Distinguished Gentleman's Ride 2026
I've registered for this year's DGR ride in Glasgow. Unfortunately I missed last year's as the date was changed and I was away on holiday at the time. This year I should be using my 1972 Honda CL350, if not it will be the Triumph again.
I'll be leaving on Thursday for this year's Cropredy Convention.
Interesting lineup, some of whom I've seen before, and some 'new' acts I'm looking forward to seeing.
This year I'll be heading straight to the Convention then heading home afterwards, so as it's a particularly boring route I'll go in the car.
Weather for the weekend looks good with only a small chance of rain on Saturday (we'll see how that works out!)
Following on from my problems on the Retirement Trip, I've bought a new camera and a new phone, so I should have plenty of photos for you.
Left Limerick in (guess what?) light drizzle and made my way to the motorway. Since the first day of the trip where I used motorways to get from my house to Portsmouth, I had managed to avoid motorways and and travelled only on back roads. However, this was my last day and I wanted to get to the ferry terminal in Belfast in time to get the boat back to Scotland.
Not much to report about the trip, the road was fairly empty and free flowing until I got close to Dublin where it got a bit busier and was fairly stop/start getting onto the ring road. After that it quietened, and was very clear up until I got close to Belfast. At some point I crossed the border, but as it's not marked, I only realised when I saw a sign referring to the road as the A1 rather than the N1, and the town names were in English only.
I had booked onto the 19:30 sailing, but arrived at the ferry terminal at around 14:00 and managed to change my sailing to the one at 15:30. I rode out of the ferry terminal to fill up with petrol and returned to take my place in the queue to get on the boat. We were soon told to board the ferry and our bikes safely tied down for the two hour crossing.
The crossing was very smooth and is long enough for you to get a couple of cups of coffee, walk around the deck, and have a look at things in the shop. Eventually we were called down to the car deck, bikes unstrapped, and we waited for the doors to open.
However, a crew member told us all to make our way back up to the restaurant and await further instructions. When we got there the crew counted all of the passengers and informed us that a man had ended his life by jumping from the ship into the sea as the boat docked.
We had to wait as the emergency services retrieved the man from the sea, a helicopter took him away, and the Police interviewed witnesses to the incident. It was about two hours before we were allowed to leave and they informed us that we would disembark slowly as the Police wanted to question each passenger. Luckily, motorcyclists were allowed to leave the boat first, I was the third person off the bot, I was asked some questions by the Police and allowed to go on my way. The ride back from Cairnryan was uneventful, just taking place in varying levels of rain! Just after Ayr, when the rain was particularly heavy, my bike stuttered and cut out. It took me a few minutes to get it restarted and it ran OK all the way home. I assume this was caused by water getting into the electrics, possibly those that had loosened earlier in the trip, something I will look at later.
After about two and a half hours I made it back to my house. 38 days, 6 countries, 3 ferries, 6700 miles/10,800 km and a lot of memories. It was an amazing trip, visited lots of interesting places, rode on some amazing roads, and the bike (mostly) behaved itself. The Bonneville showed itself to be a very competent touring bike, and one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone.
I'll write an article soon about what I learned on the trip, what I would have done differently, etc, etc.
Went back into the city centre in the morning, but it rained fairly heavily so I made my way back to where I was staying and rearranged my luggage and had a sleep in the afternoon.
In the evening I made my way back to King John's Castle for the second concert I had come to see.
They put on a great concert and, despite the rain now and again, the crowd really enjoyed it.
Went back to my accommodation after the concert and got ready for heading back on the road tomorrow.
Had a day off the bike exploring Limerick. It's a very nice city with plenty to see and a friendly 'small town' atmosphere about it. The city centre is laid out in a grid so is very easy to navigate.
I visited two museums, Limerick Museum and The Hunt Museum, which gave a lot of information on the history of the city.
Limerick Museum is the plain fronted building, the building with the columns is a church.
There is also a small art gallery in a very pleasant park.
I visited King John's Castle and the interpretative centre has a very good display about its history.
Wandering around the city I saw statues commemorating actor Richard Harris,
television and radio presenter Terry Wogan,
and a sculpture commemorating the work of dockers at the city's quays.
I also saw this interesting entrance to an auctioneer's yard.
I posted this photo on Facebook and my friend Sean replied with a period newspaper cutting.
