Ideas for big rideout

[northwind]

Taking this plan forward a bit:

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=98158

(This thread will be moderated with an IRON FIST. None of your iron fist in a velvet glove nonsense.)

The basic plan- have a proper big rideout, get as many people up (and down, and across) as possible- get ****ed in a field and ride motorbikes.

The route as far as I'm concerned is along the lines of our standard glencoe run- wibbly wobbly, throw in kinlochleven (which we've not traditionally done, but which we should from now on), glencoe, rannochmoor, duke's pass, calendar. Bit of everything, mountains hills and lochs, and some of the best roads in scotland- but it's not too far north for a base and accessible in a day from most of Scotland. I would absolutely love to strike out further north, the campsite at Kinlochleven maybe, or Aviemore, but every mile north is going to put people off and this is- I think- the best all worlds. The borders also has a lot of appeal but I think if people are going to do Scotland they might as well do it properly

I don't know where to base it but the campsite at Inverarnan got the most recommendations, so there's a solid starting point.

Ideally, what I'd like to find is a place with good camping, chalets/bunkhouse/static caravans/hotel on site or nearby for people who don't want to camp, and a pub. Actually, add into that I'd like a publicly accessible lochside and a fire but, that's asking a lot. The absolute ideal is something like we've had at the AR07 and 06- a seperate campsite so that we don't annoy anyone else or have to reign in the noise. In fact, if I could find a small campsite in the right sort of place I'd consider trying to block book it and take over...

Other locations... Inverarnan is very good. I think there'd be a lot to be said for somewhere in the Callendar or Lochearnhead area too, but I don't know any suitable sites there. Inverarnan's possibly easier to get to from England. I hope to go and motor around various interesting locations once the weather gets a little better.

Dates... I think mid August. The Annual Rideout is in July, there's no point putting it too near to that and I wouldn't do it regardless, this isn't competition. June has the North/South rideout, which probably attracts a lot of the same people who would be interested in this. I've got an eye on the weather here obviously. Another advantage of August is that I'll be at the AR in July and I can do the hardsell then while everyone is in love with the idea of getting ****ed in a field (and be living proof that Scotland's not actually that far)

I'm steering away from the bank holiday in august, in some ways bank hols are great as people don't need time off work, but in others people tend to have family demands etc, and the roads will be busier. Also, I'll be at the Reading Festival!

This isn't my show- if it's left to me, it'll most likely never happen So, is it a good idea? What should we do? What shouldn't we do? Tell me now before I get carried away!

[buckstone]

What about here -

http://www.touristnetuk.com/sc/argyl....htm#inveraray

Less than an hour from Glasgow along a great road. Nice little town with pubs, chippies, campsite, and plenty of B&Bs for non-campers. Handy for Glencoe and a lot of othere great roads as well.

I'm keen whatever the venue / route though ........

sounds good northy lad

cant manage the 1st weekend or the 23rd/24th weekend (the big rally at aviemore)

that leaves 3 weekends but thats me being selfish probably

jim@55 can bring his geetar and play us some tunes

Buckstone, just checked that website (the official one)

nae tents allowed

[northwind]

I think whether or not we're allowed a guitar is getting a bit ahead of itself! But, I think it does tie in with one of my worries, ie how rowdy can we be. If we're just on a typical family campsite there'll be kids in bed by 10pm. One reason I rather like the idea of a nearby public lochside, or similiar, so we can behave on the site and make a racket elsewhere. I don't want to have to restrict things, and I don't want to **** people off.

I can bring my wee travel guitar, it's transportable on a bike, no probs. Just don't ask me to play it, as I'm total mince.

or we could go to the aviemore shindig, 30 quid gets you 4 days camping, gets you in to all the bands at night in the highland resort, there's free bands at the aviemore inn on the highstreet

usually a thousand + bikes, loads of drunk folk staggering around

wall to wall fandan as well

oh....and....we get to be as drunk and rowdy as we want

only thing is that there will be loads of harley people there ha ha ha

28th Jan - I've done some editing, consolidating and deleting of my posts in this thread tonight. I have left behind only that relevant to the rideout plans and corrected the Erskine bridge and Carlisle/Gretna confusion at source. If your confused about anything people have quoted from my posts, it's probably been changed or deleted, ignore it and move on.

My 2p worth....

If we're going to do this the objective is basically to try and get as many of the lads from down South to join us. If we're going to do that we need to cater for their needs not ours. We can arrange an SV Ecosse overnighter any weekend we like and go anywhere in Scotland and do whatever suits us then.

I think wherever the campsite is, it needs to be within an hour or so of the top of the M74 where most folk coming north will be arriving after a long motorway slog. So even though I suggested Inverarnan, that is about the limit in terms of how far North as I would take it, and only then because the roads from Baillieston to Inverarnan are wide and straight and fast so a bike can make light work of them. So Loch Lomond, the Trossachs and Stirling I think is the area which is most fair to those travelling long distances to come.

Is there a campsite or other accomodation within walking distance of the Carbeth Inn?

May I suggest that when posting up a suggestion for a campsite we put

"from: baillieston to: xxxx"

into http://maps.google.co.uk

where xxxx is the location of your suggested campsite and post up the distance and the time it says it will take.

So for instance

from: baillieston to: inverarnan = 57.1 mi – about 1 hour 19 mins

the blue angels have a few shindigs at the carbeth and camp out but that may be because they are hard and no one wants to mess with them. there is a campsite behind mcdonalds in balloch. I can ask what rates are and if they would be prepared to take a lot of bikers. or failing that there is a youth hostel in balloch.

[northwind]

Balloch seems like a good location too, that'd be ideal. I think Ralph's spot on, we can get into the good roads in a day from edinburgh or glasgow after all so there's no real need to go further north. Obviously this is just one ride, I'm hoping there'll be other overnighters through the year but this one needs planning a bit more

Yes, Balloch is a good idea. Lots of accommodation options and loads of facilities for food, pubs, cash machines, etc.

We can make a weekend of it and camp both Friday and Saturday nights and do rideouts on both Saturday and Sunday. That way folk can come for one night or two or one rideout or both? Better chance of folk being able to make at least one of the nights or one of the rides that way. We would just need a couple of SV Ecosse folk to make a firm commitment to one or the other days to arrange and lead the rideouts.