Aye, Bathgate to be exact.
I escaped in 1988. Used to be the manager of the Bathgate Palais, if that rings a bell.
Best mate was a guy called Greg Boni, of Boni's Ice Cream Shop fame.
We both had Suzuki SP370s and rode a lot in the Highlands when it was (more or less!) okay to do so.
We hung about in Jim Allen's Bike shop (Vic Allan's brother.)
Weekends were in the Bathgate hills on a vast piece of land that the local farmer allowed us to use. Great fun.
The laws in Spain are totally different as the hills, although mostly in private ownership, are pretty much open to all. The Guardia Civil have KTMs and little BMWs and they used to carry a rifle in a holster running down the front forks. Wish they still had - maybe they could pick off those b******* quads at 1000 paces!
What's really good here is that because the land is pretty accessible but CAN be closed, the bikers are very careful not to upset landowners and work with them to an extent to protect the land.
We fit eco-friendly tyres in order not to rip up the goat tracks that we follow.
Plus ALL Spanish kids grow up on bikes as they can get a moped/50cc scooter at age 14. You can't sit a car test here till 18, so Spanish drivers have virtually all rode bikes, although not all have ridden big bikes.
Trials scene in Spain is big - about the same as the UK, but the Enduro scene is much bigger, due to access to land. Plus there are a lot of tracks that are actually unmetalled public roads, so high speed practice is easy.
Sports biking is huge here too, with local lad Jorge Lorenzo breathing hard up Rossi's tailpipe.
Anyway Big John, thanks for the help. Based on what you and the guys have said, we're having a rethink on which bikes to bring. (We're vanning up the road.) We might bring the BMW 1100S and a Triumph Scrambler 900 so we can get a wee bit of touring in too.
Adios the noo!
Norman.
