Dunedin – Clyde Valley HOG 9894

Presenting the cheque to Prostate Scotland

Charitable Doings

14/07/2025

Meet the Chapter Night

On Wednesday we had our monthly “Meet the Chapter night” at West Coast HD. It was a bit of a special occasion this one, with a good turnout of members as we had a wee presentation of the sum of £3000 to Prostate Scotland.

The money was collected from donations and fundraising activities at this year’s Gathering and rounded up from chapter charity funds to the final total.

After a wee talk of the activities of the charity the presentation of the cheque was made by our standing down Director Stevie Trainor.

LOH with the Chapter flag — The ladies in attendance

A wee talk at WCHD — The ladies in attendance

Get tested boys!

Dunbar RNLI Gala Day

Moving on to Saturday and we had our annual outing supporting our friends at Dunedin HOG who participate in the RNLI Gala Day procession at Dunbar. Could we have had a better day for it? Doubtful. The bulk of the Clyde Valley bikes rode to Hermiston Gait on the west edge of Edinburgh where we met up with more CVH and Dunedin riders and we rode as a group to Dunbar in blistering sunshine.

Bikes at Hermiston Gait — Brian Donaldson arriving at HG

There were I beleive 49 bikes in total and we joined the procession through the town and parked up along the harbour wall.

This looked like the biggest gala Day at Dunbar so far, with lots of stands and activities taking place. It was thankfully a little cooler at the harbour with the sea breezes. The ride back across East Lothian and beyond was done in continental heat with the air warm and the heat radiating off the road. A brilliant day out.

EHD Ride Out for MacMillan Coffee Morning

03/10/2023

On Saturday we took a ride east to see our friends at Dunedin HOG who, in conjunction with Edinburgh Harley Davidson were running a Coffee Morning in aid of MacMillan Cancer support.

We took a route that after negotiating the M8 through Glasgow headed along less busy roads through North Lanarkshire and into West Lothian.

It has to be said though that just getting to WCHD on Saturday ended up a bit of a Red Light Nightmare for your hapless correspondent when he admitted he had to ride like a bit of an ar**hole to get to WCHD in time despite leaving pretty early. Burnsy let it be known to all that would listen (fortunately no one does :-)) that he reckoned I always ride like an **sehole.

Team support in the Road Crew is strong even from the latest Paddawan. 🙂

“You ai-ways ride like an a*r*hole”….Louise at least thought it was funny… me? I’m taking legal advice…

So after the usual taking of pictures..

sniffing of fingers….where had that been?

and donning of lids…we headed east in search of sunshine, dry roads and cake.

…we were off….

But not for long as Frazer had an impromptu breakdown at the entry to the Anderston tunnel and had to be assisted by Road Crew Tail gunner Fitzy on his Rubber Johnny. ( it was always bound to happen with that name, wasn’t it?… juvenile but might as well get it out there now… over and done with say I. It even had the missing 5 gears that went astray a few weeks back…Hurray for gears!!

Fast (Rubber) Johnny) — Fast Johnny- six speed!

There were a few missed and tricky drop-offs and traffic split us up a few times but in the end we all made it to EHD safely under the lead of Connor who was today’s Road Captain and we arrived in time for Hot Dogs, Cake and laughs. Even Frazer got his Fat Bob going and Fitzy showed how fast Johnny can be when he is playing catch up; and we all arrived together.

We also met friends from Geordie Chapter who had made the longer journey up the east coast from Newcastle to support Dunedin.

After all the shennanigans what was the final outflow of todays events. Well a grand total of £2000 was raised for MacMillan for which everyone involved can be proud of their contribution. WELL DONE Dunedin and EHD….WELL DONE ALL!

MacMillan Coffee Morning — Flickr Photo Album from Saturday at EHD

Clyde Valley HOG do Thunder 2023. Probably

01/09/2023

2023 was the 25th running of Thunder in the Glens and it would be rude for CVH not to be there. A sizable contingent of Clyde Valley began making their way to Aviemore on Thursday but we still had a good-sized group riding up on the Chapter ride to Thunder from West Coast HD.

Led by Jigger around 17 bikes left WCHD at 11:30 in what were pretty changeable conditions. It actually started quite dry, but was mostly wet with torrential rain around the Stepps bypass heading out on the M80 and, as ever past …what’s it called?…. Cumbernauld.

Cumbernauld folk have evolved to have webbed feet and lay their eggs in puddles and ponds each spring. Probably.

Cumbernauld. The wettest place on earth. Probably

The group arrived safely at Stirling where we picked up around another 10 or so bikes for the next leg up to Pitlochry. This also provided an opportunity for one rider to lose their keys down the leg of their knickers.

Probably.

As always the sun was shining as we parked up at the Blair Atholl Distillery and grabbed a sandwich. Davie Fulton had nipped down from Thunder to meet us and join us for the ride back up. (maybe not the best move as the weather got progressively worse over the last 50 miles of the trip- but he don’t care… Probably).

Suitably checked in at Thunder we met up at the Winking Owl…supposedly for a photo but the weather (utterly persisting down) and later arrival of some meant others had drifted away and that kind of never happened. There were smurfs though.

After a wet Friday night it was pretty much raining stair rods again most of Saturday for the mass ride out to Grantown on Spey via Lochindorb. If you had done it before, in the conditions, many would have went….”nah, not this time”, but if you have never done the ride out then it was a case of why let rain spoil the fun. Around 900-1000 riders were of the latter view and it made for a spectacular sight leaving Aviemore. Quite a few CVH members joined the ride joined by some who rode up for the day as well. Then there was the Ladies of Harley event…staying classy as we knew you would . Probably.

Can you hear it?… Dunedin road crew leading off.

As usual, there was plenty of entertainment both official and unofficial in the various venues that line the Aviemore “strip”.

Sunday started a bit more variable with showery conditions which did initially worsen but then by early afternoon it was actually quite bright and dare I say, sunny. The Sunday ride out to Cairngorm while a smaller affair than Saturday’s ride, was actually very well attended, I am tempted to suggest there were more bikes this year than last year, and someone needs to explain to me the bone-dry couple of miles at the head of Loch Morlich heading up to the hill ( which was merely moist as well). It got wetter the closer to Aviemore High Street you went ( official: scientifically proven study conducted by me) until early afternoon when it all cleared up.

Sunday night had some great entertainment with top British Rock band Massive Wagons leading the way, followed by the rally finale led by the Rick Parfitt Junior Band singing all the usual covers and getting the audience involved.

A final post script: Clyde Valley HOG wish to convey our best wishes to Dunedin Chapter Director Stewart Willox and his partner Kerry who were involved in a rather nasty RTA on the Flying Fortress on Monday while heading to Grantown to get fuel. Apparently, the car driver that hit them pulling out of a junction didn’t see them… how can you miss seeing a huge Harley painted like an American flag on a highland road….? Speedy recovery to you both!

Our best wishes and thoughts go to Stewart and Kerry.

….Until next year…

Sun, Salt and Soup

28/01/2023

The winter riders before leaving Showcase

Clyde Valley Members were kindly invited to drop in on our Brothers and Sisters of Dunedin having one of their famous, Saddle Up Saturdays and a “Mates Ride*” posse of 8 members turned up at the Showcase Leisure Park to make the ride through to EHD.

It was a bright sunny day and after a wee touch of frost around dawn the roads, particularly the M8, had been pretty heavily salted but our intrepid riders and one pillion rode off into the low sunshine making fast progress arriving at EHD just after midday.

We were all made very welcome by our friends, and there were pies, hot coffee, and soup to warm anyone up who had felt the chill on the ride through, though to be fair, the pace was enough to keep you warm led by Head Road Captain Jigger.

Most of the riders were rather salt coated by the arrival at Sighthill in Edinburgh, I think while we were well aware it was salty, but the actual quantity of salt encrusting all the bikes and clothing surprised us all!

If you were dressed for the conditions it was actually a lovely day for a run and all enjoyed blowing off the January cobwebs….though all would be heading home to wash down the bikes before putting them back into mid-winter hibernation. Hopefully not too long before another impromptu run and the new season won’t be long now in getting kicked off. Have you checked out our events calendar which has been fully updated with the riding itinerary for 2023? You can see Shop ride-outs and Chapter Monthly Ride-outs on dedicated pages too if you want.

Seans very very cool custom Breakout was getting salty today.

*A mates ride is not an official Chapter Ride Out and members attend as riding mates without the organised structure of a HOG ride.

South Queensferry Ride Out ’22

10/09/2022

A gloriously sunny, dry day and a good turnout of chapter members headed a back roads route through North Lanarkshire and West Lothian arriving at our main destination of the day at the Bikers Cove, South Queensferry.

Video by Raymond Brodie

Did anyone notice? Jigger took a wrong turning 🙂

After a stop by the wonder of the world that is the Forth Bridge, we upped stands and headed to the west side of the fair city of Edinburgh to drop into our HOG Brothers and Sisters of Dunedin Chapter at Edinburgh Harley Davidson.

We were made very welcome as ever and after a blether and a brew we dispersed back home.

A lovely late summer’s day with sunny warm weather, loud bikes and good company.

South Queensferry Ride Out September 2022 — View the images from the ride out to South Queensferry on Flickr

Clyde Valley Does Thunder In The Glens ’22

01/09/2022

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.

You can see more of the weekend on this video

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….

Thunder in the Glens 22 — Thunder In The Glens Album 2022

Thunder in the Glens 2022 Ride Out — Various Smartphone shots and video grabs from TiTG 2022

Dunbar RNLI Day Ride Out ’22 with Dunedin HOG

16/07/2022

Riders from Dunedin and Clyde Valley Chapters

Clyde Valley joined up with our Brothers and Sisters at Edinburgh H-D after a ride through from West Coast H-D to attend the Dunbar RNLI Gala day.

It is fair to say there were probably more Clyde Valley bikes and riders than Dunedin as they had an alternate event also happening on the day that took many of their bikes elsewhere.

After a stop at E H-D and a briefing on the plan,a good-sized contingent of HOG riders headed around the Edinburgh City Bypass and onwards to Dunbar via the A1. We stopped at a holding area by Asda where a group of the local Dunedin members were waiting and our final numbers were complete.

All the bikes gathered up for the parade

After a short interlude to enjoy the sunny weather, we were moved into the edge of town to a further holding area before joining the parade through the street, making that Harley Symphony we all know and love.

It was Ice Cream, Chips and enjoy the festivities before we all made our separate ways back home.A great turnout for a popular charitable cause by Clyde Valley HOG.