Ride from Norfolk to Monaco via the Alps

[Bixxer Bob]

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. 

[Bixxer Bob]

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.

[Bixxer Bob]

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 )

[Bixxer Bob]

Bit of video of that run:

[Bixxer Bob]

And a bit arriving at the top of the Cole de Vars

[ssevy]

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

[Bixxer Bob]

trying to do this while catching up on personal admin since getting back, more to follow 

[Bixxer Bob]

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.

[Bixxer Bob]

More pics:

[John Stenhouse]

Nice! So what were your mates on, I can see a GS but what was the other? Where did you stay?

[Sin_Tiger]

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:

[Bixxer Bob]

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. 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:

[Sin_Tiger]

Bit OT here but I'll forget if I don't 

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.

[Bixxer Bob]

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....     

[Bixxer Bob]

Four more clips,  from the Route De Grande Alpes....



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 







Original quality is much better, You Tube compression I guess