I can’t recommend Shetland enough. It’s just magical. Of course I’m biased as it’s my ancestral home.
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Hi Mark,
I had a Tiger 885i prior to current ST955i and it was very comfortable to ride, in some ways it would have been better for the tour but what I’ve got now is working ok. When you are doing your tour bring a piece of wood to put under the side stand, I 've found that necessary in some of the parking spots, marine ply is good. Here’s a photo of the bike parked up for the ascent of GM/NS-089 yesterday. Last person to activate it was Andy MM0FMF. The views were spectacular and I didn’t get rained on this time.
Andy
MM7MOX
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It’s where I parked when I did it!
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Just slap a helmet with horns on his head - I rest my case 
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Here’s a picture of the ST parked up for the ascent of GM/NS-145 with Ben Loyal behind.
Probably the reason I couldn’t make any 2m/70cm qso’s to the south yesterday !
Andy
MM7MOX
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I parked there as well when I did Meall nan Clach Ruadha too! Good views from such a small summit ISTR.
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Well I’m now home from my GM/NS SOTA motorcycle tour.
Six days, six summits, 826 miles total and I now have the “John Wayne” walk !
Three days of outstanding weather, two windy days and one wet day, much better than I expected.
I got my first activation of summit GM/NS-126, which was the main point of the trip but GM/NS-089 turned out to be my favourite, mostly because I got to sit in shirtsleeves for 90 minutes at 590m ASL playing radio whilst looking at the Pentland Firth and the Moray Firth at the same time with Ben Hope and Ben Loyal in view as well.
One of my non-SOTA biking buddies joined me for a couple of days and he did part of the NC500 coastline while I played radio and we compared notes in the evenings. We then rode South together visiting friends on the way.
I have another trip planned with a larger group of biking buddies and hope to do some SOTA during that as well.
So all in all a very good tour.
Andy
MM7MOX
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My brother is running a motorcycle shop and every now and then I borrow one of his bikes for touring in the alps.Here is my ranking:
1.BMW 1250 GS: Very comfortable, super for long trips but a bit too heavy on very narrow steep roads.
2.Honda African Twin : Very versatile bike, enough power, comfortable and very good quality. My brother thinks Honda offers the best quality.
3.KTM Adventure1290R: Very powerful engine, a bit rough for my taste
73,Chris-OE5CSP
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If there’s any doubt about quality, check out this guy… he’s taking a trip from Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of Argentina) to Alaska on a Honda C90. In this video he shows how he reaches approximately 5000 meters above sea level.
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Hi Mark
thank you for interesting topic. Before I will reply with answer for your question I would like to introduce myself for this topic.
since 30 years I try to combine the radio with motorbike. And two hobbies are stil well mantained, and I hope will remain with me for long time.
In 1991 I obtained the driving “A” licence for motorbike and in 1992 passed ham exams, and SP9WZS callsing born 
in 1993 I connected motorbike with simply CB radio, and at this time I was ably to make radio contact during driving the motorcycle. ( I am / was technician of Radio and TV repair at this time as well)
on attached photo my motorcycle in 1993, during single trip from soud to nord part of Poland ( I was 19 years old)
before my next replay I would like to say , thank you for QSO 08/08/2022 M0NOM/P de SP9WZS/P 11:43 20 M CW
I saw your QRZ page, and a lot of things are similar to my page …brother 
73 de sp9wzs
robert
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I have an XT225 I’d love to use for radio but would be to worried it would get stolen whilst i was on the summit !
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Another SOTA outing by motorcycle today to Broad law GM/SS-029. But first a great run down the A701 in the sun to Tweedsmuir then up to the Megget stone and park for the walk up. Only 2m QSO’S today but one s2s to MW0PJE/P on GW/NW-042 at 276km was my furthest so far. Then a run home via the A708 past St Mary’s loch and the A703 from Peebles. A 90mile bike run and the joy of SOTA made a great day.
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Nice Andy! What kit were you using on 2m?
Last time we were down that way it was definitely Land Rover and not bike territory.
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Hi Fraser,
I was just using my FT818 feeding 5 watts into a home made flowerpot antenna. The VHF conditions are very strange at the moment, I was picking up Belfast coastguard on 156.8 MHz yesterday when out in the Forth. The HF conditions were not good today though.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Driving home from work on Friday, my Land Rover was picking up APRS beacons from Norway and my transmitted beacons were being received there. As for HF, I had good contacts on 17 metres the other day, so sometimes it is worth tuning around or putting out a speculative call.
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Wx above the North Sea hasn’t changed much since. If you ever fancied a VHF qso to LA or OZ, today’s activity night might be a good chance.
Ahoi
Pom
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I’d love to Pom. Work just keeps getting in the way!
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Don’t know how I missed this thread until now. I use my TW200 nearly every weekend to get to trailheads. Saves a lot of wear-and-tear on my truck. Here it is on a rare ‘ride-up’ summit in eastern WA.
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I’m off on another short SOTA/MC tour this weekend to Plockton. I’m hoping to do GM/WS-178, GM/SI-020 & GM/SI-023 while I’m there.
The pictures from there today looked fantastic.
Andy
MM7MOX
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If the weather holds, I’m going to hop on the ferry across to the Isle of Wight on my Honda CB500X and activate St. Boniface Down G/SE-008 and Brightstone Down G/SE-012:
Not sure whether I’ll AirBnB it over night or something, or just do it in a day (90 minutes from my front door to the ferry). That’ll dictate whether I ride with the kit in a rucksack on my back or whether I take the panniers.
I rode a 2014 R1200GS adventure for years, been all around Wales and Scotland, even to the Alps. They are the awesome machines, but pretty heavy and need to be ridden with confidence. You also need to have an inside leg of at least 30" to reach the floor (on tippy-toes 
) I changed to the CB500X for riding in central London. It’s a good bike, but I do miss the GS and I think it’s only a matter of time before I go back to one…
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