SLAM does Scotland

The Prologue

Well the  SLAM people are preparing to invade for a week.  9 intrepid souls will venture uti the land of Tartan Haggis  and small furry sporrans in order to explore the wilds.

This blog is about  them.

Initially though-  What is SLAM?

We are South Lancashire Advanced Motorcyclists.  No we don’t all ride wearing our slippers and puffin our pipes full of rough Balkan Sobranie. We are a motorcycle club – we are social happy bikers who in the main are also  qualified as advanced riders.

This is really an entry for Day -1, a small note about day 0 will occur sometime on Friday and this bit is really to test that the system works.

Day 0  Friday 30/7/10

The prep day! Ok  all my co riders seem to have been organised forever- me, I have waited until less than 24  hours before leaving to organise myself.

Things to do – puncture seal and scrub in tyres (on a lovely drippy wet day). Decide what gear is to travel and what is to stay. Oh and recover from 12 hrs working hte night before.

Puncture sealing achieved with a trip to the rocket Centre in Blackburn who kindly inserted Slime into my almost new (120 miles only) Ultra Storm IIs.

Next what has to come with me ?  Ah the Ipad so I can do the blog, a charging device- so it won’t go flat. Duct tape – ah run out- of to Tesco for some.

Clothes – now here’s difficult 7 pairs of riding socks and several pairs of downtime socks as well as a pair of faithful comfy trainers. T shirts of various designs – enough to enable me to spill soup all over myself without necessitating washing in the sink later.

Riding gear – ok lets take some kevlar jeans for when Im not riding for 100s of miles  ….. ah bulky things these kevlars, Ok so the summer Jacket won’t go either.  That leaves me with my waterproof Lindstrands suit that Im going to wear… a lot. Spare pair of gloves – yep I have HG Xtra Fit Gore texes, and am wearing Hiart Halvarssons  for the first leg.  Waterproof boots – hopefully only going to need 1 pair – nowhere else for them to stow as spares. Several base layers – because in reasonable heat the jacket actually keeps me quite warm. Its a Lindstrand Graffiti to match the trousers. Hope this faith in Sweden bears fruit otherwise I’m going to be damp and grumpy (Damp one of the lesser known dwarfs who is Dopey’s stunt double!)

Bike serviced and set up – good.

Phone call – Ah my Advanced test is on Sat 14 Aug, ring work book that day off as a holiday.

Feed cats – inform neighbours and give them keys so said felines stay fed and don’t eat each other.

Pack the pannier bags so I know the paniers will fit the luggage. Try pannier bags – Bother!

The middle zip ex[ands the bag to the large lid pannier size….. …..

Fit larger lids to panniers (they came witht he bike when I bought it. I swore that there would never be a situation I would need them. I’m quite impressed when they accept the bags and don’t look particularly larger than the old ones.

Remove bags for final checks and for security.

Remeber I haven’t been to bed in over 24 hours and decide that its far too early so consider what my evening meal will be, heat up the oen as my eye spots a fish pie nestling in the lower reaches of the freezer – great stuff that and chips – then I can write the Day 0 blog entry for whoever is looking at it.

Promise myself a rewarding bath after feeding and possibly include an early night in the mix.

Next time Day 1 from England unto North Britain, and a chance to meet my fellow travellers. I had suggested they each tell a tale on this week long pilgrimage … sorry holiday. Hmmhow should I start it – In Dame July’s tail oft we left with Showers all fludde like up to ourn chests. (apols to Mr Chaucer) I think this idea will stop now!

See you all again on Saturday.