There 12 riders making the trip, all members of the Essex Advanced Motorcycle Group.

The Meet
As ever the worst part of the trip was the early morning ferry from Dover at 8.00am, meaning that the Essex contingent met at 5.45am just south of the Dartford Crossing.

We debated whether the weather could be trusted and we could take leave of our winter gortex. Inevitably we decided we could not, and then had four days of superb sunshine!

The Journey
We took the A16 from Dover down the Pas de Calais coast which is now an excellent dual carriageway/peyage which runs past Le Toucquet and Deauville, followed by an excellent cross country route via Abbeville and Blagny-sur-Bresle, and then the B26 and D149 to Doudeville. 

At Doudeville, we split off from the main group ride which was travelling to Honfleur via the Pont de Bretton.  Steve Eccles is not keen on massive bridges and the Pont de Breton makes the Dartford Crossing look like a humped back bridge! It’s a huge suspension bridge built in 3 or 4 different sections spanning the mouth of the River Seine and is quite overwhelming.  

We had a good start to the scenic detour, we both parked up in a car park in the centre of Doudeville, the rest of the pack rode off and then the police closed all the roads for some sort of bizarre fete.  Most of the population of the village and their children appeared in procession at the main crossroads festooned in empty plastic bottles.  There was much hilarity and we had to wait for 30 minutes till the road re-opened!  When the road did re-open a French peasant of some vintage, in an even more vintage Citroen, reversed into the fully loaded GS.  The pannier was in fact open for some map reading exercises and was pushed up and off the bike. The GS stood its ground though and we both hammered on the top of the French car until it stopped. The peasant was very sorry (“je suis desole”) and there was no real damage done.  In fact the Citroen came off worse than the GS.  That particular pannier had already had an episode some years earlier of bouncing down the road fully laden earning Steve Eccles the nickname “Barnes Wallace” such was the similarity to a bouncing loaded pannier to a bouncing bomb, especially when it bounced through a pack of 16 following motorcycles!  There is another pearl of wisdom to add here, always check your panniers are locked on!

Anyway, back to the ride, we took a detour down to Jumiege where there is a fantastic little car ferry and an Abbey which enabled us to cross the Seine in some style and it was only a slightly longer route to our hotel just outside of Honfleur. 

We stayed at an excellent 3 star lodgis hotel at Criqueboeuf, for the 3 nights.

Ride Out Day One
The first ride out day was to the D Day landing beaches of Normandy, driving past the British beaches of Sword, Juno and Gold, and stopping for lunch at Arromanches, where there is a superb visitors centre and fantastic view of the old Mulberry Harbour.  This was the beach that became the bridgehead for the invasion forces. 

Further along the coast at Omaha Beach we visited the American cemetery beautifully positioned above the landing beach.  There are 7000 US graves in the cemetery which is beautifully kept.  This was of course the beach that Saving Private Ryan was set, although we are not sure it was the actual beach they used for filming. The riding along the coastal roads in Normandy was fairly congested, two of our group took a detour out to see the tapestry at Bayeux.  The Triumph TT600 got dreadfully hot as did its rider!

Ride Out Day Two
The second ride out day was a pure unashamed riding route with excellent scenery.  We drove out to Liseux and Bernay on excellent D roads.

On the return leg, Steve Eccles again detoured around the Seine Crossing via the car ferry meeting up with the group on the North Bank of the Seine, for a section, before again hedge hopping his own way back to Calais avoiding the motorway.  The balance of the group with Steve G remained on the official route.  Group riding is slower than riding solo even with the marker system being deployed through the various towns, so all arrived in Calais at about the same time. 

About 30 miles out of Calais, a BMW K1200S decided to throw a piston through its engine crankcase, its entire oil reservoir spilled onto the back wheel and the motorway.  Thankfully both BMW and following riders were able to avoid calamity and get over to the hard shoulder where the BMW was recovered. It later transpired that the repair cost was over £5,000.  On a BMW with 5000 miles on the clock this was surprising and the dealer has contributed to the costs; it had been fully serviced some weeks earlier which makes the breakdown all the more surprising. 

At the end of the day, the BMW was ridden well within its limits through the trip and one can only suppose there must have been a serious defect within the engine for this to occur.

It does illustrate the importance of having good European breakdown assistance, our rider was recovered within hours back to the UK and managed to get a ferry just one hour after the one being aimed for.  We would certainly advise all riders in Europe to take out specific European breakdown cover, medical cover and also to carry a European Health Insurance Card.

On nearly all the rides we have done together with EAMG in Europe, there has been one incident whereby recovery was necessary whether it be a puncture, a smashed radiator (SV650 riders beware) or an engine blowout!

Thankfully, our bikes both ran beautifully.  The Boxer engine might not be the most sophisticated but it is very effective. 

The only other incident was that Steve G had a run in with a dodgy oyster in the restaurant and so would wholeheartedly advise avoiding such things when on a biking trip.  There can be little worse than riding 300 miles across France on a dodgy oyster as Steve learnt to his cost. 

It is now some months since the trip; we shall be planning another one as soon as we can.

 

Steve Eccles of Pinney Talfourd LLP took a long, eventful and very hot trip to Luxemburg with 10 members of Essex Advance Motorcycle Group (EAMG) in June.

The Journey

Lunch in Givet by the Moselle France on the way to Luxemburg

The tour was led by John Tipper, a senior ROSPA observer and after 100 miles of peage an excellent cross country route to Clervaux in Luxemburg was followed.  Over the next three days there were ride outs in the surrounding countryside criss-crossing the French, German, Belgium and Luxemburg borders enabling the different national road networks to be compared. 

The Roads

German roads are by far the best as to surface and predictability, superb flowing A roads saw some excellent lean angles.  French roads can be great but they have a Gallic unpredictability… The roads in Belgium and Luxemburg are not so good with a lot of over banding which was slippery on the first ride out day to Bastogne – a town made famous in the film “Saving Private Ryan” – indeed some of the roads still seem to have tank tracks in them!

The Dramas

Ride out to Bitburg Germany very bright sunlight!

The tour was incident packed as all our trips seem to be, and in typical fashion, many bikes had a mind of their own. The Honda VFR1200 with the small fuel tank was even more of a problem than anticipated with the petrol cap swelling in the heat and not opening until cold water was poured on it! A Honda VFR800 had to be towed off the motorway when it overheated – seeing one motorcycle tow another off the motorway was an interesting sight just using tie cables down the headstock.  

By the 3^rd and 4^th days in Luxemburg the heat was intense with temperatures up to 38 degrees on the ride home and it was impossible to keep visors closed given the heat.  The dangers of group riding were well shown; there can be a tendency for following riders to follow the bike in front rather than making their own decisions and when one rider entirely failed to turn into a bend, the rider behind followed.  Luckily all was well, emergency stops executed on the wrong side of the road, and no oncoming traffic. Disaster averted.

We met a large numbers of English bikers in the roads around the Nurburgring, and they were enthusiastic to say the least. It’s great to bump into with fellow riders from the same neck of the woods and see how they are taking their journey; one group came past us two abreast and seemed to be able to see round corners and over the brows of hills!

The GS1150 was faultless as ever, perfectly suited to the mileage and the roads, it is nearly run in now at 40,000 miles and the oil consumption is minimal – at last! 

The Reality

I’m back on the Blade now, commuting to work, and wishing I was back on the open road. It feels very small and agile in comparison but I’m already planning my next trip.

Memorial of Malplac massacre where 44 US Prisoner of Wars were executed

I would recommend this road trip. A trip to Luxemburg is an ideal biking trip, it is one day’s ride from Dover, there are excellent museums relating to the Battle of the Bulge, which is known as the Battle of the Ardenne out there, a battle involving 750,000 soldiers and was Hitler’s last attempt to turn the tables on the allies.  Nearly every town or village in the area has some form of monument to the various battles that took place through December and into January 1945. 

Scenically, there are superb roads along the Moselle and Sauer Rivers, and a plethora of incredibly scenic chateaux. 

I’m wondering if anybody else has taken the same route? or can recommend a good one for my next road trip?

 The dream ticket of the most famous Italian rider joining the most famous Italian team in MotoGP will finally become reality.

 The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) will take over Casey Stoner’s ride. Stoner is off to join the factory Honda team to partner Dani Pedrosa.

With the championship almost now certain to be won by his current Yamaha team mate, Jorge Lorenzo, it makes perfect sense for Rossi to end his career at Ducati, with a realistic chance of another championship win over the next season or two.

This maybe worth a look. A new series covering the work of both West Midlands Ambulance Service biker paramedics and Essex Police motorcyclists.

Starts Wednesday 21st July 2010 at 8pm on Channel 5.

http://www.five.tv/programmes/documentaries/emergency-bikers

Let’s be honest, as motorcyclists we don’t give much thought to how our loved ones would be contacted in the event of an emergency.

Motorcyclists often ride alone in remote areas. In the event of a mishap how do the emergency services know who to contact?

ICE (no, not the slippery stuff that keeps your bike in the garage) is short for In Case of Emergency.

Most of us carry mobile phones these days, so enter ICE into your phone with details of anyone who should be contacted in the event of an emergency.

The emergency services know to look for this information in your phone or anybody else who happens by may also be able to do so.

Here’s another tip. Put the name of the person and their relationship to you in your ICE contact and make sure it is a number or numbers that can be easily reached during all hours.

Why not add ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc for more than one contact name.

The motorcycle crash card is an idea thought up by the Ambulance Motorcycle Club.

The credit card sized card contains personal and medical information about the rider and fits in your helmet lining (mine is secured with Velcro).

The ambulance service will know you have the card by the visible green dot stuck on the right hand side of your helmet or visor.

The card and sticker can be obtained from a number of motorcycle dealers, councils and
some police forces.

For more information www.ambulancemotorcycleclub.150m.com/crash-card.htm

Having done a number of motorcycle tours in foreign parts over the years I thought it was
about time to try a tour a little closer to home without the hassle of a crack of dawn start,
ferries and customs.

So it was with much enthusiasm and a little trepidation that I kicked off a 10 day tour of the
Scottish Highlands (with a bit of Yorkshire thrown in for good measure) on the 17th June.
I had been warned that rain would be inevitable, so I wore the textile kit and packed the
waterproofs.

I needn’t have worried. The weather was glorious throughout and the only rain our group of 6 bikes encountered was a brief spell during a trip over to the Isle of Skye. The Skye bridge is a fantastic bit of engineering and toll free!

We took in stops at hotels located in Gilling West (North Yorkshire), Dumfries, Glencoe,
Gairloch and Melrose.

Our hosts in both Yorkshire and Scotland could not have been more welcoming.

We rode some stunning roads, especially up in the Highlands, with very little traffic. Even the midges left us alone.

Just the one puncture which necessitated the replacement of a rear tyre at the beginning of the trip and another at the end as it was getting a bit worn. No mechanical failures, although I did have to replace a headlight bulb with my spare.

If you don’t fancy the hassle of changing currency and struggling with a foreign language why not give it a go!

www.yorkshire.com

www.visitscotland.com