Malaga 06

What a great idea from Graham and Jeanette, for Jen and Jeanette to fly into Malaga for a luxury week in the Sun and Graham and I to ride out and join them; boys on tour on their Harleys for a few days each side of the week in the Sun.

This is the route, out via Millau, home direct.  I fancied visiting the village of Millau so I could really absorb the piece of superhuman engineering they call the Millau Viaduct.

But I've got a trick or two up my sleeve before that all starts to kick off!  Today Saturday 9th September I'm having a fantastic biking Saturday hosted by the Tyne & Wear Chapter of the Hells Angels and supported by the North East Coalition of bike clubs for TAFF's Memorial Run.  TAFF was a charter member of Tyne & Wear and each year his contribution to North East biking is celebrated.  The first part was a run to Haltwhistle, where a new bike club had organised a buffet lunch that blew a huge hole in my Weight Watchers program.  A fantastic run with a huge poignant moment of de javu on the Western by-pass where four short years ago we lost Denni Mitchell to an RTI and the environment of cars mixed with 100 bikes in a melee of frenetic progress; I rode my own ride and by the A69 turn off had lost everyone!  On the slip road I picked up Joe who was waiting for his Julie and we rode on together but sticking to the route given I took the Military Road while Joe and his mate used the A69!

 

So tonight we shall be at the Chapter Club House in Sunderland for a bikers party.  My memory bank of names has been sorely tested as I met many old friends from the diverse biking community; a truly wonderful day in the saddle.  And tomorrow should be good too!

It's my contribution to Durham Advanced Motorcyclist by organising a Treasure Hunt for our Sunday ride out.  I've called it The Nautical Theme as I have researched five Nautical themed stops along the beautiful North East coastline.

Coastline Nautical Treasure Hunt

J.F.Kennedy once said “Don’t ask what America can do for you, but ask what you can do for America?”  this is a tenet I wholeheartedly subscribe to and the small contribution I am prepared to make to DAM (Durham Advanced Motorcyclists) has been two Sunday ride outs and one evening presentation so I thought the least a member can do is show up and support a DAM event, but (and it’s a big BUT) how do you measure the input work against the benefits gained; by numbers attending?

Weather forecast was reasonable for September, no big competing events in the area and with a membership at 300+ how many should I cater for?  I prepared thirty full colour maps and Treasure Hunt question sheets, obtained a great first prize so with these good omens in place I decided to print another thirty.  In the event only a handful of bikes turned up but I ask again is the success or failure measured in numbers?

Paperwork and administration was soon completed and the fun commenced.  Souter lighthouse was the first scheduled stop on the sheet and the first scheduled stop for most riders, I say most as Peter decided to do the route ‘backwards’ assuming there was a right way round the Northumberland rural roads to get most fun!  A couple of simple questions answered and a ride along the spectacular coast road to the First Lifeboat commemorative area and the first of the ten questions that had a tricky element; the opportunity was taken by many to drop half a point.

Big expense of the day was the 20 pence to traverse the Tyne and onto St.Mary’s island and a 100% right answer from the riders of the two Stop 3 questions. 

When I planned the treasure hunt, as an ex marine engineer and knowing the Northumberland coastal route was a good biking area, I married the two components of my life and had a Nautical theme for my ride.  Living in South Shields the two main attractions demanded inclusion; St Mary’s and Grace Darling were both obvious choices but I struggled for a fifth stop – then I thought Kippers!  Craster was visited and the small but perfectly formed lifeboat station offered the opportunity to continue the nautical theme and once again the tricky treasure hunt question caught a few out!

Final stop was the Grace Darling museum at Bamburgh and any way you approach Bamburgh the Castle offers a stunning backdrop.  Final two simple questions answered and a quick run down the A1 to Washington Services for the final administration and prize giving and the answer to my first questions asked.

Paul Adamson won and immediately donated the Swiss Army Tool prize to the Clubs fund raising efforts for the Great North Air Ambulance; what a guy.  But for me the day was crowned by a loan rider who took part, went on previously unexplored roads, had fun and told me ‘Thank You, I enjoyed today’ – this day was definitely a success.

What can you do for DAM?  Whether it be show up to take part or invest a big effort as many on our committee are willing to do to steward our club, somewhere in between is the contribution you can make and as JFK alluded to, the more you contribute the more you’ll get out of your club, go on get involved and as my main clubs (HOG) raison d’etre, Have Fun and Ride your bike!

Monday 20th September.

One thing about Formula 1 and their facilities is that there is no compelling reason to stay!  To be fair they do exactly what they say on their bill boards and offer cheap, clean accommodation for the weary traveler; which is just what we needed.

I’d programmed the route for today, so took point towards Robins Nest.  My long standing friend had finally taken some of my advice and adjusted his work life balance and bought a property in France at Besseges where he is spending one week a month to wean himself of his punishing work schedule and now in his very early 50’s reaping the fruits of his 24/7 labours.  His plan is that by 55 he will have four weeks every four weeks down in his little piece of heaven.

Today’s focus was the ride and today’s ride took in every type of road that is possible to find from the fastest open highway right to forest gravel tracks, riding with another experienced rider meant we could explore all our fully laden Harleys had to offer; only on the forest tracks did I momentarily think, “Oh for that Buell Ulysses I’d been riding at Riders Edge”, but I am sure if CVO Glide had picked up on my unfaithful thought she’d have understood.  We did just shy of 500 miles and I can honestly say that I enjoyed each and every one of those dry miles.

Change of author now – I just had to make some sort of input to the record of proceedings.  The emphasis for the day was mile munching and that’s exactly what we did, stopping just twice other than for fuel – once to admire the beautiful view of the Rhone Valley and once to take in the memorial to the Free French Army.  The memorial was a fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by those men and women during the fight to liberate France in WW2.

All in all, a fantastic days riding at a reasonable pace, to end up in a beautiful setting, not far from Avignon in the Gard region.  Truth be told, it would be good to have a day in the local area – Oh, I forgot – we can do what we like till the better looking halves arrive on Saturday.  Life is just torture having to ride across France and Spain in the sun!  Now where’s Dave with my breakfast?  You just can’t get the help these days.

I suppose now I need to think about the route for the day.  “Second star on the right and straight on till morning” looks good to me – as long as it’s via Millau and I must say I’m really looking forward to seeing such an outstanding feat of engineering.  Other than that, I have no real idea of where we might end up, but after yesterdays ride and the excellent hospitality of Robin, it won’t really matter and the best part of this ride is that there is almost no pre-planning, just see where the road takes us – ably assisted by Mr Garmin of course.

Tuesday 19th September

At 55 there are not many firsts left but today I managed to tick one off, Skinny Dipping!  Well it just was so natural and available.  Robins Nest is the perfect venue for an early morning practice of the art of skinny dipping and as we were three guys, with two still in the arms of Morpheous, then this was a golden opportunity; plus the fact I had no where to store a wet costume on the bike.  It is all about time and place and in this ideal setting after an invigorating shower, still stuffed from the previous night’s banquet, nothing seamed more natural.  To do it in the company of the female sex would be a big ask, as although your nipples may get erect from the cold shock your other manly attributes shrink at the very thought of a cold plunge into the depths of the pool.  Well one more tick in the box of “Must do before I die list”; now where is that list as I’d better add some more items because I would not like to give God any false ideas that I was done yet.

So what does today offer.  The focus of today is a worm’s eye view of the Millau viaduct.  I’ve had the ride across which Graham wants to do today, earlier this year so let’s see what it looks like from Millau village, and then I guess we may get into Spain for close of play tonight.

What a day in the saddle.  It was Graham's brilliant idea to approach the Millau Viaduct from Montpelier in the South.  A75 motorway was designed by a biker, built by bikers and boy was it ever enjoyed by bikers!  There are no words that I can find to describe the curvy twisty black top from heaven; this has to be added to your to do list!

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was no room in any of the Millau Inns, last time this happened it was 2006 years ago in Bethlehem.  What to do?  Only one biking answer and that is to do a night time ride.  In my view there are four factors for a successful riding adventure:

1.  Do a comfortable daily mileage.

2. Avoid riding in the wet.

3.  Ride in daylight.

4.  Have a daily focus.

Rules are made to be broken and it was rule three's turn to be smashed.  Fueled ourselves and our Harleys and shit eating grins fixed because it was the descent of the bikers dream motorway and on into Spain, Viva Espania.

Wednesday 20th September

Refreshed I let Graham talk me into a city break in Barcelona.  Graham did not head my dire warnings, even when I said the last time I rode in Barcelona I vowed NEVER to do it again, but we were in a mood to break rules and Graham had wanted to see Gaudy architecture so the call of the city was too great to ignore.

No sooner were we in the city limits and we witnessed a serious street crime.  An elderly French couple were robbed of their coats and bags in broad daylight as they filled their car with fuel.  I took the number of the getaway car but resisted my urge to take on four youths in a powerful Audi intent on securing funds to feed their outlaw life style.  I could only offer a witness statement and eyeball full car registration number for which they were well thankful; but one more holiday ruined and so far visits to Barcelona two, witness street crime two - what a city; if I were you I'd avoid it like the plague - but undeterred we pressed on; Graham still oblivious to the mayhem we were about to be unleashed into.  I am sure every vehicle driver in Barcelona wakes up, offers a prayer to their God to be presented with a foreign touring motorcyclist to aim their vehicle at to see how close they could get at the highest speed, twice I had cars brush by my legs at 60kph!  Fortunately the first hotel in the city was full - I do not believe it was full but the fat sloth behind the check in dismissively admonished my chirpy enquiry for a dwelling, arse hole.

Then the bikes security would not disarm due to the stray microwaves present in the city; another good reason to avoid this hell hole.  Two calls to the H-D Importer and Barcelona dealer to be advised this was a common occurrence and the solution was HOG assist or push the bikes away from the microwave source; probably about 50km South of the city!  We is engineers!  So we solved it by pushing the bikes, audible alarms blaring (but in this Euro capital of crime no one batted an eyelid) into the sloth's underground car park where the alarm key fobs worked - a quick death defying ride to the dealer then we gotta get out of this city.

Graham took point and after a few laps of the Barcelona ring road, tried to fix another bikers puncture we were in the sanctuary of Hotel Mediterraneo, Castelldefels, 10km South of the devil city Barcelona!  We needed R&R.

One litre of iced water, one Paella, one walk on the beach and a free internet connection and all was once more right with the World!

Thursday 21st September

Today was the first full week in the saddle and time to have a chill out day; the trauma that is Barcelona had taken it's toll!  The bikes were in dire need of a good clean and in actual fact that was the daily focus and what a joy it was to wash the grime of the trip from our trusty steeds and check out their fettle.  It took all afternoon and can only be described as a labour of love.  It was also possible to get my administration up to date with the hotels fast, free network and unlimited web access.  It has been a chore this trip to find easy fast internet access and is no better at our holiday home.  I write this update on Tuesday 26th September and have had no Internet connection between Thursday and today; what will you my loyal and trusty reader think!

Friday 22nd September

Here we are before the run to Alicante, the beach at Castelldefels is magnificent and we had been meaning to take a picture with the sun shining (as it had been), the beach full of windsurfers (as it had been) and overflowing with semi naked babes (as it had been)!  But we took this early on the day of our departure and it appears desolate!

Mick and Barbara were heading North from Estepona on their way back to Geordie land and Dave Clark, a founder member, was living in the Torrevieja (near Alicante) area of Spain and with a Harley Bar in Cabo Roig then three Geordie Chapter members meant Party On!  We had also contacted Charlie Rutherford, who with his wife Hazel, had sold up his tyre and MOT business in Hebburn, bought a Winnebago and headed on South.  Two years on they were also in this area, but Charlie was living the 'Shirley Valentine' dream and singing in bars whilst chilling the lazy days away in the sunshine - not only 1,600 miles from Hebburn but a lifestyle away too.  Charlie had a gig and I'd lost his cell phone number so we had to party without him.

Finding the Harley Bar proved a chore and meeting Mick and Barbara on the road meant we now had three of us to find it and soon we did.

Dave Clark had excelled our wildest expectations.  He'd sorted a two bedroom gaff with Indian or Chinese restaurants next door, the Harley Bar across the street right next to the local Cat House!  What more could a weary traveling saddle tramp want?  Well as a boring non-drinking, monogamous happily married (thirty three happy years now) biker I did not quite fit the bill; however reality never should get in the way of a good story so we had a party.  For me a highlight was the Glaswegian slip of a girl, out of the Lulu mold who'd been working the Harley Bar for several seasons and who's grasp of the Spanish language over these years was one 'Olla' pronounced with the strongest Dockers Glasgow accent ever "Oh Laaa"!

I hope the Harley logo protection zealots don't pick up on the bars logo as I am sure there may be a copyright infringement there somewhere!  So if you are in the Alicante area then the Harley Bar is the place to be in Cabo Roig; apparently Morten from our twin Chapter in Bergen, Norway can often be found within the bars confines.

Saturday 23rd September

06:00hrs and on the road, we had a mission.  Jeannette and Jen were already on their way to Newcastle Airport when Graham and I struggled from the clutches of a deep sleep to get out and on the road South.  Not quite as easy as it sounds but we did it.  Inclement weather was on the cards and rain soon dampened our enthusiasm.  Mick and Barbara were left to wend their wet way North and they kept us up dated on their progress through the technology of SMS text messaging.

Graham and I witnessed a high speed RTI between a small car and a large piece of Armco on a particularly twisty, wet, dark mountain section.  He'd not headed the signs and paid the price.  Not the ultimate price as he was wondering the motorway in a daze warning the approaching motorists of his faux paux.  Graham in the lead stopped to offer our extensive RTI training but were surplus to requirements and with no injured parties and a language barrier we headed on with our mission to beat the girls to our billet for the week in Fuengirola.

An SMS advised us that the girls had left on schedule and would arrive just ahead of us; Jono had been the good Samaritan who rose at 03:00hrs to chauffer the girls to the airport, what a guy!  As we approached Malaga the weather steadily improved and via the HD Bluetooth on my CVO Glide I was appraised that they were there ready waiting for our arrival.

Sunday 24th September

Once again the bikes deserved a special clean.  For me the perfect environment, Jennifer bronzing by the pool and me caring for my bike by making her a shinning example of Mr Harley and Messer Davidson's art form known simply as a bike.  She is much more than the sum of her parts.  She takes on her own persona, that can be challenging or rewarding in equal measure.

Riding Harleys for well over 250,000 miles (only 125,000 on the HOG Mileage programme) has given much to me.  I have seen many exceptional vistas, ridden and interacted with many special people, all of which adds up to the HOG lifestyle.  Work is just the means to it.   The HOG lifestyle has unrivaled benefits.  I love it.

Monday 25th September

Ronda is a beautiful mountain village with an brilliant twisty road (A376) to climb there from the coast, this wonderfully surfaced road kisses alongside the Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves, stunning. For me the days highlights were twofold, firstly the fresh fruit seller at the start of our mountain climb and secondly the Bull Ring.

Graham and I had watched a televised bullfight, which we thought was barbaric, but we could understand the pomp and ceremony that forms the greater part of this quintessential Spanish endeavour.  Unbeknown to us the oldest bull ring in Spain is in Ronda and the father of the current Matador on foot, with all their well rehearsed moves, was from Ronda.  The paraphernalia that goes with bull fighting is monumental, no wonder the blokes enjoy it.  Kit and the use thereof is the bedrock of boys pastimes, golf clubs, fishing tackle, bike stuff - you get my drift.  This kit is steeped in Spanish history and ceremony.

Probably passed from father to son over many generations.

 

Ronda also has a claim to fame for the two main bridge crossings from the 16th and 18th centuries.  The gorge is deep and steep and the two brides are both monuments to the bridge builders art that as we know is still alive and kicking in Millau.

Tuesday 26th September

Managed to get an internet upload but at six Euros I would ration my web access to every other day.  Paying for internet connection is a joke to me.  Establishments should offer WiFi in the same way they offer their clients seats.  A connection for a business, once installed and running has a very low impact on business overheads and offering it as a service ,to me, makes good business marketing sense, it is a deal breaker for my hotel bookings if WiFi is not included and free, the more of us who take this stance the sooner hoteliers will get the message.

Wednesday 27th September

Day on the beach.

But all is not lost a trip to Malaga Harley Davidson is muted and no sooner s.s.s. (shit.shave.shower.) and we are on the road to Malaga.  Thank heavens for Garmin as finding dealers is now a breeze compared to the old days where finding a city centre Harley Dealer was a days chore; now as long as I have the right waypoint we are as good as there.  The coastal A7 is a testing road!  I find the four S's of good driving and riding are totally sacrificed for the fourth S which is the Speed, however we all know the first three S's are the ones that result in the fourth S of Speed.  Firstly when straddling a bike Safety, secondly System (the Police Manual System that is), thirdly Smoothness and from the first three comes the Speed.  Not on the A7 in the Malaga area are the four S's taken in order!  So next year on 21st June when the Euro Harley Rally takes place in Fuengirola take care.

Thursday 28th September

Would we do Gibraltar as the plan dictated?

The man from Geordie HOG he say YES!  It was a right good ride taking the coastal road the 100km South of Fuengirola, almost without thought the weather was perfect too.  We managed to find the new dealer in San Pedro, they had changed from my original Marbella dealer waypoint in the Garmin 2610, and this one was very up-market.  The site shared the franchise with Bentley, Ferrari and Morgan - what a stable for Harley Davidson to be part of.  A real showy dealer.

A Caesar Salad in MacDonald's and back on route for the Rock of Gibraltar.

It was a stunning site to see the Rock jutting up into the horizon, made you feel proud to be British.  We jumped the long traffic queue waiting for customs clearance to enter this British territory.  It was surreal to be on the right side of the road with all British road signs and British road furniture, weird.  The shops were in sterling too to add to the confusion.  We had each been tasked to obtain a 100ml bottle of Channel Chance, dually shopped out (been in three different shops) we collected the scoots to tour the island; first stop the 100 ton gun:

Then we went to the most Southern point where the lighthouse beamed across the short distance to North Africa one more surreal surprise was the new Mosque nestling alongside the lighthouse!  Evidence of the British Forces occupation of this rocky outcrop were everywhere albeit that now a little shabby as they had long gone in the numbers required to keep the place spick and span.  Then we headed to see the apes.  Some shark had hijacked this particular pleasure and was demanding 8 English Pounds to ride a road built by British Army Engineers, the cheek of it.  Bit like Peter DeSavery buying Lands End and charging to visit our own heritage, Stonehenge is the same; I take the American Indian view and no one owns Mother Earth we all keep it in stewardship for those following. 

A quick run North on the Inner Coastal Peage this time and we soon were back on the beach where we had deposited the girls those few hours earlier.

Friday 29th September

Mijas!  Maybe Internet cafe to upload this web page and check out my traveling e.mail; if you've read this far drop me an e.mail and let me have some feedback; in return I'll let you have the full 9 yards concerning Mijas!

Mijas at about 20km North of Fuengirola is well worth a visit.  The area is typical of a small Spanish village and has everything to offer the tourist, we even found one of Jennifer's school class mates of 40 years ago!  Small World covers that!  Mijas also has it's own unusual bullring, in that it isn't a ring; it almost is but has two flat sides.  I stitched three photos together in Adobe Photosuite to get this long frontal of the almost bullring.

Back to the billet to do a 5,000 mile service on Grahams Road King.  The only awkward parts were getting the filter off without a filter wrench and disposing of the spent oil in an environmentally friendly way.  A local (from Leeds) builder loaned his brick hammer and screwdriver to get the filter sorted; the less said about the oil the better!

 

Saturday 30th September

Taxi waiting blowing its horn at 9am and the girls are whisked off to Malaga airport and we start the long haul homeward.  Fantastic run directly North, around the East side of Madrid and an overnight in Lerma, just South of Burgos.  I tried to get a Toro silhouette picture whilst on the road! 

Well it nearly worked!

Lerma is definitely worth a visit, with six 17th Centaury convents it is dripping with history.  We just caught the right setting sun light on the front of the old Church, and whilst taking the photo were treated to the singing of the Angels in the Church choir.

Sunday 1st September

It was definitely a day of two halves.  First half brilliant, second half not so good!

An early breakfast less start from the hotel in Lerma we were making fast northerly progress when I noticed on my GPS a Harley Dealer at Arnoeta.  This dealer had to be the best I've visited in Europe.  It was small but perfectly formed with its own wild west saloon!  And to top it off it was there 2007 new model open day and we arrived just as the fun started.  Pride of place on the showroom floor was an immaculately restored 1942 WLA.  It had been restored 434 km ago in Germany where, I bet, it served the allied forces as they winkled out Mr. Hitler.  The restoration was of the highest working order, the bike had been restored to ride and the Peruvian dealer was allowed his glowing pride in a bike we'd all love to have.  It was not for sale as I think the 1,000,000 Euro price tag was just to see off any 'tyre kickers' asking the inevitable how much is it question.  Along with the ubiquitous t-shirt I managed to get a pair of the latest safe from any blind spot mirrors and the principle gave us a full15% discount without even asking, what a guy.  You must make this a definite stop on the run to or from (or both) to the Euro HOG Rally in Fuengirola.  I do have one slight hesitation in my recommendation, not the personnel as they are all died in the wall bikers, but the venue as they are about to move into a purpose built dealership that I suspect will be right out of the Harley Davidson 'cookie cutter dealer' manual!

The day got worse about 60 clicks South of Bordeaux when Grahams bike would only start on one pot.  We tried all the usual fixes but to no avail so RAC cover was swung into action and no sooner called then Barnard Depannage was front and centre and had the sick Road King in his gadget rich garage.  He was an ace with perfect English and a superb sense of humor to match his jovial nowts a problem approach to getting us sorted.  So no dealer open in France on Sundays or Mondays, a train to catch in Calais noon Tuesday what is in store for us now?  Presently ensconced in a 'seen better times' hotel near Arcachon.

Monday 2nd September

This is how the land lies.  We went to the Depannage (Recovery) yard first thing and could not raise the Harley Dealer, they do not open in France on a Monday.  I went to see a Doctor and was diagnosed with an infected ear (oriel) and given five drugs but of course Pharmacies do not open on Monday morning in Barp!  We decided to visit the Harley Dealer and a dedicated employee was working a bit of overtime, he appeared fairly sure that they could sort out Graham's poorly bike, so we got the RAC to pay a second hotel night, this time at the Comfort Inn, Bordeaux-Begles about 200 meters from the local Harley Dealer where free Internet and a superb restaurant meant a very comfortable enforced stop over.

I managed to get my prescription filled in, all five drugs, and a complex regime that will hopefully zap my infected ear to make it better in no time.  French health system kicked in most efficiently.  I saw a General Practitioner within fifteen minutes of asking and got all five drugs for only 20 Euros, about sixteen pounds; first lot of drugs are ingested and I think they are working well already.

Administration updated, all caught up with the Archers, I guess we will walk into the centre of Bordeaux and catch my usual couple of pictures for this page; Later Dave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 3rd September

9am and we are front and centre at Harley Davidson Bordeaux, Ms Baranard Depennage (as I had taken to calling him) arrived on time and the Service Manager got stuck straight in.  He turned on the bike and with a wry smile said no problem - fuel pump fuse!  Of course Graham and I were racking our brains to see if we had checked this minor obvious fault; of course we had and three hours later after even installing a fuel tank from a showroom bike and the bike in pieces the fault had been finally diagnosed to a broken wire in the main wiring harness.  At this stage Graham was checking out a replacement for the Road King:

We also decided to wait no longer, decant my gear onto Graham's bike, get Grahams survival pack onto my bike and head on North to home two up - we'd already missed our booked 12:30 channel tunnel train and the RAC would repatriate the bike if it could not be repaired.  So 200 extremely wet km on and we received a call from the RAC that the bike was fixed!  I telephoned the Service Manager to have this confirmed and we rode back.  On arrival the first interaction was "Why are you back?"  After my sense of humour failure it was realised this was a communication issue with my French and their English!  Bike cleaned and 100% after a lose lead in the main wiring harness Dietch Connector block had been reconnected and the race home was on.

 

We got as far as Tours but had difficulty in obtaining a room, when we did I think sleep arrived before our heads hit the pillow.

Wednesday 4th September

05:30 and on the road, we were not to be left in our scratchers burning daylight!  Around noon pulling into the Chunnel booths amazingly we were within the 24 hour time frame of our booking by about three minutes so no further anxiety and we were soon on the platform next to our chosen Channel Crossing mode.

Arriving in Yorkshire, just by Catterick Camp, I spied a magnificent double rainbow, it was as if we had arrived at the pot of gold at Journeys end.  Camera out and snapped for posterity at 70mph!

All in all a fabulous three week break on my Harley.  As I sit here back at work I only have the credit card bills and this write up to remind me of the fantastic times riding and having fun on my CVO Glide.  Thanks to Bev, Graham, Jeanette, Robin, Mick, Barbara, Dave Clarke and an especial big thank you to Jennifer.

 

Ride safe and have fun, in spades if you can!

 

A footnote from my riding partner Graham Nicol:

MALAGA 2006 – A Wee Summary

 

 

Well, this was my first major bike trip into Mainland Europe and there was a god deal of trepidation before setting off. 

 

I’d only had the bike 3 weeks, did I have everything I needed? Would Mr B and I have a huge bust up? Would it rain all the time and ruin all the plans?  Would Jannette and Jennifer get down to Malaga OK?  Would they get on OK once they were there?

 

I should never have worried.  The write up on the adventure pretty much gives the game away.  We had an outstanding time.  Riding nearly 2000 miles down there with another very experienced biker, doing what we wanted to do and just taking things as they came was fantastic.  For me though, the highlight was riding down from Millau on the race track that they call a motorway.  It has to be a must for all bikers.  Motorways just aren’t meant to be that much fun.

 

The week in Malaga just flew past, just chilling out and relaxing in good company, with a few bikes trips thrown in for good measure.  It will now take several months of hard work to lose the weight that has been gained through nice meals and inactivity.  Why does there always have to be a catch?

 

Having said our Farewells to our new friends in Malaga and seeing the girls safely off to the airport, it was time for the return leg on the bikes, by what we hoped would be a more direct route.  This brings me to the main point of my writing, where a huge pothole in the autoroute, seems to have dislodged some wiring and after a few minor cut outs, finally brought my bike to a standstill at a service area just over the border into France and about 50km from Bordeaux.

 

An hours checking all that we could with the help of a test probe, we eventually decided that we needed some help. Having taken out RAC European cover for the trip, I called them and within 45 mins Mr Bernard turned up with his recovery truck.  He looked very professional and within minutes it was evident that he was going to be a great help.  A man of great personality and sense of humour, he just couldn’t have helped more.  He arranged a hotel, sorted out directions to it, liaised with the RAC, stored our gear, turned up at the HD dealer on time, discussed the fault with them and stayed to make sure that things were going OK.  On top of that he arranged for a doctor to sort Dave’s Ear infection out.  Service above and beyond the call of duty and gratefully received – especially arranging the doctor.

 

Once the Bordeaux dealership had hold of the bike, the response from them was great.  Despite language barriers, they cracked on straight away, with the service manager, a technician and an apprentice all working on the bike to find the fault.  To their credit, they had hooked up the computer diagnostics with no results, so it became a process of elimination, with just about every part of the fuel and ignition system checked or replaced.  By mid day, Dave and I had decided that it was time to cut and run for UK.  The RAC continued to be very supportive indeed, but about 200km up the road we stopped to fill up and received a call from them to say that the bike was fixed and I could either go back to get it, or continue home, at which point the RAC would arrange and pay for my travel back to France to collect it.

 

Leaving the bike wasn’t an option for me if it was fixed and despite the RAC offer of a hire car for the return trip, Dave would hear nothing of it and we sped back down to Bordeaux HD.  I had a bad feeling when we got there as the bikes still in bits all over the workshop floor and the Technicians still had not traced the fault.  At this point the sense of humour by-pass kicked in, but there had been a case of bad communications between the dealer and the RAC.  However, in the midst of the discussions, my bike shot out of the workshop with the service manager on board and he returned minutes later declaring her fit for the road.  Tres Magnifique!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

At the end of the day, 3 technicians had worked on my bike all day, having put aside all of their routine work – of which there was a huge amount, sorted her out, got me back on the road by 1830 and didn’t charge me a penny, or even ask me to sign anything.  Just and handshake, bon route monsieur and off we went. 

 

UK dealers take note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – It can be done and you can be nice whilst you’re doing it!

 

Finally – my riding partner, Dave Badcock.  Not wishing to make his head swell, but I couldn’t have wished for a better riding buddy than Dave for the trip.  We had a fantastic time and when things went wrong, he flatly refused to leave me to my own devices, despite being offered get out of jail free cards.  For that – Thanks!

 

Thanks also to Jannette for making it easy for me to take the trip in the first place and to her and Jen for making the week in Malaga such a great time.  Now where next?