Eire Force One
What bike do you need for a 1200 mile father-son bonding week in the Emerald Isle? A 27-year-old £800 Kawasaki of course!
What could be better than getting away from it all on two wheels, with your lad, retracing the halcyon days you had yourself as a kid? It’s such a wild part of Ireland and I love it down there. It’s rugged, peaceful and unspoiled. It’s also therapeutic after the hustle and bustle of life in general, even if I live in a village in the Midlands! The town itself is a well-known fishing location, but – politically – it’s divisive as most of the boats are Spanish or French and it’s thought that around 90% of the catch made from there doesn’t go to a quayside auction but straight to Continental Europe. It’s also home to the famous Maccarthy’s Bar.” Dave is no stranger to the area, having been visiting from the age of 13. “I’m from Essex and I recall being 13 and being pushed onto a Slattery’s coach in Victoria Coach Station in London, being plonked next to the driver and then being picked up by my uncle Niall at the other end after a whole day’s travel. You couldn’t do it these days! I’d then spend six glorious weeks there, it was lovely. I fell in love with the place from then, really. The family were all fishermen and they would work on the boats. During my holidays I’d fish the rivers for brown trout, dig the peat and load the tractors: it was a typical Irish working holiday – I loved it.” Life goes in circles, so many say, so when CMM reader Dave Brooking wanted to get away from it all and have some quality time away with his 13-yearold son Niall, it was a no-brainer that the pair would go away on two wheels and revisit some of Dave’s old haunts on the Emerald Isle. The eagle-eyed among you will recognise Dave as the owner of the somewhat stalled Project GSX1100 EFE and Kawasaki ZX-10. The ZX-10 was the choice of Dave’s son Niall, and his lucky sod of a dad managed to get this very clean late 80s rocketship for just £831.25 off of ebay at the end of 2015. Plans were hatched for trips abroad for 2016 but (as is often the case) Dave’s roofing business was booming and a trip had to wait until summer of this year. Dave says: “The plan was to pop down to southern Ireland and visit my mum’s side of the family. They are in Castletown-barehaven (or Castletownbere) down in southern County Cork.
Today you probably couldn’t load a 13-year-old on a coach and send them on their way, but the next generation of Niall (Dave’s son, named after Dave’s uncle) loves going pillion so a plan was hatched for an Emerald Isle week-long getaway. The plan was simple: leave The Green Dragon pub in Brigstock, East Northants at around 6pm, then head to Pembroke and take the ferry to Rosslare, south of Wexford. Dave explains: “I had to do a day’s work first, so we left home in the evening and aimed for the early morning (1 or 2am) crossing. Following the four-hour crossing we then have a 4-5 hour ride and then still have a bit of the day left at our destination. My reasoning is that – having travelled in Ireland extensively – I’d rather do British roads in the dark, not Irish ones!” This would be the second time son Niall had visited Castletown-barehaven, but the first by bike. And the comfort of the ZX-10 proved to be an issue. Dave says: “Niall fell asleep on the way there, which was a worry. He refused to take his father’s advice and sleep the day before, but the excitement was a bit much. Fifteen minutes into the journey and we’re just out of the county and off he went. It shows the ZX-10 is comfy. Thankfully with the set-up of a top-box and throw-over panniers he wasn’t going anywhere.” The trip itself was 493 miles door-to-door with plenty of stops on the way of course.
“I did chuck a coffee down Niall to pep him up. It’s funny, but people don’t see teenage lads in full bike kit so he got some strange looks. Niall had a bit of a kip on the boat but complained that the boat wasn’t as comfy as the ZX-10. We arrived around 6-7am and the weather was lovely... I did take a wrong turn at one point and Niall snoozed from time to time, but I gave him a nudge as we got to Bantry Bay as it’s a fantastic view with the fishing boats and he woke up and punched the air – even if we still had an hour to go!” Dave’s plans were simple on arrival: Guinness. He popped to his uncle’s but he was out – so it was time to head to the legendary Maccarthy’s Bar for his first pint of ‘Irish’ Guinness. With the father and son pair finally arrived it was time to enjoy themselves often on the ZX-10. “We often went exploring on the bike. We did about 1200 miles on the ZX-10 all told during the whole week. We went up to Kerry, Kenmare (the jewel of Kerry), enjoyed the Healy Pass (a fantastic biking road in the Caha Mountains) we visited Allihies Beach, Glengarriff, Bantry, the Beara Way and the bike performed flawlessly. Well, almost. We had a minor technical issue with the alarm that was installed: why do people put them on things? Basically the alarm went mad at my uncle’s and the bike wouldn’t start. So, we went through the thing and we removed the alarm completely from the wiring loom. While the bike was apart we did a common GPZ/ZX-10 mod of putting a switch on for the fan.” One upgrade that made the trip possible (other than the luggage) was the swap from the tyres Dave bought the bike with (squared off Michelin Macadams) to Metzeler Roadtec Interact Z8s. He says: “One thing I have to mention is the quality of modern sports touring tyres. The ZX-10 has strange sizes (120/70-17 front and 160/60-18 rear) but the Metzeler Z8s performed faultlessly. They transformed the handling of the bike as soon as I put them on at the end of 2015 and for weekend ‘fun’ rides and the tour nothing was ever a problem for them. They had plenty of grip in the wet and in the dry and after all those miles they’ve still shown no real wear. They’re a great all weather tyre.” Meanwhile, with Dave being a hard taskmaster, it wasn’t all blue skies for son Niall. He explains: “I often had to do chores like my dad clearly did back in the day! It was supposed to be a holiday but for me it was more like a working holiday! I had to do some gardening and mow the lawn! And it was a big lawn: twice the size of ours back home!
Overall though, I loved the trip and the bike was so comfy thanks to the top box. I did get some numb bum but it must have been comfy as I fell asleep so many times. The landscapes over in Ireland were awesome. The scenery was so different to England, so it was so good. We couldn’t drink from taps so we had to go to the well where we had spring water from the mountains which was delicious. “The food in Ireland was all overdone though and there was too much fish. Oh and the veg was over-cooked. I remember wondering why we were eating broccoli with no crunch! It was like mash! Dad liked the mussels though. I also liked the Cidona: an alcohol-free cider. It was lovely and the Irish people were great and we even enjoyed a jamming session in the pub, which is nothing like it would be in The Green Dragon back home!” But, after a full week, back home they had to come, but this time riding further north to catch the ferry from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead and then back to the Midlands. Dave says: “Niall did 12 hours straight through on the journey home without falling asleep which was good for him. We both had a great time. Overall I had a lovely bonding session with the lad and all on a bike costing just over £800. You can’t say fairer than that!”
“We often went exploring on the bike and did 1200 miles all told, including Kerry, the Healy Pass and the Beara Way. The bike was great. Not bad for £800!”