The Euro trip - revisited

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The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:55 pm

The CMSMJ1 (and Grandad) Euro Trip

Now then..about time I wrote this up and showed you lot the sights of the summer holiday!

Basically, me and my best buddy, Grandad (or Craig as his mam calls him) wanted to get out for a holiday on the motorbikes as neither of us had ever been on a road trip before.

We decided on some places to go and some dates and we looked at maybe hitting up the Sachsenring for the MotoGP or a trip to Spain for a trackday etc...

We gave ourselves 2 weeks to complete the trip and it happened that I mentioned the trip to Steve (vfrman) and he offered to let us camp in his garden! In Pisa....

So, route amended and we had our southernmost target to aim for...Pisa!

Day 1 (Saturday) >> Sheffield to Dover and then Calais to Guignicourt


Well, in fact we were scheduled to ride down to Dover on the Friday but I had to work and it was also pissing down with rain....

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So..we had some beers and packed the bikes up, ready for a 4am start to Dover...

My ZX7R - Image

Grandad's ZX6R - Image

Anyways....we got drunk and kicked back..being very excited about the prospect of getting the hell out of wet and gloomy Sheffield for some Euro Trip sunshine!!
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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:56 pm

The morning....Image

We blasted down the M1, round the M25 and down the M20 to Dover. The ZX7R is a fast moto but it was not liking the mahoosive panniers! Speed wobbles ahoy.

We sailed with Sea France – only 1h15m crossings..and a nice boat.

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We hit France about lunchtime and set up our cheap Lidl bike 2 bike intercomms...they were shit.

I am sad to report that we were so excited about getting out and down we took very few pics of the arrival..

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Our route was a simple one, stay off the toll roads and head south...easy!

Calais to Guignicourt was about 170 miles...it was hot, we were excited and so we blasted away, past a few war memorials ad WW1 cemeteries. I am a big WW1 geek actually. My Great Uncle won a VC in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and all my family have been military..apart from me..lol

The roads were great too – nice and smooth, lots of grip and the weather was lovely.

About 4hrs later we arrived at the Camping Municipal at Guignicourt. A lovely campsite indeed.
We saw a pub on the way in..so we stopped for a quick one....

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The campsite was awesome..cheap and nice area. Recommended.
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We strolled into town to find a bit of fodder and some beer..
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A cool war memorial..

Fodder was Pizza....and a bottle of wine and some ice cold beers

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There were a load of crazy Dutch people in their Citroen Ami cars...a bit of a get together. Cool cars, funny people and we had a good crack with them

A Citroen Ami..

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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:56 pm

Day 2 – Sunday – Guignicourt to Saint Marie Sur Ouche

Well, it was now Sunday and we were worried about the French people and their work ethic and whether we would find any open petrol stations…

As it turned out, we were OK..still pushing the limits between stops as Grandad’s ZX6R doesn’t have a working reserve switch and so he started to get scared above 100 miles…

The weather was just perfect, hot, sunny and we were still flushed with the excitement of the ride south.

We got cracking and soon became lost in Reims…we had no GPS, we had a really crap A5 sized map of the French roads… so trying to get through a city the size of Reims was just comedy. It was boiling hot too and getting hotter. As sensible Englishmen, we were wearing 2 piece leathers an slowly melting… We were arguing about which direction to go when we saw a French dude and his purty lady friend on a yellow SV.. We asked him where to go…and he could’t speak English…So a bit of pointing at the map (which he laughed at) and we followed him out of town…top chap.

Out of Reims and onto the open road. We just were on a mission to get down to the south coast and into the mountains so we barely stopped or took any photos.

We did see some cool War memorials..
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Also, as an aside..I was testing some BT016 out for my local shop who are a Bridgestone Bikers Club dealership. They sold me some tyres at cost and all I had to do was write them some details about wear, warm up etc. I took a load of pics of my tyres…and this one of Grandad’s Maxxis..

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Check this road out..what is not to like about this?

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Lots of flies….I mean lots and lots…more than I’d ever killed in such a short time!
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So, after this little stop which was just to cool down and drink some water /have a fag we got cruising again..superb roads, no-one about…it was wicked.

The hills were starting to get hillier and we were seeing signs for Dijon..so nearly half way down the country and we only set off the morning of the day before..

We got lost in Dijon (again) and finally got to the correct road and with Grandad getting scared of running out of fuel we landed at the camp site..which was also pretty nice.

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We were starving and after getting the tent out and finding I had some molten Brie in my panniers…arse…I was pissed off bigtime.. Grandad was pissing himself. (my panniers still honk of cheese now!)
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we got to asking where we can find food… No where on the campsite anyways..the closest place a 5 mile run up the road.

T shirts only and gloves we got out to try and find this food gaff.. Oh yes…what a good find.
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Oh my lord..I love eating cows as much as anyone..but this was about the nicest bit of animal I have ever had the pleasure of chomping on. It was manna, it was nectar..it was just too nice.


OM NOM NOM etc etc…


So, to bring this day to a close we got back to the campsite and tucked into a bottle of pernod pastis with some salami sandwiches and molten brie. There were a pair of Dutch riders camped opposite so we sat and had a crack and got pissed. One of the funniest things on the whole holiday where the female rider (who was actually more masculine than the guy) was telling us that “tomorrow we are not riding the bikes, we will be drinking the beers and having the sex” Imagine that in a very broad accent.. we are having zhe shecks.. Too funny..and the face of the Dutch guy was a picture!

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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:57 pm

Right on Day 3 Monday Sainte Marie Sur Ouche to Serriers en Chantagne

Hungover…hot and another couple hundred miles ahead of us. It was still exciting to get out and hit the roads as we were now getting into some serious hills.

We went via Dijon an saw a beach in the middle of the city..
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I was also trying to master the art of taking pictures when riding…
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We stopped for some lunch and a rest in the shade..everything shuts at 1200 on a bloody Monday! No wonder our French comrades get annoyed at having to do a days work now and again…

The bikes were hot but performing lovely. This was first proper go on the 7R and I was finding it a really chilled and fast moto. Was glad I bought it to come away rather than bringing my NC30, no9.
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Tyres were hanging on and so was the road kill..the 7R likes to eat big insects..
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It was really hot once again and we were being sensible still and wearing full 2 piece leathers..to encourage the boiling in your own sweat..
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Lots of open roads, hills and great fun..
Awesome scenery too..this the bridge at Matafelon-Granges..
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Another cool war memorial..
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We stopped at a place called Nantua – just stuning views. We had been blatting through forest roads in and out of the shade and came out the side of a hill to see this…

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Sit in this shelter..
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And the view is.. Image

I really liked Nantua and would make a point of coming back this way on any other holiday..
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After that, we got lost some more..and took a wrong turn ending up at the bottom of the Lac du Bourget when we really needed the top of it… a sly stop for a packet of Snickers ice creams and a rest.. We’d had 7hrs in the saddle and were just about fecked and ready to fall over and sleep..it was only 5 o’clock though…an another few miles to go.

Arrived at the campsite..really unimpressed by it..”Camping le Clairet” The pitch was gravelly, the whole place was just rough.

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Me, boiling to death trying to get a tent up in the gravel..
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Got a beer in the hand, ordered a scabby burger and was just chillin..
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More dead things..
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And so, we kicked back and watched the Frenchies playing in the little lake with.another long ride done an dusted. Got a litre of wine in…like you do.
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And so we were in deepest darkest France and only Monday night! We could almost feel the Alps coming closer and the prospect of hitting the Mediterranean was too cool…
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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:58 pm

Day 4 – Tuesday – Serrieres en Chantagne to Saint-Pierre D’Argencon


Another hungover start, bright and early this time though as we were beginning to realise that avoiding the motorways and taking the scenic route was making the days really long. We had planned this journey to be about 200 miles a day, just under 10 days..so about 2 thousand miles…but already we had seen that we were getting lost enough and taking too long to get places!!

We packed up at the crack of dawn.
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Sun came up over Lac Du Bourget
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What a nice place. The sun was also out too and we were dry mouthed, set for a mondo day into the pre Alps.. woohoo. Also had a little bit of the Route Napoleon on the cards which was cool as I wanted a picture of one of the Eagles on the route.

So, out and into Chambery for some brekkie – had some tasty Pain au Chocolat anda couple of croissants. We got lost in Chambery too..
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Having nearly perfected the taking of pictures on the move I had a few decent shots of random towns..

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Wicked riding. We headed into a town called Corps – on the Route Napoleon and we stopped for a break.
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We should have carried on round the corner from where this pic was taken..it would have been onto the main street and saved us a 10 minute walk up steep hills inn 30+ degree heat. Ballache. A nice cold coke and a jug of water later we were ready to come down the super twisty roads from Corps into Gap.

This day was the first panniered up knee down session. I was getting closer and closer and decided to get a good go at it and on a long medium speed hairpin I got to hanging off and got a lovely little scuff on the French roads. Whoop!! Grandad still doesn’t have a knee down in his repertoire and so I got him to follow and see the skills…and then I followed him as we carved down into Gap on the Route Napoleon for tens of miles.

We saw an Eagle…
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Really nice area of the world..
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We arrived at the camp site nice and early to find it was a Britsh owned site and that they had showers for us to use and even a brick built BBQ too!! Lovely place.
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We went shopping..
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Random cheese, steak, chicken and 2 bottles of wine and a box of Kronenbourg.

Grandad got to work..
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I chipped in too..

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We had a drunken conversation about where to go first thing tomorrow. No panniers and just get out for a scratch. See the amazing map we had..we wanted to go to the white roads on the left hand side of the map..
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As it happens..it went dark and all the beer was finished and I fell asleep in the door of my tent. Thanks go to Grandad for this picture…

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So, Tuesday was done. Tomorrow was the big one. To St Martin Vesubie and within a few miles of the Mediterranean coast.
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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:59 pm

Day 5 – Wednesday – Saint-Pierre D’Argencon to Saint Martin Vesubie (and a mad dash to the sea and getting lost in Nice and Monaco!!)

So, Day 5 was on us and we had the Alps in sight and the prospect of hitting the Med in only 5 days of cruising across France. We had learned again that the twisty roads are knackering and very time consuming so it was up and at them, pack the tents and bags and get going. We were getting very fast with our campsite admin..could get it all up or down in half an hour and on the bikes.

It was bloody hot, again, but we were not quite learning to sack the leathers as we were still sensible enough to be scared of falling off.

So, down through Aspres and into Gap again…some more awesome roads and a bit more kilo delta action for me. I was loving the riding and the roads. Great holiday and strange to think that less than a week ago we were getting soaked in Sheffield and now we were about to start into the Alps and end up only 50 miles from the sea!!

Some serious lovely scenery…
This is the large lake/reservoir at Savines Le Lac – we crossed the bridge and rode down the sides of it..
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We then hit the valley and was on the road to Barcelonnette and the scenery and the roads were just getting more and more mental.
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We arrived at Barcelonnette an stopped for some food and petrol. Getting very excited about the prospect of the Col de Bonet which is a 2800 metre pass in the Alps. Famous shit..

Riding up the roads were just too cool…flowing corners and around hairpin to hairpin. We stopped on the way up for some pictures.

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Walking to the summit was a killer…
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This is the other side of the mountain…the Mediterranean side!
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I did have some bother on the Col as when we wanted to get going again the Ninja was not having it. Tried to bump it and ended up rolling down over a mile seeing if it would bump. The altitude was playing havoc with the carbs and so it did finally get going the lower I went. After that, I just caned it as Grandad had already fecked off and was on the top….Once on the top the bike did restart and we got radical and hoofed it back down the hills…heading to St Martin Vesubie!

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So…we arrived in St Martin Vesubie and set up the tents. It was now 6 O’clock an we’d been riding on the roads from 9 that morning. In a fit of immense retardedness I persuaded Grandad that as we were close enough to the Med then why not just get radical and ride to Monaco without panniers. It was 50 miles away..so we could get there in an hour or so?? Surely! What could go wrong….??

We set off and without the gear on the bike we had a great time. It was cool Like a computer game with little tunnels hewn from the rock and rivers an slow coaches in the way. We were riding like fools but it was such a buzz and we flew down the mountain side and onto the main drag into Nice. Holy shit…what a ballache. Traffic was slow, the heat was intense and because Grandad is a regular meals kind of guy he was slowly turning into a murderous hungry dude…

Once in Nice town centre (or rather massive city) we followed signs for “Nice: Cote D’azur” as I was thinking this would lead us the right way.. As it happened we ended up at the sodding airport which is the wrong direction to the planned Monaco session. We stopped for fuel and a bit of an argument about this being a stupid idea and where the fuck were we going to go…

By a trial and error basis, in what seemed 50 degree heat, we managed to land on the A8 toll road..signed for Monaco!!

We paid the couple euros to get on the road and whizzed down
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The Grimaldi Palace…Monaco.

Even better..

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The Mediterranean!! Woohoo..from Sheffield to the Med in 5 days. Awesome.

So, we were now in Monaco, starving to death, sick of riding and ready to kill each other. It was now nearly 8 O’clock and we were thinking what we might do for food…we blagged a table, dressed in sweaty leathers, in a posh restaurant and without talking to each other we ordered some food. I had some Veal…Grandad a steak and a beer.

We ate in silence…as Grandad was about to kill someone as he had no ciggies too…but when he got a pack of Marlboro red he was chilled and once the food and a pint had taken effect we began to worry about finding our way back into the mountains as it went dark.

Looking at our shit map we thought going back via Menton on the Italian side was a better idea than getting lost in Nice again…. So at about 9 O’clock we set off…and promptly got lost and decided we had better go back the way we came. Arse biscuits.

More riding along the coast roads and we somehow got on a road to Nice that was not the road we came in on. In Nice we didn’t have a clue and ended up riding down into a toll road which we knew would take us back the wrong way. We turned our lights off, turned around and pegged it back up the slip road…sketchy and worried about the rozzers and being crashed into! We got back out and decided to find some people and ask them.
First couple we saw were on a roundabout having an argument….a guy and a girl having a proper domestic. So I butted in and asked how we get to Vesubie..the dude laughed and gave us the crazy finger gesture. It was now 10 O’clock and we were mightily pissed off. He told us to get on the road and keep going until we see a sign for some village..and then turn right. That was the road to Vesubie and it would be 2hrs travel. Bollocks! As it happens, we got lost again and asked another couple who told us we were on the right route.

Again, we rode like totally stressed out idiots…carving the roads and with main beams showing the way we had the frustration of being miles from a warm sleeping bag and a cold beer.. We made it back to St Martin Vesubie at 2355. There was a local bar in the village and we caned 2 Stellas in the 5 minutes before it closed. Trying not to wake the rest of the campsite we rolled back down and got set for some kip.

That day was a very high point in seeing the sea but a low point as I had taken us on a stupid trip to Monaco and wasted 6hrs. We were in Monaco itself for maybe 1 hour..the rest was riding about being angry and lost. The worst part….the next morning we were going to Monaco anyways so we should have left it….
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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:59 pm

Day 6 – Thursday – St Martin Vesubie to Pisa, via Monaco

Waking up at 0600 in St Martin Vesubie and we were wrecked. We knew we had a 300 mile ride to complete today an we would be in Pisa tonight. That was a cool feeling indeed. We decided to kick back for an hour and Grandad went to explore St Martin Vesubie village while I was having a shower and sorting my packing out.

It was a nice town. Very narrow and basically straddling a small peak.

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Sorry about the links, Grandad got all arty and made the pictures tall! Worth clicking them as it is a lovely little village and if any of you are planning to ride to Italy I suspect you will come this route.

We raced back down the roads we did yesterday when we were knackered. Having effectively a third pass at them made it seem like we knew the place already. We nailed the run into Monaco and got there in about an hour and twenty. This is where the trouble began….

It was bloody busy in Monaco – cars tailbacked everywhere and scooters all over the spot. Filtering was the order of the day but I had slightly wider panniers that Grandad and as we got to the same place we parked the night before I lost him. Shit. We had not fitted our crappy intercoms as the heaphones in G’s had failed. We both only had 1 bar of phone power left and so I resolved to ride around and see if I could catch or find G before too long.

The sun was blasting down, the roads were snided with traffic. I was wearing my leathers still. All of this was a recipe for industrial sized ballache. As it happens I managed to turn a few laps in on the F1 circuit which I was happy about;. I am a big time F1 fan – more so than pretty much anything else. To ride the road down to Mirabeau and onto the hairpin and then round Portier was too cool. The tunnel was nice an shaded as well.

I rode around for 45 minutes doing lots of laps and trying to see were the fuck Grandad had gone to. We finally caught each other on the phone. So I asked him where he was…and he was telling me he was near the boats. Quite useful…seeing as it is a fucking great big harbour! I asked some more..what could he see? What pub was he near? Eventually it turned out he was about 300 yards away and was also riding round. I took a few pics of where I was and then went to get him!

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So..we now had 250 miles to cover and it was lunchtime…what a ballache.

We flew out of Monaco, a few pics on the roads and then we were onto a toll road that was signed Genova – bonus!

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This one on the autoroute – the first proper motorway we had used.

It was awesome – through tunnels and over gorges and valleys. I was getting sick of the tunnels by the time we had been through the 100th one..they were full of fumes and made you feel sleepy in the dark. Not cool.
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We stopped in Italy for lunch and some fuel. Grandad trying to be cool..
Before..
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After
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Grandads was getting thin but I never took a pic. Have one later on.

More nice roads and 90mph photos!
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Off the motorway after munching the miles and we had to pay the tolls..
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Holy shit..It was EUR38 or thereabouts..Jesus! Was not expecting that as the other smaller roads we had used were 2 bucks..


A few hours later we rolled into Pisa and managed to run into Steve (Vfrman) outside the leaning tower. It was funny as we had agreed to meet out front of the Duomo square and so being completely boggled by the mad filtering skills and aggressive driving required in town we bimble along looking for the tower. We never saw the tower at all, but Grandad noticed a dude on a very very pimp NC30. There is only one bike like this on the planet..so it had to be Steve!

We had a quick crack…and escaped to follow Steve back to his gaff.

Couple of crap riding pics..
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And there you go..we had made it to Pisa!

A howdy ho from Sojay (how is it spelled Steve?) Lovely hound indeed..a real classy pooch.

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Steve and Grandad becoming acquainted.

We had a crack and it was really good to meet our host for the next 2 nights. The prospect of a rest and a day off from riding was relaxing indeed. We stuck the tents up in our new, extremely lush garden/campsite and went to get some food.

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A trip to the local pizzeria to get some much needed food, a few bottles of beer and we sat and watched the racing from last week! (Sachsenring 2010

The next day we were going to get out for a ride with Steve’s mates in the Army riding club. Cool!
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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:00 pm

Day 7 – Friday – In and around Pisa.

We woke up and had a bit of brekkie. Checked out the tyres on the bikes as Grandad was getting worried about his. The rear Maxxis was getting thinner by the day and we now had to ride northways and home. Image Image
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Anyway..tyres are boring! Steve wanted to take us out for a ride and we would then hook up with his posse later on if they got in touch. So a quick ride to the local coffee shop for a sarnie and a coffee (and a pistachio ice cream) Image Steve on his trusty Fireblade rather than the oh so pukka NC30. A ride for a bit more and we saw some nice old buildings.. Image A quick nip in the local hardware shop for some citronella sticks and anti Mozzie candles. Image

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We did manage to hook up and go for a ride with the USA crew. A random and mixed bunch. We had the sports bike crew, 848, mille, GSXR750s etc. We had the chopper guys too – some really cool bikes and and all the guys were very good to have a crack with.
It was unsaid, but there was a touch of UK vs USA riding competition in the air as Steve agreed to ride at the rear as a tailgunner and me and Grandad slotted in near the front end and followed the guys out of Pisa and out into a twisty, badly surfaced forest road up a bloody big hill!!

We had only been riding a few miles, getting some good roads in and we came to a set of hairpin bends that were pretty steep.

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Unfortunately our man on the pristine white 848 had lowsided!! Nightmare. The bike would not start again and so after 10 mins of mooching about offering a straight swap for my Ninja we finished the ride to the top of the hill and the local café there. A bit of water and some munch an we chewed the fat with our American cousins for an hour. Sharing bike stories and the usual shit that dudes waffle on about. Steve came up later and told us they were giving up on the 848 for now and would come get it in the truck later.
We got our shit together and finished the ride down the backside of the mountain. By this time I was getting very keen to catch and pass all the guys..like you do. So, engaged my balls and got riding faster and overtook a few guys and caught the fast pair at the front although I never got past them, it was good fun playing and trying to catch them up.

We split up as we were going to go see the tower and get some tat bought for the wife.


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Pisa is a nice place. Bloody busy and the riding style to get around on the streets was crazy. I thought I could filter but some of the moves I saw were mad. I was getting filtered past while I was filtering myself! It seemed that the further south we went the road manners and attitude was getting more and more mental. In England we are able to ride to a roundabout and see if we would have right of way. We’d slow a bit and then dive on. In Pisa you woul have to get onto the roundabout as soon as you got there, regardless of anything else. Mad buggers..

We went back home, via an ice cream shop…had some of the nicest ice cream ever! We also saw the American posse getting back out in the truck to go and pick up the 848.

Back home…I wanted to get a look at Steve’s NC30. Most of us old skool 400GB crew remember When Steve was in Japan and was getting this bike together and also when he moved back home for a couple years and gave it the pimpest paintjob I’ve ever seen. Steve is a dedicated chap. Behold the most tasty NC30 I have ever seen…and I have seen a few!

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Awesome.

That evening Steve had arranged a BBQ and his neighbours and mates came round. It was a good crack and both Grandad and I really enjoyed talking to the guys and gals and the food was damn tasty too! Steve’s wife made some dressing that was just lovely.

A funny thing was talking to the American kids. They did not know why I spoke English if I was not from America. Obviously the language they spoke was made in the USA….I thought it was pretty funny and so I gave them a history lesson starting with the development of the language from the old Latin and Nordic tongues that the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes managed to meld with the old Norman French into the common English tongue we had today. I educated them about the pilgrim fathers being from England..and this is why they spoke English..the kids thought I was strange.
Another thing to note was that our esteemed host thought he could drink a lot of beer…me and Grandad, having lived in Barrow, can out drink most species of fish and so the beer stocks took a hammering.
A great day out and I have to say thanks to Steve and his wife for having me and Grandad over. Anytime you are over here in the motherland..you are most welcome to crash at my house, crash my bikes and I’ll take you round Cadwell Park and for a run in the Peak District.

The next day we were planning to ride to Lake Garda…and away from running water, great hosts and the comfiest lawn I’ve ever kipped on!
IMPERATOR REX ANGLORUM

The V4 is the law..

NC30 - No9 - my old mate

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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:01 pm

Day 8 – Saturday – Pisa to Lake Garda

After a load of beer and tasty food we woke up feeling chipper enough. Steve made the coffee and we decided on our escape route to cross the country and travel north and towards home!

A week into the holiday and already we were going back. That sucked.

The roads out from Pisa and across the Appennines are too cool. Not as well surfaced as France but more like the UK roads in permanent 30+ degrees sunshine.
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In fact, I need to thank Steve for saving my arse and loaning me a tea bag jacket for the ride yesterday and for the rest of the holiday. Proper life saver!

We were climbing all the time and there were loads of tree lined hairpins and flat out sweepers. Great riding.

We stopped most of the way up for some lunch as we wanted to get a good long afternoon of distance covered.
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We carried on, across the middle of Italy and headed for Modena and past Maranello. Image
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Slowly but surely the Alps came closer and we were soon thinking ahead to sticking the tents up and getting a beer..

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As you can see, lovely weather and blazing sunshine. We liked Italy.

The general vibe of the trip was that we were getting better at covering distance and managing our fuel stops. Grandad was not managing any knee down yet but by now I had nailed France and Italy and was looking forwards to hitting the sliders on the deck in each of the countries coming up.
Grandad did manage to pull a sneaky little wheelie though which I never did so I’ll give him props for that.

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All of a sudden, the lake was here. Fuck me, a bloody large old lake this.
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What a kickass place. Another one I will have to come back to and bring the lady wife. Grandad gets a hard on for mountains and gets giddy over lakes (as he is a Cumbrian lad) and so to see the size of this place was making him bonkers. It is such a magnificent and overwhelming location. Huge mountains and a lake you could drown Leeds in! We threw up our tents and went to get a few beers and some food.

This was actually a funny affair. The only place nearby was a few minutes up the road and so we got over there, got a table for two..(nice) and was looking for a menu when the waiter came to ask whether we wanted pasta this, gnocchi that or the antipasti first. We asked to see the menu to be told there is no menu..so what do we want. I hear them say some pasta piccolo or whatever and grandad heard something to do with cheese. We also bought a bottle of local vino and sat back wondering what we were about to get served.
The venue was rammed with tables and guests. All under a large tarpaulin an closely packed. Next to us was a dude – Like “Bruno” who was with what we thought was his sister and his girlfriend. It was clear that they all spoke English as a common language and this Bruno dude was such a prick. He never shut up..blah blah blah. The people on the other side were also getting bored of this dude talking shit about everything and so in a comedy moment that crossed language boundaries we got a proper chuckle on and mocked this Bruno tosser mercilessly. He knew it, we knew it..it was funny.

Food arrived…pasta and sauce for me, nice. Gnocchi and blue cheese sauce for Grandad. Nasty. We also got a jam jar of raw veg and some bread with various dips and some Nutella! I have had some crazy food before but this was just strange. After we had the pasta they brought a load of meats. Parma ham and so on. Yum..

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For afters they brought a bottle of Limoncelli and a bottle of Strawberry liquor too. They got caned in short order and was actually tasty.
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The random meal was cheap – 14 bucks each I think…bargain and very strange.

It had gone dark so we went to get some beers and chilled out.
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Lake Garda is a good place. I thought that was one of the nicest places we stayed out but by then it was feeling a touch unreal that we were in Monaco 2 days ago…

The next day was another long day – We were planning to go over the Stelvio Pass and into Austria and thence Germany. No idea where in Germany as this is where our planning stopped.
IMPERATOR REX ANGLORUM

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Re: The Euro trip - revisited

Post by CMSMJ1 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:01 pm

Day 9 – Sunday – Lake Garda to The Bodensee

Well..this was going to be a serious day. We would be crossing the Alps via the Stelvio Pass which is about as famous as an Alpine Pass can be.

We got up, slightly hungover, and did our daily ablutions.

I loved this Slashgrind station. I had a go on one of these for a dump too..they work.
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The scenery out of town was amazing as we headed around the top of the lake and down to hook up to the road to Bormio which is at the base of the Stelvio Pass.

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More sweet roads and the Dolomites to play in saw me and Grandad ragging it and getting some great overtakes on each other. We stoped for some fuel at an automatic gaff and while I was having a piss round the back a middle aged woman turned up and was asking Grandad to fil her car for her. It was pretty funny…she was giving orders to him an blowing kisses taking the piss. He did it as well..proper pump jockey for an old Italian woman!!
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Saw a little lizard too…the wife loves them
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We pressed on but after a while we realised that there were not enough photos being taken and the scenery was stunning so we grabbed these..

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We rode through Madonna di Campaglio which is where the Ferrari and Ducati team have their winter playing out. It was obviously not snowing so the place looked rough as toast..bare concrete hotels and bare slopes.

The highlight of the holiday, for me, in terms of road riding was about to happen anyways.

We were about to hit the SS42 – the Passo do Tonale

Bugger me. This road had it all. It was smooth, wide and had all the corners you needed. What made it special for me was that Grandad and I had caught up a 10-12 strong group of Italian riders right at the bottom and as I was leading we picked them off one at a time. There was a bit of roadwork and so we were able to catch the leaders of that group. When we set off again all ut the leader waved us by and so I was going faster and faster trying to put a move on the leader of this Italian group. He was riding a Tuono with a lass on the back an I managed to pass him out of a corner in a pretty commited overtake. I knew that I had clear roads due to the roadworks and looking ahead of me I could see the road snaking up the mountain. It was just superb. Our friend on the Tuono was chasing me closely and half wheeling me at some corners so I went faster and faster. He also went faster and faster until the pair of us had left the other bikers for dead and were carving the mountain side. I had not really been head to head like this before on the road and it was obvious to us both that we were serious. Really serious. There was a set of corners with plastic sticks on the apex and I was riding so hard that they were my targets. Brushed them with my hands, my shoulders and my panniers as I was going ever faster an riding at least as hard as I had to when I won my first roadstocks race! It was so thrilling and I don’t think I have ever ridden like that before or since.
The road began to plateau as we got on the crest of the pass. The Tuono guy was still there, nearly overtaking me about a mile before we got up to the top but I carried more corner speed through the next corners and made 3 or 4 bike lengths on him. Saw the road straighten up and we both rolled off a bit and started to slow. I was going to stop to wait for Grandad as I had just ridden 15 minutes at 100% speed and without sucking my own dick I knew that I was as fast as anyone up that road that day! As I slowed to the kerb the Tuono guy was waving at me and came alongside. We were shakling hands like the end of a GP and he was talking in Italian at me. I could not understand and said so..and then in a moment that really made my day (and holiday)
“You are a verrrryy good riiddeerrrr” (in a Valentino style vocal) Fucking right! I told him how much fun that was and he shook my hand some more and zoomed off.

I was buzzin. Went to park up at the enormous war memorial and waited for Grandad.

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We stopped for some coffee and a butty and I was telling Grandad about my racing with the dude an what he said.. Grandad had a bit of a chase and then decide he wasn’t feeling mad enough to come with us and was happy enough to beat the rest of the other Italian riders.

So, now we were close to the Stelvio…a blast into Bormio which was a busy town with a lot of pukka cars and loads of touring motorbikes. It was a friendly place indeed.

More awesome scenery and even a train we chased..

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Mr Gay UK…wannabe at the end of Bormio town and the start of the Stelvio Pass.
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This is the Italian side
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That is me!!
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This is the Swiss side
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It was a shit road and I did not enjoy it as much as Grandad did as I was not feeling the love for the trillion hairpins and really poor road surface. It is a road I would recommend for the views and the mental amount of corners but as a riding experience it was slow, sketchy and plainly abused by coaches and uber fit cyclists.

We met a guy on top of the Stelvio who was riding a KLR600? And had been on the road for ever. He was on the way back from Ukraine and was probably unimpressed by our 8 days away from UK story when he had been away for 6 months…

Anyhow..we were on top of the Alps an needed to figure out where to get to and find somewhere to camp. The run off the tops was better than the way up. We got down and we already felt the weather changing from boiling hot to a more northern European style of cloudy and gloomy
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We got a mission on and decided to aim for Germany and the Bodensee on the border of Austria and Switzerland.. That was a couple hundred miles and so we hit up a few larger roads and even paid a 15 buck toll to travel in a bloody long tunnel under a mountain. The worst part of that was when we came out the other side..and it was raining!! That morning it was 35 degrees in Italy and now it was about 10 degrees and raining…that sucked arse.

We arrived in Bodensee, camped in a really naff site but managed to get some Currywurst and wheat beer so all good. We arrived, ate, drank, went to sleep…got up, packed up and fucked off. No pics at all!!

So, from a sunny Italy through gloom Switzerland and rainy Austria – with knee down in both – to land in Germany…what a long and tiring day.
IMPERATOR REX ANGLORUM

The V4 is the law..

NC30 - No9 - my old mate


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