the ferry to Tarbert on Harris. As soon as we set tyre on the roads I knew taking the F8 was the perfect choice.

The roads over there are a mixture of long straight 2 laners to single track twisties, especially on the SW side of Harris !

As it was our first 2 up trip I wanted to try the 42 liter Givi Cases I had previously used on my Blackbird, so got the mounting brackets and slapped them on, although a bit on the big side, especially when trying to get the legs over ! They did the job and the bike always felt stable, fully loads with pillion, 2 x 42 litter cases and a bag on the rack.

Finished off on the ferry to Ullapool and then the run back home, all the time in the dry !!!

Got back home yesterday and felt totally refreshed, the bike performed perfectly and did everything asked of it.

I am really really impressed with this bike and will be the tool of choice for doing more touring over on the West Coast, soon !!

 

[SteveT]

Hi Russ.

Glad you enjoyed the trip and that the bike has proven to be an ace all rounder.

How did my diversion reccomendation turn out - the one back to Dufftown, then Glen Livet & Ballindalloch and onto Grantown?

How does your better half rate the rear seat? Interested as I'll probably be forcing SWMBO'd onto mine for a trip to Italy

And if your really fed up with that zorst, let me know

SteveT (the council manny you met in Drummuir)

 

[Goughie]

Looks like you had a fabulous trip. I'm heading north as soon as I can. Hoping to include Skye.

 

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Hi Steve !

Found out that the shortcut past the Bluehill Quarry was still open so we did that instead, however we will be doing that road a few more times !!

Yeah Janice's backside never suffered, only complaint was the noise from the Beowolf Exhaust !! I actually forgot to put the baffle back in this time coz I rememberers (too late!) last time she was on the back for a while I got the same complaint but forgot to put the bugger back in for this trip !!

The seat was actually remade by Tony Archer http://www.tonyarcher.co.uk/ and he can do any design, even include gel pads if you or SWMBO wants them, cost about £75 if I remember rightly, you just send him the base, I got an old one off Ebay so I could keep the original.

Yeah the bike really was ideal for that trip so we'll be doing a few more now !!

 

[martinl69]

I'm currently in Skye (Uig), some great roads both here on the isle of Skye and on the way up here. Plenty of bikes getting the ferry from Uig across the Harris/Lewis.

 

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Enjoy those roads, hope you have a look around Harris first, its pretty spectacular !

There were only 5 bikes on the boat to Harris and 6 from Lewis to Ullapool for us !