Neil's in…

So this year I am pleased to announce that I will be touring again.  I had originally planned: “North to South” Europe from Nordkapp (Norway) to Tarifa (Spain) approximately 11,000KM.  However, given our current economic crisis and the fact that I did not succeed in passing the accademic year(last year), I didn’t feel I deserved the trip.

Since last year, I have got rid of the Tiger, and replaced it with a Suzuki DRz-400 SM.  The DRz is almost half the weight of the Tiger, third of the power and over half the engine size.  And prior to many of the very recent modifications was running almost twice as fuel efficient as the Tiger. However, given that I’ve just had the bike re-jetted for more power thus the efficiency will have dropped a bit.

I will be travelling this year south. I’ll be heading out on the 30th of June through France with my buddy Dan (he’ll only ride a few days with me). I’ll carry on south to to Pamplona for the San Fermín Fiestas hopefully stay with my friend Vidal for a few days and see Pamplona.

From Pamplona, I’ll be on to Covaleda, my dad’s birth village where most of his family live.  I have some friends out there too which I haven’t seen in almost a decade.

From there, on to Barcelona to see the sights and see a city I’ve never visited and with luck meet a friend I met at Kingston who also is a two wheeled wonder.

Finally, I’ll be attending the Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness for a bit of a laugh near Andorra. From here, I’ll be returning home hopefully catching my ferry on the 26th of July. So far the bike is looking  like this:

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However, there are still quite a few more changes needed before I set off overseas, and I’m beginning to doubt whether they’ll actually happen.

With 2 weeks to go, Dan and I met up for a ride and a chat about our route.  We covered just under 70 miles doing B roads in Surrey in search of a pub we once stopped at…. sadly no joy.  However, we did find another pub equally as nice.  As you may notice, Dan and I ride quite different bikes (pictured).  We’ve agreed to take it slow and see how it goes. His bike a Honda VTR SP-1 was designed more for the likes of track racing than long distance touring. The riding position, comfort of the seat are just a couple of problems, luggage and cruising speed are another.

Anyhow, it all looks good!

Tomorrow, I’ll be off to Ripley to the annual Horizons Unlimited gathering, partly to test the bike and kit out, but also to meet new faces and hear great stories.

I have no idea what it’s going to be like and I don’t know anyone who’s going to be there. I just hope the weather is going to be fine. And I’ll post some pictures on my return.

Hi hi! I’m back from the Horizons Unlimited Travellers meeting 2009 (as it says on the wrist tag we had to wear). It was an amazing weekend even if it did start on Wednesday. I met some amazing people and listened to some great people speak and above all, I learnt a whole lot.

The HU (Horizons Unlimited) community are such friendly people and the authors of whom I spoke with were just down to earth people, who just as easily will muck in and help everyone else out just as anyone else there would.

I made some really good friends that I’d happily meet again, in fact probably will when I get back after Andorra. Ed and Dan were pitched next to me along with Chris and we practically did everything else together.Unbeknown to me they were presenters at the show talking about their amazing trip from Brighton to Capetown.

On Thursday I got chatting to some old geezer setting up a tee-pee style tent and that too turned out to be Simon Gandolfi from “Old Man on a Bike”. His lectures had the audiences in fits of laughter. Along with that, everyone else there seemed to have written a volume of books or have been world travellers of sorts.  Sam Manicom, rode round the world for years on end or Sjaak Lucassen who too has done the round the world trip .. but with a difference… on an R1.

It was an amazing time, and I’m so glad I went alone. The bike lived up to expectations on the journey there and exceeded my expectations there by having people stop and stare at my bike for 5 minutes at a time throughout the whole weekend.

I also managed to finally empty the Aqualine tank… 456 miles before reserve. I was however a little frustrated that despite there being over 2 litres left in the tank, only about 300ml was usable owing to the dips/troughs and the fuel tap well was the smallest reserve of fuel. I’ll have to work something out regarding this.

Here’s some pictures:

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One last thing, Alec from Core Racing…. what a diamond guy! He drove down from York with my missing parts from my Aqualine tank and  fitted it for me. The world is full of good people!

So after going through some receipts and checking mileage and economy I was amazed to find that my fuel economy is fastly increased after powering up the bike, I was wondering why the bike wasn’t feeling too powerful, I’m infact scoring over 10 miles per gallon more than before. Previous modifications got the bike upto 69.9mpg which is about 5 miles per gallon above stock.  I’m currently burning 81 miles per gallon.  Well there’s a penny saver for this trip.

I’m currently pottering around getting the bike in tip-top shape for the trip, just got the MOT and tax done today. I also ordered new chain and sprockets. That’s never fun.

I’ve been a little busy lately, I’ve been rejetting the carburettor, installing an Acewell speedometer and snagging little things like trying to install the dirt wheels to replace the supermoto wheels.  However, the simplest of things always are the harder things to overcome. Works out that the brake discs are fitted with an inhuman amount of force and I just don’t have the strength to undo them.  Actually, I think the previous owner successfully managed to damage the heads… but let’s not go into that.

So, onto packing. I have considered most sensible things… sandals, shoes and boots.. Sod everything else, soldiers march on their feet!!  Oh wait, tools, books, cooker, tent, roll mat, sleeping bag, long johns…. the list goes on.

I have this strange feeling that I’m carrying a lot more than last year, yet in less space. Although, not to be bitter or anything but I did buy 5 extra SD cards last year for photos and filming. I can only find 2 and they are the ones I already had before the 5 extras.  I’ll work something out.

Tomorrow, I’m off to try and get someone else to fit my wheels for me, simply because I don’t have the tools to remove the bloody brake discs. In such little time before departure I don’t fancy losing focus on the little problems, worst case scenario I’ll ride it supermoto.

I also hope my new chain and sprockets arrive, I had hoped they’d get here Thursday last week. Here’s to hoping!

Unlike my education, throwing money at my bike can produce results… not that I’m bitter about the edukashun. (for those not on the same page of the Neil-o-rama: I failed yet again at architecture… 3 years wasted and £10k a year in loans for nothing).

Anyhow, on an upbeat side of things. I recieved my long awaited chain and sprocket-set this morning (left), so with that I took my bike with the dirt wheels strapped on to tightly to Watling Tyres and got them to do the dirty work. It has been searingly hot today and even if I had the tools to do the job, I would definitely not have enjoyed doing it…  as I observed watching the guy in the workshop (right). It took over an hour for the poor guy sweating his face off to get the blessed old brake discs off. Which gave me plenty of time to go down to Halfords and buy some engine oil, which on reflection was a bit of a bad idea given that I was already laden with wheels.  On the slip side to this however, I got given a free set of screwdrivers… don’t ask! I’ve never needed screwdrivers to change my engine oil before.

Anyhow the final result was this:

…I know, I know, it looks no different to you, the wheels are just “silvery”, but there is a difference and I know it… I think.

Hi! So, after starting off on a shaky start thinking Dan wouldn’t make the boat (and by the skin of his teeth almost didn’t). We finally met up after the boat started sailing. The boat was descended upon by this blinding mist and consequently we were delayed docking into Calais. It was not until after we went inland did we manage to shake the mist off.

After sampling the gruesome heat of inland did we then consider riding on the coastal roads, as far as we could; which, I have to say was beautiful.

We stopped at Boulogne for food at about 4 (local time) which was a croque madame which was absolutely delicious.

The roads were quite slow and we made very little progress and with stopping and starting with the heat, to look at the map and drinking water and stripping more and more layers.  We proceeded to ride on the D940 and then D925 until we arrived here in Dieppe at 9:30…  grand total 110 miles since Calais in about 6 hours. We’re both shattered and neither hungry although the crêpes down the road were pretty good. We’re staying in the Hotel L’europe paying an extortionate amount of money for a beach front view suite. I guess we can’t do this every night.

Anyhow, we’re hoping tomorrow will be more eventfull with some proper camping and lots of photos.  See you then!

Hiya again!

I wasn’t able to connect to the net yesterday but we ended up just outside of Le Mans last night in a nice campsite in a quiet town called Beaumont-sur-Sarthe. The trip from Dieppe to Le Mans was nice despite the torturous heat.  This morning Dan and I had to part ways as he has to be back in Blighty for the weekend. However, it was lovely having the two days with him, I’m looking forward to the prospect of Dan’s adventure bike being much slower.. thus less guilt about going slowly.

Anyhow here’s yesterday’s photos: (roughly in order, coffee in Dieppe route planning, Pain au Raisin for breakfast, lunch!, pose in a village square, and then finally found a campsite)

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Currently I’m  in Rochefort (I couldn’t resist!) after a very hot and long (190 miles) day riding. I stopped in Baugé for lunch had the plat du jour in one of the joints they had which was the best meal in a very long time… some pork stew, spinach in a cheesey sauce and a salad.. and it didn’t break the bank at all. I was over the moon.

The weather started to turn while I was eating and I had hoped the rain was going to come and wash away the heat, sadly it was just wind and dark clouds, which did cool things down. So I rode the rest of the journey with my jacket on, which was good…gave me more space to move back into my seat and enjoy the ride.

So after grinding for 6 hours on the bike I finally got to Rochefort, signs for the campsites lead me on a 20 minute ride around the whole of the town and finally I got to the 3 star dive I’m currently at. Irony would have it that this is twice as expensive as the night before and half as good. I guess the hygiene goes along with the cheese, moldy and stinks.  However, the cool sea breeze is delicious after 3 days under the scorching sun.

So here’s today’s photos.

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I just did my first oil change since London, not  had to do this before while on the move, but owing to the single cylinderness of the DRZ oil changes are recommended every 800 miles. I tried to give the last 300ml of oil to the mechanic who let me use his bowl to take the old oil out. He insisted kept it. So with few options remaining I strapped it on the side of the panniers… oh wait, touratak make special straps for this.

Oil prices in France for future reference is 3 times that of what it is in England.

Currently in Royan hoping ot book a Ferry to cross over to Verdon-sur-mer… I hear the road from there southward is beautiful.

Currently in a lot of pain, right wrist playing up again. Been having a go at left hand throttling and riding incredibly slowly.

How’s this for a bit of engrish/englais: