Carving twisties, testing whiskies
THE HIGHLANDS, SCOTLAND— What little I know about Scotland is that it’s the home of malt whiskey, kilts and golf. And haggis.
Of those Scottish specialties, I have intimate knowledge of only the first: my liquor cabinet contains several samples of single malt.
But after spending time in the Highlands aboard the 2013 Triumph Tiger Explorer XC, I can now add great riding roads to my list of Scottish things I have experienced. And haggis. My two-day ride begins near Aberfeldy, about 120 km north of Edinburgh, and winds its way 600 km through the Highlands. My hosts from Triumph include product manager Simon Warbutron, and head of public relations Simon Carter, both avid riders.
Grim skies, high winds, single-digit temperatures and a light drizzle greet us for our early-morning departure. Carter tries to lighten the mood with the well-worn phrase, “If you don’t like the weather in Scotland, just wait five minutes.”
The weather remains cold and windy with occasional showers throughout our journey, but it doesn’t put a damper on the ride.
The Tiger Explorer XC is the second variation of Triumph’s adventure tourer, introduced last year. At $18,999, it costs $1,500 more than the standard model, which gives you tubeless spoked wheels (cast wheels on the standard model), engine guards, a large aluminum skid plate, plastic hand guards and auxiliary 55-watt halogen lights.
It uses the same steel trellis frame and suspension, as well as the 135hp, 1215 cc inline triple. Standard electronic features include switchable ABS, adjustable traction control, cruise control, a trip computer and a tire-pressure warning system.
Our route takes us east along secondary roads before turning north on A93 and into the Highlands, where open, winding roads emphasize the Explorer XC’s comfortable ergonomics, modest weather protection and wonderfully toasty, yet optional, heated handgrips. We continue north along A93 through whiskey country, where road signs announce distilleries such as Aberlour, The Glenlivet and Glenfiddich, all of which occupy a spot in my stash of spirits.
The road winds in a succession of esses between treeless, rolling hills, and the XC’s firm suspension keeps it steady through sweepers and allows waver-free transitions through the esses, proving it is capable of handling a sport-touring pace. And although alarmingly high winds push us into a lean on the straights, the XC maintains a confidence-inspiring level of stability.
Within these rolling hills can be found historic estates such as Blair and Braemar Castle, Glamis and Scone Palace. We make a brief stop at Balmoral Castle, a working estate that covers 49,000 acres and has been a summer residence of the Royal Family since 1852.
With the heated grips still set to high, I follow Warburton, who leads us to Alvie House for lunch. The storied estate was once the residence of Sir Robert Boville Whitehead, whose extended family included Agathe Whitehead, first wife of Baron von Trapp, whose story inspired The Sound of Music.
The estate was sold in1923 to Lady Carnarvon, immediately following the death of her husband George Herbert, the Egyptologist who discovered King Tutankhamen’s tomb. It is said he succumbed to King Tut’s curse.
All of this history makes great fodder for pub debates, but I will always remember Alvie House as the first place I’ve ever tasted haggis. This mishmash of sheep innards, oatmeal and onion might not sound appetizing but it is quite tasty. You can fish, and hunt on the grounds of Alvie House. But we use the dirt roads surrounding the estate to test the XC’s off-road capability, and this is where the bike reveals its shortcomings. The firm suspension that kept the chassis poised on the road is too harsh when the pavement ends. This is not a problem on smoother gravel roads, but the suspension reacts too slowly over sharp, successive bumps, causing the wheels to leave the ground. The cure, of course, is to slow down, but even at a modest pace, the XC is not as compliant as other bikes in this category. Our first day ends at an inn by the banks of Loch Ness, famed for sightings of Nessie, the legendary monster that has so far evaded capture or real evidence of existence. On day two, we head south and make a stop at the Ben Nevis distillery. Founded in1825, it is among the oldest licensed distilleries in Scotland. A brief tour enlightens me on the distillation process of malt whiskey (in one of the early steps, it is essentially beer), and a visit to the distillery store nets me a bottle of 10-year-old single malt. From there, we take some open roads towards our lunch stop at the Inverawe Smokehouse, located in Taynuilt, which is the English spelling for the Gaelic phrase meaning “the house by the stream,” appropriate since it’s a fish smokery.
The access road to Inverawe is tight, twisty and undulating, and the XC again demonstrates its preference for pavement. It’s a topheavy machine but it flips through transitions with relative ease. I use the engine’s mid-range torque to hop between turns, lifting the wheel over sharp crests before the bike’s traction control takes over and pulls it back down.
I fill up on a sampling of smoked salmon and trout, all deliciously oak-flavoured.
We leave the smokehouse for our final destination, a luxury hotel in Dunblane, where I part company with the XC for what turned out to be a gratifying and revealing ride.