An experience not to forget...
We caught the 7.00am ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe last Friday morning, off the boat 12.30 local time and headed for a small town called Montbard near to Dijon. Being my first trip on the 10 or any bike, I was apprehensive about spending so long in the saddle, fuck me was I right to be.... After getting lost twice (The French are great at making roads but crap at signposts), a few stops for fuel, dinner by the side of one France's many lovely rivers, we finally got to our hotel at 11.00pm. To say my arse and thighs were aching wouldn't do justice to the feeling. After the first 5 or 6 hours, I was praying for traffic lights to change just so we'd get a chance to stretch our legs. The roads were sublime though, hardly anything on them most of the time, fantastic sweeping bends, absolutely no problem maintaining speeds 100+ for miles on end and everybody over almost without exception, respects bikers, moves over, makes room and let's you through. Such a difference from over here. We only caught 10 minutes of rain so pretty lucky given the forecast. Apart from the aches and pains, the one big disappointment was the 10... She absolutely flew for the whole 5 days, the Corsa IIIs added a new dimension to the bike, extreme confidence everywhere, they tranformed the bike. It was the old chesnut vibration which first really reared it pig ugly head on the first day, something which I've not really noticed on Sunday jaunts to any big degree but boy did it become an issue throughout the trip. It's worse at between 4 and 6k revs and off the power on run down but there all the time through the bars, seat, tank and footpegs.
After a couple of beers, off to bed, up and out by 9.00am and had a far easier day blatting down to Annecy although it took us an hour to find the hotel and then they'd only reserved us one room. Found another quick sharp and had a great evening in a beautiful town.
Day of the trip was Sunday. Had leisurely start and headed up to Val-d'isere. Can't say enough about the roads over there, they are just the best. Top passes were still closed so had lunch down off the mountain, a 'leisurely' drive back hitting my top so far, 155 just before a couple of the very few police over were pulling guys over. Night on the town in Annecy which I can totally recommend...
The fourth day saw us heading back up to Reims which was our longest stint of the trip, 420 odds miles all across country which was pretty gruelling on the legs, arse and hands and the vibration again became intolerable at times but we made it by around tea time. Nice town:
We had to get to Dieppe by 12 on the last day so as it was raining when we got up, we decided to go on the toll roads which with the tank bag, was pretty unpleasant at times as I couldn't tuck in at all, head stuck there in 100 - 120mph winds which strangely seemed far worse on the motorway. Arrived back in Newhaven at 5.00pm, 15 minutes to home, 1420 miles in 5 days. The trip was fantastic and I can't wait for the next, felt like an achievement overall, a great bunch of mates, no mechanical problems, hardly any rain, result...
I've written KHQ today to see what they're gonna do about the vibes, couldn't even contemplate another trip until something's sorted.
