Hi, just got back from the F>I>M rally in Zadar, Croatia. Did nine countries and some awesome passes, some i dont want to do again, and made an arse of myself going into a camping ground between two rocks and getting wedged by my engine bars.
Heading off to Assen for the racing at the end of this month........anyone else going........?
Not planned to go to Assen. As a muncher of the mile are you a frequenter of the HUB? Are you going to Ripley this weekend for the HU world riders meet up?
Lambie, I pre booked the bike and a couple of posh hotels through an Indian tour company which is the expensive albeit easy way to do it. I had looked at some of the organised tour companies but they charge a lot and their routes are crazy, spend 6 hours riding to an interesting spot, three hours to look round then expensive hotel and off the next day at the crack of dawn to the next interesting place you don't have time to explore.
It's a matter of temprament I suppose, I like to wander around and explore the little places as well as the tourist traps. I tended to spend a full day travelling to a town and then spend a day or two just exploring and pootling about locally rather than being tied to a schedule.
If you dont insist on Western style hotels basic clean rooms with a shower are easy enough to find in most of India at ludicrously cheap prices. Eating locally is dirt cheap and as long as you are sensible safe enough, stick to the vegetarian places,eat in busy restaraunts where the food is fresh and make sure the seal is intact on bottles of water, sterile bottled water is available everywhere in India.
Never bumped in to the HUB lot although i do know one member who is in our club.
Never been to the Assen races before so looking forward to it.....also stopping in Brugge for my favourite beer before i go as well.
If you are going from Italy to Switzerland try the Splurgess pass but beware of blonde bimbos in sports cars getting the bends wrong.....
Small world....i worked as a motorcycle instructor for a few years.
I only lasted a couple of lessons, then I decided the US system was so abysmal that I couldn't sleep with myself having passed some of the folks. I really thought I'd given them a license to kill themselves. In the US there's no on road training, just 15mph max in a parking lot.
If you do a lot of distance riding Horizons Unltd is a good place to look and get current advice from folks on the road. They do have gatherings at various places on the planet.
Just reading Prof's accounts is filling me with wanderlust & I'd love to hear more about your experiences too Milemuncher.
Interesting point about the US bike tests Lamble - I'd no idea it was quite that simple, but it'd explain a whole lot!
I took a Florida driving test when I was 17, really nervous as I hadn't been out there long and the theory test was a bit daunting... until I took it... and realised that the multiple choice was 3 completely crazy answers and 1 correct one
However, I DID see a bloke fail the theory while I was waiting for my license to be processed... who'd been driving for 20 years and had just moved to FL and needed to apply for a license there!
I saw an elderly lady drive up to the test centre, drive straight through the hedge and into the board walk in front of the admin office. She passed.
It's not even compulsory to take lessons in Washington State. I passed before I took my lessons and that multiple choice theory is a joke. I took my car theory having expected that was all I could do at one sitting, but was asked if I'd like to do the bike test at the same time, sure why not. I got one wrong and I still maintain I was right. If you are going to hit a car, should you try and swerve to avoid it, lay the bike down and slide, or try to jump off?
Anyone who didn't pick lay it down and slide is wrong according to the WA test and that's just balloney, swerve for christsake swerve.
We disagreed, put 98% was good enough, 75% would have been good enough, but would have meant getting 5 out of 20 questions wrong.
Back of the post office. My bike's battery went flat, so I hopped onto someone else's 500cc Buell (they have them there) through three cones, brake in a box, small swerve, ride slow and turn a corner. Done passed and on the road.
Well actually, done, passed, called for help, drove to the BMW dealer bought a battery, split a fuel line when fitting the battery, back to the dealers, came back fitted fuel line, went in car bought fuel, came back filled bike, then on the road. Leaving a small test area smelling of unleaded and slick.
For the test, you could turn up on a Hyabusa, ride around on a 125, pass, jump on the Busa and go kill yourself instantly..."Land of the free, Land of the free". And home of some of the stupidest folks I've ever encountered. It's their right (in the constitution no doubt) to be able to use anything they can afford to buy, without any pervious experience or level of skill "n' they shoot anyone that tries to stop them because rules is fer commies!
In 98 i traveled down the west coast from Seattle to frisco in a 94 model stationwagon i bought for $400 , i lived on Alameda Island and worked in Oakland for a couple of months which was the head quarters for the angels back then , i never had a bike at the time but when they all cruised past the store on their Harleys it was deafening and quite a show to witness...back then i remember thinking 'these people put men on the moon in 69 and brought them back alive' while fighting a war in Vietnam...crazy but not so stupid.
There's no such thing as a totally stupid nation and I wouldn't wish to imply the US was. The degree of ignorance that I encountered there however, is far greater than that I have met anywhere else, Margate being probably the only exception to that rule.
Margate is indeed a strange place... lovely shell grotto though
That's pretty scary stuff to hear just how easy it is to get a bike licence Stateside... sounds even easier than the car one was back in ྑ... Next time I'm over, I'll give an even wider berth *just*in*case*
Funny that you mentioned shell, it was indeed the shell suits and the synthetic fibres that I believe were supplying the lighting for the area. I didn't stop for any longer than a cup of tea.
I'd not put it on a list of world venues to ride to, although then again, it is a cultural experience...yes, do go. Let's all go to Margate and savour the atmosphere.
Pistols Saloon , you must have been there and riverbend croc farm my friends place Howard Kelly , his wifes name is Grace , not joking .i lived there for 7 yrs in kwazulu and agree with you...from a nuclear armed country to a banana republic (no pun intended) in 14 yrs ,goes without saying !
Yes at the Craggs a bit after Plett , they're all in that area , the primates , falconry , wolves , and elephant sanctuaries interesting partof the garden route map .
Believe the monkey place was going to throw a roof over a whole valley and create it's own climate with thunder a lightening. Needed to be fenced off to keep the baboons out and stop the eagles picking off the miniature monkeys. Not sure how that is coming along, but it was a huge task.
"So fav's and next trip?"
Cornwall was one of my favourite trips probably. The riding was fairly fun (although not brilliant), but the company was superb. Plus it was my first touring holiday and so is special.
Germany was pretty good as well. Amazing roads, fantastic scenery and good company. Shame I wasn't there for long.
But my favourite has to be two and a half weeks touring the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.
It is the only trip I have ever done where I've got to a point where I wished there was a straight bit!! I looked at the itinerary that day and thought "240 miles, that's not far, be easy". Was I wrong!! Five passes, several thousand mountains and about thirty trillion hairpins!!! It was knackering, but ace.
The whole holiday was spent going up and down through the most magnificent biking roads and scenery I have ever seen. It was fantastic and I will be going back.
Even getting an on the spot five hundred swiss franc fine for my exhaust didn't put me off (although I ordered and fitted a db eater as soon as I got home). And didn't eat for the rest of the holiday!!
As didn't chewing my way through some fairly new front brake pads (the Alps can do that for you).
Next trip?
Wanting to take Roachy to Germany as soon as I can (to make up for the boredom that was northwest France; never again, never again). Spending a week in Devon and Somerset next month which should be nice and would like to go visit the cities of Belgium again; Brugge, Gent etc.
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