SCOTLAND: Get Touring
Beautiful scenery, fantastic culture, rich in history and rammed with great roads; it’s the perfect place to test Honda’s VFR1200X.
For most of us, Scotland is within a single day’s ride, and yet so many of us overlook it in favour of the Continent. Warmer weather, exotic foods and money which looks as though it’s straight out of the Monopoly box are propositions hard to refuse. But Scotland is a hidden gem, which doesn’t require days stuck travelling motorways, expensive mobile phone roaming charges or pricey Channel crossing fares.
What you need is a few days spare and the inclination to see some of the most stunning views the world has to offer, complemented nicely by some outrageously winding roads and an abundance of characterful people. Of course, a bike would also come in handy.
In my case, a Honda VFR1200X was to be that handy motorcycle, complete with a Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) auto gearbox, panniers and a top-box. Joining me, and placed in charge of the navigating and photography, was my wife Anna, who’d predetermined our first stop of the trip: Dunblane. Classed as a city, thanks to its cathedral, the historic settlement has a tiny population of around 10,000 people – two of whom just happened to be good friends of ours and had kindly offered to put us up for the night…
With panniers brimming and the Honda’s relatively small screen manually adjusted to its highest position, we were soon on our way. Well, after a short spell spent figuring out exactly how the DCT worked.
Lacking both a clutch lever and gear selector, the Honda looks bizarre. In place of the conventional controls are a number of buttons, littering both sides of the bike’s wide and raised bars. Firing the VFR into life allows you to rev it, but it won’t go anywhere, as I learned to my embarrassment. The rider has to select a mode to engage drive, of which you can toggle through two; D (which is more docile) and S (which is more sporty).
On application, the Honda gives a confirming nudge forward and your selection is highlighted on the clear, all-digital dash. With that you just twist the throttle and off you go, much like a big scooter.
Those first few miles were something of a revelation, having to remind myself there was no need to pull on a clutch lever or grind my way through the ’box. The DCT just did it all, and superbly smoothly as well in D-mode.
Eager taps on my shoulder were Anna’s way of insisting we stopped at the Ferrybridge services, just off the A1(M). We’d only been riding an hour and a half, but the saddle was proving a pain in the backside. I was questioning how on earth we’d survive four full days of riding; legs stretched, we cracked on and this time made it all the way to Penrith before throwing in the towel and performing a much-needed fuel stop. The VFR’s dash was saying we were down to our last 50 miles, and I didn’t fancy pushing the Honda.
The Crosstourer is a mammoth of a bike, weighing in at 285kg, minus the panniers or their contents. It’s also pretty high, with the seat at 850mm. Just to manoeuvre the Honda by foot was an epic challenge (I’m 5ft 10in), and I was dreading the prospect of pulling up on some dodgy camber, at which point I’d probably struggle to get a foot fully planted on the ground, let alone manage the combined 500kg+ weight of our mass.
Over the border
Trip metre reset, we were soon on the M6 and following in the wake of a terrible storm. Huge boards on the motorway warned of imminent danger – not that I needed them to tell me the Honda was going to feel a bit wayward; by this point already being forced to lean the bike in a straightline. A whole 216 miles in, we reached Gretna Green and crossed over into Scotland, celebrating with another leg stretch, muffin and a coffee.
We saw no kilts, but remained optimistic. The M74 is perhaps the most picturesque motorway in the UK. Follow it for long enough and you’ll eventually reach Glasgow, but not before you’ve ridden through some stunning scenery. Vast green hills smother you on both sides, moorland and forests lining the perfectly smooth Tarmac as it meanders along. It seems wrong to talk so enthusiastically about a motorway, but it really is quite unlike any other. And the best thing is that it’s typically underpopulated by other road users – the perfect time to click on the Honda’s cruise control and indulge in the surroundings.
Except, the Honda didn’t have cruise control, nor heated grips to fend off the chilly air we were encountering. It did, however, offer three levels of traction control, which would have been handy if someone had thrown a bucket of oil at us – which they didn’t. Instead, we technophobically ticked off the last 100 miles of our ride, making it up to Dunblane some five hours after setting off.
From Stirling, you can take a very straight and boring ride north along the average-speed-camera A9 carriageway. But having sat on it for all of 10 miles, we detoured onto the scenic A822, passing the famous Gleneagles golf course in the process. As luck would have it, the weather was being kind, and allowed for some pretty spirited riding along the route,
which proved reminiscent of the Dales. Woods, streams and stonebuilt walls decorated its path, rolling up and down with the undulating profile of the landscape. The Honda proved a real joy to throw around; up until this point, most of the roads had been big and boring, so it was fantastic to learn how planted and agile the behemoth could be.
The suspension is adjustable, but the standard settings were pretty decent, with my only criticism being a wallowing rear-end when the road got a little choppy.
Heading for Inverness
The A822 eventually merges with the A826 and then the A827, meeting up once more with the A9 at Pitlochry. The original plan had been to head through the Cairngorms on the stunning Glenshee road, which I’d ridden previously and can’t recommend enough, but time was against us so we had to get back on the depressing A9.
The road itself still cuts through the Cairngorms, albeit in a much duller way, with far less attractive scenery and constant speed cameras. Stirling had been a pleasurable experience, but our overindulgence in time spent visiting was making us pay the price on the final stint up to Inverness. Following the course of the River Ness eastwards, the A82 leads directly to the famous Loch, which grows in girth the farther you ride. Huge mountains on each side of the water make the vista even more impressive, with plenty of pull-in places for you to stop and take a moment to absorb the sights. From Drumnadrochit we headed north on the squirrelly A833, which kicked off with uphill hairpins and offered a great view over Loch Ness behind us. For most of the journey the Honda had remained in D-mode, but this route warranted a shift to the pokier S-mode. The biggest difference between the two settings is the latter doesn’t short-shift through the ’box, so you have more revs and better drive to tackle steep climbs. At Achnasheen we took the A890, which narrowed to a single track, full of potholes and surrounded by woods. The scenery became reminiscent of the Alps, the traffic morphing from holidaymakers to logging lorries.
Having to constantly stop and give way to oncoming vehicles, the route became convoluted and the overwhelming amount of potholes didn’t make life any easier. The great views did help though, especially on arriving at Lochcarron, where the sea air filled our lungs instantly on reaching the coastal loch.
To the ferry
The final stint to the Isle of Skye saw us climb up high on a breathtaking trail, the coast to our right as we descended. Compared to the landscape where our ride had started, everything looked far more dramatic and spectacular. There’s no chance of confusing Scotland’s east and west coastlines, with the former being by far the more stunning. The route to Skye had taken around five hours, and we were racing south to catch a ferry, having entered the island by a road bridge in the north. You can clearly make out the mainland from the island, the water between the two being crossed several times daily by the CalMac ferry (www.calmac.co.uk).
If you only ride one road in Scotland, make sure it’s the A830 from Mallaig to Fort William. Nothing can prepare you for its raw beauty, which stretches for 50 miles and incorporates everything from sea views to colossal rock faces and sporadic lakes, as the road leaves the coastline and heads inland after Arisaig. You’ll find yourself tootling around at 20mph, your eyes looking everywhere but the road as you try your utmost to take in the sheer splendour of the surroundings.
The A828 followed Loch Linnhe’s scenic course for 40 miles, bringing us out at a trellis-type bridge in Connel. That’s where we waved goodbye to the coast and started working our way inland on the A85. Inverary was next. We arrived at the 18th century town in time for the start of its annual Highland Games, situated within the grounds of the impressive castle .
Heading for home that next morning, we decided to stretch the Honda’s legs down the A68. Once more, we were hampered by speed cameras, but it offered great views and a rollercoaster ride of undulations. Jedburgh marked the last of the Scottish settlements before reaching English soil. The geographical ridge that divides Scotland and England is impressive, with some great views over both nations. Scotland had delivered in so many ways, generating nothing but fond memories every inch of the way. Easy to access, marvellous to experience and the perfect location for a short getaway, we couldn’t have asked for more.