Featured Touring Normandy

Hi everyone
Just back from a tour of Normandy. 8 days of riding around the usual sites, Gravesites to pay my respects and visiting the local museums etc. Each night was a different Hotel. Stayed at the Winston Churchill hotel in Bayeux. Very posh and i looked a bit out of place in my biking gear. Due to being out of season i managed to get a double room for 43 Euro for the night. Downside i couldn't afford to eat there but got some good local food. Others nights it was a mix of Brithotels and Etaps. The first week was glorious baking heat in the sun, the second week well it was wet, wet, wet. Lucky i did manage to dry my kit out each night. Whilst in Bayonne i decided to visit the tapestry but the display was shut. Instead, upstairs they had a tapestry of Game of Thrones. Very well made. A couple of sex scenes, a bloke having a pee up a tree. If you know the show it makes sense to you and as it was free i stayed in there a while to dry off again. Visited Mont st Michel. A lovely monastery sited on an island. Last time i was there you parked on the beach for free but now it's a long walk to the island and parking was dear. Still worth it if you've never been there before. All the time i was there i didn't see any UK registered bikes. It wasn't till i got back to the Ferry at Calais that i spotted a couple leaving Blighty. What did surprise me was the bike dealers, well you have to have a look don't you were selling 125cc and 250cc 2 stroke bikes. Mostly scrambler styles. How come they can sell them and we can't get them over here. I could have bought a 250cc scrambler for just over £3.500 on the road. The quality was as good as any say a Jap bike. I even thought one i looked at was a Honda CFR250 and another looked like a KTM in orange. I did take loads of pictures but like a fool, i put the camera in an outside pocket of my coat that was not soak proof. The only pocket that leaks and ruined the camera and SD card. Funnily my TomTom is a car version and only stored in a cheap Chinese case on my handlebars and that stayed bone dry. I did have a back up just encase but more of that later.
Now as I'm getting ready for my UK to China trip in Spring i thought i would try my new toy for this trip. Not a Triumph this time but a Royal Enfield Himalayan. A single thumper at a staggering 411cc. The dash even has a little compass that seems to always point in the wrong direction. About 45 degrees out. If you search Youtube a lot of people are doing mega mileage tours on these without problems. Its a so simple bike to work on. Service schedule it's a bit strange.1st is at 300 miles then every 3000 miles. The most expensive service costs, wait for it is a wacking £180 inclusive. That includes tappet adjustment (2), headstock and bearings regrease, every nut and bolt checked. Just bought 10 oil filters with gaskets direct from RE in India for £24 delivered.
The bike settled in at 75mph (top speed is around 85 to 90 mph on a good day) on the autoroutes and with my working outs returned 65mpg on them and 80mpg at slower speeds. From reading about them this seems about right. Comfortable, no vibe till hitting near the top RPM and even the small screen redirects the dirty air over my head shame the Tiger one isn't this good. Did hear the alloy pannier leaked, so i put LOMO dry bags in them. Even with the heavy rain that i had to deal with on the way back the only water that got in was when i opened them up.
Due to needing funds for my next trip, sadly am having to put the Tiger 1050se up for sale. The wife did list it on eBay whilst i was away, some bloke bought it but never turned up or contacted us. After the trip if i can source the funds i will be buying another Triumph. Not sure which model but looks very likely to be a scrambler 900 or 1200.

 

To true on the bike prices. Just can't understand why 2 stroke bikes cant be sold here in the UK due to emissions but it's OK in France. France is ment to comply with the same EU emissions as us. If i had the funds i would have bought one of the 250cc bikes and brought it back to the UK. With all the paperwork and the EU conformity, i should be able to register it easy. After my overland trip to China, i may look more into it.

 

Can you? Are they road legal?