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Post by tomcat on Jun 8, 2013 14:30:46 GMT
I've just returned from a 3,700 mile road trip to watch the Moto-gp racing at Mugello, Italy last weekend. France and Italy have some beautiful and challenging roads with spectacular countryside. It's only when you need to ride across france to reach the other side you truly appreciate the size of the country. The purpose of the trip was to tick another box in my "bucket list". I went to watch Rossi race in Italy. I witnessed a Brit, Scott Redding, win the Moto-2 class and Cruchlow achieve 3rd place in the Moto-gp. Sadly Rossi only made the 3rd bend of the first lap before tasting the run off gravel. I was pleased we'd arrived early enough to view him in the morning practice session. Route outward took us through the Turin tunnel to italy, returning along the Italian and French Riviera before heading inland to ride across the Millau Viaduct. I'd like to return to France and tour on the bike when time is not as important. It truly is a biking paradise.  Lunch stop on the Riviera.  |
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Post by m40man on Jun 8, 2013 15:20:46 GMT
Ah, so that's why we couldn't borrow the BMW when we called-in the other week  ? Glad you had a good time . |
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Post by tomcat on Jun 8, 2013 15:59:18 GMT
Ah, so that's why we couldn't borrow the BMW when we calledcrept-in the other week ? Glad you had a good time . Mmmm, yes, that must have been the reason.  |
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Post by teejayexc on Jun 8, 2013 16:18:33 GMT
Very nice George, sounds like you enjoyed it.
Ps, did your spare part arrive?
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Post by tomcat on Jun 8, 2013 18:32:36 GMT
Very nice George, sounds like you enjoyed it. Ps, did your spare part arrive? Yes but I've no 6mm hex key to fit it now. It went to Scotland with the two musketeeers! |
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Post by teejayexc on Jun 8, 2013 19:10:22 GMT
Very nice George, sounds like you enjoyed it. Ps, did your spare part arrive? Yes but I've no 6mm hex key to fit it now. It went to Scotland with the two musketeeers! Ooh bngger, wondered where the spare appeared from  |
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Post by DahDit on Jun 8, 2013 22:23:56 GMT
Eagerly awaiting more pics - or did you also lose your camera at Mugello? |
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Post by tomcat on Jun 9, 2013 9:01:55 GMT
Eagerly awaiting more pics - or did you also lose your camera at Mugello? Not quite, but very close. I have misplaced the connecting lead for the camera on my tour. The couple of photographs are what I captured on the phone. I'll acquire a replacement lead and load some more piccies in due course. |
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Post by tomcat on Jun 16, 2013 20:43:30 GMT
French country roads were fantastic, distances to be covered require a good quality road network. I enjoyed crossing France, but why did they need to build it on such a big plot? The French have some odd ways, some of which I could only wonder at in amazement. I visited one of their beautiful churches near to Roscoff. Small town, huge churches.  I noticed shelves holding an array of decorated boxes and wondered what the significance was and what they contained.  I had to get a closer look and was shocked at what was revealed.   Race day was just deafening, both from the bikes and the Rossi fuelled Italian fans. The track is located in a valley in beautiful countryside.  Health and safety hasn't descended to Italy yet. Race day saw all the motorbikes and pedestrians negotiating the same route of narrow gateways into the circuit. 60,000 0n foot and 10,000 on bikes was chaos. The number of shorts clad pedestrians that I witnessed leaping away from the bikes after a brush from a hot exhaust was staggering. Frighteningly you find yourself adopting the Italian style of riding just to keep up with the two wheeled traffic flow. Their bikers overtake continuously, solid white, broken white lines are just road decoration. The attitude is, if anythings coming in the opposing direction, they'll move over for you! You have to swallow your reality pill when crossing the channel back to the UK and return to normal riding. If you didn't you wouldn't live to see home. I vowed to return. Next time just to tour central and southern France at a more leisurely pace, 370 to 440 miles a day without using motorways was just asking too much when it was 3 or 4 consecutive days. |
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Post by DahDit on Jun 16, 2013 20:47:29 GMT
Excellent Thanks for that update. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2013 7:09:31 GMT
3,700 miles? Impressive! Did you start with new tyres  Agree, the French back roads are sooo good, and pre-GPS trips, when we stopped to read a map, it wasn't long before an other biker stopped to help. I loved our criss crossing French trips, especially the legal filtering with car drivers making a big effort to let you through. To be fair this is happening up here quite a bit |
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Post by tomcat on Jun 17, 2013 8:05:17 GMT
3,700 miles? Impressive! Did you start with new tyres Agree, the French back roads are sooo good, and pre-GPS trips, when we stopped to read a map, it wasn't long before an other biker stopped to help. I loved our criss crossing French trips, especially the legal filtering with car drivers making a big effort to let you through. To be fair this is happening up here quite a bit The K1200S is fitted with Michelin pilot road 3's which had already been to Austria and back previously. They have very light squaring now visible on the rear tyre, but are still legal and display loads more mileage left in front and back tyres. I was very impressed with their performance, they felt confidence inspiring in both dry and wet conditions. |
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