All packed up and ready to go first thing tomorrow, this will be my second EMM and I'm as excited as a pan full of frogs. Andorra and the Pyrenees this year and a lot of the Brit pack going. Forty Multistradas should make a lovely noise the first morning. EMM 2015- Catalonian Pyrenees Updates to follow...
Just doing last minute things, final packing later tonight! See you at the Chunnel! Looking forward to the mountains!
RIDE REPORT - PART 1 Packed up and ready to roll Early start to meet up with the Brit pack at the Channel tunnel. We all boarded the train in a state of high excitement. Whilst trying to change the Ohlins suspension to rider plus luggage I suddenly developed a 'red switch not released' error to go with the fuel sender one, very odd? The journey to Paris was memorable. As I was hooning along at around 85mph in the fast lane the bike just cut out. I coasted to the side of the motorway and it restarted, however a few miles later it was the same again, but this time it was more reluctant to start and there were lots of DES errors flashing up. I managed to get it running and we headed to a nearby peyage exit. The bike was behaving very oddly; start bike, engage gear, clutch out, total electrical shutdown. Pete pulled the main fuse out and replaced it. Just as I was convincing myself it was time to call recovery and wave goodbye to my chums it started. I rode around and around for a while and all seemed OK. (I had attached a Givi USB power feed and whilst I can't see why this would cause a problem I disconnected this and the Sat Nav for good measure). We continued to Paris and I was pleased that the bike didn't decide to cut out as we were splitting 3 lanes of solid traffic around the Peripherique. French drivers are brilliant though, they move over to allow bikes to pass through (a big difference from the UK). We arrived at the station at the same time as Steve and Tony and left the bikes to be loaded up onto the Auto Train. The staff seemed pretty good and despite some misgivings we headed off across Paris to catch our passenger train. The idTGV ticket was a bargain, we got a 1st class ticket to Toulouse for €43 each, 6 hours on the train, but saved on tyres, petrol, tolls and arse ache. Steve and Tony even fitted in a bit of shut eye. Our hotel in Toulouse was ideally situated opposite the station, cheap and cheerful, with the exotic Flamingo club just 50m away! We got out for a meal and Peter showed us his remarkable resemblance to the muppet character Beaker
PART 2 The next morning we used Steve's tracker to established that the bikes (well at least his), had arrived in Toulouse station. We arrived just as they we being offloaded. As you can see they are well secured. Back to the hotel to load up. We split our forces and I headed off with Paul and Peter Green to Ducati Tolouse. The staff were really helpful and put the bike on the diagnostic computer straight away, however the only fault they could find was the existing fuel sensor one. The bike was perfectly OK for the rest of the trip so the fault still remains a mystery. The others had really headed off to Andorra and we headed off there as well. We met one of the other riders, Steff the Belgian on his classic Multi, on the way. We arrived at the hotel and quickly unloaded, grabbed some beers and had a great time greeting both old and new friends. There were a LOT of Multistrada's Just as we were about to head for dinner a cool dude on a Ducati Scrambler turned up, none other than Ruben Zaus! A couple of the guys met him in the town and invited him to visit us, he was a really smashing guy. He even put a picture of us all on his Facebook page: The only downside was Steve feeling ill and having to head off to hospital that night. What would tomorrow bring? More to follow...
Day Three The morning started with the news that Steve had been operated on in the night to remove a faulty Appendix! Tony had gone with him for support, he finally got home around 3am (I think) and missed the morning ride. The routes planned were superb, if anyone is riding in the area I would strongly advise downloading them. They are both here, with downloadable Garmin and Tom Tom routes: EMM 2015- Catalonian Pyrenees Today's route took us through Spain and back into France, 207 miles. Bikes set off in groups of around 5 or 6 chums as they were ready. I rode with Miles, Uncle Peter and Steve Foster. After we turned off the C14 the road got really interesting, winding it's way up and downhill, in 35 mins we passed 1 car and 1 lorry. The road was tight in places but we were able to make good progress. A quick stop for coffee (and cake). The weather was warm and dry the whole time we were there. I mainly rode in a mesh jacket (with a liner first thing in the morning), by the afternoon the temperatures were up to 32C which made it uncomfortable if you were in towns, luckily we avoided most of them! During the day we found ourselves passing other groups of Multi's at the side of the road, and being passed ourselves during our photo stops. Eventually most of us met up at the petrol stop and headed off to find the lunch stop. At this point one of the group (no names mentioned) noticed a sign to a restaurant on the left (combined with an odd Sat Nav command). About 20 of us started up an unmade steep, gravel track, it was rather challenging, especially the hair pin bend and we were please to get to the top safely. Sadly it was the wrong place! So we all had to head back down hill again (even more challenging). The correct lunch stop was found and we all met up again. It was a pretty impressive sight with so many Ducati's parked up along the road. After lunch we headed off again, the N 260 up from Ripoll was superb, really fast, open flowing corners, a total joy. A quick detour into France and we all ended up Col de Puymoreans We headed back into Andorra and Peter Green (Rotax Racer) Pilot Paul and myself popped into the hospital to see Steve. We were glad to see him looking a lot happier, but he was already moaning about the lack of food. Back up to the hotel for some well earned beers, shower and another great meal.
Day Four Another long day in the saddle planned, 239 miles with a scheduled time of almost 8 hours. Out of Andorra again, the Brit pack were riding with the American Drex and the Norwegians today. The N260 rises up from the valley floor and once past a rather slow coach, and it's following line of cars, we were really able to stretch the bikes' legs, a fabulous flowing road, fast and open. We headed back down to the valley and followed the C13 alongside a river, the tarmac was so smooth and perfect if felt like the bike was running on rails. We stopped for coffee in Llavorsi, a nice little town where they do a lot of river rafting and kayaking. The C 28 road continued to follow the river and a fabulous lake and then rose up once again with a series of hairpins and faster corners. The main issue here was avoiding the piles of cow and horse crap all over the road, usually right on the apex! No time to rest and the next section was a lot tighter, technical and twisty. Steff and Jan were able to exploit the agile nature of their old school Multistrada's but we encountered a bunch of vintage BMW riders coming down towards us, who seemed to think it was OK to ride two abreast! We finally made it to lunch, the temperatures were rising high as we lined up in the little town street. Another great lunch and onwards again. More tight, technical roads this afternoon, I was happy to slow off the pace a bit and go into cruising mode, the temperatures were high and concentration was difficult by this stage. There was an option to do a loop and take in some unpaved track, but most of us were cooked by this stage and took the short cut back to the hotel. Peter and Paul decided to do the track and had a lot of fun, although the road afterwards was hard, with a poor road surface. They met up with the very fast French contingent, (although one was riding a GS). Back at the hotel it was time for the BBQ and final beers and goodbyes. A really great, well planned and well run event with a great bunch of International riders. Google Photos
From memory it was £89 for the bike and €43 for the TGV 1st class cabin, really comfy and air conditioned! Book early as its popular.
The train worked well, booking is a bit fiddly, you can either book via the French website, or with the English office by phone: AutoTrain - Discover France by Train | Voyages-sncf.com Autotrain from Paris to Toulouse cost €109 booked several months ahead, the idTGV first class was €43 (this is like an Easyjet style train, cheaper with restrictions, but you can book further ahead than the normal 3 months). I'd accidentally ticked the 'collect ticket at station' option on the French language website, which meant a long wait in a queue until I spotted some ticket machines. The TGV was very efficient, 6 hours, but it meant we arrived fresh in Andorra in plenty of time and avoided 2-3 long days across France. I'd look at doing it in the reverse direction as well another time.
