Retirement trip - Day 6

 I decided on having a 'non riding' rest day today. Much as I like riding my bike I know the value of taking a break every so often to stop it becoming a chore. So today was spent wandering around Potes exploring the town, doing some washing, going to the supermarket etc.

My bike is parked next to where I'm staying in a cobbled lane. The cobbles make the bike sit at a jaunty angle, but it seems to be secure enough. About 50 metres along the lane is the office of the Guardia Civil, which is the 'big' police force in Spain, the Policia doing the regular day to day policing. This means that officers walk past my bike many times a day, lowering the chance of theft!

Entrance to the apartment block I'm staying in.

Various views around the town.

Retirement trip - Day 5

 A day of contrasts! 

I left Biarritz on a fairly dull, overcast morning and headed west towards Spain. I crossed the border, but it's hard to tell as there are no country signs, just a sign saying the name of the 'county' you are entering. I crossed on a bridge over a river, but unless you knew it was the border, you wouldn't know.

Now in Spain and the architecture changes, you can tell you're not in France any more. Road along the coast and had the occasional trip into the hills. Passed through Bilbao which is a particularly attractive but very busy city, and I didn't really have a chance to stop and take photos. I passed the Guggenheim Museum and it is particularly impressive.

Photo I found on the Web. I went over the bridge in the background.

  Once out of Bilbao I was quickly into the hills and over a few passes.

Eventually I arrived at my destination, Potes in Cantabria, at the centre of the Picos de Europa mountains. I'll be staying here for four days so have rented an apartment so I can get my washing done, cook meals for myself etc. 

Hear a map of the approximate route.

And I talk about today in this video.

 

Retirement trip - Day 4

 I knew today was going to be a long trip so I planned on doing it on a Sunday as most places are closed and the roads quieter. With this in mind I travelled on back roads and followed some 'Tourist Routes' in an attempt to see the best of the country.

I set off on a bright, sunny morning and the temperature kept going up. By about noon it had reached 32C, the highest I've seen so far this trip. I stopped at a supermarket (they usually only open in the mornings on a Sunday), to get some food and drink, and also to see if I could get some screws to fit my saddle (see yesterday's post). As luck would have it they had a packet of 7 M6 x 25mm screws, plus nuts, for only 2.80 Euros. That's enough to fit 3.5 Bonneville saddles and you've got the nuts left over. Think how much that would cost you in a Triumph dealer!

Back on the road and it continued hot and sunny as I rode on almost deserted roads. That was until about 15:00 when it started getting a bit cloudy and the temperature dropped from 32C to about 18C in about 15 minutes. Very dark rain clouds appeared over head, and it wasn't long before some of the heaviest rain I've ever ridden in started suddenly! I stopped at the side of the road to put on my waterproofs under some trees, and the rain got even heavier. You can't really see it in this photo but water was running like a river down the road!

I got back on and continued to ride slowly as I could barely see the road in front of me. Luckily, I came up behind a queue of slow moving cars so at least I could follow the line of the road by watching their rear lights. I was the only bike I saw on the road during the rain, but there were lots sheltering under bridges.

The very heavy rain lasted about half an hour and it started to clear up a bit but there was still a lot of spray from the road. It eventually dried up and although it was still cool and overcast, I could ride again at 'normal' speeds. Well, for about half and hour when the heavy rain came back, this time accompanied by very heavy (and painful) hail!

About this time I was starting to run low on petrol so looked for a service station. The majority of service stations in France are open 24 hours a day, when they are unstaffed you can pay with your bank card like in the UK. I like how if you use a British bank card the display changes to English! I pulled into a service station and for the first time in at least 20 years, my card was declined! I rode on to the next service station but it didn't have a card reader. Things were getting a bit desperate as I was now on reserve, and on my way to find another service station the bike cut out as if it had run the tank empty. This of course happened during one of the heaviest downpours of rain! Eventually it restarted but didn't run smoothly and cut out and restarted another time. Eventually I found a closed supermarket and its card reader accepted my card! Once refilled, the bike ran perfectly. Theory: I usually never run the bike on reserve, filling up before it gets there. The reserve pipe at the bottom of the tank might be slightly blocked with rust and dirt, as well as droplets of water, and these were making it run badly. I'll clean out the tank and fuel tap when I get home.

The rain eventually cleared and the sun came out again, drying my clothing. It got a bit overcast again for the last half hour or so, but didn't look like it would rain. You can tell when you're far through France when you start to see signs mentioning places in Spain!

All in all, I rode for about 8 hours today. No idea of mileage, but it was fairly high (I refuelled 3 times). this map gives you an idea of where the cities I rode from and to are, but not the route.

My stop for the night was the famous seaside resort of Biarritz. From the 19th century until WW2 this was one of the most fashionable holiday resorts for the rich and famous (on a par with Monte Carlo - it even had a casino!), After WW2, it never really regained its status, but is still a popular resort with a lot of hotels, some with quite stunning architecture. 

When I got back to the hotel I replaced the screws in the bike's saddle, topped up my Scottoiler, and can report that my Superglue repair of my boot held up!

More tomorrow including a border crossing!

Retirement trip - Day 3

 It was another bright morning as I headed off from Le Mans to my next destination, the very attractive coastal town of La Rochelle. I was there 32 years ago and always planned to revisit. 

The ride was very pleasant as it was very sunny and the temperature soon got up to about 30C. The sat nav is still working OK, but I had to deviate from its route to buy petrol. I knew today wasn't going to be a long ride, so I picked some interesting country roads and sort of 'free formed' it a bit. Saw lots of interesting countryside and rode through lots of very pretty villages. I stopped for a picnic lunch on a bench - orange juice, fresh bread and olives from a local shop.

This is what I love about this style of holiday, you can just stop and buy food for a picnic as you go along and sit on a bench somewhere nice and watch the world go past.

However, I had a small failure on the way to the picnic - the sole started coming off one of my boots! I'd taken an old pair of Alpinestars boots that I rarely wear as they are quite light, so nice and cool, and have a Gore-Tex lining in case it rains. I can't remember buying them but it was about 15 to 20 years ago. When I was in the shop buying the food I got a tube of superglue and will try repairing them tonight.

Whilst I was on the road I saw a lot of 1960s and 70s cars all travelling in the same direction. Mostly smaller stuff like old Renault Dauphins, so I assume there was an event on locally. I stopped at a supermarket for petrol and saw this group.

Back on the road and I got to La Rochelle. Last time I was here it was a very pretty town with lots of good old buildings, but fairly quiet. What a difference now! It was very busy, the harbour area full of bars, cafés and restaurants, and the nearby streets full of high end shops. It must be one of the most cycling friendly towns as there loads of cycle lanes, bicycle shops and hire bikes available. There were probably more people on bikes than in cars.

Some photos from around the harbour area.

Saw this choir performing in a square. Very enthusiastic 'African gospel' singing with dancing and handclapping.

Made my way to my hotel and booked in. I was moving my bike and the saddle came loose. Looking more closely and the two screws at the rear of the saddle were missing. As standard they are ordinary M6 Allen head screws, but I had replaced mine with aftermarket turned alloy ones with a knurled bit so they can be removed without tools. I've had them for about 5 years and have never had them come loose before. However, I had left the bike parked with a group of other bikes, so I wonder if someone spotted them and stole them, there are plenty of other Triumph Bonnevilles running around here. I'll never know, so I'll be off to a hardware store tomorrow to buy some 'ordinary' screws. It's unlikely I'll have to remove the saddle during the rest of the trip so it won't inconvenience me too much.

I didn't keep a note of today's mileage, but this shows the cities I rode between. This is from Google Maps and it calculated the route as taking about 3.5 hours. With all the detours, country roads and stopping for a picnic, I was on the road for about 5.5 hours. 

More tomorrow!

Retirement trip - days 1 and 2

 Day 1

Day 1 of my holiday wasn't without some problems. I set out at 9:00 this morning for the 450 mile/700km ride to the ferry at Portsmouth. This will be the longest day's ride of the trip, so it was best to get it over with at the beginning. The trip started out well on a cool but sunny morning (10C) and by mid morning it had got up to 20C. Everything went well until just past Birmingham when my sat nav screen went blank. I stopped and tried to restart it but it remained blank. I had buy a map and made my way by what was the easiest but shortest or quickest route. This added at least 50 miles/80km and 2 hours to the journey. Eventually got to Portsmouth with a couple of hours to spare, got something to eat, them made my way to the port.

This is the route I should have taken, mine was a bit longer!

You have to be at the port an hour and a half before sailing, so there is plenty of hanging around to do. Then we went through the strictest security I've ever been through (and I've been to East Germany) with all vehicles being searched. It was the first time I'd ever had the luggage on my bike opened, had a Swiss Army knife scrutinised, and had to show the prescription for my medication.

Eventually we were allowed on board and the crew tied down our bikes.

I then made my way up to my very nice cabin.

Hopefully everything gets easier after this!

Day 2

Woke up after a very pleasant Channel crossing. The Channel was very calm but I was woken up a couple of times by the noise of the engines. A quick shower then breakfast and it was time to make my way down to the car deck and collect my bike. Passing through French passport control was fairly quick, though I had my passport stamped for the first time since I was in East Germany in 1983. This is due to UK citizens being restricted to 90 days in Schengen area countries in each 6 month period. Thanks, Brexit!

It was another overcast morning of about 10C and I headed off towards my day's destination, Le Mans. Inexplicably, my sat nav seemed to have started working again - it never really switched off so I assume it completely flattened its battery overnight and reset itself. When I recharged it it seems to work correctly and continued working all day. It was asking for a software update, so I'll arrange that when I have time.

I took a route that took in as many back roads and small villages as possible and stopped at the village of Ste-Mere-Eglise, which was famous for an incident that took place in the early hours of D-Day when a US paratrooper was trapped on the church tower. Link

The town centre has a lot of things commemorating its wartime liberation with a museum, some monuments, and the faces of US troops who died there displayed on lampposts. 

I shot a bit of video but didn't use my usual camera, hence its a bit shaky and the sound a bit noisy.

I carried on and passed this interesting sign at a motocross circuit.

As I was riding along the weather was getting warmer and I saw about 27C at one point. By this time I was riding with just a t-shirt under my jacket, airvents opened, and sunglasses and coolest gloves on. It was great weather for riding in and a good sign of things to come.

I got to Le Mans and visited the famous motor racing circuit. Unfortunately, the museum, full of racing cars and bikes, was closed (it reopens next week!), but there were a couple of racing cars in glass cases outside. I had a ride round the 'road circuit', public roads used for racing, and it's frightening to think how fast the cars go on what are 'normal' public roads, albeit with runouts and raised kerbs.

My hotel was only a short distance away, that is where I'm writing this from. It's nice enough but nothing special and there is a really nice lake across the road.

Retirement trip - my bike

 Hello! I kind of abandoned my blog last year due to lack of views. I think the last post only got 8 views in a week and more than half of them were Russian bots. However, I'm going to give it another try as I'm about to go on my 'Retirement Trip', a five and a half week trip to numerous countries on my bike. 

As I travel I intend to take lots of photos and videos, so will be posting them here. Whether anyone looks at them or not is another question!

First up is a video I made about the bike I'll be going on. It's the Triumph Bonneville T100 I've had for a few years and in the video I describe some of the accessories I have fitted.