Motorbiking
"Biker" for me usually means motorbiking, though I also have a couple of mountain-bikes... see Trail Bike
My current motorbikes are a Honda CBR600RR ABS 2017 and a Kawasaki Ninja Z250SL.
Previously I have owned: Kawasaki ZX4-RR (Ninja anniversary edition), Honda CRF300 Rally, Honda CBR600RR 2005, Honda CBR600FW, Honda VF750F, Yamaha FJ600, Suzuki GSX750EX, Yamaha FJ750, Yamaha XJ900, Kawasaki Z750 and I passed my riding test on my Kawasaki KH250.
See also my Motorbiking web links
Silent and dry, we found the Canada Heights motocross circuit on our hike in the Darent Valley in Kent. It’s a fearsome MX track and Trials obstacles course, I have some idea what they would be like to ride on a mountain bike but taking on this stuff riding a full-power MX bike is a major step up. Wow! and respect for the riders.
Seeing the track silent, without the thunder of single cylinder engines, the bustle of the riders and crowd, was like an archaeological field trip. Many of the other woods around here are gently obscuring camps from WW1 and WW2; the woods where the track is now housed Canadian troops in WW1, hence the name. Canada Heights MX track is owned and run by Sidcup and District Motorcycle Club.
Big selfie smile in a biker gear superstore in Italy after seeing lots of bikes on the road in Cuneo and Piemonte. A Fireblade or a Rossi replica on every street corner is an exaggeration but that’s the impression. And stylish scooters everywhere.
Driving a hired Sandero is sensible for us both but so boring, being passed by every biker on the road, their quickshifting echoing round the rocks. Even more frustrating on Alpine pass roads which are brilliant to ride on two wheels. One of the dozen or more zigzags on the Col de Larche is a double first gear hairpin, what fun!
We find the frontier town Barcelonnette is full of bikers on the Saturday night then riding the Col de la Cayolle in groups on a fine Sunday morning. Lucky them enjoying the fine weather riding.
Cuneo
Whitehaven harbour looking picture-postcard-pretty now that the red pollution from disused iron ore mine workings has been cleared from the water. Once busy with passenger ferries, freight and shipping, now an enjoyable A-road ride there from Keswick for shopping. Any day you can ride a motorbike in warm sunshine is a good day!
Tour of Skiddaw and Blencathra via Caldbeck and Uldale Fells on my Ninja Z250SL. Disappointing Cumbria weather although my visor stayed dry despite the low cloud. Quiet roads these, they’re off the top of the maps the tourists use and there’s only one lake, Over Water. Big rolling moors as the Skiddaw Massif gives way to the Solway Firth. Plenty of sheep with lambs and I also spotted a deer. One of the routes the CRF300 Rally was really good for (but it didn’t do so many others).
More photos: Skiddaw and Blencathra circuit - Lake District National Park
Dawn in Marseille
So lucky with the weather: warm and dry with little wind for four glorious spring days. Riding out from Marseille through classic Provence; through the techno new towns in the Durance valley, then Apt and the Lubéron. The Gorges de la Nesque are less well-known than the Ardèche but the road is at least as challenging.
Riding on to the villages at the foot of Mont Ventoux, Bédoin and Malaucène, on a route which to be used for motorsport rallies but is now given over to cyclotourisme. On to Vaison-la-Romaine and booking in at a charming old hotel in Nyons in the Baronnies Provençales.
Subcategories
Alps Biker 2016
I'm riding light for a week on the mountain roads of the Alps. No laptop, although I do have my SLR camera but photos will have to wait till I'm back in Marseille..
I left Marseille for a long ride north via the Col de la Croix Haute (1179 m.) to Saint-Gervais under Mont Blanc. A bit of rain towards the end of the day which cleaned the Provence dust off my white leathers and boots but didn't soak me through.
