More bands, this time on the main stage.
It's certainly a great event to be at... tomorrow we have the parade, through town and then the custom bike competition. 
UK_Paul's amazing, Ireland adventure.
-
The day is now over...
YES!
I got the "People's Choice" award for best bike at the show!!!!
How sick were the Harley reps, when a Polaris SlingShot took the best trophy away from the show.
Check out that forced smile, on the HD girl, above.
It raised great attention during the event. Had Polaris made the effort to attend then they would have made sales.
I had serious reaction from many possible customers of which 4 we're very serious prospects to buy. (YES these were truly interested prospects, with the money to pay for them). If Polaris hadn't managed to convert at least 2 of these, at the show, they would need shooting... but they didn't come and play.
Who knows what they could have done, if they had invested a little skill, effort, time and money?
It was raining, so a quick run down to the car-wash was all that was needed to gain #1 place at the show.
I like a nice simple job with good results.
-
-
Hey UK, I see you still have your reflectors. Mine fell off in the garage on my first SS back in Dec. of 14, about a week after I got it. I traded for the new SLR in Maggie Valley and when we got home after midnight last night the first reflector fell off in the garage.
Just pulled the other one off. Never really liked them anyway.
Wife and I are really enjoying this thread. She is actively looking for a Slingshot of her own. Too bad there aren't more in the UK so you could get together with other owners.
Who knows, maybe you can make it to one of our rallies over here. You would have no problem finding fellow owners to stay with!
Come on over any time. -
Hey UK, I see you still have your reflectors. Mine fell off in the garage on my first SS back in Dec. of 14, about a week after I got it.
I'm not too sure on the European regs for the reflectors, over here. I don't think they are required with EU rules and if they are they look like they are positio much too far forward to comply (all lights, reflectors & registration plates, of any type must be at the rear most point of the vehicle).
Re American trip:
I made it to Daytona a couple of years ago and had a great time. If I come over again, I'll certainly be letting you all know. It would be great to meet some of the friends that I've made on the forum. -
Hey UK, I see you still have your reflectors. Mine fell off in the garage on my first SS back in Dec. of 14, about a week after I got it. I traded for the new SLR in Maggie Valley and when we got home after midnight last night the first reflector fell off in the garage.
Just pulled the other one off. Never really liked them anyway.
Wife and I are really enjoying this thread. She is actively looking for a Slingshot of her own. Too bad there aren't more in the UK so you could get together with other owners.
Who knows, maybe you can make it to one of our rallies over here. You would have no problem finding fellow owners to stay with! Come on over any time.I've had my SS over 2 years now & the damn rear reflectors are STILL hanging in there!
I'm honestly surprised due to the high desert heat. If one eventually falls off then I'll remove the other one. Just seeing how long they stay on out of morbid curiosity... 
-
Today we left BikeFest, in the morning and drove a total of 4 hours (with stops) through the cold and rain.
We have now arrived in Kildare, a county town South West of Dublin. The place where we are staying is called "Silken Thomas." This is named after the 10th Earle of Kildare. It is worth reading a little about this guy... It makes a good comparison to Game of Thrones, except that this really happened, with all the killing, deception & betrayal along the way .
- An Extract of Reflection: Rebellion of Silken Thomas -
-
The Pub/Hotel where we are staying has great atmosphere and we are looking forward to a relaxing evening, with a good meal and a drink, or two.
The bar has friendly staff and they have arranged a good parking place for the SlingShot and it has pride of place, in front of the accommodation.
Our room is lovely and spacious with plenty of opportunity, to dry out our riding gear.
Once again we could not have been made more welcome. It certainly pays to get the person taking your booking to check out what a SlingShot is before arriving, as the staff couldn't wait for us to turn up.
-
The rain is still falling but my nuts are dry.
-
As anticipated, our meal was great, with some of the most tender steak that we have ever eaten.
It's now time for bed as we will hit the road tomorrow around 09:30 hrs and more rain is forecast. (Also thunder, but let's hope that never gets to us).
We were hoping to call in at Franklin Motorcycles tomorrow, to meet up with some great friends at a Polaris dealer, near Dublin.
- Franklin Motorcycles / Indian Motorcycle Ireland -
However, with the weather like it is, I suspect that we won't have enough time to see them and also be in time to catch our ferry home. We will be sad, if we miss them, because they are a great dealership and it is run by some of the nicest guys around.
The industry needs more people like these guys.
-
We are headed to Ireland on June 19 for an 8 day self drive (but not in my SS!) tour of Ireland. Prompted by the Phil Collins concert in Dublin, we (with another couple) decided we should get concert tickets and fly across the pond (from Nova Scotia) and check out the Emerald Isle. So following this thread is of great interest to me! Thanks for the travelogue!!
-
Today was a little hectic.
We went to bed knowing that the weather was not go in to be good, in the morning. Rain and high winds had been forecast.Come the morning, I received both a text message and an email informing me that the ferry we had booked, to return to the UK on was cancels, due to the bad weather.
The intention was to sail on the high speed, "Jonathan Swift" ferry from Dublin to Holyhead. This journey is normally done in just 2 hrs and is by far the fastest way to cross the Irish sea, by ferry.
Our departure would have allowed us to call in and see some friends at a Polaris dealer, just outside Dublin. However with the bad weather we decided to go straight through to the ferry port.
Prior to our departure we had contacted the ferry company and it was confirmed that the sailing, on the ship we had booked, had been cancelled. We were able to change our booking ag get a place on another Irish ferry's ship, called "Epsilon."
This was a much slower ship taking upwards of 4 hrs to complete the crossing. We had arrived in good time , just in case we had problems getting on board but once again with the subtle looks of the SlingShot, helping is, we moved to the front of the boarding sue.
The Epsilon, is a much more, industrial, sort of ship than, the Swift. It is primarily designed to take fraught and just a few passengers. Therefore it turned out that the seating area was very over crowded.
After a longer journey time, we finally arrived back in the U.K. a fair bit later than expected, at around 18:00 hrs. In the afternoon.
We drove untill, just a little before 21:00
-
After a good evening with a good meal and a good sleep. We headed off again today.
The weather was better. Still cold but the winds had dropped from the previous day.
We had breakfast and he added home arriving at 10:30 hrs. The rest of the day was spent sleeping.
The trip was a great adventure and I'll be putting together some video of it, when my recordings come back from the organisers in Ireland.
-
-
I've been home a while now and the BikeFest is over, however things continue and the organizers have now posted some pictures of the show, winners.
As you may have previously seen, in this thread, Elaine and I ended up, fortunate enough, to win the people's choice prize, so these are the pictures' that they have now posted:
