Recent trip to Spain

[SunEye]

A couple of pics from my recent two weeks in Andalucia.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8447/7882662054_d0ece0e699_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7112/7882663088_4958d462a7_b.jpg

My bike has now done over 5200 miles in 7 weeks. I rode almost 4000 of those in 16 days riding across France and Spain (3 days each way - Calais-Limoges-Zaragoza-Malaga) and then enjoying myself on the roads of Andalucia.

No crashes and no speeding tickets. A few small slides (mostly front end). Some testing of the ABS. Almost no flying insects hit (in Spain). A serious drenching from the top of the Pyrennes (Col du Pourtalet) all the way to Toulouse. A large number of Magnums eaten and cold water drunk. One accident witnessed and the immediate aftermath of three seen, all near Madrid. 60mpg on the motorways and 50mpg elsewhere, so it didn't cost me my life savings.

Overall a great holiday and some great riding including some special roads that I seem to find that are far more suited to trail bikes than a Monster. One had some mountain bikers carefully picking their way down it and another was first gear only for about 10km.

[d8mok]

Brilliant mate. Can't wait til I get time to do a similiar trip.

[J.P]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun Suneye.
I'm heading to the Pyrenees for the first time in a few weeks, staying near Tarbes and not far from Pau at a biker run B&B, with 4 days of escourted touring in the mountains. Really looking forward to it.

Your bike's looking very good.

[mintyhit]

I am finding all these riding holiday posts really inspiring! Nice one man! 60mpg is insane... makes the older monsters look really thirsty by comparison.

I'm going to ask the same boring question, did you take any luggage and did you ride out alone? :)

Also, what caused the front end slides... dusty\gravel-y roads?

[Funkatronic]

awsome mate,
am about to off to spain and portugal for 5-6 weeks with a bunch of track days thrown in for good measure and was planning on hitting you up for some more tips of places to go

ever done the asturias and galicia?

[SunEye]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun Suneye.
I'm heading to the Pyrenees for the first time in a few weeks, staying near Tarbes and not far from Pau at a biker run B&B, with 4 days of escourted touring in the mountains. Really looking forward to it.

Your bike's looking very good.

In my experience of crossing the Pyrennes six times it has always been wet with low cloud on the French side and glorious sunshine on the Spanish side. If I was riding in the Pyrennes I'd be planning my rides on the Spanish side.

The bike still needs a stubby exhaust in my opinion. I end up resting my right heel on the exhaust shield and I don't like that, it's restricting the movement of my foot slightly. I also want to remove the pillion peg hangers as well. So far I've only found the Competition Werks can that will let me do that. Most still use the pillion hangers to hang the can off. Once I've got a can fitted I'll get it remapped because it is so much rougher at lower revs than my M1100 was with termis, air filter and ECU fitted.

[SunEye]

I am finding all these riding holiday posts really inspiring! Nice one man! 60mpg is insane... makes the older monsters look really thirsty by comparison.

I'm going to ask the same boring question, did you take any luggage and did you ride out alone?

Also, what caused the front end slides... dusty\gravel-y roads?

My luggage was a Kappa 40 litre tail pack and a Bags Connection Trip QL 6 litre tank bag. Although I tried to pack light I still took too many socks. Travelling in the summer does reduce the amount of clothing you have to take. I could have taken much less (I had 10 days of clothes). The villa we were staying at in Andalucia had a wachine machine and clothes dried on the line in minutes.

I rode with a friend who was riding a Triumph Rocket III (fully derestricted and with open pipes), which now needs some new hero blobs. Because he's a better rider than I am he could keep up with me everywhere except twisty bumpy roads where the limits of his suspension restricted his speed. In fact on one section of twisty stuff in Sierra Navada I couldn't keep up with him.

Whilst we were in Andalucia I rode by myself a few days seeking out (and finding) non Rocket III friendly roads. The pictures are from two of those days.

Some of the roads in Spain, especially in villages, become so smooth and polished it is like riding on ice or polished marble (not that I know what polished marble is like to ride on, but I can imagine). When you stop at some lights and put your foot down sometimes your foot will slide away, just like you'd stepped on ice.

My slides were all when I wasn't riding hard, so I suspect they were down to my cornering technique when I'm going slower. All were after the corner apex, so I suspect I was coasting around the corner and as I brought in the power on the exit the front gave way briefly on the polished surface.

Also the fact that the ABS kicked in quite a few times means that I'm not convinced that I have as much weight over the front as I had on my M1100, due to the bars on the Evo being 20mm higher. Maybe I need to check the static suspension sag.

[SunEye]

awsome mate,
am about to off to spain and portugal for 5-6 weeks with a bunch of track days thrown in for good measure and was planning on hitting you up for some more tips of places to go

ever done the asturias and galicia?
Unfortunately I have never been to north west Spain, so I can't be of any assistance.

I did ride to Jerez this year, so I now know exactly where the track is and that it's only two hours from my friend's parent's villa in Andalucia :biggrin: I also found some more scenic roads in Andalusia (the CA-9104 Zahara-Gazalema where the second photo was taken).