23-08-12, 09:13 PM
La Baneza
saw a youtube video and thought 'that looks like fun!'
I was right. Combine the atmosphere of the TT, the enthusiasm of the manx, the thrills of the NW200 and guaranteed good weather.
To be fair it was very spanish. no non-spanish riders are allowed to enter (unless you have something very special). Most of the classic bikes are Ossa's and Bultaco's with the odd Derbi thrown in. However you do get to sit inches from the riders as they scrape past the mass of haybales.
laban250
I imagine this is how racing used to be, being able to literally reach out and touch your heroes. The town has a week long festival (markets etc) finished off with the bike racing. The races are for 250 2T, 4T and 125GP bikes. Sounds a bit staid on paper, but the course is fiendishly awkward so the racing is good.
laban125
On the friday we hit the town in the evening and have a great time at the medieval market, families everywhere having a great evening with their kids.
On saturday we head into town, to find it's been turned into a racetrack, quite literally overnight a circuit has sprung up. A paddock has appeared at the top end of town and a tented village has bloomed out of the park. It was obvious that the majority of the 30000 visitors were under canvas.
All through the day the little town got busier and busier. It reminded me of how Douglas prom used to be back in the 80's. Lots of good humoured arsing about. SWMBO decided that every bike in Spain was there.
And talking of arsing about, the Spanish are a bit like the French when it comes to bikebased arsing. bounce the limiter, mini burnout, done. Imagine my surpise finding a bunch of lads on their gsxr's giving it large in 1st to 'gerrit oop'. Imagine their surprise when a fat, ageing, sunburnt english bloke wearing shorts sandals and a T shirt riding a bike with a top box pulls a 400m minger past them! Fair play to them, I bumped into them in town and they bought me a cerveza.
The racing on sunday was just mental. The classic bikes moreso than the 125GP, as the classic boys had some things to 'sort out'.
When the racing had finished, it was full steam ahead for home. 5hrs/300 miles later we were at Biarritz (my poor tyre). SWMBO said she fancied going there, but we felt like Mary and Joseph on christmas eve as everywhere we went was 'complete'. After an hour of mooching we eventually found a 90€ motel........eek!!
Biarritz struck me as a French Weston/Newquay, but with nicer shops, and they sure know how to charge for breakfast.
Bosh, back on the bike and 250 miles later we were in La Rochelle. I've been visiting La Rochelle since i was 10, and the place never seems to lose it's fascination with me. Luckily SWMBO likes it too!
We stopped at Hotel Les Rosiers (65€). Monsieur Fawlty had an '83 Z1300 and a bassett hound named Lola. Nice place to stop, but get a room at the back of the hotel (1-7,21-27) as it's on a very busy road! We had a day mooching around before the last big push home.
We left at 8 for Honfleur, 280miles/6hrs (i don't use the peage) later we were sitting down by the quayside at restaurant 42 (i recommend the 15€ menu).
As an aside, we were royally yanked about when we got to Le Havre. Les Douanes were having a 'let's piss the Brits off on a hot day' day! It took 35mins to clear customs with 4 lanes open, then a 20 min wait under the bike rack, then LD kept us waiting at the foot of the landing ramp whilst artics rumbled in inches from us.Then they had the gaul (do you see what i did there!) to charge £1.20 for a packet of tyrrels crisps. BASTIDS!!!!
Would I go again, probably not. Would I recommend it to anyone...................of course.
We did a total of 1679 miles, used 155l of 95 ron which is an ave of 49.178451612903............or there abouts.
The total luggage weight was an amazing 79lbs..............but my arse REALLY hurts!!!!!
saw a youtube video and thought 'that looks like fun!'
I was right. Combine the atmosphere of the TT, the enthusiasm of the manx, the thrills of the NW200 and guaranteed good weather.
To be fair it was very spanish. no non-spanish riders are allowed to enter (unless you have something very special). Most of the classic bikes are Ossa's and Bultaco's with the odd Derbi thrown in. However you do get to sit inches from the riders as they scrape past the mass of haybales.
laban250
I imagine this is how racing used to be, being able to literally reach out and touch your heroes. The town has a week long festival (markets etc) finished off with the bike racing. The races are for 250 2T, 4T and 125GP bikes. Sounds a bit staid on paper, but the course is fiendishly awkward so the racing is good.
laban125
On the friday we hit the town in the evening and have a great time at the medieval market, families everywhere having a great evening with their kids.
On saturday we head into town, to find it's been turned into a racetrack, quite literally overnight a circuit has sprung up. A paddock has appeared at the top end of town and a tented village has bloomed out of the park. It was obvious that the majority of the 30000 visitors were under canvas.
All through the day the little town got busier and busier. It reminded me of how Douglas prom used to be back in the 80's. Lots of good humoured arsing about. SWMBO decided that every bike in Spain was there.
And talking of arsing about, the Spanish are a bit like the French when it comes to bikebased arsing. bounce the limiter, mini burnout, done. Imagine my surpise finding a bunch of lads on their gsxr's giving it large in 1st to 'gerrit oop'. Imagine their surprise when a fat, ageing, sunburnt english bloke wearing shorts sandals and a T shirt riding a bike with a top box pulls a 400m minger past them! Fair play to them, I bumped into them in town and they bought me a cerveza.
The racing on sunday was just mental. The classic bikes moreso than the 125GP, as the classic boys had some things to 'sort out'.
When the racing had finished, it was full steam ahead for home. 5hrs/300 miles later we were at Biarritz (my poor tyre). SWMBO said she fancied going there, but we felt like Mary and Joseph on christmas eve as everywhere we went was 'complete'. After an hour of mooching we eventually found a 90€ motel........eek!!
Biarritz struck me as a French Weston/Newquay, but with nicer shops, and they sure know how to charge for breakfast.
Bosh, back on the bike and 250 miles later we were in La Rochelle. I've been visiting La Rochelle since i was 10, and the place never seems to lose it's fascination with me. Luckily SWMBO likes it too!
We stopped at Hotel Les Rosiers (65€). Monsieur Fawlty had an '83 Z1300 and a bassett hound named Lola. Nice place to stop, but get a room at the back of the hotel (1-7,21-27) as it's on a very busy road! We had a day mooching around before the last big push home.
We left at 8 for Honfleur, 280miles/6hrs (i don't use the peage) later we were sitting down by the quayside at restaurant 42 (i recommend the 15€ menu).
As an aside, we were royally yanked about when we got to Le Havre. Les Douanes were having a 'let's piss the Brits off on a hot day' day! It took 35mins to clear customs with 4 lanes open, then a 20 min wait under the bike rack, then LD kept us waiting at the foot of the landing ramp whilst artics rumbled in inches from us.Then they had the gaul (do you see what i did there!) to charge £1.20 for a packet of tyrrels crisps. BASTIDS!!!!
Would I go again, probably not. Would I recommend it to anyone...................of course.
We did a total of 1679 miles, used 155l of 95 ron which is an ave of 49.178451612903............or there abouts.
The total luggage weight was an amazing 79lbs..............but my arse REALLY hurts!!!!!
The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money!
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