GM3 26/27th June 2010 General info thread

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

Agreed there is 6 months or more before the event, but most of us have to book holidays and accommodation. This years event left it a bit late for some I think.

With 6 months to go the dates have been decided so that any wishing to attend can book holidays.( exactly the same as i have to)
and please give the group some credit for making sure that there is some alternative accomodation when we are looking at possible venues. Wigwams etc etc are the main reason why I cannot find a suitable site.

Originally Posted by Quedos

With 6 months to go the dates have been decided so that any wishing to attend can book holidays.( exactly the same as i have to)
and please give the group some credit for making sure that there is some alternative accomodation when we are looking at possible venues. Wigwams etc etc are the main reason why I cannot find a suitable site.

But until we know where we are going, and whether the rideout is worth doing I'm certainly not going to book any holidays.

We just need to know the general location as we will make our own overnight arrangements. We don't intend to stay on the same site as the main group.

Anyway, fully understand that there are more important things to contend with at this time of year, so no worries. Just getting my points of view over early as there is a thread to do so.

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

But until we know where we are going, and whether the rideout is worth doing I'm certainly not going to book any holidays.

We just need to know the general location as we will make our own overnight arrangements. We don't intend to stay on the same site as the main group.

Anyway, fully understand that there are more important things to contend with at this time of year, so no worries. Just getting my points of view over early as there is a thread to do so.

If you book holidays will your boss hold you to those dates?

If not staying with the main group you don't need to worry if the accommodation and social scene will be worth the trip, and you won't know if the ride-out itself will be worth it as the final route is not usually released until a few weeks before, but you can make a safe bet that on Scottish roads, either borders or highlands the roads will be good. Maybe worth taking a punt on it, booking holidays, and deciding that you and Lissa are going somewhere nice that weekend, whether or not that's the GM3 to be decided.

The location is a chicken and egg scenario. The location will be probably be decided based upon where we can get a suitable accommodation.

There was a lot of pushing for information last year, some of it justified, some it not. The organisers will learn how to do this better every year. I would encourage attendees not to push too hard though, as I was involved with GM1 and know how much hard work and personal time goes into this, and it's a pretty thankless task actually, done out of the kindness of the organisers hearts. If we push too hard or appear ungrateful the organisers may just say 'WTF, why am I bothered?' and there will be no GM3.

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

If we push too hard or appear ungrateful the organisers may just say 'WTF, why am I bothered?' and there will be no GM3.

Mmmmm, not sure I can agree with you 100% there. I do not speak for The Organisers but I am one of their bitches and I tell you now GM3 will go ahead no matter how pushy or ungrateful people appear. And it'll be brilliant, as usual.

This. Is. ECOSSE!

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

Mmmmm, not sure I can agree with you 100% there. I do not speak for The Organisers but I am one of their bitches and I tell you now GM3 will go ahead no matter how pushy or ungrateful people appear. And it'll be brilliant, as usual.

This. Is. ECOSSE!

OK then bitches, come on, hurry up and get it sorted....

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

If you book holidays will your boss hold you to those dates?

If not staying with the main group you don't need to worry if the accommodation and social scene will be worth the trip, and you won't know if the ride-out itself will be worth it as the final route is not usually released until a few weeks before, but you can make a safe bet that on Scottish roads, either borders or highlands the roads will be good. Maybe worth taking a punt on it, booking holidays, and deciding that you and Lissa are going somewhere nice that weekend, whether or not that's the GM3 to be decided.

The location is a chicken and egg scenario. The location will be probably be decided based upon where we can get a suitable accommodation.

There was a lot of pushing for information last year, some of it justified, some it not. The organisers will learn how to do this better every year. I would encourage attendees not to push too hard though, as I was involved with GM1 and know how much hard work and personal time goes into this, and it's a pretty thankless task actually, done out of the kindness of the organisers hearts. If we push too hard or appear ungrateful the organisers may just say 'WTF, why am I bothered?' and there will be no GM3.

I don't like to book too many holidays and then cancel them Ralph. Accommodation would need to be sorted early on for us, but the social scene is never a problem as there are always peeps we get on with at these events. However location is an important point. The ride-out on the GM that we can't mention was actually published about 5 months before the event.

If this is going to be a Scottish version of the AR, where the rideout is secondary to the socialising then it possibly won't be for us. That's fine, as it's a scottish event for the benefit of the Scottish riders. The fact that a few of us softie southerners have sneaked in shouldn't take priority.

Believe you me, having organised a few weekends ourselves, we know just how difficult it is, especially given the area the Ecosse group cover. I'm not trying to undermine the organisation of it, just using this thread to put points relevant to us across.

It seems to me that the first GM was perfect for those of us who wanted to hoon around the glorious roads, but was perhaps a bit too much for less experienced riders. GM2 was perhaps biased too much the other way.

What ever the organisers decide will, I'm sure, be welcomed by the majority.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

as it's a scottish event for the benefit of the Scottish riders. The fact that a few of us softie southerners have sneaked in shouldn't take priority.

thats like saying the AR is a southerner event.....

i personally think that the GM is for the ride and the banter. and at the time of year we will be having it, there is plenty of time for a good long rideout with a good chinwag after..

i also am undecided about next years GM for much the same reasons as you e.g. booking of venue and route/area as i cant afford to leave it to late like this year. if it was not for someone cancelling their wigwam i would not have been able to come.

[appollo1]

I attended the GM1 but unfortunately could not attend last year.

The GM1 was great for me, a slower rider, and I did not at anytime feel under pressure to go faster than I felt safe. It was also my first "big meeting" where I was amazed at the distance some people had travelled (with the furthest being the pingus if i remember correctly).

IMO the GM is about getting together to explore the fantastic roads that are up here as well as the social side. But most importantly the ride out.

IMO GM1 was good because almost everyone was located together and there was a decent area for socialising. If people end up staying all over the place then the evening social side can lapse in the evening. Obviously I cannot comment on last year as I was not there. I appreciate that some people travel a long distance and after travelling so far don't want to be sleeping in a tent.

I am sure that once christmas has passed and everyone is settled back into a normal routine the details will be finalised. After all we have 7 months for the organisers to make the necessary arrangements.

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

it's a scottish event for the benefit of the Scottish riders.

Piffle.

HTH.

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

The ride-out on the GM that we can't mention was actually published about 5 months before the event.

If you mean GM2, a ride-out route was suggested early on, and that's the one that went on the initial T-shirts design, but the route was still far from decided 6 weeks before the event,

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...ighlight=route

and wasn't set in stone and finalised until 24th July when Northwind took the afternoon off work to ride it.

There was one point where it looked like the T' Shirts may have completely the wrong route on them and we were going up North, in the end it came full circle and ended up fairly similar, but only because this was the pretty much best route from where we were staying.

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

That's fine, as it's a scottish event for the benefit of the Scottish riders.

That's not a fair statement Pete. The overriding requirement of all three GM's so far has been that it is based in a location that was as easy as possible to reach for people coming from England and offered the widest choice of accommodation options so that those people didn't have to carry tents. People are even talking about the route in the context of "I'd like to take our English friends over this road", and the Scottish lads and lassies are re-riding the roads they've done a million times in order that their guests ride the best ones. SV Ecosse do have their own annual weekend away in Aviemore every year, but Aviemore has been deemed too far for people coming from England.

The event is and always has been a Scottish event for riders who live in England.