Mike

One Tuesday afternoon, I was standing on the dealership floor of Ducati Glasgow, chatting to Raymond, one of the salesmen. Andrew, the General Manager strode over to me and asked me a question. “What are you doing for the rest of the week?”.
Andrew explained that the “”Multistrada Rally 60.000 km European Tour”” bike was about to be dropped off at the dealership by Luckasz and his partner. The next rider had experienced a change of circumstances, and the bike was available to ride for the next week.
I own a Multistrada Rally and therefore I am very familiar with the bike, having ridden 6.500 km on it since September 2023. The Rally is such a capable machine- able to cope with anything a rider can throw at it.
I said ‘yes’ to riding the next leg of the Tour. I spent the evening making a route plan and loaded the bike up for an early start. I was keen to try and ride 2.000 KM, but I only had 3 days available to me before needing to return home.
At 5am on Wednesday morning, I set off for 200km out towards Stirling (stopping at the castle for a photo) and then around the Trossachs, before turning east to Pitlochry in Perthshire and then on to Dundee. My target was the Ducati Dundee dealership in time for their 08.30 opening time.
At the dealership I was greeted by Stuart, Andy and Hal who made me a coffee and put the bike on the workshop ramp to check the tyre pressures, chain lubrication, and fluid levels.
I set off from Dundee and headed north along the east coast route to Aberdeenshire, before turning northwest to Inverness. From there I headed north to John O’Groats, Scotland’s most northerly village.
The weather was atrocious! Heavy rain for 5 hours. I was wearing a two-piece Ducati textile suit that kept me almost completely dry. Thank goodness for heated grips and a heated seat!
Having bought a souvenir sticker for the top box and a quick photo, I headed west along the north coast to the village of Tongue, where I turned southeast, back to Inverness along gloriously desolate roads.
My stopping point for the evening was a hotel in Inverness where I was glad to dry out. I covered 930KM on Day 1. I was quite tired! The bike had performed flawlessly, and it makes long miles relatively easy.
The plan for Thursday morning was to ride south along the A9, stopping off at various interesting places such as Aviemore, Dalwhinnie whisky distillery and Pitlochry. From Perth, I continued south to Edinburgh and stopped to get a photo of the bike at the Forth Railway Bridge in South Queensferry. Picking up the Edinburgh bypass, I headed further south to Jedbugh in the Scottish Borders, before crossing the border into England.
The roads in the Borders are fast, sweeping and largely free of traffic. Perfect biking country! The border crossing on the A68 is at Carter Bar (480m).
I headed further south to Hexham in Northumberland, crossing more very remote but stunningly beautiful countryside on empty roads. I picked up the ‘North Road’ travelling west which follows very close to the length of the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s Wall. This felt very appropriate to be travelling along the most northerly point of the ‘Italian’ border in the UK. I stopped at various sites of Roman Forts and villages for photos.
I then turned south at Hayden Bridge and headed towards to Barnard Castle and then on to Pocklington, just east of York. In all 720KM on Day 2.
My third day of riding would take me southeast through Lincolnshire to Skegness, or ‘Skegness-Vegas’ as they call it locally. After a couple of photographs, I set off for Peterborough. Originally, I had planned first a longer ride to Crome, before heading back to Silverstone, however, my mobile phone stopped accepting a charge and therefore my SatNav suddenly had a limited timeline.
I briefly considered buying a paper map and taping it ‘old skool’ to the fuel tank but given that I had to ride home north, back to Scotland, by the end of the day, I decided to ride to Northampton, Towcester, then back to Ducati UK at Silverstone.
In total, a very enjoyable 2,002km over 3 days on the most capable touring motorcycle.