I have an admission to make! it's been bloody weeks since I last went out on the bike and it's driving me nuts. and it's nothing to do with the garage door being broken. I have some serious biking to do I am also a member of the MCN's 5000 club and if I don't get my backside in gear I wont make it the 5000 this year.. I have some serious rides planned but time is ticking away and there is nothing I can about it at the moment.
We are having some over due road works done but what has happened is the storms of last week out the work behind and now they have started the next phase before the previous one has been completed which means no matter which way I look I cant' get my bike out of the garage and down the road...I have my fingers crossed for this coming weekend or I will need to go on a refresher course on how to ride a motorbike!
While I have been contemplating my next big trip I have seriously thought about joining a motorcycle club not just for the riding but the social side as well so I began looking into this, unfortunately like the UK there some one make clubs and some that are just Spanish ( I still don't speak the language very well so looking for a mixed or ex-pat club) some where just too far away, but there one or two!
I came across these bikers a great bunch of guys who do a lot for charity I spoke to their chairman and agreed to meet him and a few others at a Custom bike show that was being held in a town called Albir not far from Benidorm a 40 mile ride-out for me the following Sunday.
I was up and out early ready for the hot weather or so I thought it took less than an hour to get to Albir and even though I got there earlyish the place was packed, I have never seen so many Harleys in one place..
Friendly bunch so I joined up the problem is since I got home God has conspired to stop me going out on my bike, first the handle on my garage broke completely and my tools are in....the garage, then the local authority decide to spend some money on the local roads and dig up the road directly in front of my garage.
Even if they ever finish the road and I manage to break into my garage we now have the worse storms and rain on record so perhaps it's just as well that "Tina" is tucked up and under cover int he garage, at least it wont be too long before I can get out on her again, the sooner the better.
I hear tis nice and warm in the UK at the moment grrr!!!!!!
I am so glad I made this trip for a couple of reasons the first being that I had to know at my age if I could still do it? and secondly I needed to know if Tina was up to the job and it's a big yes on both counts, I have now got the bug for travel again and as I am typing this I am liking at where to go next year and even this year as the weather on the Costa Blanca is is rather fair most of the year.
So after 4111.1 km what do I think of the S10? well I was shocked at the fuel consumption, bearing in mind the bike weighs in at around 600 pounds loaded and then there is little old me on her and she averaged 5.2 litres/100km which in real money is around 55mpg and this is with a still tight motor very impressed as I could only manage just over 40mpg on my Harley, on a 5 gallon tank I now have a range of around 250 miles maybe a fair bit more once the engine has loosened up a bit more, She is a noisy old girl and very heavy and of course being shaft drive you get that wonderful whine but! no problems at all and no oil consumption at all either.
Before I left I fitted a side stand foot extender on which I later regretted as it pushed the bike more up-right so had to be very careful where I parked, I have since removed this item and the bike is far easier to park now and I have moved the seat to its upper level which for some strange reason puts the seat at a bit of an angle so I have purchased the parts I need for the "flat seat mod" which I will get round to fitting as soon as the rain here in Spain stops.
So now a few more piccies of my trip to and from the UK, well some of my favourites anyway.
That will do for now as I am getting itchy feet already I am looking at Portugal or Italy for my next adventure I will be keeping this blog updated on any future progress on the bike or trips.
I thought I had lost this blog so for the last couple of months I have been using my other blog to recant my motorbike adventures but low and behold it has returned so I am now going to update it with the account of my trip tot he UK in July and then keep it up to date as best I can.
It's very difficult to know where to start with this as so much happened over the miles that I did and I have so many photo's and even a wee bit of video to share. Total distance travelled was 4111.1 km or 2554.5 miles. I left early ish on Tuesday the 9th July with a full fuel tank and two 5 litre cans full one in each side pannier.
You can probably see that I have spent a lot of time cleaning and polishing "Tina" well that was a stupid thing to do as it turned out. so my first days route was up to Valencia then to Zaragoza up to Huesca over the Pyrenees to Pau where I was staying the first night a distance of around 400 miles, my stopping points for re-fuelling all come around the 210 mile mark 330-350 km. As I approached the mountains I noticed the sky getting darker and darker and it came down by the bucketful apparently the worse weather they have had in the region for decades, this is where I found out my weathertek suit wasn't waterproof and nor where my gortex boots. Some of the scenery was staggering though.
I stayed in an Ibis budget hotel which was OK I had booked breakfast so I didn't need to stop off for food in the morning. I started loading the bike up and I wasn't impressed with the roll bag on top of the big bag of clothes that I took so I decided to ditch one of the petrol cans and put the roll bag in where the can had been this made things far more comfortable for me and of course easier to pack. Time to leave for #Belongamick, my socks were still a little damp my idea of hanging them over the lamp shades didn't work out but at least the sun had come out and it was dry. Today's trip was the shorted of the route of only 289 miles so no rush the route took me through the Landes de Gascogne National Park which is very pretty, then past Bordeaux and just north of Limoges I made landfall around 4:30 in the afternoon.
Mick and MJ have worked very hard to restore some buildings in the Hamlet of Les Brouilons to make a very comfortable place to stop for a visit and a base from which to explore this mostly undisturbed part of France. After breakfast it was time to leave for the channel tunnel a distance of 409 miles which took me up past LE Mans and Rouen and up the coast to Calais where I caught the first available train.
I arrived at my destination on time and had a great few days nut then i was time to pack up to come home again, The return leg was a little different as I was crossing the channel on a ferry this time Newhaven to Dieppe overnight, the ferry left at 11 pm I got there in plenty of time and tried my best to get some sleep on the way over, only 271 miles back to BelongaMick where I ad booked a two day stay...time to recover a little bit. On the second day Mick took me a on little tour of the area which I have to admit is stunning..
Excuse crappy music this is due to YouTubes latest T&C's update
I could have happily spent a lot more time there but I had to make my way home next stop was back to the same hotel in Pau I got there in plenty of time had a decent nights sleep woke up to what looked like some more angry weather over the Pyrenees.
Thankfully by the time I left the hotel it had cleared up a bit and I did't encounter any more rain on the trip, once the mountains had been cleared I had to endure "The Boring Bit" this is the road from Huesca past Zaragazo down to Valencia 4 hours of trying to stay awake, yes it is that bad, the last bit to Gandia flashed by and before I knew it I was back home and I travelled 2554.5 miles and I was wrecked. The bike had averaged over 55 mpg but I have to do something about the saddle and my rain proof gear before I attempt my next adventure.
