And sat on a few bikes. If you don’t know the Scottish Show, it is run at the Royal Highland show ground in Ingliston and is run by the crowd that publish Motorcycle News in the UK.

We toddled along in the afternoon, because I wasn’t sure about going. Over the years it has lost a bit of its charm and got all organised. It hasn’t quite gone all lifestyle, but I suppose it reflects the market. I’ve been to one or two trade shows in the past and you have to be able to justify the expenditure on sales leads.

The Honda stand was easy enough to find, being right inside the entrance, but we were a bit disappointed until we found the route to the other exhibition hall. For some reason the route between the halls was behind a large stand. It was only on checking the map and watching people disappear that we figured out where folks were going.

Found the BMW stand but missed Charley Boorman, who had been signing an hour or two earlier. Was good to get a seat on the new R1200RT and R1200ST. It is going to be said a lot of times, but the ST doesn’t look as bad as all that in the flesh – I want one 🙂 although the seat height was a bit low. Had a seat on a K1200LT which is mental. A bit like a large armchair, sitting there as it was with Satellite Navigation and a CD player in a compartment on top of the tank.

I’ll just have to save up my money and buy an old R1100RS..