Getting wet

When you really don't want to go to work on the bike you have to. It was bucketing down this morning and I had to be in Bourne End by 9.00. The old Range Rover was down the yard with the horse trailer hitched so Tom could take a digger back that we had hired for the weekend. Oh well go in the MG. Now, I bought new batteries (it needs 2 x 6 volt batteries) for this only about 6 months ago and when I came back from holiday there was not enough juice in them to start the car. I think the immobiliser tends to be a small drain. But I had bump started it a few days ago and given it a good run and it was starting again. Not this morning. It needed more than its normal churn and then too flat. Bought the bloody things by mail order and can't even remember who to complain to. So on with all the highly expensive Hein Gericke gear and onto the Velo, which did start. It more or less solidly pissed down all the way in and I can report that the clothing is NOT totally waterproof. The material itself is but the double zip system at the front is not. The water had made its way past both the zips and my shirt had a wet patch about 6 inches wide from collar to waist. I am only moderately impressed by this clothing. It is very warm and windproof. However, the waterproofing is not great and the zips have a very annoying tendency to trap the inner linings which leave to struggling to undo them and risk breakage forcing them.

Touring France

As some of you know, plan A was to buy a nice touring bike and use that instead of the Duke to tour France this summer. Hence the purchase in March of a very lardy BMW K1100RT. A few runs told us it was too heavy and too tall. Then I thought we want to TOUR. Not blat down autoroutes at 100mph but amble along departmental roads in the sunshine at about half that speed. So why not a nice comfy old Brit bike. Remembering my Venom, its indestructibility and relative lack of vibration I went out and bought this 350 Velocette MAC, complete with Craven panniers. Here you see it loaded up outside a French Gite we stayed in.

The first leg was to Pete's house in Langonnet, having docked at St. Malo. An excellent long weekend shared with Pete and Wendy on their Hinckley Bonnie, Niall & Liz on their Vstrom, Andy on his Ducati ST4 and Martin on his BMW RS1100. Can't remember a lot except long intellectual discussions such as what type of bike would a lesbian fancy? I think we settled on a Honda CX500 because of its lack of phallic symbolism...or something like that. Oh and I do remember that while us guys were talking dirty the women seemed to be obsessed with 'shabby sheep' and somewhere called Eurodiff (no I don't think they sold differentials).

After the weekend the others went back to Blighty and Jo and I ambled off down to the Dordogne. We took 2 and half days over it, starting late, docking early with plenty of breaks and long lunches. We stuck to the Department roads. I found the Velo very comfortable and easy to ride. Nice and light, easy to manoeuvre and the handling was really very good considering how loaded it was over the back wheel. Jo complained of a certain amount of vibration at the back. It seems that many bikes seem to transmit what vibes they have to the pillion footrests. On the front there was hardly any vibration.

Arriving in the Dordogne we found a nice little Gite just outside Les Eyzies on the banks of the Vezere which seemed a good place to base ourselves. From the Gite we were able to potter out everyday to see something just wearing shorts and T shirts on the bike. There is loads to see in this area with beautiful medieval towns like Sarlat, bastide towns, chateaux, cave dwellings, prehistoric cave paintings etc. The roads are great and the whole area has a golden glow coming off the warm stone they use for building. After 5 days it was time to make our way to Bilbao for the ferry home. We took 2 days to get to Bilbao, staying in Dax the first night. Arriving in Bilbao we could not find anywhere nice to stay and ended up in an IBIS in a sort of 'Thurrock Lakeside' development. The hotel was OK but the food was absolutely dire. I ordered a salmon fillet which and first been aggressively nuked in the microwave to defrost it followed by a good grilling. Consequently the flesh was all powdery. I sent it back and made do with the starter only which wasn't much better.

The Velo had proved to be very reliable. Early on the speedo cable broke because of too aggresive routing by the previous owner. The silencer started to self destruct at the 'fishtail' end, must have been older than it looked and a bolt helping to hold the dynamo on decided to chuck itself in a hedge somewhere. I suppose it got through about one and half litres of oil which over about 1500 miles was not bad.

As ever France was a country that is a joy to visit. The people always seem welcoming and friendly. The food generally is excellent although I do detect a small falling off in quality from earlier years. Great meals though are still to be had a reasonable cost. In one little village in the Dordogne we had a superb 5 course menu for 18 euros each. The Velocette caused some confusion because the name is French but few of the old French guys had heard of it. Had to keep telling them it was not French and was made in Birmingham, which I think they sort of only half believed.