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Riding off the Shuttle at Calais, it became evident that the weather conditions were worse than those my pal Rick and I had left at Folkestone 35 mins earlier. Driving rain and gusts to 50mph made progress down the A26 to Reims more than "interesting", with foliage and debris littering the lanes. Despite my best efforts to keep my wallet, phone etc dry, by using ziplock bags, trying to insert notes in the peage machine in the pissing rain, and keep them dry, is certainly a challenge.
Reims and Troyes were dealt with, the next town on the route being Auxerre. However a rear puncture about 4kms before the town stopped progress. My first thought was why didn't I find room for my 12volt pump, as I only had space for sparklets. There was no nail/screw evident, and after wasting a couple of sparklets I was no nearer locating the puncture, so slowly rode into town. Rick scouted ahead like Tonto, on his GS1200, on the hunt for a garage with an airline, and came back with good news. After inflating the tyre a Y shaped hole revealed itself, so the plugger kit that Dazza recommended, was pressed in to service and did a sterling job, but unfortunately I was left with a slow puncture no doubt due to the awkward shape of the damaged area. Not keen on using a tyreweld type of product I decided to buy a 12 v pump and just keep an eye on the pressure throughout the rest of the trip, which resulted in it losing about 1.5 ft/lbs a day.
Our target destination was well and truly out of the window now due to time lost, so after a quick bite, pressed on to Nevers in search of a campsite. The rain had stopped as we neared town, thank goodness, so with the site found, tents up, showered and changed, we walked back over the bridge to the nearest bar. Two pints of Kronenbourg........18 euros......you're having a laugh. With the poor exchange rate at present that worked out at 8 quid odd a pint. I was hoping to do this trip on 700 euros and had made a dent in it on day one, as peage 98 octane was 1.64 euros a litre, with no 95 available other than with the E10 additive. Walking back to the tents it started raining, oh deep joy. The rain didn't stop until mid morning the following day, delaying our departure. However sunshine puts a different spin on things and rolled into Le Puy-En-Velay absolutely sweating. A quick visit to the supermarket for beer and we were back heading south for another 30 or so miles, before setting up camp on quite a remote site costing 9 euros for us both. Bargain. The owner said we'd need the heavy blankets that she offered us, and she wasn't wrong as the tents and grass were white with frost when we woke in the morning.
After a good ride through the Ardeche it was peage time again, but being the Friday before the race weekend it was free to bikes, as it has been for a few decades now. Another provisions stop at Gemenos and we were at the track, but struggled to find a space for our tents. The original plan had been to get there early Friday morning rather than mid afternoon, but eventually tents were up and ring pulls were being pulled. The weekend starts now. After buying the obligatory event T shirt it was off to find the merguez and frittes guy. With beers in the rucksack along with a couple of free programmes we took our seats to watch the night time leg of the classic endurance race. This series has the likes of Harris Suzukis,Martin Hondas, Kawa 750 ZXRR's, RC30's,Z1's all great to see in their night time glory. They race for 2 hours in the dark, then a further 2 hours the following morning as part of the pre 24 hour race entertainment.
Saturday dawned and after a nice breakfast, bagged some good seats on the startline. After the 2nd leg of the classic race, it was time for the stunt riders to do their thing. Eventually 3 o'clock came, the riders sprinted across the track, start buttons were pressed and the Bol d'Or 2017 was underway. There were trials and tribulations for several of the fancied teams, but GMT94 (R1 Yamaha), who I've followed from their early days, ran like clockwork and won by a handsome margin.
A hurried pack up had us on our way by about 4.30pm, trusting the satnav to get us north across country to Digne les Bains, where we were to stay for 4 nights. The next 3 days were spent riding up to Alpe d'Huez, marvelling at the determination of the Tour de France riders, having pics taken in the snow on top of Col de la Bonette, although the final walk to the top in the thin high altitude air was a bit of a killer for me. The last day was spent on the twisties down to Grasse, even finding a roadside snack bar that I last visited about 16 years ago. We couldn't resist a few beers sipped in the sun sat overlooking the coastal area of Cannes, Antibes and Nice.
The following day we had a spirited ride west back to Le Puy, although our arrival coincided with 5 o'clock rush hour, which, coupled with 28c heat , the mighty thou spewed some of its coolant, but was topped up with some of Evians finest.
Having been caught out previously by 2 serious diversions due to roadworks, the easy run up to Calais on the last day, was to be punctuated with yet another diversion. By the time we were back on track we needed to make some serious progress to get us to Reims. However in my haste I managed to fly by a rather insignificant exit, which was ours, with no way off for another 20 kms. What a twat. After gassing up at the next exit, we headed north on very rural roads with a good smooth surface, so easily managed to match the 130kph of the peage that was off to our left. The chance of speed cameras in the sticks was very low as well, even though the Garmin had proved to be very useful on several occasions. Reims loomed into view, peage ticket stuffed into the tankbag, and now just 2 hours of boredom, mile munching our way up to Calais.
After a wet and miserable start, the trip turned out to be an enjoyable adventure. The thou never missed a beat, used no oil and proved to be the great all rounder that it is. Despite the puncture the Metz Roadtec 01's handled everything that was thrown at them, drama free.
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crash bars wanted even not best condition considered ...
