Set off bright and early on Sat 20th Jun in order to RV with my two mates Chris and Colin at Junct 9 M3 Tesco at 12.15. Ride down was overcast, but no rain so good enough.
We got to the ferry in plenty of time, boarded, ate well and settled down for a 6hr crossing from Portsmouth to Caen. On arriving, we rode another 20 miles to Falaise and overnighted at the Ibis. I don't have any pics of this bit but if my mates have I'll up load them later.
Next day was 340ish miles to the next hotel; a meal and overnight stop followed by another 230 miles to the camping village where we had a chalet for the duration.
Tuesday we took it easy, just doing about 80 miles around the locale, getting the feel for the roads and learning about grip levels on new tarmac, and of course the dreaded Gravillons (small squares of loose gravel over road repairs - a real nightmare :bug_eye)
Bit of video of that run:
http://youtu.be/Bw0fMryvfrU
And a bit arriving at the top of the Cole de Vars
http://youtu.be/Y2o-3rlWdEI
Wow! I watched the first video thinking how neat that you found a quiet paved one-way road to enjoy, and then Holy Shit, I saw that car coming the other direction! Over here in the States, we have a name for pavement that wide - we call them "sidewalks".
More pictures, please :eusa_clap
trying to do this while catching up on personal admin since getting back, more to follow :thumbsup
Had to leave the PC running overnight to get YT to upload the video. I'm a bit disappointed as the camera wasn't running some of the time when It thought it was (despite having a 32Gb card I didn't have enough memory to leave it running all the time). Anyway, here's a bit more of what I got.
http://youtu.be/0T14FJozfSk
More pics:
Nice! So what were your mates on, I can see a GS but what was the other? Where did you stay?
Quote from: Bixxer Bob on July 12, 2015, 09:31:31 AM
Had to leave the PC running overnight to get YT to upload the video. I'm a bit disappointed as the camera wasn't running some of the time when It thought it was (despite having a 32Gb card I didn't have enough memory to leave it running all the time). Anyway, here's a bit more of what I got.
The quality is very good, might get away with the next lower setting to save some space on the card. It looks very smooth but that might just be a smooth bike :icon_wink:
The smoothness is down to GoPro image steadying because the camera was bouncing around on the bars a lot of the time.
John, Saturday we did home to Portsmouth, 6 hr ferry to Caen then 25 miles to Falaise where we stayed overnight at the Ibis.
Sunday was a long motorway thrash to the Hotel Relais Du Pays in Clairemont Ferrand - very popular with bikes.
Monday we did the rest of the hike down to St Jean Montclar where we stayed in a Yelloh holiday village (one of a chain in France apparently).
Tuesday we had an easy day, just some local roads and about 80 miles to get a feel for it. I'll have a look at my tracks later and see exactly where we went.
Wednesday we decided to thrash down to Monaco. We went over the Col De Vars pass on the D902 and D2202 to Nice, got lost in Nice and did 10 miles in gridlock traffic, temp at 42c trying to find the way out then on to Monaco where we couldn't find anywhere to stop so only took one pic on the hill overlooking it. We came back along the coast to Grasse before heading inland on the Route De Napoleon (D6085), one of the most popular roads with the motorcycle press. Finally, we headed back to the chalet via Digne.
Thursday we had another easier day, just a bimble around the Gorges Du Verdon going via Riez and Aiguines to Rougon.
Friday we headed East to Jausiers on the D900 before heading north over the Route Des Alpes on the D902, used for the Tour De France, and decending into Briancon before picking up the N2094 south and back to base.
Saturday, we headed North to a ramshackle country farmhouse near Montaron, owned and under restoration by a lovely Dutch couple. He is doing the restoration himself while she cooks etc. And a very good cook she is too; 3-course dinner, bed and breakfast for £50 a head.
Sunday we headed north again, finally stopping back in Falaise; again in the Ibis. Monday morning we coaught the early ferry back to Portsmouth and then on home to arrive just after 5pm.
A little under 2500 miles, tyres worn out (front is as triangular as an old race tyre, back is badly squared off with the motorway thrash having worn through the hard centre), back brake disc blued, pedal went soft on one of many gravelly down hill, full-lock hairpins and went completely on the next corner when the fluid boiled. :bug_eye Had to do the next 15 miles on front only till the rear came back to me. Maybe race fluid next time.... Exhaust hanger gave up after three days of rough pounding so lashed up a repair with zip ties and fence wire. Rough roads also accounted for a headlight bulb, but no punctures this time.
The other two bikes were a 1200GS and a Suzuki 650 GSX-F. Colin on the GS was always faster than me anyway, but I have to admit, in more or less standard form as mine is, in sustained cornering the Tiger was no match for the GS. In the twisty stuff I could stay with it until the tyre got hot then it was washing out the whole time while the Suzuki struggled to match either of us. In the sweepy stuff I couldn't stay with either of them as the front starts a cyclic wallow which gets progressively worse. And my front brake is crap compared with both of them - I'll have to fix that some how.
It wasn't as bad as it sounds; in the mornings when the suspension oil and tyres were cold I could push them both hard, but later in the day when the heat kicked in I suffered more than they did. Anyway, here's another clip:
http://youtu.be/inZQ9i_EX9g
Bit OT here but I'll forget if I don't :icon_rolleyes:
I wonder if DOT 5.1 would have helped but it wouldn't have made any difference to the disc. I see a fork rebuild in your future.
Not to mention something not right in the cambox, you can hear it clattering away quite loudly in the later videos. It sounds like a valve gap oversize but they were checked last winter. while passing long hours on the motorways I'd almost convinced myself its a cam bearing, except it doesn't have any.... :icon_rolleyes: :bug_eye
Four more clips, from the Route De Grande Alpes....
http://youtu.be/wXmNmBRhAo0
Should've edited out the 2 minutes at the end and the 1min 30 secs at the beginning of Pt 2 where I parked up and forgot to turn the camera off :icon_rolleyes:
http://youtu.be/Lf7VCeVr-ZQ
http://youtu.be/pc9mdenqWrU
http://youtu.be/nrzjXPPkSBE
Original quality is much better, You Tube compression I guess :icon_rolleyes:
Well done Bix at least you haven't dubbed it with some poxy music and we can hear the motor just a shame a few more don't do that.
Oh and re the front tyre!! why I did what I did all those years ago and why I'm having a nightmare trying to sort another bike out as well as way to risky to sell the old Triumph :icon_wink:
Do we have more photo's.
Thanks for sharing. Those are roads I'll probably never see in person, so your videos were the next best thing!
Ahem "Retirement: the last chance to eliminate "I should haves" from your vocabulary." there are beds and bikes, so don't let that stop you, can't guarantee the weather though :icon_rolleyes:
Well, my eldest daughter does live in Dublin now, so maybe someday?
Quote from: Chris Canning on July 13, 2015, 06:07:19 PM
Well done Bix at least you haven't dubbed it with some poxy music and we can hear the motor just a shame a few more don't do that.
Oh and re the front tyre!! why I did what I did all those years ago and why I'm having a nightmare trying to sort another bike out as well as way to risky to sell the old Triumph :icon_wink:
Do we have more photo's.
Thanks Chris. More than once, as I watched the GS bugger off, I thought, "Chris C and his fettled Tiger would show you....."
Even as lads they were both faster than me so it's no surprise really, but excuses aside, the Tiger was a bloody handful in the 35-40c plus heat. Every morning with everything cold I could brake into hairpins chuck it on it's side and power out without a worry but in the afternoon heat I couldn't trust it to do anything.
Quote from: Sin_Tiger on July 13, 2015, 09:19:59 PM
Ahem "Retirement: the last chance to eliminate "I should haves" from your vocabulary." there are beds and bikes, so don't let that stop you, can't guarantee the weather though :icon_rolleyes:
Saw a Tee shirt I need yesterday. It said, "DON'T WANT TO, DON'T HAVE TO, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME,
I'M RETIRED
They have a tendency to modify road signs:
There ain't nothing like riding a bike in the mountains e'h :icon_lol: more photo's please any info with them.
Re the bike we had a mighty set too with a GS a couple of years ago up in the Alps coming out of the corners I couldn't lay a finger on him going in and around was hoot because you could see him think HTF :icon_scratch: is he doing that because I could turn inside him and get along side and he gave up in the end because it was too much effort.
We have a serious trip in September and while I consider the Tiger close to cheating to travel on I really want to go on the K and make it earn it's keep but I'm prepping the Tiger just in case :icon_redface: I took the Ohlins into K-Tech yesterday to see what they can do with it.
Middle photo is Route Napoleon I think. At least I remember coming round a corner and finding a lake like that off to the left. It gets really difficult to ride and view at the same time :icon_redface:
It was Lac de Serre Pocon near where we were staying John. I've just checked the map and there isn't a lake within sight of the D4085 / D6085 from Digne Les Bains to Grasse which makes up the Napoleon.
As ever I will bow to your memory, mine is several years old now. The lake's further up towards Briancon, funny I thought the Napoleon went further up than that.
It may well do, but that's the bit we did. :icon_mrgreen:
I'm not surprised you had trouble riding that lot because you've got probably the worst tyres I've ever ridden on. Pirelli Scorpion if I'm not mistaken. I couldn't wait to get them off my latest 800. My knobblies are better. :icon_eek:
An awful lot of the 72000 miles I've ridden on my old Girly have been around the Pyrenees and Alps without the issues you describe. So, two things:-
1/ Get some proper tyres. I can recommend Avon Storm. Although I haven't tried the lastest version, I think they call them 3DXM these days.
2/ Use the front brakes all the time. There are two discs for a reason. i.e. most of the weight transfers to the front under braking. The rear is just a steadying brake.
Still, apart from all that it looked lke a nice trip. :wheel
Really liked the Scorpions up till now H, on my third set and never had a problem with them. Only ever had them or Anakees and I hated them. I think it was a combination of the heat and me riding harder than I normally do. That's not to say it was fast by most people's standards, just by mine; so I was probably overworking them by my own clumsiness (and they'd already done 2k before I set off....) The GS was on Continentals with a similar tread pattern.
Will give the Avons a try though, always open to new ideas. :thumbsup
Regarding the brakes, perhaps I was a bit misleading; I was gently using the front approaching even the downhill hairpins which were tarmac with a covering of loose gravel, but once turning trailed the back a lot to help get round. On that day on that particular narrow stretch of road, the hairpins really were full lock so taken slowly anyway. I don't have any real experience on anything other than good tarmac so was just doing my best. :icon_lol:
Quote from: Bixxer Bob on July 28, 2015, 03:16:41 PM
Really liked the Scorpions up till now H, on my third set and never had a problem with them.
I found that although they grip alright they don't steer right without weird pressures in the front and they picked up all the ridges in the road which threw the bike all over the place.
I remember them feeling like they were on a knife edge when I first tried them until I to used to them, really dropping into corners, then I realised they were a lot easier to steer than the Anakees and I was overdoing it.
Never noticed them tracking though, unlike worn Bridgestones on my Blackbird.......