It must be 37 then
Chris.
Spanish trip 2023
Re: Spanish trip 2023
The mushroom beer is proving interesting.
No idea what's happening or why.
As per.
No idea what's happening or why.
As per.
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Spanish trip 2023
Maybe. But it's offensive with ...
We're safely off foreign soil and dock back in dear old Blighty at 17.30 tonight. A quick ride back home and get a nice early
-start on watching all the racing over the last two weekends
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Spanish trip 2023
Re: Spanish trip 2023
1600 miles later, we are back home.
I will do a write up of each day and Tony will add some extra photos as he has a better camera phone.
But in summary
It was everything I was hoping for, the weather, the roads, the scenery, the culture. we had a great time and even in the areas we went, there is so much more riding that we didn’t get time to do so I will definitely go again.
I will do a write up of each day and Tony will add some extra photos as he has a better camera phone.
But in summary
It was everything I was hoping for, the weather, the roads, the scenery, the culture. we had a great time and even in the areas we went, there is so much more riding that we didn’t get time to do so I will definitely go again.
AMcQ
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Pete.L
- Forum Health And Safety Officer
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Re: Spanish trip 2023
OMG!Talk about Brother from another Mother
EEK! There's two of them
My new ride is a bit of a Howler and I love to make her Squeal
Re: Spanish trip 2023
Right folks, this is the start of the write up of the Spanish trip. As I said a bit further up in the thread, I will do it day by day and Tony will add extra photos as he had a better camera.
As with all stories its best to start at the beginning ….. No doubt you all have forgotten the start of this thread where Marty invited people to come and visit his family olive farm in 2022, that never happened and we had a 2nd attempt to restart the plan in 2023. In the meantime I had read an old copy of BIKE magazine with a report on the best roads in Europe, and the winner was the N260 going almost the full length of the Spanish Pyrenees. So I posted on here that I was going to do a Spain trip this year and if anybody wanted to join me that would be even better….. Tony.mon, Flatline and CheekyKev were interested, so plans were started.
Once we set a date Kev had to drop out as he couldn’t make it work with his busy retirement schedule ;), and although Flatty was still interested he couldn’t take the ferry as he gets seasick in the bath, so he might take the tunnel and ride to meet us in the Pyrenees. Unfortunatly other issues came up and Flatty decided to pull out, so its only Tony & I left. We were both still keen so ferry’s were booked and we contacted Marty to use his rental accommodation as an end destination and hopefully go for a few rides with him.
Due to the distance, this was clearly a job for Normans big KTM 1190 Adventure. It is great at covering distance, but as some of you already know, it’s not too shabby at attacking a series of bends ….. no matter if it’s tight & twisty or fast and sweeping, it wants to play.
For Tony, his decision was easy, he only has the mighty Tuono V4.
The schedule was:
Leave UK on the Friday evening with the Brittney Ferry’s Portsmouth Santander crossing, and getting into Spain at 8am Sunday morning. Stay in Ainsa (on the N260 and in the foot hills of the Pyreneese) for 2 nights to play in the mountains, then go down to Marty’s (Flix) for 4 nights before coming back home with an overnight stop in Pamplona and catching the ferry on Sunday Afternoon.
Day 1 - get to the Ferry …. That was about 150miles for both of us, and we checked in and got on the ferry a good hr before departure.
Lots of old bikes at the port, some being ridden some on trailers. Panthers, Triumphs, old boxer BMWs, Benelli 900/6, Guzzi lemans etc. Talking to a few owners and there is a big classic bike rally off to the west of Santander near the Picos, and they are all going there.
Rally Colombres https://www.motoclubindianos.com/en/wor ... lombres-2/
As Tony had to do a driving job all day he didn’t have as much prep time as me … I had a small rucksack in my topbox that had what I would need for the 2 days on the ferry, so my big bag could stay on the bike. Tony had the joy of carrying all his 50L bag with his lock & chain in it, and his rucksack up 4 flights of stairs … he wasn’t talking much by the time we got to deck 7, and sent me to work out where the cabins were as he didn’t want to go walking round if it was the wrong direction. :0
After all the warnings of bay of biscay and being sea sick …. We had Flat seas
Then we got pissed (no surprise) and talked baldrocks to random strangers.
Day 2. Ferry.
we had hangovers for the boring Saturday where we are trapped on the ferry.so we didn’t drink as much because we had to be up early and off the boat by 8am. … and be fit to ride a long hot day
Day 3. Santander to Ainsa 275miles
Off the ferry and it was already hot, sitting in the que for the passport control and the sweat was running! …. But the bigger problem was that my intercom was not working with my satnav, or allowing Tony to talk to me…. That would make navigation stressful!!!
Before the trip Tony bought a matching intercom so we could communicate easily if we stayed within a 150meter range of each other (we didn’t go for the expensive long range mesh versions that have 10x more range), and we had paired them on the boat and they had worked then, but now there was a problem. Tony could hear me fine, but when he was talking it was at such low volume that i could only just make it out if I had my engine off.. normally being able to mute Tonys puns is not a bad thing, but when we are trying to navigate out of a strange town it was not good…. And not having the sat nav vocal prompts is a big handicap, especially when the sun is so strong that the nav screen is hard to read.
We had planned to get some breakfast once off the boat, but we hadn’t factored in that it was a Sunday and every cafe we went to was closed. After 70 miles we went into motorway services and got some ham based products, a strong coffee and i set about doing a full factory reset on my intercom……. That didn’t help, still only 1 way comms to Tony and no satnav prompts.
As I am sure you all know, the troubleshooting steps for any electronic device are:
A) turn it off and on
B) bang it hard and wiggle all the wires
So I had done A). Next I did B) ……. I gave my helmet a good squeeze and wiggle (Fnarr, fnarr, snigger) and it started working, so it’s not the Comms device, it’s the wiring in the helmet that is the problem.
Anyway, we are back on the motorway with me navigating and Tony watching his phone app for any speed traps on the road in front. This worked well and was the team roles we used for most of the days riding.
Next joy was the toll booths on the motorway and being able to listen to Tony swearing as he cant work out why the booth on his right isn’t working, eventually i give him the hint that he should be using the booth on the left side as that is the side the driver sits in Europe ;)
Once past Pamplona we got off the motorways we started to get big scenery and twisty roads, and once we hit the start of the N260 it was ticking all the boxes…. Even with the bikes fully loaded, this is what we came for
At some point on this day Tony realised there was something odd going on down below…. NO not there! A bit lower down at his feet. Turns out the sole of his boot is flapping round at the heal making it strange when moving on the pegs when riding and even worse when walking.
We rolled into the little medieval town of Ainsa about 4pm, found our apartment, got the bikes unloaded, took them across the road into the underground secure parking (where there was a couple of Varederos to make the VTR link) and then went straight for a well deserved beer or two.
After a much needed shower ( we are not used to riding in leathers in the 30C Spanish mid day heat!) more beer and a steak, we went back to the apartment and sat on the balcony listening to tunes, watching the moon come up and drinking whisky and red wine.
.
To be continued.
As with all stories its best to start at the beginning ….. No doubt you all have forgotten the start of this thread where Marty invited people to come and visit his family olive farm in 2022, that never happened and we had a 2nd attempt to restart the plan in 2023. In the meantime I had read an old copy of BIKE magazine with a report on the best roads in Europe, and the winner was the N260 going almost the full length of the Spanish Pyrenees. So I posted on here that I was going to do a Spain trip this year and if anybody wanted to join me that would be even better….. Tony.mon, Flatline and CheekyKev were interested, so plans were started.
Once we set a date Kev had to drop out as he couldn’t make it work with his busy retirement schedule ;), and although Flatty was still interested he couldn’t take the ferry as he gets seasick in the bath, so he might take the tunnel and ride to meet us in the Pyrenees. Unfortunatly other issues came up and Flatty decided to pull out, so its only Tony & I left. We were both still keen so ferry’s were booked and we contacted Marty to use his rental accommodation as an end destination and hopefully go for a few rides with him.
Due to the distance, this was clearly a job for Normans big KTM 1190 Adventure. It is great at covering distance, but as some of you already know, it’s not too shabby at attacking a series of bends ….. no matter if it’s tight & twisty or fast and sweeping, it wants to play.
For Tony, his decision was easy, he only has the mighty Tuono V4.
The schedule was:
Leave UK on the Friday evening with the Brittney Ferry’s Portsmouth Santander crossing, and getting into Spain at 8am Sunday morning. Stay in Ainsa (on the N260 and in the foot hills of the Pyreneese) for 2 nights to play in the mountains, then go down to Marty’s (Flix) for 4 nights before coming back home with an overnight stop in Pamplona and catching the ferry on Sunday Afternoon.
Day 1 - get to the Ferry …. That was about 150miles for both of us, and we checked in and got on the ferry a good hr before departure.
- Ready to go
- Waiting on Tony
Rally Colombres https://www.motoclubindianos.com/en/wor ... lombres-2/
- Rally colombres 1
After all the warnings of bay of biscay and being sea sick …. We had Flat seas
Then we got pissed (no surprise) and talked baldrocks to random strangers.
- Let’s get drunk
we had hangovers for the boring Saturday where we are trapped on the ferry.so we didn’t drink as much because we had to be up early and off the boat by 8am. … and be fit to ride a long hot day
Day 3. Santander to Ainsa 275miles
Off the ferry and it was already hot, sitting in the que for the passport control and the sweat was running! …. But the bigger problem was that my intercom was not working with my satnav, or allowing Tony to talk to me…. That would make navigation stressful!!!
Before the trip Tony bought a matching intercom so we could communicate easily if we stayed within a 150meter range of each other (we didn’t go for the expensive long range mesh versions that have 10x more range), and we had paired them on the boat and they had worked then, but now there was a problem. Tony could hear me fine, but when he was talking it was at such low volume that i could only just make it out if I had my engine off.. normally being able to mute Tonys puns is not a bad thing, but when we are trying to navigate out of a strange town it was not good…. And not having the sat nav vocal prompts is a big handicap, especially when the sun is so strong that the nav screen is hard to read.
We had planned to get some breakfast once off the boat, but we hadn’t factored in that it was a Sunday and every cafe we went to was closed. After 70 miles we went into motorway services and got some ham based products, a strong coffee and i set about doing a full factory reset on my intercom……. That didn’t help, still only 1 way comms to Tony and no satnav prompts.
As I am sure you all know, the troubleshooting steps for any electronic device are:
A) turn it off and on
B) bang it hard and wiggle all the wires
So I had done A). Next I did B) ……. I gave my helmet a good squeeze and wiggle (Fnarr, fnarr, snigger) and it started working, so it’s not the Comms device, it’s the wiring in the helmet that is the problem.
Anyway, we are back on the motorway with me navigating and Tony watching his phone app for any speed traps on the road in front. This worked well and was the team roles we used for most of the days riding.
Next joy was the toll booths on the motorway and being able to listen to Tony swearing as he cant work out why the booth on his right isn’t working, eventually i give him the hint that he should be using the booth on the left side as that is the side the driver sits in Europe ;)
Once past Pamplona we got off the motorways we started to get big scenery and twisty roads, and once we hit the start of the N260 it was ticking all the boxes…. Even with the bikes fully loaded, this is what we came for
At some point on this day Tony realised there was something odd going on down below…. NO not there! A bit lower down at his feet. Turns out the sole of his boot is flapping round at the heal making it strange when moving on the pegs when riding and even worse when walking.
We rolled into the little medieval town of Ainsa about 4pm, found our apartment, got the bikes unloaded, took them across the road into the underground secure parking (where there was a couple of Varederos to make the VTR link) and then went straight for a well deserved beer or two.
- Medieval Ainsa
- Apartment view
- Varederos in the parking
- Moon rise
To be continued.
AMcQ
Re: Spanish trip 2023
A cracking read Al, it almost made me feel I was actually there doing the trip with you and Tony 
The added photos is what makes it feel more real.
I look forward to the next installment
Glad you both had a great time,
Chris.
The added photos is what makes it feel more real.
I look forward to the next installment
Glad you both had a great time,
Chris.
Re: Spanish trip 2023
Our first beer in Ainsa.
And a couple of the classic bikes on the ferry:
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Spanish trip 2023
Alastair full of the joys of a biking holiday:
And the view from our balcony.
We thought this was a pretty spectacular piece of rock - but it turned out just to be the warm-up act for some of the scenery to follow.
And the view from our balcony.
We thought this was a pretty spectacular piece of rock - but it turned out just to be the warm-up act for some of the scenery to follow.
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.