Clyde Valley HOG 9894

It’s August and it must be Thunder In The Glens, the biggest Harley rally in the UK hosted in Aviemore by our friends from across east, Dunedin HOG.

The Chapter had two official ride-outs to TiTG, on Friday the members who were going to the rally for the entire event, rode up with Jigger as Road Captain, Connor and Davie (accompanied by his co-pilot Cath) marshaling, and Tommy (with co-pilot Joanne) as sweeper.

The forecast was supposed to be a little moist but clearing to a nice day as we headed north. In general this was the situation though you would have to say it was a bit more than “moist” as we finally left WCHD a little later than scheduled….Aidan!

Heading through Glasgow and up the M80 we stopped at Stirling Services as we were conscious of at least one ’48 Sportster in the pack with a peanut tank. Then it was onwards to Pitlochry for a lunch break, and the weather finally began to clear.

Most of the riders dispensed of the watties at this point as it was getting dare I say “hot” and looked set fair for the rest of the day.

On again, and then we run into bother with a serious RTA on the dual carriageway section of the A9. The chapter were rerouted by Police and Roads Agency people onto the back road via Dalwhinnie, Crubenmore along General Wades Road and back onto the A9 South of Newtonmore…. while it sounds easy enough it was carnage! There were the two directions of traffic from the A9 on a Bank Holiday Weekend trying to squeeze up what is in effect a near single-track road, with several coaches, and smaller lorries to squeeze by. Even on a motorbike at times it was tight. It took ages.

We also had a small breakdown event with one of the bikes which meant Tommy and his partner Joanne were left behind to help Kenny and Shas with the bizarre non-starting Harley….that suddenly fired up of its own accord after 10 minutes of poking…..clearly a software glitch brought on by a rapid off/on as Kenny stopped to talk to Jigger the Head Road Captain. Kenny was able to filter through like the rest of the Chapter though quite a bit behind but poor old Tommy on his Tri-glide had to negotiate the ques on three wheels which would have been a pain for him.

…and did we say it was now quite warm and sunny….. well, it was right up until about 10 miles outside Aviemore. The majority of the Chapter got to Registration just in time, Kenny and Tommy alas were not to be so lucky. A huge black thundercloud formed over the town…and dumped its contents for a good hour as the stragglers travelled the last 10 miles……soaked doesn’t even come close.

But everyone arrived safe and once dried off it was time for the party to begin… the main street of Aviemore was bouncing on each night of the rally which was blessed by what can only be regarded as stunning weather. The ride out to Grantown on Spey was epic with a huge turn out of bikes- we have heard numbers from 1000-3000 bikes quoted.

The chapter also had a ride out to TiTG from WCHD on the Saturday for those members that could not attend the full event.

The whole weekend was brilliant, great weather, meeting friends old and new, great entertainment both inside and around the main rally and everyone had a great time. Well done Dunedin …until next year….