IOM March 2014

 

I'm not a man of many words but I totally enjoyed IOM, hotel and food was fab, riding was a bit technical in places, hopefully I'll try again later in year,Thanks again for well organising the trip. Regards Jon Stuart

 

IOM with Adventure Trail Riding, a great experience, nice people, lovely countryside and great leaders. They pushed me to the next level (and I did Off-road experience). I didn't think it was possible.I had a great time at the IOM. Thanks to Mark Kinnard and his team. Daniel Köhler

 

Hi Mark,Had a great time on the IOM trip. Wish I could book for the next one but I'm starting a new job and got zero holidays left. Although... The Rhaydar trip might be a possibility! Phil Lambert

 

Cheers we had a great time in a great place with great people. Thank you Mark. Mark Stanley

 

Just a few lines which will hopefully will be of some help.Logistics – well planned and communication was good. It was clear that somebody had put a lot of time and effort into getting it all organised.Quality of accommodation, food, etc – very good – better than I expected.Choice of location Isle of Man – really nice place with locals who understand that motorbikes = incoming revenue. Great for a weekend. Also good if the lads wanted to do something different in the evening (which some of them probably did!) There also appeared to be a wide variety of lanes of various degrees of difficulty.Routes – you already know that they were too difficult for most of the big bikes. Some people get satisfaction of taking on something that looks impossible and giving it a bash. My problem is that I do that at work and when paying to be away I want to enjoy myself. My expectation was for lanes more suitable for big bikes and only because most people on GS’s don’t particularly want to damage them and very rarely actually take them off road I assumed they would be suitable for my own low level of ability. My tyres contributed to my downfall (literally) and were my own fault – a false economy. However we had exchanged mails on the subject of tyres and I now realise that when I asked if “dual sport” tyres were going to be ok you probably thought they were knobbly TCK’s. Ho hum…. Thanks for sorting out the weekend and for keeping your sense of humour intact over the whole weekend. I imagine it was a bit testing at times but you know that most customers are a pain in the backside most of the time!Cheers. David Mathers

 

Thanks for that, and for giving me the opportunity to give some feedback as you request.Can’t give you any warts, cos there weren’t any. Unless of course, you were responsible for the hail stones on Saturday morning.My group, led by Danny, did some varied stuff, some of which was beyond my perceived ability. Both Danny, and Chris Dellow at the back, did everything over and above the call of duty to facilitate my difficulties, with a mixture of encouragement, tips and diversions, including one example of taking my bike through a difficult uphill section (or was that a case of Danny just not wanting to walk back up the hill ?). They even arranged for Mark Bradford in the other group to chaperone me out of Ramsey up to the Gooseneck.Brilliant.The trip was organised to perfection without taking the whole thing too seriously. I still can’t believe you do such bloody daft things on the big adventure bikes though.Well done Mark and a big thank you.To Danny for laughing when sometimes there wasn’t a lot to laugh about.And especially to Chris, for being the most amenable and unflappable poor bugger at the back. And a real nice bloke to boot. He worked especially hard.I dunno when I’ll be back, but I can certainly recommend it.Btw, the food and facilities where spot on too.I’ve attached a couple of pics of Danny up at the quarry which I promised to send him, but didn’t get his email, so would appreciate you forwarding them on if you canBest regards and thanks once again. Julian (The fat old git)

 

Thank you too, for a great 4 days! "Warts & All”I think along with several of us newbies and the Big Boys, that the steep climbs were a bit too much. Perhaps you could search out some trails without the steep/deep sections (or detours) for the less able bikes and riders. I do like a challenge, but one I can achieve. Although I’m at home nursing a torn hamstring, “I’ll be back”. John Hollings

 

Nice to meet you and the other guys this weekend, great weekend of riding and chatting.My feedback -Pro’s -Hotel was great, nice, clean, warm, good food, nice big bar area’s, etc. Centrally located – great choice. Run leader, informative, helpful, nice guy, very quick but not too quick. Sweeper – nice guy, helpful, happy to do a horrible job (of helping push people up hills !) Cons - People in the wrong groups, they were in groups that were way-slower than the rest of the group, and they couldn’t get themselves up some hills, so we had to go back and help them – it was the same 4/6 riders. I appreciate that it was their error – not yours Mark, putting down Expert when they were not. Other than that, all good, thanks again for the invite and your excellent organisation. Mark, Good luck. John E Rae