Four members of the XYZ team, along with a couple of family and friends, recently rode the iconic North Coast 500 in Scotland. Martyn Jones, Patrick O’Connor, Julian Stacey, Mike Corbett along with Gary Jones and Ross Baillie started the epic trip by meeting up at the XYZ Showroom at Livingston on the Wednesday evening.
Arriving ready for the epic trip.
The shot they all want – John O’Groats
Setting off from the showroom early doors on Thursday morning, the riders on various types of motorcycles, trekked across towards the west coast travelling through Glen Coe, stopping off at the Commando Memorial near Spean Bridge and late in the afternoon riding the famous Applecross pass and ending up in Applecross itself.
All packed and ready to go.
An early start on Friday morning enabled the group to enjoy the fantastic roads and scenery of the west coast, before many of the camper vans had risen and took to the roads. Every crest and bend in the road gave riders more and more breath-taking views and highlights as they worked their way up through Gairloch, stopping for lunch in Ullapool and finishing the day at Kinlochbervie for another well-earned rest.
Starting the run through Glen Coe.
Day 3 started cloudy and with no lie-in in sight, the journey across the top edge of Scotland began. Snaking along the coastline taking in lunch at Thurso, stopping off at Dunnett Head, the most northly point of the mainland, taking in the photo opportunity at the John O’Groats signpost before heading back down the glorious A9, which although not as scenic as the day before, was a joy to ride before ending up at Inverness for the night.
Friday mornings scenic ride.
The final day saw the team spilt up for the last leg, as 4 members had to be back home in the Midlands by Sunday evening, and the 2 southern based lads had the extra day to get home. The group of 4 headed to see Loch Ness (no monster was spotted unfortunately) before taking the A9 back down to the Livingston showroom, and the 2-man team rode down the other side of Nessie country before heading back through Glen Coe, and then alongside Loch Lomond before returning to the showroom on Houstoun Industrial Estate in Livingston.
The spectacular Kylesku Bridge was visited on Friday afternoon.
By the time the riders had arrived back to the showroom base, it had in fact turned into the North Coast 860. A fair mileage covered over 4 days but well worth the effort for the scenery, enjoyable riding and the team building that occurred over the time.