Quad Day out Blaney 50 Ram 100 KLF 300 QuadZilla 100
After 2 weeks of planning and preparation the day was upon us,
“The Quad Day Out“
We had four quads with us on the day, these are listed below,
The plan was simple head up the hills & follow the old Greenock line of Roman wells and see if we could make it to a old cart trail which carries over the Greenock hills to a set of little old farmhouse’s just next to the Gryffe Reservoir, which is were my bro Marty, myself along with and a few friends would spend the autumn, winter months playing hooky from school.
On this day we would see how far these little babies could take us, We knew from the start that it was going to be a challenge just to get to the first Roman well.
The Quads
Shug: Ram 100 – (first from left)
Marty G: Blaney 50
Marty W: QuadZilla 100
Paddy: KLF 300
The Route – 3d Video walk through below
- Paddy meets Marty W: bike track from Port Glasgow to Greenock.
- Paddy & Marty W meet Shug & Marty G old field at Greenock East.
- #1 Off Road – Make our way to the start point of our Trip.
- #2 Get across the burn @ Whinhill Golf Club.
- #3 Smoke Time at the Gravel pit.
- #4 First Gate: get the gate open (which we though was locked ).
- #5 View point: looking over Greenock “Time to fix paddy’s Carb”.
- #6 Get total off-road no tracks, time to push it…
- #7 First Roman Well, just an Amazing view over the river Clyde.
- #8 Try make it over the Gap, head up the hill to the 2nd Gate.
- #9 Second Gate – The old dirt track to the farmhouse.
- #10 Big Cow: The biggest Highland Toffee Cow ive ever seen.
- #11 The Third Roman Well – Again just a massive metal lid on top.
- #12 The First Old Farm house – Good memories there.
- #13 Fourth Roman Well – Covered over now!
- #14 We Get to the Second old Farm house and the end of the journey
- #15 Check out the video – heading back to the first Old Farm house.
Beginning the Journey
The start of the day, Marty W had been busy preparing him self getting ready for that day, not by getting boots, water proofs or anything ready, Nope, he was in the kitchen cooking up a batch of his favorite Scottish stovies for later, only because every thing’s been ready for week’s, just waiting with excitement!
after which he headed to the garage get the quadZilla 100 ready to go, muchines & juice in his toolbox , secured on the back of the quad on his new rack he was ready, (little did he know that 1/4 way into the trip on some heavy terrain, the weight of the gear would inevitably bend his rack and in turn snap his frame)Paddy on the other Hand was in the process of getting himself & the KLF 300 monster quad kitted out just about ready to go, with some fuel issues he decided to head off, taking the trip from the top of Port Glasgow along the bike track to meet up with an over excited Marty buzzing about waiting with anticipation,
Around 11am that morning Paddy & Marty W meet up with Shug and Marty G in Greenock at the end of the bike trail, across in the big field, from there everyone, (all had a smile from ear to ear) headed to our First check point on our Quad day out, have a look at our video with a full run down below of the each stage of Trip along with a full Gallery of all the pictures we took that day (minus the ones from Shugs camera which he lost, did i mention that before? !!!MARTY FOUND IT – 4 days later)
Trip Run Through
#1 Off Road – Make our way to the start point of our Trip
The Starting Point of the trip was to get all the Quads to the point were its off-road, without the use of any trailers and having to cross a few roads to get there, Our route was to make it to the top of Strone farm, there is a cut off which will lead up the hill to the Whinhill Golf club, and what is known as the (beez-dam) beathdam.
#2 Get across the burn @ Whinhill Golf Club
This crossing wouldn’t be so bad if the water, that hardly ever runs down it, just so happens to be doing so that day, and 50cc quad that im on just didn’t have the height so I got wet, apart from that im sure most will find it easy enough, and for any others if you continue up the right side of the water there is a small bridge also a ramp down for 4×4′s etc, but if the waters running hard then don’t expect to cross there.
#3 Smoke Time at the Gravel pit
After making it across the burn, theres a few mounds of gravel etc this makes for a nice stop along the way to test out the quads aerodynamics & sturdiness, after a smoke and some juice it was on to the first gate.
#4 First Gate: get the gate open (which we though was locked )
Driving around the dam is just amazing view looking down over the river Clyde, once you get to the first gate (which we though would have been locked) through the gate “REMEMBERING TO CLOSE IT” onwards towards the Waterhouse.
#5 View point: looking over Greenock “Time to fix paddy’s Carb”
At this stage paddy’s KLF started to die on him again as a result of a fuel problem, so the toolbox was whipped off and they set about taking off the carb, giving it a clean out and having a look around the hoses to make sure they wer’t bent or anything, after getting it sorted (which the fuel cap wasn’t letting in any air)
#6 Get total off-road no tracks, time to push it
At this point we knew it was going to be tough, with lots of rough we knew it was going to be a uphill struggle, (boom boom) once you find your line, basically try keep the power on lean back, ride the rough and you’ll get there, (well thats what I kept telling myself)
#7 First Roman Well, just an Amazing view over the river Clyde
Once you get to the first Roman well you cant imagine the view your get, just amazing, even though the well was covered over with large metal plates,
we just couldn’t resist trying to pop a stone under the cover, just to test the depth of this thing, it was when we were growing up we would visit this well, which at that time was a large round wall, about 7 or 8 feet height, scalable for a 13 year old in seconds, we would do the same drop a stone see how long it would take, and it take a long time!!
#8 Try make it over the Gap, head up the hill to the 2nd Gate
Again this Gap isn’t that much different from the first one at the Dam, although this time there is rough track to get down to it, and a shallow stream to cross its the getting up the other side thats more of a problem, best thing to do was get your line and hammer it down#9 Second Gate – The old dirt track to the farmhouse
just before we got to the gap, Marty W decided to brake his throttle cable, and got stuck in a ditch, after paddy tried to tow him out (Marty just got a Face full of crap from paddy’s wheels) we eventually got it on level ground (kind of) he started to rip of his throttle, then had a brain wave to use his 2 stroke cable as a throttle, but only one problem the cable was too small, solution: take off the throttle from the right side of the quad and turn it upside down and stick it back on the left, leaving no brakes, and a nightmare of a journey for Marty, but turned out not to be that bad a ride, once he got used to it…
Once we got to this gate, that was us at the easy part, this old track has been here for decades, leading over the hill from the old farm houses over looking the Gryfe, im prity sure its an old horse track, that would be used to get to the main town of Greenock, if anyone has other ideas let me know!!! on the track the quad felt at home, hammering down the icy dirt track full rev was just amazing,
#10 Big Cow: The biggest Highland Toffee Cow ive ever seen
I just had to include this, not just to have a pin on the map, but on the way back we came across the biggest Highland toffee cow ive ever seen, if Shug didn’t lose the camera there would be a great picture of it here.
#11 The Third Roman Well – Again just a massive metal lid on top
The 3rd Roman well was a welcome sight as you’re hammering it around the corner after a nice shicain through a massive patch of icy water, you would have seen it coming round but not anymore, like the others its been turned into a large metal sheet.
#12 The First Old Farm house – Good memories there
Riding down the old farm horse trail I got a flash from my child hood climbing the tress and playing in the clapped out banger, which is currently crushed under one of the outer walls of what would have been one of the farmers sheds,
The main grounds are still there, you can make out the various rooms which would have once stood in its place,
the old sheds were we would build our gang huts with cozy fireplaces, which would keep us warm on those crazy, metal snow filled days trekking over the hills, all because we didn’t want to go to school.
#13 Fourth Roman Well – Covered over now!
Connecting the old horse trail to the next farm house is a small ride round, passing through what was the muddiest part of the trip, the next roman well can be seen down to the left of the track, but again this has been covered over, so on through the next gate to the second old farm house.
#14 We Get to the Second old Farm house and the end of the journey
The second old farm house is much the same pile of rubble as the first, but still prity noticeable on the landscape, lots of old farming equipment is spew’d all around this small area of land which is poised right on the bridge of the hill over looking south down to the Gryfe reservoir.
From here we headed back up to the first farm house, and proceeding to head back the way we came up, trying to get the lines down hill which was used when going up… this became a hard thing to do, with so many bumps on the way down it was a rough ride.
#15 Check out the video – heading back to the first Old Farm house
This video clip is right at the end of our main video above, Video Created with:
- Maps: Visual Earth
- Edit: Windows movie maker
- Music: Comfortably Numb: “Pink Floyd”
This day out was one of the best on record so far… fell free to leave your comments and thoughts, I hope to be doing this again real soon, big thanks to all the guys, Shug for given me a shot of the Blaney, Marty for making me laugh so much, paddy for riding large and not running me over when he pass’s…
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Tags: blaney 50, greenock, gryfe reservoir, klf300, n95, Quad, quadzilla, ram 100, Video
This was one of the best days ever..
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