Road Races
European Holidays: Czech TT
This year we had 3 weeks for holidays. Because of the circumstances we were not able to organise anything in advance but we had an idea: to go to Czech Republic on 9-10 of August to see Horiçe Road Race, and maybe going on with Brno GP the following week-end, on my motorbike. This was the plan.
Finally, one week before, we were able to confirm what we would do and we booked a full week (Wednesday to Wednesday) in a hotel 15km from Horiçe. So that we had some time to know the place, the circuit, the practice and races schedule (not updated on the website in English and no clue of Czech…) and so before it started (Saturday and Sunday).
We started the journey on 5th of August, finally with the 2 motorbikes. As we almost don’t use them during the year, at least they can breathe one week per year…
The first day, through national roads, consisted of 400km of straight line, then some twisties, and then we entered in Germany. First night in Heidelberg, just for taking a break and have some rest. Nothing to declare apart that I realised that I couldn’t remember a word of German I had studied a long time ago, not even to say “I don’t speak German”…
In the morning we went on, this time by the motorway with 2 advantages: it is toll free and in some parts there is no speed limit. I don’t really like to speed, but it is really, really pleasant to ride without being all the time looking at the speedometer to make sure you don’t get caught by a radar (in France it is just awful). There were 3 lanes, and everybody respecting the speed of the other vehicles in their lanes. The left lane the quicker, with some vehicles going very fast, but if you happened to be passing a slower vehicle in this lane, the fast vehicle would just slow down and wait for you to finish overtaking. Respect. Nice. Very pleasant to ride this way.
I though put the SV to 170km/h… never put it that much before (maybe my husband did, but he didn’t tell me lol) with the topbox and sideboxes.
Finally, at our pace, we arrived to Czech Republic border where we stopped to buy the toll sticker for motorways. The good news was that the motorbikes don’t have to pay it. Free ride on all the country motorways 🙂 .
So we followed to Prague and then to Hradec Králové and then to the North to our hotel at about 15km from Horiçe. And about 60km from Poland. The GPS took us through the quickest way, but not the best roads! Though the important was to get there, without the GPS we would still be turning around…
The hotel was up a hill with a forest, with very nice views from the terrace, the best for the evening beer (good and very cheap) in the sunset.
The first days we had some rest and some small ride outs around with the bikes, and we went to see the circuit. The circuit is so great, with ups and downs, part of it in the village, another one in the middle of the forest, it’s addictive, even being slow! We first had one lap to check the places from where taking nice pictures, but then I forgot why we were turning around and it took a few laps before I remembered… 😉
On Friday, while walking around the village, we ended up talking to a man, who was called Georges, was English living in Germany, was 69 and had come with his Triumph to see the races. He had no place to stay and the tourist office had recommended the hotel where we stayed. As we had nothing else to do, we told him that we could go with him to the hotel as he had no GPS. We met him later on the terrace after his dinner and before ours and we were chatting until late.
Saturday was practice day. The races were organised by the village motorclub, and the SBK and SSP races were part of the IRRC, International Road Races Championship, organised and ran mainly by Dutch, Belgian and German (www.irrc.eu ) with 6 circuits on the continent. Most circuits are much like circuits (although on roads), wider than Irish road races circuits, except Horiçe circuit.
But there were more races, Classics (175, 250, 350, 500, 750 cm3) and side-cars.
Roads were closing at 8.00am, so we had to arrive early. We were a little exaggerated with the “early” thing as we arrived almost before the marshals where we had decided to settle for a start.
The good thing about this circuit is that you can move all around it from inside. And with many places to eat and drink all around.
Where we were in the morning, in “Na Dachovech” was a very good spot to take pictures, which was what we wanted (it’s better to take pictures during practice and then follow the races… because it’s difficult, for us at least, to do both at once, even more when you don’t know the racers and you can’t understand a word of the comments…).
Slanec Martin
Ronald Neef
Jiri Prucha
Antonin Plevak
Michal Dokoupil
Holoubek Martin
Sammy De Caluwe
Karel Brantner (?)
Nico Huller
Jochem Van den Hoek
Foti Psomadakis
Matti Seidel
Didier Grams
Kamil Holan
Leos Hlavacek
Radomir & Jiri SIMEK
Jan Polivka & Zdenek Sedlacek
Richard BILY & Jiry NESPESNY
At lunch time we moved to the paddock to buy something to drink and find another place for the next practice sessions. After the picnic we explored the different places for next day, some better to watch the races but worst for taking pictures.
The afternoon finalised with the first Classic 175-250cm3 race. The poor lads got pouring rain when it had been sunny all day (typical), with those bad conditions for racing when some parts are very wet and others are dry.
After the race we went back to the paddock to buy the entry fee for next day (about 10€), which can be bought in several circuit points or that some volunteers going around the circuit sell you before and during the races. The access to the paddock was also paying (it seems that they had problems with stealing some years ago).
Then we went for dinner and back to the hotel soon, as the next day we had to wake up early (not so much as the first day as we knew where to go).
We arrived to the circuit at about 7.30am, and went walking until the bend we had chosen, outside of “Dachovské Esico”. A good viewpoint, at the end of a straight line with 2 followed bends.
We watched from there, in the shade, the first 3 races Supersport, Classics 350 and Superbike.
After each race, the first 3 got a round around the circuit in a pickup car, so that everybody could celebrate with them, not only people with access to the paddock. We thought it was a brilliant idea.
After the 3rd race and coinciding with lunch break, we had to move to another place as we had the sun in front and it was starting to get too warm. We moved to the internal part of the circuit (in the forest) and looked for a place to eat and drink something. There was no fresh coke (the only thing we could ask in Czech lol), and they gave us a kind of local raspberry soda which was quite good and refreshing.
We went back to the external part of the circuit after “Stasovo Esicko”, in the straight line, where we watched the sidecar race. They were quite varied, oldest from 1963 and most recent from… 1978… The race itself was not too spectacular as the levels were too different, but it was really amazing to watch the passengers’ postures.
After the race we went to another point recommended by Georges, in the external part of the “Lukavecky Vracak” corner to watch the last 3 races: Supersport, Classics 500/750cm3 and Superbike.
It seemed to be a very popular place among the local people, with an amazing view to several corners. We had said not to take anymore pictures but we could not resist 😉 .
An accident during the Classics race delayed the last race, and many people left, so that we could have a good viewpoint for the last race.
The circuit is amazing, we were able to take a lot of “good” pics without a professional camera, and to enjoy the races. The racers were very close to the public with many Czech pilots, and the Czech are great fans of motorbike racing, you could feel it in the atmosphere and there were many families with children.
The only frustration we had was not being able to communicate with people, most didn’t speak English, and us, after one week we knew how to say “Dobry dén”, “Prossim”, “pivo”, “voda” (Good morning, Thanks, Beer, Water) and not much more… which reduces a lot the possibilities to get to know the people.
The same happened in the petrol stations, where there is always someone coming to you and asking where you come from, where you are going, and so… well, there we couldn’t understand what we were asked nor answer…
Well, the day was over, we went to the village for dinner and back to the hotel, with a small stop for taking pictures of the full moon.
The next day it was raining all day, so we took the day to plan where we could go 2 days later when we had no more hotel booked, as we had prepared nothing, but did not really want to go back home… we spent the day with the map (Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Benelux) and the mobile phone, looking where there were some nice roads with loads of corners and where to stay.
The next day we went for a small trip to some mountains at the border with Poland.
At last we did not find so many nice landscapes, we went into Poland were we got stuck behind cars going at 50km/h, and ended up (mostly Juan in those cases) completely wrecked after 9 hours on the motorbikes without really enjoying it.
The next day we would leave Czech Republic… But not to go home yet…
To be continued…
Ride outs
Twisties in “Les Vosges”
The worst things about Paris area for bikers is that there are no corners. It is all flat and straight, with only beetroots fields (with their strange signals)
and small groves hiding gendarmes with fining binoculars…
To escape from the “non corner” zone, we took advantage of a 3-days week-end to go on a treasure hunt: twisties.
We left on a Friday after lunch, with no rush, to cover about 400km of straight line, to the East. Our destination “Les Vosges”, small mountain area (Natural Park) very close to the border with Germany. Alsace area was German between 1870 and 1914/1918.
Who says mountains says twisties 🙂 .
We arrived quite tired after so many kilometres on boring straight lines in the middle of the fields.
After a “light” meal with “Munster” cheese (nothing to do with Irish area 😉 ), we went to bed early to have some rest for the next day.
I had planned an itinerary, but we got lost several times, though it did not really matter as the idea wasn’t to go to any particular place, just to enjoy the road, the corners and the landscapes. So this is finally the itinerary we covered:
We found unknown places on our way:
“Le Linge” Memorial– First World War Battle where French and German troops confronted each other from 20th of July to 15th of October 1915: 17000 dead.
The Spring colours were very nice, with different shades of green, though the light was very difficult as it was quite cloudy though the sun was not far away behind, and my lense did not allow very good pics.
A resident:
Views from the road between “Grand Ballon”, the highest mountain of Les Vosges (1424m), and Cernay:
On our way back to the hotel…
We covered about 200km, to recharge the batteries before going back the next day… 400km of straight line in the middle of the fields, and now accompanied by all the Parisian people going back home after a long week-end…
It was well worth it though 😉
Trips
Our Honeymoon Trip- Third Week
If you have missed the first week it’s here:
And the second is here:
On Monday, we were on the road again, for our 3rd week holiday, 547km and 6 hours according to Google…
Here is the global map of the trip (excepting the small rides in each area):
No problem on the road, some heavy (but short) showers, and some stress because we had not refuelled before leaving Armoy, and we did more than 100km without seeing a petrol station (on the motorway), until Juan got the great idea to turn on the Tom Tom and see that we had to go out of the motorway to find a petrol station… 230km since the last refuel, and 20km already on reserve for him…
We finally arrived to our destination, Killarney, at the end of the afternoon, quite tired by the travel and the rain. This time in B&B.
First day there we went for the “Ring of Kerry”, very nice landscapes, nice views there too…
but some parts of the road are quite in a bad state… and on the way back we got stuck behind a slow car and then a truck with no possibility to overtake. We were wrecked…
Last day was very rainy, so we went to Killarney center to get some “souvenirs”. And the best memory of Killarney is a nice chat with a nice local man in a pub there at night.
Holidays were coming to their end…
We left on Thursday to Rosslare, 260km, 3h30 according to Google. A little more, with rain all morning. It stopped raining just before Waterford, and we finally arrived quite dry to our last B&B.
Nice people there, very welcoming (and bikers). We went to a pub nearby for dinner, very good food and very good service. And our last pints of Guinness/Bulmers.
It was so nice that we went back the day after for lunch before taking the ferry.
The trip back was quite unpleasant for me (and so for Juan!) as the sea was not too calm, and I got sick…
When we arrived to Cherbourg, we had to get used to drive on the other side again, and got back to reality… An Irish car just out of the ferry overtook us (it was limited at 90km/h but it was 2 lanes, and I did not see any signal) and got chased by French police who made him go out to the next exit to fine him… Welcome back to France and nice French habits! :/ Welcome back to reality, end of the holidays…
We arrived home by those boring roads and had one day to rest.
I remembered Ireland as a very nice country with welcoming people, and I found a wonderful country with wonderful people…
Honeymoon trip: 3599,3km of Happiness.
V’s
Road Races
Our Honeymoon Trip- Second Week
After our first Honeymoon Week in Connemara, the following Monday, with our heads full of nice landscapes, we left for about 380km – 6 hours.
In Ireland we were surprised by the difference between one “National” road and another, some are very wide, with enough space for 3 or 4 cars (and surprising when people start overtaking in front of you), and other also “National” much more narrow, but also limited at 100km/hour and I think you have to be mad to go at that speed on those roads 😀 , and with some spare sheeps in the middle from time to time. While travelling from one point to another, we tried to avoid the roads in “white” on our Michelin map and, took the “red” ones as much as we could!
Here we are, on nice roads, heading to Ulster, Armoy, where we had booked our second week. No problem on the road, and no rain. We arrived in Armoy in the afternoon and went to the village to buy something to survive the night, we would go to Ballymoney the following day to do some bigger shopping.
In the afternoon, we visited the Joey and Robert Dunlop Memorial Garden:
Wednesday we took the day to go to do some tourism, to The Giant’s Causeway. Beautiful.
At night, back in the village, there was a classic motorbikes show organised by the AMRRC, club organising the Road Races (fairly well). We had also a quick walk in the village garden:
We received there a very warm welcome, very nice people around, a great night in the pub.
On Thursday we went to Ballymoney Museum where there was a tribute to “The Dromara Destroyers” and followed with a visit to the Museum itself. And finished of course with a visit to Joey Dunlop’s pub.
And at last we got to Friday, practice day.
In the morning we first went to take some pictures to “The Dark Hedges”(that we had seen in Stephen Davison “Between the Hedges” which was kind of a start to us wanting to go to a Road Race).
After a long pics session, and lunch, we went to the circuit. We had planned to go to “Balaney Cross”. But as newcomers, we were walking around the paddock when they announced road closing in 5 minutes, and we did not have time to get there (we saw at the end of the day that some places were accessible from inside…).
So finally, we ended up in Kennedy’s corner, which was not so bad as there was a pub, fish&chips and nice neighbours who invited us to a beer 😉
Guy Martin
We were just impressed, amazed, whatever, by the speed of the riders, on THOSE roads… Just WOW, respect. We spent two days “Wowing”, and people asking “this is your first road race?” 😀
Unfortunately it started to rain heavily at the end of the afternoon, and the organisation decided to stop the practice and postpone it to next day. We went back to the paddock, where we were together with the racers and their motorbikes.
When the roads opened we went back to our place for dinner and get some rest for the big day. 😉
On Saturday we had woken up quite early, to avoid doing the same silly thing as the day before. We got a good point in “Acheson’s Leap”, nice spot to take pictures of racers jumps…
We had nice chats with the guys next to us while waiting for the races to start.
It started with the practice they couldn’t do the day before. It was sunny with good temperature 23-25°C, with some cloud from time to time.
In this point they were also quite fast, and with nice jumps. It is amazing how close you are to the riders.
At last the races started, 10 in total.
The races are just amazing, crazy, the speed, the road conditions, to be so close to the action, and the atmosphere. It was so great. For me, way much exciting than MotoGP (which is quite boring anyway) or Superbikes, or any other kind of race I have seen in circuits. And also much easier to take cool pics without a professional camera 😉
Wow again.
Now the pics:
Doc John
Guy Martin 
Davy Morgan
Andy Farrell
Jamie Hamilton
Rodney Patton & Jeremy Mc Williams
Michael Dunlop
Davy Morgan
Derek Mc Gee
William Dunlop
Michael Dunlop
We were quite impressed by everything, the races, the people, the racers, the speed. We will go for more for sure!
The races ended at 5pm, the roads opened and we went to the village for a pint or three… We talked to many nice people there, and just before going back home a few hours later, we met with Michael Dunlop in the other pub and had a little chat with him. That was funny, very nice lad.
At last, we had to go back “home”…
On Sunday it rained all day, so we just had some rest…
On Monday, we were on the road again, for our 3rd week holiday, 547km and 6 hours according to Google…
To be continued…
Trips
Our Honeymoon trip – First week
In 2013 we had a special holiday trip as it was our Honeymoon trip. The destination: Ireland. Why? I had been 3 times in Ireland (when I was young), twice for summer “language study” and once for 7 months when I was a student. I always had good memories and I had promised to myself that I would come back some day. I also wanted Juan to know this country to share this with him. So that was a good excuse!
We took a little bit of time to prepare the trip, we bought the cases for the SV, put the maintenance up to date, and wrote never-ending lists of things not to forget (this is me).
Before I knew Juan, I always prepared my things much in advance. But since a while now, we always end up packing at the last minute (I still use the list thing though!) the same morning as we go, and we always end up leaving at 11am…
So it was a nice morning of 13th of July, and we were ready to go, at about 11am… 😉
The idea for the trip was to avoid the tolls and take National Road 12 in Versailles, and then go through Evreux, Dreux, Lisieux, Caen and spend the night in Bayeux. I have my manual GPS on with the indications, as a piece of paper stuck on the tank, and Juan has the real GPS as a Tom Tom (wedding present of my dear father-in-law, thanks a million!) in case that mine got wrong 😉 (and it was quite useful… mine went wrong a few times lol).
A quiet and boring trip, stopping for sandwiches, with a nice weather, sunny but not too warm… we were on holidays!
We arrived in Bayeux around 4-5 pm, just to have some time to visit the cathedral and go for dinner…
Dinner took too long to arrive, and we just went back to the hotel to sleep, we didn’t even hear the fireworks celebrating the National Day…
The day after, we went just after breakfast to Cherbourg, to take the ferry.
We arrived (too) early, and we had to wait with a big pizza lunch, and then get to the harbour for boarding (2 hours before) and wait together with all cars, vans, caravans, motorbikes, trucks, and wondering how we would all get in.
One hour before leaving, they called us: motorbikes first. We got separated for parking, my motorbike on the left and Juan’s in the middle. Which was first not too much of a problem, but then when there were 3 rows of cars in the middle, parked very tightly, and us loaded with all our luggage (we didn’t know then that we could leave the luggage on the motorbikes so we had things all over the luggage) it happened not to be very practical. Well. The guys told me “ok, you fasten your bike” and I had no clue how to put this stuff. A nice Belgian couple next to me helped me to fasten it (well, really he fastened it for me…). Then I went across the cars to see how Juan was doing with his bike. He actually had a big problem: when he fastened the strap on the left hand side, the motorbike was falling to the right. And when we tried to fasten it to the right hand side, it was also falling to the right… We had to desperately ask for help to the ferry guys, who solved the problem with a pair of blocks under the suspension arm and it stood still. At last we got all our things together and got to our cabin.
After a good shower we went out to “visit” the ferry and see it go out to the sea. The sea was very calm and everybody was outside.
The trip was very pleasant (16 hours), there is everything in there: pubs, restaurants, cinema, shop… with quite normal prices (they could put whatever price as we have no choice to go somewhere else… but no).
We had a bonus sunset, the company of 3 gannets, a sandwich dinner on the upper deck (a little bit windy though!) and our first Guinness in the pub by the moonlight. The sea was so calm that we did not even notice that we were sailing.
After a calm night we arrived on time to Rosslare.
We got down to the garage decks, unfastened the bikes (still with help of the nice Belgian couple), my seat had been a little distorted by the straps, we put on the cases etc, and went down quite fast.
After a small stop to finish putting on our motorbikes gear, we finally started our road trip, on the left side of course. The most difficult being the roundabouts, we just never know where to look first…
We had quite a long trip this day as we were going directly to Connemara. Not that there were so many kilometers (370) but the ferry arrived at 11.30am, and counting the time to get out, to have lunch, and all the stops to fill in the tank and rest a little, it would take some time, and we did not want to arrive too late, to be able to have dinner somewhere.
At last we arrived at about 8.30pm, with no rain but side wind for a good while, and traffic jam around Galway…
The key was on the door (self catering). We dropped our things inside and got to the village with our bike gear still on… Parked in the main street and checked all the pubs (the street was full of them), though the prices were not too cheap… we realised afterwards that it was quite a touristic place.
We finally chose one, where we had a good meal with good service, not too cheap but good and we had dinner which was the important thing!
We were quite tired because of the trip and we went back straight away to settle there. The view to the bay there was just amazing. A beautiful place.
The landlord was a very nice person who told us a lot of the history of the place and the area around.
The first week we did a lot of kilometres, just getting around Connemara and up to Mayo. 3 days in a row we did about 180-200km per day, only stopping (many times though) to take pictures or drink Coke…
We liked a lot Connemara, it’s magic. We are surrounded by green mountains, lakes, at only a few kilometres from the sea. We were lucky we had amazing weather all the week, 23-25°C during the days with this nice breeze, and 30°C the last trip day… too warm… we will not complain though 😉
1st day : Sky Road- Clifden
2nd day
Ballyconneely
Roundstone
Bog Road
Coral Beach
3rd day
Close to Leenane
Lough Corrib
Lough Mask
Lough Naffooey
4th day
Doo Lough (we called it the “horseflies lake”- Juan still has some scars…)
Westport Bay
Croagh Patrick
Sunsets & moon on Sky Road:
The last 2 days we just did NOTHING apart from visiting Clifden pubs and have a few Guinness for him and Bulmers for me.
The following Monday, with our heads full of nice landscapes, we left for about 380km – 6 hours.
Trips
Champagne
The last week-end of October, with a 3-days week-end, we decided to go for a ride-out with the bikes, the way I like it, with plenty of time to stop for taking pics.
At the beginning we had planned to go with the 2 bikes, but a coolant leak problem with the SP2 didn’t let us, and we finally went the 2 of us on my bike.
The destination was the city of Reims, in the French region of Champagne.
The bad thing of Paris and surroundings for bikers is that it is all flat, with no twisties, all straight. So that the road to the twisty places is not quite “interesting” for bikers. Even though, we kept the good habits to avoid the motorways.
We left on Friday with no rush after lunch. The day was very cloudy, with those kind of low clouds that makes feel you like it’s sunset all day long. But at least it did not rain.
We had to cover about 180km; the last part surrounded with colourful vineyards, and even with some twisties (since we live in Paris, we are now counting the bends… 😉 ).
We were staying in a kind of bed & breakfast (“chambres d’hôtes”) at about 20km from the city of Reims, with very welcoming people- and bikers also. A very nice place to stay to visit Reims and enjoy the surroundings
We arrived with enough time to get some directions to a nice place to have dinner a few kilometres away. We had a nice dinner.
On Saturday the day started with a beautiful sun, but it was chilly. We took the bike to Reims, where we visited the Cathedral.
Outside the wind was freezing cold. Juan was freezing (I wore myself more layers than an onion). After a “technical” tea/hot chocolate break to warm up a little, we went for a walk in the surroundings of the Cathedral.
And we went for lunch.
In the afternoon we went to visit a small Car Museum, founded many years ago by a Renault designer (Charbonneaux) with his private collection, which later was completed with new acquisitions by the museum and other cars lent by private people. It is not very big but it has some interesting pieces. Very few motorbikes though, some of them needing restoring.
1st steam vehicle:
Citroen Maseratti
A tandem with engine and sidecar…
After the Museum we went to the village of Epernay, where are based most of the most famous Champaign brands. We arrived too late for visiting the caves. So we went for dinner and on our way back we got lost- it was night already- into the “mountains” around Reims (which are more like hills than mountains). But we finally made it back to our accommodation, completely frozen though.
The next day we had to go back home. But with no rush. In the morning we went looking for a nice Mill we had seen in a picture and a painting in our accommodation. Thanks to the owners’ indications we found it and stopped for a while to take pictures in the middle of the colourful vineyards.
Then we went on through “la Route du Champagne“, which goes through the hills along many Champaign caves (though it’s better not to stop for tasting in each of them if you drive/ride 😉 ).
Then we stopped in the village of Gueux.
There, they used to run motor races for many years: The first time was the “Grand Prix de la Marne” in 1926, 1st “Grand Prix de France”in 1938, first official Formula One race in 1950 – and last Formula one race in 1966, and last race of the French Motorcycle Championships in 1972.
A local association restored the boxes area and the grandstand.
After quite a few more pics (most of the pics of the trip did not show quite great, as always I had my analogue camera, and it stopped working properly, making the colours quite inappropriate. The best pics were taken with my mobile phone…), we had to finally decide to start the way back home…
As a conclusion: a very nice area, to go for a ride-out and enjoy the vineyard scenery and take pics. We will come back, though we will when it gets warmer…
V’s
Ride outs, Trips
100.000km
This post is a translation of an article which was published in the Spanish magazine “La Moto” in May 2010. It’s a “summary” of the first 100.000km with my SV. Some pics might also be published in other posts.
I started getting interested in bikes when I was 14, but it wouldn’t be until 10 years later that I decided to take the riding test and buy my first bike, a Kawasaki ZZR, with the excuse to get quicker to work and back home.
I bought it second hand with 20000km and sold it 3 years later with 80000km.
In May 2005 I bought my second and current bike, a Suzuki SV650S, I chose her for her look (aesthetically I love RR bikes, but I’m too slow for them 😉 ) and for her V-twin personality.
Apart from using her to commute daily, I also love to go for ride-outs on Sundays, but when I most enjoy my bike is traveling.
The truth is that this bike is not the most adequate for traveling, its riding position isn’t the most comfortable, and less for my 1.60m tall. But anyway, I just get used to her, and to be honest, it is a really fun bike to ride, and I can only speak positive about her reliability.
So in May 2005 we decided to try her on going for a week-end in the Biker Camping of Anzanigo. The trip was very tough on my husband who was following me on his 1000cc RR bike, at a maximum speed of 108km/h as my bike was still running-in.
Mallos de Riglos 2005
On the way back it was even worse, as it took us 11 hours to cover the 350km… Not because of the maximum speed, but because of the average speed, as I was stopping every now and then to practice my second hobby: taking pictures… We must admit that this area of the Pre-Pyrenees (Aragon and Catalonia) is really photogenic.
That same year, in order to be sure to try her on well, and as summer arrived, we went to my first bikes rally, also in the Aragon Pyrenees. And then I had a holiday of “a few” kilometres, first by myself to visit friends in Marseille and Lyon, and then again with my husband, down to Asturias and Galicia (Ferrol and Sanxenxo).
Isla de la Toja 2005
In the following years we went for a few more trips, mainly in Spain (in no particular order and some places several times: Cazorla, Almeria, Madrid, Valencia for SBK race, Teruel…), and of course Asturias and Galicia where we go every summer, always through the same roads in the Pre-Pyrenees. Sometimes we stopped in that area, on the Spanish side (Biescas)
On our way to Bielsa 2008
or French side (this year Cauterets, going through many passes of the “Tour de France”).
on our way to the Col d’Aspin – 2008
Mirador del Fito – Asturias 2009
Mirador de San Andrés de Teixido – Galicia 2009
We also had some trip to the neighbouring country, around Lyon, with a compulsory stop in the lovely area of Millau and the “Gorges du Tarn”, as my chain had given up (should have been changed before the trip!).
Viaduct of Millau – 2007
For traveling we bought saddlebags and when going both on my bike, we also have a tank bag (I can’t use it when riding my bike as the tank is high and large, and I don’t get well to the handlebars then).
Most of the trips were between May and September, for long week-ends or holidays. When traveling we always try to get through secondary twisty roads, taking our time, enjoying the road, the landscapes and stopping every time we can (and my husband lets me) to take pictures. Although on the way back from holidays, we usually take less time through boring motorways.
Most of the trips I rode my bike myself, but I also tried the back seat sometimes on long trips, as for traveling together my husband’s bike back seat is absolutely a no go! The position on the back seat of the SV is quite straight and comfortable, but on long trips it can start being a little uncomfortable after a few hours.
During those 4 years, I also went for a few ride-outs at the week-end, around Catalonia, South around Tarragona, North around Gerona, in groups, with my husband or by myself, riding or on the back seat. The important thing being enjoying the road, the scenery, and the company (always tailing when in group…).
la Llosa del Cavall, Catalonia – 2009
On our way to la Bonaigua – 2009
During those 100000km, I had no mechanical issue with the bike, I had one electrical issue (the main fuse blew, due to a shortcircuit caused by the antitheft chain rubbing against a cable under the back seat…), and apart from the usual servicing, I changed the rear shock absorber for a better one, and the front fork springs. Until now I’ve never changed a single bulb. And the battery is still the original one.
The only “plus” I put are the heated grip, which are really useful for winter trips.
30/01/2010 100.000km
To conclude, in 100000km covered with her, with sun, heat, rain or cold, I can’t complain at all about her behaviour. It is a very fun bike to ride, maybe better for using on short spins at the week-end, but she never gave any problem on long trips. The only down point for my small stature is the riding position that is not the most comfortable for the back.
I have no thought of changing her for another one on short or medium term, so I hope she will accompany me for another 100000km at least, and with many more pics!
Ride outs
A Happy Birthday
On the 30th of the month I was celebrating my birthday.
For this great event, Juan offered me “a week-end on the bike with the right to as many “pics stops” as I wished”.
We had planned to leave early on the 1st to an unknown destination (for me). We went on my bike, me as pillion, to just enjoy the views.
We got up early, and seeing that it was pissing rain, we decided to… go back to bed until one hour later, to see if it stopped. One hour later we got up again, but it was still raining. We got up anyway, started preparing the things and we would go when ready. At about 11.00am it stopped raining and the sun appeared. We went to pick up the bike, put on the saddlebags, put on our rainsuits just in case and at last we left.
Juan told me that the first step was to get to “Sant Llorenç de Morunys”. I knew quite well that road for having ridden it a few weeks earlier, so I could indicate him the way (although he had a map, I am a good GPS- a sometimes kind of hysterical GPS but GPS anyway!).
So we started C58, Manresa, Solsona… I was surprised to see snow caped mountains and some views I had not seen a few weeks earlier when I took the same road. Maybe it was because there was no snow by then? (it had been snowing 2 days before), or maybe because as I was riding myself I couldn’t see all the landscapes that I was seeing now.
When we arrived at the crossroad that goes to Sant Llorenç, Juan stopped and told me he thought Googlemaps had got confused, and he preferred to follow suit to Bassella to get the road to Andorra. What we did… And we stopped to fuel and have a bite in “Pans&Company” of Bassella motorbike museum. There in the sun at the terrace, nor cold nor warm, it felt so good!
After “recharging our batteries”, we hit the road to Andorra again, to I didn’t know where… We went through Coll de Nargó, and after that I didn’t know where we could go apart from Andorra… After el Plà de Sant Tirs and with the road quite busy, we suddenly took a turn on the left… and there started the Road of the Pics…
The N-260, so-called “Eix Pirinenc” in Catalan, from there is a road with twisties and more twisties, first up during some kilometres, with views to valleys and snow-capped peaks, more valleys and more snow-capped peaks… We stopped many times to take pics…
We had time, we had no schedule, I didn’t check the time in all the day, and at no time I knew what time it was… and where we were going to…
We arrived in Sort (“luck” in catalan). A village famous for many lottery winning prizes. In Sort we took the C13 to Vielha. Though we didn’t get to Vielha. In Llavorsí we took a small road that followed along a ravine, it was quite windy now. After getting lost at a crossroad we went back, and we followed the road until we arrived to a village. A village with about 20 houses, a small hotel, and another bar-restaurant in front of the hotel. The hotel was actually where we were going to sleep. And I still didn’t know what time it was (and I had not even seen the name of the village…). It was very windy, the sky was starting to be cloudy, though we could still see between the clouds a snow capped peak at the end of the road. It started to rain. We left the bike parked outside and went to the hotel. The room had a terrace with view over a small river.
On the other side there was a shepherd, 3 dogs and many sheeps.
After a well-deserved rest, we went for a walk around the village, take a bite in the bar and another walk through the path at the back of the hotel, along the river.
As the wind started to be quite cold, we went back to the hotel, to rest, to have dinner and finally sleep dreaming of the snowy landscapes waiting for us the next day.
We got up early, had breakfast: toasted bread with “pan con tomate” (you rub the bread with garlic, then with a fresh juicy tomato, and you finish with a bit of virgin olive oil) with Serrano ham. We had decided to follow that road until it ended. We then followed the “Cardos Valley”, with this same snowed peak in front of us, and from time to time another mountain that appeared and disappeared with the twisties. Along the road were nice villages.
We arrived to Tavascan, crossed the village and followed a small road that indicated the ski station (which was closed, but the road was opened). So we started going up, quite slow as the road was very wet in the shadow and quite narrow, but it was quite good though.
After a few kilometres, a “pic stop”… Nice waterfall!
We followed up, and up, stopping from time to time to take pics, and we finally arrived to a tiny village (the station?), but it was the end of the tarmac and between stones, mud and puddles, we decided to turn around an go back. We will come back with a dirt bike!
After a few more pics stops we went back to Llavorsí. We had planned to follow with the C13- C28 to Vielha, and then go back through C230, to Pont de Suert, and then N260 to la Pobla de Segur, stopping for lunch in Senterada, a village where we always try to stop when on our way, to eat toasted bread with homemade pork products in a bar-restaurant-hostal we discovered some years ago by chance.
But let’s not go too fast…
So we took the C13 up… and up we went. The more up we went, the more snow… so we stopped quite often…
Until we got “in the middle” of the snow. We couldn’t stop to stop 😉 .
It had been snowing a few days before, but the road was fully cleaned from the snow. The road had very good tarmac and very nice twisties. We stopped several times, one of them to build a snowman, that looked a little bit scary but well…
The road went up till we arrived to “Port de la Bonaigua”. It was a little bit cloudy there and quite windy. And loads of snow.
The road sign indicating the pass was broken and covered with 2 metres of snow.
After a few more pics we started to go down. On the other side of the pass it’s the start of the “Aran Valley” and the road on that side was in a very bad condition, some parts with no tarmac, with mud, and potholes. So we went down at a slow pace, with beautiful snowy landscapes around, though the peaks were already in the clouds.
We arrived to Vaqueira, ski station quite ugly in my opinion (as so many others….) and proceeded down to Vielha where we took the tunnel (it was sooo cold inside, like a cold tunnel of 5km… the only moment of the trip I felt cold). And then to Pont de Suert. After the village we stopped to help a French couple, with a XJR1300 each, who was lost… how wouldn’t they, they had no map… So we indicated how to go to Bielsa through Ainsa, and we got back on the road. I thought that on that road it was the end of the snow-capped peaks… But I was wrong, we still had a few more to see. And with a beautiful village in the front.
We stopped for a while, in the middle of a field, we could only hear the birds and the silence. The truth is that it would have been an ideal place for a picnic, but we had no picnic nor drink, and as it was starting to be late and we were hungry, we had no more choice than to head to the village of the toasts with homemade pork products. There we stopped for a good while, and yes we had the toasted bread with pan con tomate, ham, 2 different types of dry sausage, another type of pork product, 2 different types of cheese, pate and so on… Everything homemade. After lunch we had some more rest on the terrace outside, next to 2 English bikers.
Well at some point we had to go back home, so we headed back.
We went to Pobla de Segur, and followed the N260 to la Seu d’Urgell, to get back to the road we arrived through. A very nice road but full of Mossos d’Esquadra… (the Catalan police. We saw a couple on their bikes, a mobile radar, and another control later.)
In Sort we went back to the road we arrived from. We did our last pics stop in Pervés Pass and enjoyed a little more of the road…
Then we got to the C14, back to Bassella, where we stopped again to rest and have some coke, and proceeded to Solsona, Manresa, etc… and back home. With lots of traffic and few enjoyment…
In total about 650km of twisties and more twisties, surrounded with snowy landscapes along the whole way, fully enjoying the landscape and the road…
A Happy Birthday 🙂
Ride outs
Catalonia Ride-out – all by myself
A few weeks ago, one of the few days of March-April with no rain, as my husband was away for the week-end, I decided to do something I hadn’t been doing for ages: go for a ride-out on my own, and stop as much as I wanted to take pics…
Let’s go…
That Spring Sunday, I woke up at about 8.00am, and after breakfast I put on my leathers, together with the recently bought rain jacket (the old one had just died- or at least its zip, after 7 years of intensive service), and I went out… the trip started at last.
I took with me a small cool-box, where I put 2 sandwiches, a coke can, my winter gloves and my rain pants (to keep them cold…).
I started the day taking the C58 road to Manresa. The stunning views of Montserrat Mountains with their peculiar shapes emerging from the mist woke me up completely.
I followed to Manresa, and then I took the C55 through Súria, Cardona… and turned just before Solsona to go up to Sant Llorenç de Morunys through the road of “la Llosa del Cavall” reservoir.
There I stopped for the first time, I was surrounded with fields of small white flowers. So I stopped on a perpendicular road, where some people were flying remote-control scale-model planes.
The second stop was on the reservoir of la Llosa del Cavall. That day was a little strange, with kind of a light mist around giving the landscape a dreamlike aspect. And the reflections were just incredible.
There I HAD TO stop on a bend (with a big hard shoulder though) because the scenery was just too much. I felt like I was somewhere in Scotland, by the Loch Ness or something like this, more than on a road of the Catalan pre-Pyrenees…
After stopping in Sant Llorenç de Morunys to refuel, and make sure of the right way asking to the gentleman in the filling station, I followed the path he indicated. The idea was to go to Coll de Nargó by a road I had taken last summer.
But I got lost, when I arrived to the Pass, I was so concentrated on the road because the tarmac was full of potholes, that I followed the bend on the left, and I didn’t even see that there was another road that was going straight.
So after a good while riding, I realised that the landscape didn’t ring a bell… but it was too late, I was already back in Solsona…
No bother, I had all the day, and nobody would stop me from going to the planned road. So I followed the road that goes to Bassella (and its motorbike museum), a very nice road too, though that day there was a lot of traffic (but also many safe places to overtake). At the cross, I followed in direction of Andorra, and at last I arrived to the cross I should have arrived to from the other way… just after Coll de Nargó.
From there I had a 40km piece of twisty roads in the middle of nature, with almost no traffic at all (I hardly saw 2 or 3 cars).
With this big detour, it was almost 1pm, and I started to be hungry, so I started to look for a place to stop to eat my sandwiches. There was a nice pass, but it was too windy and cold, even though the views were impressive, so I followed.
After about 10km I saw a road that seemed to go to the depths of a valley and looked nice. But I saw it too late and I couldn’t find a place to turn back. So while I was looking for a place to turn back I found another place to stop for lunch. It was a group of 4 houses, with a nice waterfall, and stunning views over the valley. I went down a cement path, quite steep, to the “center” of the “village” (no tarmac there), and there I felt a little like an intruder so I turned back as I could to park the bike half way to the top. Between the houses there was a man and his son (I guess) doing some repair job on a Montesa.
While I stopped, we could only hear the sound of the waterfall and some bird singing from time to time. It was so peaceful.
After having my lunch and taking a good rest, I took some more pics of the bike and went on.
This time without the rain coat, as the sun was now shining and it was much warmer than in the morning.
After a while I overtook a car that was quite slow, and after a bend I found this landscape…
It was more stunning in live than on the pics, there was no hard shoulder, and the road was going down, so I stopped and took the pic from the bike, with the helmet and the gloves on, just in case the car I had overtaken before would arrive…
Then I stopped once again and for the last time a little more down the road to take more pics…
While I was stopped, the car passed me again (I’m sure he’d thought why the hell is she overtaking for losing time stopping all the time afterwards… ).
After a while I got to the Pass I had got lost before and overtook the car again…
And finally I proceeded to Sant Llorenç de Morunys again, with no more pic stops as the weather was starting to get worst now and I preferred not to get rain on the way home (and less a mountain storm).
I refuelled again in Sant Llorenç, and luckily it was not the same gentleman, he would have thought I was crazy going around in circle…
I went down the road through la Llosa del Cavall reservoir, where I had a few rain drops, and with the views not as nice as in the morning, there was now a little bit of wind and no more reflections…
Even with the detours and kilometres, I arrived home quite early, after exactly 372km… and I cleaned the bike from all the insects that had ended their lives on my bike front… and on the helmet… Yes, Spring finally arrived!
V’s
Trips
Our 2008 holidays (Spain)
Our 2008 holidays started with the car for practical reasons (we were going to a Wedding) and also to save money as the fuel prices in France were like mad and it was better to do as many kilometres as possible with one tank. The area is very nice there and it was the best period as the lavenders were blooming.
We’ll defo have to come back with the bikes.
We didn’t stay long in France and we went back to Barcelona to leave the car and take the bikes. We had planned to go to Asturias, with some stops in the Pyrenees.
We took the following roads:
Barcelona-Tarrega through dual carriage way. Then C53 to Balaguer, then C13 that goes by the fantastic road of Camarasa reservoir with also fantastic views. Then Tremp, La Pobla de Segur and we stopped for lunch in Senterada.
We had stopped there a couple of years back on our way back from a rally. We had then been eating some fabulous “torradas” (big slices of farmhouse bread) and the owner had us tasting some homemade pork products. Yummy. So we had decided to come back… And we asked for some “torradas” and they brought: bread (as much as we wanted), with tomatoes and garlic from their back garden for the “pan con tomate” (you rub them on the bread, and add olive oil), and ham from the village, 3 kinds of dried homemade sausages, and 3 kinds of homemade cheese. So when we finished my husband wouldn’t fit in his leather suit anymore lol and we almost had to stay there for the night! Lol
Well we finally proceeded through Pont de Suert, Castejón de Sos, Ainsa (beautiful road along a gorge) and ended up in Bielsa where we would stop for a couple of nights.
In Bielsa they were kind enough to welcome us with a beautiful full moon coming out from behind the mountains, and a bar provided the use of a telescope to their clients against just buying one drink.
The following day we had planned to go for a loop going through the French side and going up (and down) a few of the famous “Tour de France” ports. There is a tunnel separating France and Spain. On the Spanish side there wasn’t a lot of sunshine, but it didn’t seem it was going to rain. Though when we went out of the tunnel, we got welcomed with some thick fog, and we had to go down the port at 20km/h. After a while down, the fog was gone but it was still quite cloudy. We tried anyway to go up the road to the “Col d’Aspin”. After a few kilometres we had to turn back, as the fog was back again, and there is no point going up the road to a foggy port with no view.
We had our lunch in a French village (I won’t reproduce the conversations I heard from other clients next as they made me feel ashamed of being French at that time…), and we went back to the Spanish side.
On the other side the sun was now shining and we could enjoy the nice views, and stop a few times for taking pictures.
We also had a “technical” stop: I was going in the front, and just before a big bend, I see behind me that my husband is beeping the horn and stops on the very narrow hard shoulder (on the bend). I stop and think “Ok, the landscape is beautiful but he must have gone mad to stop in the middle of a bend”… I walk up to him and he says “my bike just stopped”, and at the same time I see him putting a funny face, and he tells me “nothing, I think I may have touched the red ignition button”…
Well, those things happen… so as we were there, we took a couple of pictures and also picked up and ate a few strawberries which were there waiting for us on the banks.
The following day we started our journey to Asturias again, leaving the hotel very early in the morning and enjoying some unforgettable views between Bielsa and Ainsa, with the sun beams coming from the top of the mountains. There is no picture of those beautiful moments, but I have them imprinted in my memory.
We followed to Boltaña, Broto, Biescas and Sabiñanigo and then Jaca to Pamplona. The next stop was close to Laredo where he had a late dinner with some friends. We arrived in Asturias very late… There is no graphic memory of that part as we spent most of our time with friends from bar to restaurant…
As we didn’t get enough kilometres done yet, a few days later we headed West again, to Ferrol, Galicia. The weather was not great there to go with the bikes, so we just had some rest and on our way back, we went through the National Park of “Ancares” where we stopped for
Then we proceeded to León where we stopped for the night and went for a tourist walk, and the next day I was heading back to Barcelona while Juan was going back to Asturias for an additional week.
Quite a few kilometres in 2 weeks, it was nice!
On our bucket list to go back to Bielsa for more days and at last go through the roads of the “Tour de France” with their many ports.
