BCF Spain 2016 Trip Report [55MB DATA]

[Carvel]

[Aff]

[-Monty-]

Great write up Matt. It does sound like a pretty bad trip read in one big write up, but overall I really enjoyed it (probably because I didn't have a comically slack chain for the whole trip this time).
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Present: [Kawasaki ZX7r][Suzuki DRZ 400s]
Past: [Honda PCX 125] [Yamaha RXS 100] [Honda CB 500] [Triumph Speed Four] [Honda ST1100 Pan European - Po-Po Edition]

[Pigeon]

Wow. What an epic adventure!

Glad to see you boys were keeping up foreign relations.
Thanks to you, if the UK don't vote for Brexit, the French + Spanish will just kick us out anyway

Fantastic photo's and videos! The road of death looks incredible......and quite scary, I definitely need a few more miles under the belt before attempting such madness. I target fixated at the 1,000ft drop just sitting at my screen


Great writeup Matt! Three things stuck out in my mind:

1. Excellent resourcefulness as usual everyone.
2. Matt, you need to stop smashing mirrors, opening umbrellas indoors, walking under ladders and crossing black cats. Although, on the other hand, you were quite lucky the feds didn't bust you for transporting shrooms over state lines
3. How the feck was that out of the three Triumphs, Monty's was the one that didn't break?!?

[alexknight200...]

Thanks for the write up, enjoyed it muchly
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Current stable: Yamaha XVS 650 1996 - Honda Super Magna VF750 1988.

[-Matt-]

I agree with a couple of the other guys. Reading it all in one condensed thread I guess it does come across as a bit of a disaster, but spread over 12 days most of the time it was really enjoyable. It was a bit of a nightmare at times (particularly for Paris2, who probably had worse luck than me to be honest) with the constant bike problems/lack of bike and incompetent breakdown company trying to sort him out a solution on both occasions.

We couldn't of even predicted the problems with his bike though. It was one of the lowest mileage and best condition bikes on the trip and he'd done loads of servicing work on it with a few of us a couple of weeks before the trip to try and avoid any of problems, it was just really crap luck. The first breakdown was at the end of the day, less than an hour from the hotel and just required us to wait in a carpark outside a supermarket for a few hours. The next morning we had the parts and got it fixed and they caught up with us not too long after we got to the Pamplona hotel that night.

The Pamplona crash and fines were a bit of a pain, but it was all over and done with in an hour and wasn't too expensive for the couple that got fined.

My incident was definitely quite expensive but i'm still glad I went. Once I knew what was happening I was okay with it, the waiting and not knowing what i'd do with the bike until we got a plan sorted out was the main stress, but it didn't impact the trip for me too much in the end. I missed a few sights around the hotel-town the following day, but I got to walk around Zaragoza in the meantime which was interesting. I missed the days ride leaving Barcelona to Montpellier (which I would of really liked to do), but again I did enjoy getting to go around Montpellier for the day until everyone arrived.

Even after the second breakdown, Paris2 managed to ride on my bike/pillion on _ Troy_'s for the majority of the trip and only missed the day's we had horrible weather in France until he met us again for Bayeux and Cherbourg.

[-Monty-]

[Fladdem]

Very nice, I love it.

Normally I have terrible luck when I go away on the bike but I love the sense of no one panicking while all of this was going on that I get from reading that.
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Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[Dave70]

Great to see the pics and read the trip report.

Was that Irish mould/mushrooms on your wetsuit by any chance Matt? I had to put my leathers and boots in the washing machine with some antibacterial liquid after that trip, as they stunk to high heaven after getting thoroughly soaked.

Let me know if you have any UK trips planned this year, as going abroad is going to be a bit too costly for me this year, after having to buy a new bike and do tests.

I'll probably do Scotland in the summer (does Scotland have summer ), if yourself or anyone else wants to tag along.
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There ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk.

2012: R125 killed by white van. 2016 R125 killed by 30,000 miles of redline. Current: 2016 Kawasaki ER6f.

[-Matt-]

I had to put my leathers and boots in the washing machine with some antibacterial liquid after that trip, as they stunk to high heaven after getting thoroughly soaked.It actually would be thinking about it Last time I used that rainsuit was in Ireland. It was absolutely horrific, that picture doesn't do it justice. The velcro on the collar had half-rotted and disintergrated due to mould. And all the other velcro tabs were covered in thick spores as well as the suit itself. It smelt like a corpse for most of the day even with a windmask pulled up around my face

[Copycat73]

[Matt B]

It was, as the others have said, not as tragic as it sounds. 11 bikes doing that kind of mileage and things are bound to go wrong. I think what made it worse this time was that the issues had more of an impact and became a greater inconvenience. Being down 2 bikes and busting felons out of the slammer was a problem.

From my perspective it was still a good trip. Not as epic as last year, but still good.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160322_08_41_46_Pro_zpsxpi5mg1g.jpg
The ZX6 did a great job of touring - comfortable, economical (especially compared to the CBR ), glad I took it.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/IMG_4986_zpsaht4v3f0.jpg
See how happy we all are here. The manager lady at the F1 Hotel in Saint Nazaire decided she wanted to take photos of us all for some advertising. No accounting for taste.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160324_10_52_53_Pro_zpsbbbxxint.jpg
For me, riding down through Spain was something I would happily never do again. Whoever said that Spanish roads are good was obviously in a very different part of Spain to us. They were dull, badly surfaced, packed with HGVs and went through landscape and scenery that looked positively post apocalyptic.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160324_13_29_24_Pro_zpsym1gihos.jpg
Also far too many Police.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160325_11_54_53_Pro_zpstoantofo.jpg
The hotel just outside of Barcelona in Sant Boi de Llobregat was a bit Fawlty Towers but positive luxury after the F1s. Nice pool to chill out around while waiting for -Matt- to get raped by Spanish magistrates.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160325_10_38_46_Pro_zpsoctqsfq3.jpg
Nice little town to stay in.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160326_10_45_55_Pro_zpspxgbflkw.jpg
And did a great line in hats that pretty much summed up the trip.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160329_20_05_13_Pro_zpsfwhve3mr.jpg
Took the kids to the park.

https://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/MattB70/Spain%202016%20Eurojolly/WP_20160329_21_29_49_Pro_zps6px6kssb.jpg
And ate many many burgers,
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stinkwheel: He had an animated .gif of a cat performing fellatio. It's not socially acceptable. It can have real life adverse effects on other people.

[Copycat73]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Nice one matt (and all). What was wrong with the Daytona in the end? If I read correctly it seemed like initial diagnoses pointed to bearing - then sourced one at a Suzuki shop, fitted it, but then banging noise continued.
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Matt B]

[-Monty-]

[P.]

Fucking hell Matt

Looks like fun. Glad I didn't go as there would have been countless arrests by the sounds of it

Awesome write up.

[chickenstrip]

[-Matt-]

We all planned it as a group a few months ago. Once we decided we weren't getting the Spainish ferries it was a case of picking west or central France basically, so we split that both ways. The west side was nice and had lots of nice towns and a fair few good roads (mixed in with motorway sections to cover the mileage). The way back up was more motorway but we'd planned it that way as we knew we'd be wanting to get back by this point. There was still a lot of nice roads on two of the French days but the weather was so terrible it spoiled quite a few of them unfortunately.

The initial plan had been to use the Barcelona hotel as a base to travel out to the Pyrenee's one day, Andorra another day and possibly down to Valencia - with the remaining day for Barcelona City but we ended up deciding it was all going to be too much and just turn into another endless riding trip - lots of the days would of worked out at 8-10 hours riding/out on the bikes factoring in stops and breaks etc.

We were just happy to have a static base and chill out around Barcelona area off the bikes for a few days this time really, although I had slightly more time off mine than planned. We could of diverted across more towards the Pyrenee's on the way down but it would of meant adding in more hotels and losing the days in the Barcelona area with the added mileage. The Pyrenee's would of been a bit hit and miss this time of year too with the temperature and potentially snow in some parts still; it was incredibly cold once we got a little bit higher up in a mountain area for a short time after entering Spain before we got to Pamplona.

[chickenstrip]

[-Matt-]

I sincerely fucking hope so

[-Monty-]

[chickenstrip]

[barrkel]

[barrkel]