John o,groats to lands end in one day

Talk about that last great ride or perhaps, the next one. Ride reports here.
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Robski1959
Lookin' Around
Lookin' Around
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Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2014 3:15 pm

A while back I had this strange idea,, why not I thought, it cant be that bad can it?
I prepared the xj ,everything that could go wrong I replaced or serviced and on the Friday morning I set off to my start point 400+ miles away ,it started raining as soon as I left home and didn't stop all the way up 3 stops for fuel and expensive costa coffee and I was at Dunnet Head, UK mainland most northerly point and where I was to spend that night.
Really nice people at the B+B nothing was too much trouble for them ,was intending to start at 4am but the rain carried on all night so after a good breakfast I took some photos fuelled up and set off down the A9 to Inverness, its a good fast road with stunning views over the coast and surprise surprise out came the sun, quick change into leathers and life was good...Inverness came in a flash 1 hour ahead of time ,fuel,quick coffee and gone ,still on the A9 but a very different road. I don't like filtering at the best of times, where has all this traffic come from that and the Scottish curse of average speed cameras for miles on end.
The mountains still had snow on them which was a surprise and riding conditions were good. By the time I got to Perth I was still ahead of time, more fuel and coffee saw me get to the outskirts of Glasgow and the motorway south this is where the averages really went up until a police car shadowed me for 30 miles.
4pm and I crossed into England down through the Lake District, more fuel and coffee and Lancashire was misty and damp ,signs for Birmingham appeared along with motorway disruption signs so it was A roads to avoid any holdups.
I took the M5 to head southwest and stopped at frankley services because I realised I hadn't eaten all day, shouldn't have bothered, surly staff and nasty food didn't make it at all nice.
Down through Somerset at speed I was thinking this long distance stuff could get addictive I had to stop for fuel at Exeter and got talking to the fuel attendant who reckoned I was a loony for doing it {he was a biker too]..A30 southwest is all fast dual carriageway over a very wet and windy Bodmin Moor only 60 miles to go .
Lands End signs appeared and the fiddly B road network that gets you there, at this point I backed off too many animals to hit at night with disasterous consequences, I rolled in to the car park, photos , and time verification....I slept for a few hours in the rain on a bench.
Things I learnt on this ride.
1..nothing is waterproof
2..dont attempt this on a sportsbike
3. 99% of the population are nice people
4...the other 1% can ruin your day
5... having cameras mounted visibly front and rear and nobody gives you trouble
6...xj600s were made for this job
7...I spent £42 on coffee,,,,cut down on the coffee

875 miles in just over 16 hours riding time and the xj returned 62 mpg...four corners next I think,and if I could only figure out how to attach photos to this post .

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