Well just into the house.. that has been a long 24 hours,
Ivan and I left our B&B yesterday at 7am local time and headed for Dunkirk,
After getting off at Dover we had only gone 4 mile and had to stop to put our liners back in our jackets and wrap up. it was bittter, then got caught in a downpour on the M20 that lasted till we hit the M25.
After a couple of stops we headed north, Ivan and i parted near Jct 19 on the M6,
I made the lonely journey on my own to Holyhead, i arrived at 12-30am, 645 miles from that morning,
On to the boat at 1-30 am and slept till 5-30 then off in Dublin and the short run home,
What a great time i had, met some great guys and had some great laughs,
2480 miles in total, not bad for 8 days,
Photo's to follow...... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yahoo.gif[/img]
2003 TDM900 in Yellow....Best Colour, Fender extender, Oxford Heated Grips, Givi luggage, Mirror extenders, GS1150 Handguards, Matching seat cover, Belly Pan, R&G crash bungs, Touring screen, Meta alarm, K&N Air Filter,
Centre Stand, Scottoiler,Carbon Cans......really loud, Stainless steel Rad Guard, 12v Accessory socket,
Glad you got back ok. Me and Tony hit the twisties after the tunnel until it got too wet for sustained quick riding (I'm a wimp riding in the wet) and then headed for the motorway. Thunderstorms all the way to the front door for me after that. I think it's fair to say I was mildly moist!
Total 2045 miles for me over 7 days.
It was great to meet you (and the others I hadn't met before) The ride from Masserberg to Konzen is up there with some of the best rides I've had - proper twisties, warm sun, nice scenery, a race track, memories from previous trips with a departed mate and a couple of great riding companions. It doesn't get much better than that!
That was a long one for ye Paddy - well done.
We had a good trip to Frankfurt (TeDeum, Stu and I), had a great night and meal out with some of Chris's friends. Then headed to a lovely B&B in France next day which was again a great night. Bimbled on from there to catch the Ferry and home. My trip meter reset but I think it's around 3100km. That was my first long bike trip on the Continent and apart from having an arse like a baboon on the second day and various aches and pains I really enjoyed it. There were days which were difficult but thats what makes the trip. After deciding on the second day to pull-in and go asleep for 10mins in a field I think the lads finally forgave me but apart from that I managed to keep up with the old hands.
Some pics available at MT11 and the ones of the sidecar are especially good!
Great to meet those of you I managed to catch up with after the last 3 years of reading your posts!
APW
Have you ever lent someone 20 quid and never seen it again? It was probably worth it.
I got in at @7:30pm but the wife took one look at my face and said A&E!
Nice welcome home but turns out I have an infection in my jaw for which I am on very strong anti-biotics.
Good run up but like everyone else was welcomed off the ferry by rain.
But what a blinding few days. Thanks to all you guys my first proper euro trip was great and left me wanting
more. Great laughs and great beers had by all. Right where next?
<!--quoteo(post=213027:date=Wed 29th Jun 2011, 03:06 PM:name=Matt101)-->QUOTE(Matt101 @ Wed 29th Jun 2011, 03:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Right where next?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Scotland, early September [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/good.gif[/img]
"Never argue with an idiot. They just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience"
My TDM
:
Black
1991 850 MK1, 160k+ miles(ish, best guess really, gave up trying to keep count after 3rd set of clocks and 3rd engine), PilotRoad2 tyres, custom stubby exhaust system, bluespot calipers & goodridge braided hoses with dunlopads, maxton forks, Ohlins shock, kedo handguards, stainless TDM grill, Scottoiler with lubetube & dual nozzle thingy, Givi Wingrack2 with E45 & 2xE36s, renntec crash bars, Autocom with blueteeth & PMR radio, TomTom Rider2, Optimate IIIsp, Bagster tank cover, anti-dazzle coating
to fit : led spotlights, heated grips, new braided lines and rear caliper that actually has bleed nipples
Silver-ish
2003 900, 70k miles, PilotRoad3 front tyre (new@65k) & PR2 rear(new at 69k), Renthal 755 bars with KTM handguards, oxford unheated grips, power commander 3usb, scorpion titanium exhausts, standard screen with vario winglet thingy, stainless grill, oem centre stand, bagster tank cover, givi monokey topplate mounted on grabrail with V46 topbox, Givi PL pannier rails with E21s, crash bungs, mirror extender thingys, Halfords Advanced Laser Blue brillance bulbs, 21w led spotlights, touring scottoiler with leehenty dual nozzle, Autocom with blueteeth & PMR radio, TomTom Rider3 Urban, winter style anti-dazzle coating
to fit : led brake light strip, replacement heated grips
current rides : TDM850 3vd/mk1=tourer&scratcher, TRX850=weekend twisty toy, 2003 TDM900=commuter, 2005Â
TDM900=unmolested. Gone but not forgotton : XTZ750=overland touring toy, GS500e, GS125
If a strange looking truck driver honks at you & gives you the thumbs up, its could be me :good:
Or Wales in a couple of weeks (I can't make that one [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]), plus the CMC Snowjoke in Wales the week before the Aviemore G2G.
1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now
<!--quoteo(post=213016:date=Wed 29th Jun 2011, 02:04 PM:name=apw99)-->QUOTE(apw99 @ Wed 29th Jun 2011, 02:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->That was a long one for ye Paddy - well done.
We had a good trip to Frankfurt (TeDeum, Stu and I), had a great night and meal out with some of Chris's friends. Then headed to a lovely B&B in France next day which was again a great night. Bimbled on from there to catch the Ferry and home. My trip meter reset but I think it's around 3100km. That was my first long bike trip on the Continent and apart from having an arse like a baboon on the second day and various aches and pains I really enjoyed it. There were days which were difficult but thats what makes the trip. After deciding on the second day to pull-in and go asleep for 10mins in a field I think the lads finally forgave me but apart from that I managed to keep up with the old hands.
Some pics available at MT11 and the ones of the sidecar are especially good!
Great to meet those of you I managed to catch up with after the last 3 years of reading your posts!
APW<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Some great pics there
Was a pleasure to meet with you at last
I'm hearing the next RTT is the Northern Irish Road Races....This cant be true surely, road races mixed in with bikers drinking beer and eating cake? [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]
Got back an hour or so ago. Am sore, tired and in need of a shave! I couldn't face the ride home direct from the ferry, so stayed another night in Caterbury, had a full English brekkie and clocked my final 300 miles of the tour on the M2, M26, M25, M40, M42, M6, M62 and M57. Not the most interesting of rides [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img]
I've had a fantastic week, great to see some old mates and meet many new ones. Many thanks to our German chums for hosting the meet, I'll wear myBMW T-Shirt with pride [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hide.gif[/img] . I'll post up some piccies tomorrow.
Got home last night just before 5pm. Worst part of the whole trip was the bit from Rosslare to here. Soaked and delayed by roadworks and agricultural vehicles. Had a brilliant time. It was great to meet up with so many old mates and meet some new ones. Sorry that we didn't stay the full time but it worked out better for us to have the extra day in getting back to Cherbourg. It was 35 degrees in Rouen as we drove through which was slightly warmer than Masserberg. Just over 2400 miles (my manager beat me by less than 80 miles!), 59+mpg and 1.5litres of oil - niner riders ignore the last statistic!
Edit: Forgot to mention the most important statistic. I managed to stuff 21 litres of wine into my dry bag as well as a kilo or so of cheese.
2001 TDM. 1990 Serow. 2004 DRZ400. Â 3 bikes, four cylinders. Who needs more?
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.chrislarkinguitars.com">Visit My Website</a>
"Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare current" Horace.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.hellshaw.com/flann/pint.html">"A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man"</a>
Interesting point on the fuel consumption. Although with a 900 I ended up with as much oil as I started with ([img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img]), I've just calculated my mpg at a little over 50. I thought the givi boxes would make a difference, but they would have made the same difference to TeDeum's figures too, so I might need to look at my tuning.
Oh, and am I the only one to get sun burn? There's a small triangle of skin on my left calf where the leathers were open for ventilation on the way across France, and it's caught the sun.
Like has been said by several others (is that proper English?) was great to meet some new faces who were only previously known in the virtual world of carpe. Glad everyone got back okay and hopefully it won't be too long before we can all have another g2g [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/drinks.gif[/img]
<!--quoteo(post=213016:date=Wed 29th Jun 2011, 02:04 PM:name=apw99)-->QUOTE(apw99 @ Wed 29th Jun 2011, 02:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Some pics available at MT11 and the ones of the sidecar are especially good!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=213052:date=Wed 29th Jun 2011, 06:27 PM:name=TeDeum)-->QUOTE(TeDeum @ Wed 29th Jun 2011, 06:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->It was 35 degrees in Rouen
I managed to stuff 21 litres of wine into my dry bag as well as a kilo or so of cheese.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif[/img]
1992 Mk1, 76k miles, Hagon springs, MTC exhaust, 4½ gears Gone now
<!--quoteo(post=213055:date=Wed 29th Jun 2011, 07:00 PM:name=Saga Lout)-->QUOTE(Saga Lout @ Wed 29th Jun 2011, 07:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Like has been said by several others (is that proper English?) was great to meet some new faces who were only previously known in the virtual world of carpe. Glad everyone got back okay and <!--sizeo:4--><!--/sizeo-->hopefully it won't be too long before we can all have another g2g <!--sizec--><!--/sizec-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/drinks.gif[/img]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Aircooled has already arranged one in Wales for mid July
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