Best Trip Yet!
In May this year, I had the chance to ride a Can-Am Spyder on the wild Atlantic Way in Ireland with a group of 9 women from the US, run by Dive N Ride Adventures. We booked our tour through Celtic Rider in Ireland. I have to say that this was one of the most fun trips I’ve done, and I’ve traveled quite a bit over the years.
There were three things that made it fun: the people, the ride, and the tour itself. The people on this trip didn’t all know each other before we signed up for the trip. In a case like that, you never know if you’re going to ‘gel’. But, Lisa, founder of Dive N Ride Adventures, made it easier because she set up a couple of zoom calls before we left so that we could ask questions about the trip. She started by outlining the trip and her ‘tips’ for traveling, and then opened it up for questions. The calls allowed us to meet each other before the trip, and to get to know each other a little bit, which made our first meeting easier. Then, when we got to Ireland, Lisa set us up in the same hotel the night before the trip started. This meant that we could actually sit down and have a meal and start knowing who was who.
The women on this trip were all experienced riders, but only about half of them had ever ridden a Spyder before. Additionally, not all of them had ever traveled outside of the US. So, we had a big range of experience. I’ve been riding a Spyder for a few years, and I have to say that riding a Spyder in an unfamiliar country has some advantages that I hadn’t considered before. First, the platform itself has a fair amount of luggage capacity (enough for clothing, etc. for a 2 week trip). Additionally, being on three wheels on Irish roads meant just that much more stability. We were riding twisty roads close to the coast, with a few mountain passes thrown in. Plus, there were roads we dubbed ‘green roads’ – narrow (single car wide), often unpaved, local roads with a (sometimes wide) strip of grass growing down the middle. They’re actually called ‘boreens’ in Ireland. On a 2-wheeler, it can be a challenge to stay upright, and off the grass. On a Spyder, it’s a little nerve-wracking, but I never worried about tipping over. I just worried about staying out of the ditches! Finally, the camber on many of the roads, particularly when you were turning from a local road into a larger road, was pitched in such a way that I could easily see 2-wheels being challenged. On a Spyder, it never worried me.
The tour itself was spectacular. All of our hotels were pre-booked, so we never worried about accommodations. Each days’ tour was outlined on Garmin GPS systems provided by Celtic Rider, and they were pretty straightforward to follow. With 9 Spyders, we sometimes got strung out along a route (particularly when we went through larger towns and hit lights), but we had enough helmet-to-helmet communication along our group that we never really got separated. About 2/3 of us were using Sena helmet communication, and we interspersed those with comms in-between riders who didn’t have comms. This helped us stay together. And, of course, we spent a lot of time on the comms systems pointing out interesting sights along the way, or commiserating with each other when it rained. Because, of course, this IS Ireland, and it WILL rain while you’re riding. I called it the ‘green tax’ – it’s the price you pay for the spectacular greens that you see on the hills and valleys along the way. Again, here’s where riding a Spyder helped. The stability and size of the motorcycle meant that I worried much less about the impact of all that water on the roads. All I needed to worry about was whether I had the right gear on at the time. So, yes, if you’re going to be visiting Ireland, I highly recommend bringing wet weather gear.
For me, the best part of the trip was the chance to see a country with new people. To see it through their eyes, and meet local people along the way. Often, when you’re in a car, or just passing through, you don’t get the chance to interact with local people very much. On a motorcycle, you do. People wave at you (the 9 of us often looked like a parade, I’m sure), and people stop you to ask what you’re riding, and whether you’re having fun. I would absolutely do this tour again, and would love to add time in Scotland and Wales to the trip. My experience with CelticRider, and with Dive N Ride Adventures tells me that they would make sure we had a wonderful time.
