Preface
Due to the questionable reliability of Canadian military transport aircraft my good friend, and best man at my own wedding, managed to convince a nice Scottish lass to marry him. They were nice enough to fly across the Atlantic to come to my wedding, so we had to return the favour. It’s the Canadian thing to do.
If we were going all that way to Scotland, we figured we might as well make a trip out of it. Myself never having been outside of North America, this was going to be quite the adventure. Scotland being well known for it’s incredible scenery and terrain, combined with our love for all things motorcycling, it was an easy decision to do a motorcycle tour of the country.
Having 9 days to travel (including flights) we set aside 5 days for the motorcycle tour, leaving the rest for the wedding and general sightseeing around Glasgow. Doing my research on routes to take and things to see I came across the ever popular North Coast 500 route around the northern coast of Scotland. 516 miles of scenic twisting roads following the coastline all the way around the northern part of the country.
As none of our current fleet of bikes are road legal, we were going to rent, or hire, motorcycle in Scotland. There were plenty of options available and we settled on renting two bikes, his and hers, from Cupar Motorcycles in Cupar. They offered brand new bikes, discounted rates when booking multiple days, 24/7 roadside assistance, and would even pick us up from the rail station upon our arrival. Amazon would be on a new Suzuki SV650 while I would be on the venerable Suzuki V-Strom 650.
With the wedding being in Glasgow, but the bikes being in Cupar, we managed to find a flight going into Edinburgh leaving Toronto on Friday evening, and leaving from Glasgow back to Toronto the following Sunday morning.
Day 0/1
We were up at 7am to get our bags loaded, and unfortunately, go to work before flying our Friday evening. We would be leaving in the evening so that we would arrive in Edinburgh, with the time zone changes, Saturday morning at 6:30am. This would give us time to clear the airport, grab the train to Cupar, and get a bite to eat in time for the dealership to open and be on the road early with the full day ahead of us.
The plan for Day 1 once we got the bikes was to head from Cupar to Glencoe, Fort William, see the Glenfinnan Viaduct, and end the day at a B&B near Dornie. I had left Loch Lomond as an option depending on what time we got the bikes and headed out.
Our trusty stead from YYZ → EDI.
A few in flight movies later, and we made it!
Waiting for the train from Edinburgh to Cupar.
The views from the train between Edinburgh and Cupar.
Arriving in Cupar
Cool little Coffee shop/truck at Cupar station. Super nice bloke running it. Talked to him while we waited to get picked up by the dealership. He was stoked on our trip and had done some of the North Coast before and also been to Alberta with some friends.
Arrived at the dealer to grab our bikes. You can see the Strom and SV we hired in the front of the shop. Another great bunch of blokes there. Threw in the top box for the V-Strom for free (supposed to be £5 a day extra).
The route for Day 1
On the bikes and on our way to Loch Lomond.
Stirling Castle
Loch Lomond. We got the bikes early enough I decided to add it to the route. Honestly not much to see and would have skipped it if doing it over again.
On the A82 north of Tyndrum
On the A82 northwest of Loch Ba
Although not my photo I have included this photo of the Three Sisters in Glencoe. One of the most beautiful areas we went through on the entire trip.However, because of that, and being fairly south it is absolutely rammed with tourists and I didn’t feel like stopping in the melee to take photos.