Friday 16 October 2009

The Wee Iain Run. By Kawa.

The Wee Iain run was started in 2002, a year after Iain a very good friend of mine died. The first run was a get together of people that we had met on (older) bikes over the years, we had a fairly good turn out. Over the next five years the numbers increased, but the format of the run remained the same, just a slow run with a lot of stops over the seventy or so miles.The route its self had basically remained the same, taking in some really good "old bike" roads.

I had stopped doing the run a couple of years ago due to one thing or another, but after some arm twisting from a few old regulars the run was on for this year. A few phone calls and a couple of visits and we had a nice wee group together. Pre-run route check done, just to make sure all the roads were still there. A call to the Brig O Turk Tea Room, the half way stop, just to make sure it would be open and we were sorted.

Sunday morning arrived and by the time I turned up there were already a few keen people, by eleven everyone was there. We left Denny and headed up through the Carron Valley, one of my favourite areas. Not long till we were over the other end
and heading towards the village of Kippen, with a stop off at a lay by a couple of miles before it. Old John, one of the Stars of Britain's Best Drives he tells me (never heard of it myself) refers to this place as the "view", and I've got to say on a good day you get a great view of the mountains to the north. Twenty minutes later and we were off again, down through the village and over towards Thornhill and over towards Callander via some nice wee back roads. The Trossachs were next, great section of road with the long awaited stop at The Tea Room near the end of it. More catching
up with what folk had been up to the last while. Then they were back on their bikes and heading off over the Dukes pass, a brilliant bit of road to get the best out of your bike, just imagine a road with hardly any flat bits an no straights.

The last part of the route heads back to Thornhill, Kippen and on towards the Carron Valley with a stop in the Village of Fintry at a pub strangely called the Fintry Inn. After we had something to eat and a good blether about the day we split up and headed in our own directions. Good day out, only down side was I had to go round in the car due to having injured my hand. It'll be on next year, so I've been told...


Great write up Kawa, thanks for sharing it and the pics.

13 comments:

Mrs. B.C. said...

Which one was old John - does he know you call him old John? Well, I suppose he does now!

Anonymous said...

Rear bike in the third picture is an early Yamaha SR 500. I had one of these! Same colour as well.
They were very rare 30 years ago, so it's a surprise to see one now.

U N

Anonymous said...

Old Johns the one with the red shirt on, he'll not find out cause he doesn't use the internet.....I think, hope
UN, the SR is more or less how it was then Jim bought it in the early 80s.

kawa

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the write-up Kawa, but was sorry to hear that wasn't your Z-1...very nice.


BigBob

kawa said...

Thanks Bob, that Z1 belongs to Iains brother. Theres a bit of a story with that bike, it was originally sold in Canada, then bought by Jeff at Z1 Enterprises in Marion NY. A year or so later it was sold an shipped to Dublin. While we were over for the NW200 about 4yrs ago Colin made the owner a large offer for it. It get used all year round and has more than doudled its original 19000 mls.

kawa

ps Bob I've got a uk spec green/yellow Z1 in large parts to be put together sometime

Darrell said...

You guys have all the fun over there. I'm jealous.
Nice bikes too, I'm partial to the Scott.

Mrs. B.C. said...

I can see we're going to have to find you a summer job over here, Darrell. What do you fancy doing?

Gorgeous Biker Chick said...

Filthy filthy words on my blog!

Darrell said...

Filthy words, Gorgeous? Such as "job?"

Mrs., I'm a good learner, so I can probably pick up most anything.

Mrs. B.C. said...

I think GBC meant Yamaha, Darrell, she's funny like that.

Darrell said...

Oh, I see. I knew she'd be concerned about the Pink nail polish, so I thought "jobs" might be a dirt word.




(don't hurt me)

Anonymous said...

I like that tiger on the Triumph's Avon fairing - very nice :o)

Graham B

kawa said...

Graham I'll see if theres a better pic of the fairing on Davys Tiger 90, if I remember right he said the tiger was copied off an ESSO advert

kawa

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