A few weeks back I was having a chat with another ex racer who now lives out here in Spain ,John Parkinson who used to race a top alcohol dragster, he happened to mention that Mark and Phillipa Turton were coming over for a long weekend stay with him, I know those two as not only do they race in the Wild Bunch but they also live in Sundon Park my home estate in Luton. I arranged with John to pop over and surprise them. John lives in Murcia well a little outside the City of Murcia and I knew it was a few miles away, John gave me his full address including instructions such as "turn left by the big log pile" and "take the first farm track on the right".
A long trip 440 km return in total
I had intended to leave around 10 pm but! I had a wee accident, I took the bike out of the garage put it in gear and left it on it's side stand on flat ground while I texted John to tell him I was just leavening I then went into the garage to fetch my helmet and while I was locking the garage door I heard a noise i turned round to see my bike falling over. Well I was so upset there was no reason for it to fall over, Getting it back up was another problem it weighs over 350 kilos I manages somehow. I had a good look round and the only damage I could find was a couple of scrape marks on the plastic that is there to take this sort of damage if the bike falls over...
I think I have been very lucky anyway a little later than expected I left for Johns place, roughly 130 miles and 2 and half hours later I arrived at Johns. As good as his word he hadn't told Mark or Phillipa that I was coming I had a great time. To say John lives off the grid is an understatement his place is at least a kilometre down a farm track and by that I mean unpaved road and that was from some thing that resembled a badly maintained path.
I wasn't joking about being off the grid thank god my bike is an adventure style machine as I would have had some serious problems getting down that track on a normal road bike, in fact there are some parts of that track that I would have problems with in a car and I'm not joking.
A short Video of me leaving John's place
A fill up in the local town and I'm on way home again as I said I had a really great day I love riding and it was good to meet up with old friends. The new taller windscreen worked well by the time I got home the bike was on 997km and was returning an average of just under 50 mpg.. Time for the bike to have it's first service I was surprised to have to pay for it as most of the other bikes that I have had from new the first service was free this one cost me nearly 100 Euro with tax so god knows how much the first real service is going to cost but at lest I don't have to find that out till I have 10,000 km on the clock or a year has passed. i dropped the bike off and went for a cuppa and a walk round for an hour went back tot he dealership paid picked the bike up and set off for home...but! the Yamaha dealer is on a busy road, the main road to the beach, I saw a gap n the traffic and went for it,...holy sh*it the front wheel came up and shot across the road and nearly missed the three lanes completely. On inspection I found the bike had been left in sport mode not touring and the traction control had been turned off..wow what a difference that makes. Looking forward to the next adventure.
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