Winter Rides

Into February now and my first post of 2024 with the worst of Winter behind us thankfully and warmer days to look forward to now - can’t wait! That said, I have been out riding most weekends on free rides with Kidderminster Advanced Bikers and with Tim and Chris for a most enjoyable Boxing Day ride in Herefordshire up to Ludlow cafe. A bit chilly and the roads were flooded in parts but good to be out to blow the cobwebs away after the Christmas festivities. 

Tim has one of those Insta 360 cameras with a GPS attachment and I do like the resolution. It fascinates me how the AI stitched video masks out the camera boom, and the clarity of image and sound is far better than my GoPro. Click on these images to run Tim’s videos, a ride around the Alps with this camera set up would be amazing. You can just see Chris as pillion behind him too.

Over the Christmas break I received a surprise message from Rob, my old Harley ‘mukka’ from years ago. We toured together on our Harley Sportsters with HOG Brettours as featured in some of my older blog posts back with Steve and Jeromy too - the old ‘Slipper club’ we had a lot of fun on those trips we both recall with amusement from time to time in messages.  Due to work and family commitments along with other interests Rob sold his Harley back around 2010, so I was bowled over when Rob sent me a picture of his new Triumph Tiger 660 just bought and was awaiting collection. We arranged a meet and ride for last weekend and headed off up to Church Stoke Cafe and later Shobdon Aerodrome for an overdue ride and catch up.  

Rob pictured here with his shiny new Tiger, fitted with panniers wearing his new RST touring suit he’s ready and raring to go for some new adventures it seems. We had a nice Sunday ride, despite the cold weather it was great to catch up at last and chat about our families and how our kids have grown up now and what they are doing with their lives. That Tiger is a real nice bike, the build quality and lines of the sporty 660 triple make it a great package and Rob was having a lot of fun and looked comfortable riding it. I have to say you wouldn’t know he hasn’t owned a bike in 12 or 13 years it was a pleasure to ride with him again, I look forward to meeting up again soon in warmer weather and I must take him down in to the Cotsowlds for a meet up with Steve, thats going to be a lot of fun!  

My other bike related activities this Winter include attending the Kidderminster Advanced Bikers AGM where I’ve decided to get a bit involved in some of the activities going on and attempt to spread the word of the good work they and IAM are doing in helping bikers improve their riding skills and roadcraft. Such a great friendly club of like-minded people, so if you are local to Kidderminster and fancy learning some new skills drop in on KAB and request a taster ride via the website here.

Roll on Spring, and warmer rides. In the meantime don’t forget to listen to Adventure Rider Radio podcasts. I really enjoy listening in on some of the episodes where there are some great skills based discussions as well as some guests who have been on some fascinating adventures world wide. Ride Safe !

Shiny new machines !

Another great day out at Motorcycle Live on Saturday, a welcome Birthday treat from my son Will, we both enjoy spending what would otherwise be a boring rainy November day looking at the shiny new machines instead and visiting the exhibitor stands while hunting out a few bargains to spend my birthday money on. 

Most of the usual manufacturers were there, but surprisingly no Harley Davidson stand this year but the big news was always going to be the new BMW R1300 GS. I’d seen many of the launch videos last month so time to see it in the flesh and make my own mind up about that weird looking headlight. A few other bikes did take our fancy though, for me I really do like the retro Kawasaki 900 RS cafe racer. I think as a second bike it would be a lot of fun on a sunny day. I was out yesterday on a club ride and coincidentally the exact same model pulled up next to my bike at the Cafe in Herefordshire, so kudos to the owner who took on those wet mud splattering roads!     

The ‘Kwaka’ aside this Norton V4sv won the retro racer category for us though. Just look at the build quality. Beautiful! The Norton’s latest re-incarnation of the famous marque is better than ever. I didn’t get to see the price tag, I think it was an ‘ask’ list on the spec’ sheet and enquire but with all of that carbon fibre and nickel coating it’s going to be top-end of the price bracket. A 1200cc 185 bhp machine I think I’d go for this over the Panigales for sure (in my dreams). 

I did quite like this new Triumph Tiger Rallye Pro, the 900 model, but some oddities do amaze me with this CFMoto NX I think it was with what looks like a re-purposed Amazon Kindle used for the clocks, and just seems like a cost saving exercise to me, but having said that the KTM 790 based Chinese model is really good value. So on to the BMW stand to see the new GS and we watched the demo ride on the new Rallye model by two guys from the BMW Off-Road Skills school doing donuts, burn outs and the jump demonstrating braking control in the very limited space. We were introduced to the low speed auto suspension height adjust feature designed to lower the centre of gravity and no doubt to assist riders with a shorter leg flat foot their stops. The suspension adjust has far more fine-grained manual control now and as well as the bigger motor the frame has been stiffened up too and the whole bike has lost some weight. I’m still unsure about aesthetics of that new headlight and radar plate on the front though, but having looked around the different model options now and listened to the presentation interview with the chief designer I look forward to a proper test ride - in a year or two of course!

After the demo we signed the waiver and entered the arena for a closer look. I got to sit on one and start the engine and play around with the settings, and we both took part in the ‘pick the bike up’ challenge. I put my back out picking up one of my GS’s in the past, so the technique taught by the instructor using full lock and pushing up in the direction of the front wheel made much lighter work of it - without panniers though. Of course Will was much better at it than me, he got the technique straight away and quite pleased with himself  in showing me how to do it. I really was quite proud and impressed considering the state of his arm after having a rod fitted through his humerus after that Snowboarding accident last February. 

Of course Will was more interested in the ZZR Ninja H2 and the BMW M1000 RR sports bikes, who can blame him? I grabbed a few bargains from some of the accessory stands on the way out, and stopped by a visit to the ABR stand where the young lady twisted my arm into attending their Rally next June at Ragley Hall with a 20% discount voucher, and I bought their 2024 calendar. Time to head back home to eat our 20% off M&S Chinese meal washed down with a nice drop of cider. A really good day out … Cheers Will 👍😁.

 

Advanced Rider…a thinking rider !

Last month I put in for my IAM Advanced Rider Test, an observed ride by a retired Police Rider/Trainer over in Warwickshire on a test route unfamiliar to me designed for the examiner to gain good insight and assessment of my ride. It was a very challenging 75 minutes, with a pre-ride talk beforehand and a post ride de-brief detailing the examiners observations with additional questions after. After some initial nerves at first, I settled in to the test well and really enjoyed demonstrating my new found skills and ability as taught on the IAM Advanced Rider Course. I’m now very happy to report I achieved a Pass, taking me from IAM Associate status to Full Membership. 

Over the last 12 months my assigned Observer Patrick (Kidderminster Advanced Bikers) has been a great help on many Sundays and at other times to offer excellent advice with regular run-sheet reports and video footage coaching me on where I could make improvement as laid out in the course. Other ride Observers from KAB helped too with additional advice given to gauge my ride consistency, and increase my overall knowledge and skill level.

As mentioned in previous posts I found the course quite challenging at times. My test pass was a second attempt, the first back in June though disappointing did make me realise I needed to be more consistent in applying what I’d learned. When I started the course my overall awareness of hazards needed improving, rear observation was minimal, and overtakes were often untidy and unsystematic without sufficient planning. The first test highlighted a few of these areas where my ride was still not quite up to standard, but thankfully Patrick and Derek (KAB Chief Observer) worked with me over the summer months to get me there. The IPSGA system as used by the Police and taught by IAM, RoSPA and BikeSafe really does require a much more heightened level of concentration than I was used to.

A goal of IAM and Kidderminster Advanced Bikers (KAB) has always been to make us more of a ‘Thinking Rider’ at all times, and maintain that going forward. I now feel much more at ease riding to the system with much better hazard awareness and understanding of how to mitigate for potential dangers. It’s well understood that achieving an Advanced Level of riding has to be maintained though, and because I found the whole learning experience enjoyable I intend to meet up with other KAB members and friends on the ‘free rides’ days in the future to help improve further and continue. It really has been a lot of fun so why wouldn’t I ?

Recently I found it interesting to recall that way back in 1982 I managed to pass the old RAC Star Rider course to Silver standard while riding my first ever motorcycle a Suzuki GP 100. Back then I wanted to challenge myself further and try for Star Rider Gold (an early form of an Advanced Rider qualification) but alas the years passed by and despite attending an excellent BikeSafe course in 2008, I never got around to achieving that level until now. Forty years on from my Star Rider Silver pass there is evidence no matter what your riding is like you can still learn and improve, gain more skills and maintain or revise those skills that are often lost over time through complacency, with the added benefit of learning while having fun and making new friends along the way! 

Many thanks to Patrick, Derek and the rest of KAB for all of their help. 😎🙏

Late Summer fun

 A few rides over the Summer most notably a ride out to Hay on Wye then on to Llangorse Lake near the Brecons. Nice ride managed to dodge the rain. Not a lot else to say really! 

After work one night I went for a ride out with Tim to one of the Cotswold Bike nights in Gloucester. Great atmosphere!

Besancon to Reims across country

Today, after a brief ride to view the  Citadel and river we track North to Reims for the night. This will get us in range for the tunnel crossing early on Sunday. We set the GPS to avoid motorway and had a blast up through some of the finest French countryside consisting of mile after mile of wheat fields and some forested sections. The temperature rose to above 30 degrees so it was good to keep moving but if ever we slowed due to traffic or speed limits in towns it became almost unbearable. 

We stopped a few times and I remembered the McDonalds trick from some years ago. It’s not French cuisine but on hot days like this the Air con and clean washroom facilities of Maccy D’s really helps. In one town in the Champagne region I noticed a covered market square to stop and get out of the sun. 

While we were waiting another biker turned up out of nowhere on a Kawasaki 650 and it turned out to be a lady biker from Paris out for a weekend tour of the region. After a brief chat we said our farewells and made it to the hotel in Reims in good time. 

A nice evening spent viewing the famous cathedral and the rest of the city, a few beers and a meal while people watching in the centre!

The following day we left the hotel at around 7am and travelled the A20 peage back to Calais and made an early tunnel crossing. Usual snarl up on the M25 near Heathrow, but managed to get home by 2.30pm. 

Night stay at:

ibis Styles Reims Centre

21 Boulevard Paul Doumer, Reims, 51100, France

Reasonable quality near the Town centre and Cathedral area. 

Room was a bit tired I suspect because of high turnaround of guests, breakfast was good and very friendly staff. 

Safe gated parking with passcode off road for a fee. Ideal for getting to / from the A20 peage for Calais etc.

The planned route.

YouTube Video Playlist. Select Menu  of rides from top right in player.

Jura wine region to Besancon

Todays ride started from the little town of Saint Jean en Royens in the Vercors as we took in some more of the Vercors spectacular scenery before heading north on the motorway for about 50k to get us into the Wine region in the foothills of the Jura mountain range. 

We visited Baumé les Messiurs and the Abbey and then wound our way up through vineyards to Chateau Chalon near Arbois. Tonight we are staying in the most impressive Besancon full of Roman ruins on an ‘Oxbow loop’ of the river Doubs. Good night in the restaurant district and a few beers too (didn’t try the wine though!).

Night stay at:

Best Western Citadelle

13 Rue General Lecourbe, Besancon, Doubs, 25000 France

Usual Best Western quality, in the city near the river.

Good quality breakfast.

Gated car park, bikes were parked safe and reserved space out of the way but did cost 10 euro each to park.

Ideal for night out on town and sight-seeing.

The planned route.

YouTube Video Playlist. Select Menu  of rides from top right in player.

Route Napoleon and the Vercors

Todays planned route would take us up the Route Napoleon from Grasse to Sisteron before cutting North West across some of the Verdon region before riding the Col de Machine and the famous balcony road .. Combe Laval. First though we took a slight detour and had a good ride around some of the F1 circuit Monoco/Monte Carlo. Chaotic traffic we couldn’t really stop for photos so I grabbed a few low res stills off the GoPro. 

After some toll motorway work around Antibes .. where Mark paid .. I just rode thru ;-) we started a wonderful ride up the Napoleon and it’s fast sweeper bends through amazing countryside not stopping until we reached Castellane for lunch just as the rain started. It soon dried up though, a refreshing down pour to clean the tyres and cool off after the last few days of 30 degree heat. 

As we approached the quiet forested Vercors region with long straight roads leading to the col du rousset mountain pass we had the roads to ourselves. It was quite eery riding alone snaking up the valley to the balcony road at Combe Laval. Mark changed his mind about riding the balcony with 1000ft drop over the side of a small wall, but I figured I couldn’t remember the last time I’d accidentally ridden off the edge of the road recently, it’s all about positioning I guess ! So I went for it. Another fun days ride. 

Night stay at:

Logis Hôtel le Castel Fleuri 16 Place du Champ de Mars.

.26190 ST JEAN EN ROYANS (FRANCE)

Good value Logis with good breakfast.

Ideal for riding Combe Laval in the evening or morning.

Gated car park with passcode.

Book early for evening meal in the nice restaurant overlooking the valley

 ( we arrived too late but they phoned a bistro bar who served us just up the road)

The planned route.

YouTube Video Playlist. Select Menu  of rides from top right in player.