You are THE MAN! I've done many a 500+mile day but I'm not sure I could manage it on a SPEEDIE! Especailly not if it means riding for more than, say, 5 minutes in rain! Kudos to you, Wim. p.s. I assume the top speed was on an autobahn?
Yes hats off to you Wim (@Vulpes ) that is some riding and lots in the rain. A pity your mate had to cancel, but I’m really pleased your are home safe. It was a fantastic week, I really enjoyed your company and the riding.
My day 12. I left Jace for my last overnight stop in Vitoria-Gasteiz before heading for the ferry. I had set my satnav avoidances to avoid tolls and motorways. This almost doubled my trip time, but as I had loads of time and wanted to continue to enjoy the Spanish rural roads of I went. I stopped in a lovely little town where many of the locals were dressed all in white with red scarves and sashes. There was some kind of festival going on. I continued on my journey with some more fantastic roads. Having checked in to my hotel I set off to find some food and a drink. I found a buzzing sports bar and spotted a couple with a bowl of what turned out to be Rabas. The food looked lovely, so I ordered a bowl. Whilst I was waiting for the food to arrive I thought I would look Rabas up on Google translate. To my surprise it was frogs lol. Anyway it came and boy was it delicious. So fed and watered I headed back to the hotel terrace. A drink and book in hand. After 10 minutes a Canadian couple joined me. The guy was a biker and owned three 1960’s Triumphs. We chewed the fat talking about bikes and travel for couple of hours before heading to bed. Travelling around the world on a motorbike is so much fun and you meet so many interesting people. My last day tomorrow is a short hop to Santander and my ferry home.
@Wessa and @Vulpes What an outstanding, informative, and entertaining thread! Thank you, Wim and Steve, for sharing your travels with us. I enjoyed all of it. And I'm impressed with what conditions you face and ride in. Wim, I'm particularly in awe of your ability to ride 500 mile days on your Speed Triple! These days I'm starting to feel squirmy on my cushy Street Glide after a 300 mile day. You two have managed to bring Spain back to our riding trip attention. It's high on my bucket list for sure. But unfortunately it's a little more "challenging" (not to mention expensive ) to get there from Arizona than where you guys live. It has been fun to travel there vicariously through your adventures. Anyway, I've LOVED this thread...and you're not even home yet, Steve! Thanks for taking the time to post your report(s).
@Sandi T , it was excellent fun! Yep, two long haul days, but hey ho, such is life if you want to get somewhere fast. I'm nearly 62 years of age, but find my speedy not too bad for long distances. I just stop every hour, have a smoke and push on. The days and rides with Steve were thoroughly enjoyable - good rides, good food and craic! Funnily enough the fact that we'd never met before was no problem at all, we connected straight away. All in all a fantastic road trip! I'm glad you enjoyed our reports, and can recommend a trip to Spain - fantastic roads, and great food, not to mention very affordable!
really enjoyed that folks. Spain has it all. Except traffic (well anytime I have been in the mountains) remember some of the names and recogn ise some of the places, its just stunning over there. I have never been to Vielha in the dry. I still have a picture of Pic d'Midi Ossau on the wall from my 1st trip in 2003. I think everybody must stop there and gawp at its awesomeness. Proper Lord Of The Rings. Seeing that stunning hilltop village getting closer (never got the pic before the road sweeps to the left, though!) Hell of a trek by road. Respect! (and at least riding a naked in the rain cleans all the multi-coloured insect death off your kit!)
Ok my last entry for the trip. I left Vitoria-Gasteiz for Santander avoiding motorways and toll roads until I got to Bilbao, when a lapse in concentration seen me look at a sign for Santander, rather than following the satnav. Ended up on the toll road hey ho Anyway paid the toll and got onto the dual carriageway heading for the ferry. There were some lovely little bays, so I dropped of to have a little ok. After a couple of pictures I headed towards the ferry. I had loads of time so once I found the ferry terminal I headed for the beach. I had a fabulous day chilling, having some lunch and lazying in the sunshine, by late afternoon I was ready to head for check in. I have never seen so many bikes getting the ferry, they filled two lanes of the queuing lanes and the whole of deck 2 once on the ferry. The crossing was like a mill pond. Getting off the ferry was painless, although passport control was a little slow, I was on the road for home. 274 miles later I rolled onto my drive in the dark. I completed 2233 miles on the trip and enjoyed every one of them. A massive thank you Wim (@vuples) for his company. Job done
Brilliant Steve, glad you're home safe. It was a great trip, both riding- and company-wise. Thank you so much.
It was the Bol D'Or last weekend, might explain the amount of bikes. https://www.fimewc.com/event/bol-dor-2022/
A great ending to a great adventure, @Wessa! Thanks again to both you and @Vulpes for putting the time and energy into sharing your adventures with us on the forum.
Brilliant ride report you two, loved the way you both posted about your days riding. Don't know why I got no notifications about the trip. Glad that you both had a great time. Something to look back on over the next few cold months ahead. Thanks for taking the time to post all your pictures. Roll on summer.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of plod presence on the roads out there. Some cameras in built up areas, but that's about it, it would seem. I reckon as long as you behave around towns you'd be just fine.
I agree with Wim (@Vulpes ) not a lot of police activity during our trip. We did pass a couple of police cars who had stopped and we’re working over cars, but none that bothered us on bikes.
