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The Scottish Borders boasts the best scenery anywhere in the country and the best roads for some great biking !
The Borders roads are excellent for touring bikes, nice steady pace to soak up the beautiful landscapes, or the plastic rockets to tackle some of the more challenging routes - namely the A708 Selkirk to Moffat road!
The A708 is my favourite road for biking, the road is not dangerous as some critics say, its the rider who makes it that way. The A708 will give you an amazing adrenelin rush that your looking for without screaming the t..ts, oops i mean without giving it constant "full pipe" on every straight or long sweeping corner.
I have a bonus over many riders who come far and wide into the Borders to tackle the famous A708, so what do i have over many riders ? Well, i live in Selkirk, right on the start of the road !
Over the years, long before speed cameras suddenly sprung out of nowhere, and where little amounts of unmarked police vehicles hunted you down, myself and a few other locals "played" on this road on our bikes such as Kawasaki ZZR1100, Kawasaki ZXR750, Suzuki GSXR-750, etc.. ! Now these beasties are not slow! The "straight" Just west of Yarrowford holds the local record - just under 150mph, the person who left lots of burning tread in their wake has long since gave up motorcycling, although its never completely out your blood.
If you do decide to blow the cobwebs out of your exhaust, nowadays you really do have to think ahead at all costs, many cyclists use this road, as well as pedestrians. Many fatals and casualties have accumulated over the last few years. Nearly all of those people are from other parts of the Country, speed is the main factor especially when negotiating a corner which is much sharper than you possibly think !
...... There are many other fantastic routes, from Moffat, over the Beef Tub onto the A702 to Peebles. Nice calm biking with spectacular views !
There are a good few many other roads in the area which are testing to say the least but these roads are more for locals as they are tucked away from trunk roads and other highlighted routes which are mentioned here or on motorcycling websites.........
......A few that have a good memory may remember back to 1990 - 1993 when a gentleman called Bob Crawley, from Kelso, organised motorcycling outings. A day run which covered approx 300 miles usually held on a Sunday plus a whole weekend away to Inverness. I went most of Bob's outings. To this day i still have the original route maps ! These were excellent days out with upto 80 bikes all in a convoy. We even got a police escort through Blackpool ! yeah groovy baby ! The weekend away over the Highlands was fantastic, that weekend will always remain one of my biking highlights. We stayed over in a hotel called the "Clansman" right on the shore of Loch Ness. If anyone here remembers going on that run please email your story for others to read as this subject is creating a lot of interest ! Did you ride any of Bob Crawley's day runs ? If so please email us! |
I would like to hear which you believe is the best road bike on the market and why ? Do you presently own the bike ?
Where is your favourite place to go for a bike run?
