Monthly Archives: June 2012

After a breakfast full of stress and excitement, we left Lyon at 9 in the morning, thinking that on a Saturday, the autoroute to the south would be OK at that time. Big mistake. It was one solid block of cars, with drivers. French drivers. Some of who will do anything to arrive 1 car earlier at their destination. Overtaking left, right and the middle if they coud get away with it. At Montpellier there was a ‘bouchon’, so from 130 we all jumped on the brakes (well, in a matter of speaking, jumping on a bike is not recommended 🙂 and could only tootle along with 5 km/hr. Even here some people can get on your nerves as they do not accelerate and stop, but are crawling along at less than walking pace, too slow for a motorbike with trailer. And I am not assertive enough to go lane splitting with a fully laden bike and trailer or use the stopping lane as some adventurist riders do. But at Montpellier we could leave the Autoroute and continued our travel along the country roads. Via Dieulefit on towards l’Isles sur Saone.

Of course I missed a turn off so we had to pass through the small village of Saou. And what luck we had: There was a market. Not one of those 13 in a dozen ones with resellers of crapware, but a real rural market with local produce. And, quelle surprise, there was a restaurant: l’Oiseau sur sa Branche. A really nice, authentic place, with great food. Highly recommended.

So after lunch off to the camping La Folie where we found a nice shaded place on the border of a small stream. Next challenge, pitch a new tent. The previous one, the Khyed Biker, was replaced as we were not happy with it. We found the innertent too small, and the front section was draughty as it had a loose ground sheet. Also it has one of those fancy quick erect systems. That looks great and helps to erect the tent, but it can be a pain to fold it up again. So now we have a Coleman Rock Springs 4. Which is a 4 persons tent, so it’s ideal for 2.

The next couple of days were spent cruising the region. And as always, things which are considered a must to see are mediocre, and other parts are stunning. The Mont Ventoux. Famous for the Tour de France. It’s nice and worthwhile if you come from the East. The Western side is so-so. The Gorge du Ventoux has two stars on the Michellin map, but I found it boring. There are some views, but you stay high on the mountain so it’s just another high road. Full of cyclists.

But then we found a rather unknown gorge, the Gorge de Trente Pas, and that was really great. I love riding a small meandering road wetched between two towering rock faces.

Another great road was the section between … and … We did that one that on our way back, so two up and the trailer. The hairpins are tight as a ducks arse. Twice my steering was turned to the max so I had to keep the lot upright with back brake and throttle. Sweating time with a smile.

This was the first trip I used my GoPro HD. It’s installed at the centre of the bike on the Migsel RAM stand. I run it in 720 / 50 fps and record it to a 32 GB memory card. I noticed that it runs out of power before the card is full, even with a double battery setup. I did the editing using iMovie on the iPad. I expected a steep learning curve, but it is surprisingly easy to do. But I strongly recommend to watch some instruction movies on Youtube. Else you spend too much time just looking for actions which are obvious after seeing the movie.

Now I only have to find a legal way to add some decent music.

Riding a motrobike in France is fun. You have the whole gamut of roads: from the wide well maintained autoroutes, via good country roads with its sweeping bends to the narrow single lane mountain roads, where the hairpins are like hairclips and you have to turn your steering to the stops and are leaning heavy on the back brake. Also, riding with the trailer is a breeze, I was amazed how easy I could navigate these narrow twisted roads. But there is a learning curve to climb. Firstly, with 300 kg (wet) the bike is quite heavy by itself. Add two people in riding gear and a fully packed trailer plus some stuff in the side panniers, and you almost double the mass. This means that you have to plan the corners with care so you can take them in one smooth sweep and you try to avoid any need for corrections half way. The small roads are often very bumpy, especially in the mountains. So if you are leaning into a corner with an unven surface, the whole system starts to flex. The first time that happens you think that the whole kaboodle is running out of control, but amazingly, you get through it in one piece. But next time you take the corners a little slower and look out for bumps.

A special mention for some of the road repair jobs they do. One method is to pour asphalt into long, small cracks. You end up with thin lines of pure tar on the road. They can be extremely slippery. The first time I hit one in a corner, my front wheel slipped of the tar until it was stopped on normal road surface. Whoah, that cranks up the old adrenaline pump!

People often complain about the French driving manners, but In general I have no problems with that. In every country you have your quota of dickheads behind the wheel, but overall the riding is OK. The drivers are very attentive compared to Australia: they often leave a gap for you to merge or to enter the roundabout, something unheard off in Western Australia. And if there is a “bouchon” (traffic jam) they go out of their way to let bikes through! With my Beowulf exhausts they can hear me coming up from behind, and I love to see them all moving to the side to let me pass! Same in the city: you can just move to the left of a long line on cars and skip to the front. Love it!

So in all, it has been easy to adjust to the local driving style and I have not encountered anything totally unexpected (yet! 🙂 )

Time for a small trip to the Ardeche.

More piccies at http://is.gd/RXTbzN

We left on Saturday morning via the Autoroute to the South, WITH THE NEW CALSCI WINDSCREEN, YEAH! What a difference that makes. No buffetting and almost total silence at any speed. Now we were 2 up with the trailer and the new screen and I had no problem with any swaying up to 140 km/hr. I did not try to go any faster: the taffic was quite heavy so I just went with the flow.

Just before Valence we left the highway, paid our fee of €3.60 for the use of the tarmac and stopped in Tournon-sur-Rhone for a breakfast. Well, breakfast, that’s a big word for the food they serve here in the morning. It is a country for food lovers, apart from the breakfast. A croisant or a piece of baquette with jam on the side. OK, the croisants can have a great taste, but it’s just fluffy pastry with butter, nothing really substantial. But the quality of he coffee, the ambience of the terrace and the taste of the croisant makes up for it.

So after breakfast we went on our way over the small roads to Les Vans, a small but pleasant looking small town. After some deliberation we decided to stay in that area. So next up was an exciting hour: pitching a new tent, blowing up new airmatrasses and unrolling the new sleeping bags.

The tent, a Khyad Biker, looks great but is not ideal. Firstly the innertent is a bit too small for our decent sized airmatrasses, so they almost touch and there is no space for your snack or nightcap. Secondly it has a loose groundsheet in the outertent. So its bloody draughty and cold in the evening if there is some wind. The sleeping bags are great: down filling with a cotton cover and 210cm long. It took F a very long time to find them. There are an amazing amount of sleeping bags for sale, but our choice of the materials and size seems to be a bit outlandish and only one shop in Holland had the goods.

Next day we went for tour to the North West to Lagogne. The road rises quite high to 1400 metres above sea level, and boy, does it get chilly there: it went down to 8 degrees, With a strong wind blowing and in summer riding gear, brrrrrrrr. Thanks god for the handle bar heaters.

So, this day was for the trip to the Gorge du Ardeche. The books say it is a beautifull road, with stunning views and it’s all green on the Michelin maps. Well, tastes differ. It was OK, but to say it was stunning: not exactly. But the road has nice bends in it so we could enhoy the ride.

The road back was via athe Northern route, a bit boring. So this was a day not so much stunning views, but nice relaxing riding with a damned good lunch in Aigueze.

Packing up was a amazingly quick. The trailer is big enough to take all gear, so you have quite some flexibility to stuff everything into the available space. And I love packing up in the early morning: a bit chilly, dew on the grass and the bike is waiting to be started.