Over the years I have found that without a doubt the best way to tour and see anything is on two wheels, you can smell everything and you are in the environment not hiding behind glass and a hunk of metal, you can stop just about anywhere and not be in anyone's way I just love it and as I've got older my passion for motorcycle touring has grown. I have been to France a few times and ridden down to Spain from Calais a couple of times once with my Brother on the back of my Glide we went to the Barcelona Harley Days a couple of years back. Five years ago ( I still cant believe it was that long ago) Myself and a friend Elaine mounted my Old Evo complete with overladen trailer and made our way through France over the Pyrenees down to the Costa Brava and back through France, great trip.
Yes I did take this road train all over Europe with no problems at all, never stopped never let me down in over 3000 miles and I still owned this great bike until December last year, 2018, broke my heart to let her go but at 21 years old she needed someone with a bit more time on their hands to bring her back to a decent state,
I have nothing against Harley's or Gold wings but with their every increasing dependency on electronics and ever increasing prices not just purchase but service and parts I couldn't justify another big cruiser/ touring machine so! what to get? I have a natural dislike for BMW's not just because there are so many of them but the attitude of most of the owners put me off for life and of course we are back to big bucks again. After nearly a year of looking and I mean proper looking, which included reading hundreds of reviews watching tons of you-tube presentations and reading what owners are saying on forums I came up with the what I hope will be the perfect machine for me.
After sorting the car out here in Spain I then made my way to the local Yamaha dealers and ordered my bike, they tend to be a bit more expensive here is Spain I could have gotten the "raid" edition in the UK for the price of the "e" edition that I have ordered, I'm never going to do the real "off road" thing yes we do have some dodgy roads here in Spain and yes there are some gravel roads but not doing the Amazon trail stuff more for touring on.
I had to go back into town a few days later to take in proof of house ownership and proof of being on the electoral register here in Spain to both the Dacia dealer for the car and the Yamaha dealer for the bike, at the Yamaha dealer the sales guy was all excited as the bike had just been delivered so we went round the back of the shop to have a look had to take the cardboard off but there she was.
OK so really excited now I was told she would be ready for the following Thursday, remember this is Spain, so on Thursday I got a call to tell me that the bike wouldn't be ready till the next day around 11ish so the following day I rang again this is last Friday 18th Jan when I was told I could take the bike but would have to bring her back as the boxes hadn't arrived yet. I decided that I can wait another day or two so now I am picking her up (Tina) on this coming Monday but after 6pm so I get to ride a new bike, one that I have never ridden before in the dark on the wrong side of the road (for me) should be interesting to say the least.
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