The Big European Tour

Well, this is exciting! My first time touring to Europe on a motorbike 🤪. Rob invited me along to join him on his trip to watch the Classic Endurance racing at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. I was originally (slightly apprehensively!) planning on taking Gloria but, confident as I was in her capabilities, knew that the likelihood was that there would be some kind of “issue” subjecting a 50 year old bike to several 200 mile days on the trot. 

This was actually the start of the chain of events that ended up with me selling Gloria and buying the Classic 350, and I must admit that I am loving the confidence of getting ready for a ride without having the nagging thoughts in the back of my mind that we may have “characterful events” along the way! (Though I’ve got to say that most of that is in my mind, as Gloria was remarkably reliable on our big journeys.)

So, preparing for the big day tomorrow, the Classic is cleaned and prepped ready to go. A test loading shows that I have loads of room compared to Gloria and I’m not taking a tank bag this time, which will also enhance the comfort.

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning and ride to Tamworth to pick up Rob. Then head off after lunch down to our overnight campsite in Surrey. On Wednesday we head for Dover, over to Calais and an hour or so’s ride in to France for the next night’s camping. Thursday sees us riding across into Belgium and camping near the Spa circuit, so that we can get there early on Friday morning and secure an on-course camp pitch for the race weekend. Then we’ll repeat the journey in reverse.

Most of the journey will be on quiet roads, as (a) it's more fun that way; (b) I’m still running her in at 50mph max, and (c) Rob is on the 125 Grom again! 

By the time we get back, I should have finished the full 1200 mile running in period and I’ll have all of those 20 horsepower available to me!!

Day 1 - May 9: Chester - Tamworth - Surrey

Miles today: 208

Total to date: 208

I love that feeling of setting off on an adventure. The road to Tamworth is fairly well travelled, even for the very low mileage, as she came from a dealers in that direction and has been back for first service since then. Part way down, it started raining, just enough to give me a gentle dampness in the "sitting down" areas for the rest of the day!

Got to Rob's around lunchtime and had a bite to eat before setting off in the early afternoon. We had a good ride down on fairly quiet roads but soon realised that the rain was going to be a bit more then intermittent, so stopped to don waterproofs. That proved to be a good decision as it got progressively wetter the further south we went.

Rob's mate Jake had been planning on joining us for the last half hour or so of the journey, as we came past his area, but wisely opted to stay warm and dry at home.

Our campsite for the night was the Camping & Caravaning Club site at East Horsley. The wardens were great - they'd had constant rain and the campsite was a bog but they put us on a nice sheltered spot so we didn't suffer too much in the tents.

Everything always takes longer to put up on the first night of a trip as you refamiliarise yourself with equipment, but we soon had a good base for the night and wandered down to a local pub that had a Thai restaurant tucked away in it and had a great thai meal.

Day 2 - May 10: Surrey - Dover - Calais - Renescure

Miles today: 141

Total to date: 349

We had to get to Dover by 2pm to check-in, so didn't hang around packing away in the morning. We were gone by about 9. The roads took us mainly through the commuter belt to the south of the M25, so it was a fairly busy ride down. 

As we got closer to Dover, we got directed onto the outside lane of the dual carriageway and  passed what must have been a 3 mile queue of trucks heading for the port. I don't know whether it's always like that or is that the "Brexit" effect?

Pulling into the docks, we both got pulled for a security check. The guys were highly apologetic at making us unpack ALL of our kit, but I guess they are only doing their job. We were still in good time for the boat, so all was good.

We ate on the ferry and then were soon through Calais and nto rural france and a lovely ride for an hour or so across to our campsite for the night at Renesecure.

Day 3 - May 11: Renescure - Lille - Namur - Grand-Halleux

Miles today: 198

Total to date: 547

What a lovely campsite, with the nicest host you could wish for. We'd ordered breads, which were delivered to the tent in the morning with a complimentary flask of coffee!

It was a tough day today though! It didn't start well, as we left early and headed out of the campsite and straight onto the wrong side of the road! (only for a few yards before we realised though 🤯.

The weather was a lot better today. We spent a couple of hours cruising through the French countryside and then hit Lille, which was akin to battling our way through London!

Not a lot further on, we crossed the Belgian border and then had our next city to contend with as we battled through Namur. What a wierd road system - we crossed the river three times in the space of 5 minutes following the main road out of the city!

But before long, we were in open countryside again, arriving at beautiful La Roche and then a great ride through the Ardennes. I need to go back there again as there were so many interesting looking places to explore, if we hadn't been on a tight timetable. 

We needed to press on as the campsite reception closed at 6pm, so we upped the pace through the twisty sections of the mountains and had a wonderful ride, only spoiled slightly by a downpour in the last 20 minutes.

We rolled into the campsite at 10 to 6 and everyone had gone home!  So we just pitched, planning to pay on the return visit on the way home. (That never actually happened as we changed our plans a bit!)

With the tents up, we went to a local restaurant for Meatballs and a couple of very nice and welcome Leffes, before collapsing into bed!

Day 4 - May 12: Grand-Halleux - Spa-Francorchamps Circuit

Miles today: 47

Total to date: 594

We were planning on camping at the Spa Circuit and the only information we could find said that it was limited to 100 pitches and it was first come, first served.Hence why we had stayed a short 20 min hop away last night, with a view to an early start to ensure we got a space. 

We'd been planning to get up at 7am so that we could pack up and get to the circuit by 8, when the campsite opened. As it happened, common sense kicked in and we decided we really couldn't imagine 100 people queued up to get in, so we had a slightly lazier start, getting to the circuit by about 8.45 to find maybe 15 people already there!!

The camping field was VERY muddy and uneven - we "motocrossed" over to the higher ground, wondering if we'd be able to get off again and getting the bikes caked in mud in the process - the new bike honeymoon period is well and truly over!

We quickly got set up and had a lazy morning, recovering from 3 long days in the saddle. Though the camping field was nothing special, there were good showers and toilets and we had a view across to the Eau Rouge / Raidillon complex from our tents :-)

We ventured out in the afternoon to stock up on some food and beer and found that the field had really started to dry out so was a lot easier to get on and off.

During the late afternoon and evening we went into the circuit, wandered round the paddock etc and watched various classes practice sessions. There was great access everywhere, including all through the paddock. It was fairly quiet, but we expected it would be busier over the weekend.

I loved this 'bug camping arrangement. I think I was more impressed that he managed to get on and off the muddy field so easily. Maybe it was hiding a 4 wheel drive system?

The atmosphere really changed as it became dusk. We found throughout the weekend that it was almost impossible to convey in a photo or video just how extreme the elevation changes were. This next photo gives an impression but it was MUCH steeper than it looks here!

We finally wandered back over to the tents after the practice sessions stopped at about 10.30 and settled down. I'm sure I slept better, knowing we didn't need to move on for a couple of nights.

Day 5 - 6 - May 13 - 14: Spa-Francorchamps Circuit / Dinant

Miles today: 72

Total to date: 666

We had a leisurely start and then spent the whole day and evening watching the qualifing and racing. It was much busier on the Saturday, with much more atmosphere, but still easy to access everywhere.

I realised that I had indeed cycled up the rise from Eau Rouge/Radillon, when I visited Belgium in the early 70s! (The circuit used to be (partly?) on public roads but is now a closed circuit.) It looked as steep as I remembered it feeling on my legs.

The Frites and Mayo was very good and we partook of a couple of lagers in the sun before heading back to the tents later in the afternoon for an hour's recovery snooze.

It was really good watching the night time racing, but some of the classes were so loud and sitting in the granstands seemed to amplify the volume! I particularly enjoyed watching the 70s touring cars racing, with Capri RS3000s and Escorts pitted against BMW "Batmobiles".

Rob proposed a great plan to leave mid/late afternoon on Sunday and put a couple of hours in to break the back of the long slog back over to Renesecure. We watched plenty more racing on the Sunday and spectated from every part of the circuit, before leaving at about 3.30 with a loose plan to get to Dinant and get a campsite on spec. 

We had a great ride out to Dinant, which turned out to be very beautiful and we turned up at the campsite at about 6.30, before pitching on "La  Plage" next to the river. A beautiful place to be on a bike.

We rode back into Dinant to get something to eat but got hit by a sudden massive downpour that came from nowhere - we ended up eating great pizzas, but dripping all over the floor!

Back to the tents for another beer and then to bed.

My view for most of the week!

Day 7 - May 15: Dinant - Renesecure

Miles today: 152

Total to date: 818

Today was much harder than expected - we seemed to be constantly braking into villages and then up to 70kph for 2 miles before braking into the next village.

We stopped in Mons for a really good wrap and frites. After setting off again. the weather turned quite cold and windy - by the afternoon we were desperate for somewhere to stop to get a hot chocolate or coffee to warm us up, but there were no cafes anywhere to be found. It looked like possibly Covid lockdowns had put paid to a lot of small local places in France and Belgium as well as in the UK :-(

Finally, we made Renesecure again. We were so glad that we'd done the extra 2 hours the day before as today would have been really horrible with another couple of hours tagged on.. 

Our host had put us on a nice sheltered site. We made spaghetti carbonara on the site and sat out drinking our last beers, but it was getting really cold so we turned in early, as we needed to set off early to get to Calais.

Day 8 - May 16: Renesecure - Calais - Dover - Tamworth

Miles today: 256

Total to date: 1074

It was a really cold night and neither of us slept well. I couldn't wait to get into a warm shower in the morning to warm my bones through!

We had a surprisingly enjoyable ride into Calais on the quiet roads and were relieved that this time we didn't get stopped for a search! 

There was a big group of French teenage students on the ferry - it was really noticeable how differently they behaved from British teenagers (for the better). They seemed far more comfortable in their skins and less desperate to create an image amongst theire peers.

Today we weren't taking quiet roads, as we just needed to blast back to Tamworth so Rob could be there for work tomorrow. We did keep off the motorways but most of it was on fast A roads. We changed plan to go via the Dartford Tunnel, which was pretty much like being on a motorway, but that took 45 mins off the journey time.

This was another pretty hard slog of a day. Towards the end, Rob picked up his local lanes and gave us a nice journey back through the lanes from Hinckley to Tamworth. It was great to get back to his and have a home cooked stir fry followed by a real bed!

Day 9 - May 16: Tamworth - Chester

Miles today: 99

Total to date: 1173

Rob was back in work today. I didn't want to go back onto fast As for my last day, so programmed a "fun" route. I wasn't very far into it when  I hit a Road Closed sign, which sent me on a very long but very nice detour around the beautiful quiet lanes that the Classic thrives on.

However, by the time I got to Audlem, I just wanted to be home so headed for Whitchurch and the familiar A41 home.

What a lovely adventure that was. Great company; great roads for the most part; and I thoroughly bonded with the bike, which got better and better as the miles passed. The overall total for the journey was 1173, so she is now well run in, and very deserving of the good clean and polish she got a few days later!

First Service

 

So, with just 12 miles left to hit the magic 300, we set off in the sun on the 50ish mile journey back to the dealers in Stafford for her first service. 

After 12 miles, the 40 mph restriction was gone and I can now run the engine up to the heady heights of 50mph! But that 10pm makes all the difference, meaning you can ride the bike much more normally and naturally (albeit still not going into the higher areas of the rev range) whereas up to this point it has felt like most of the focus was on managing speed. A lovely run along a very similar route to the journey to Rob’s a couple of weeks ago. 

They wanted the bike there overnight so that the engine would be stone cold when they adjusted the tappets so lent me a loan car overnight and I continued on down to see Rob for the night then made my way back the next morning. 

The loan car was a well used Mini Countryman and what a perfect contrast between Royal Enfield getting the retro thing exactly right with the Classic 350 compared to BMW creating a cartoon comedy version of the Mini, that actually had (to me) no particular redeeming features. The dash reminded me of a cheap Amstrad hi-fi from the 80s! Nasty thing - I was very glad to give it back.

The return journey was equally as pleasant, though a bit less sunny. I can’t say that she felt radically different after the service, but I think I would actually be somewhat disappointed if things had deteriorated so much as to be noticeable after only 300 miles!

Running in

We did the first 54 miles on the delivery day while the sun was out, taking in my favourite roads around Wirral - Puddington, Burton, Neston and stopped at Parkgate and West Kirby for a couple of rests for the new tight engine. She lived up to my hopes and exceeded them significantly. Can't wait to get more miles on her as the weather improves.

A few days later, I needed to call in to see Andy before he moved up to start his new job in the Lake District, so we were out for another 40 or so miles, again around Wirral. Everything feels nice and I'm settling in to the slow plod of 40mph!

Just about 21 or 22 years separate these photos :-)

The weather deteriorated then for a week or so, but I was itching to get out for a longer run so on the first nice day I did a run to Tamworth and back to show the new bike off to Rob. I used the Calimoto app to plot a quiet route along the twisties, so it took a while but she is in her element on the country lanes and I wasn't often holding other traffic up.

We stopped at Wrenbury Mill lift bridge to let a canal boat by and it seemed like we'd been transported back in time!

A couple of hours break in Tamworth and then I headed for home. By this time we were approaching 200 miles and I started to just let her have a little more freedom as we worked through the gearbox - everything is feeling very smooth and restrained! 

I was in the saddle for over 5 hours altogether and felt pretty fresh at the end of it, which bodes well for our journey to Spa in a month or so. By the time we got back we were within spitting distance of completing the first 300 miles, so she is booked in to go back down to Stafford next week for her first service. It will be nice to have the freedom to go wild at 50 for the next thousand miles as we do part 2 of the running in!

New Bike Day!

Well today was birthday and Xmas all wrapped up into one! For the first time ever, I bought a new vehicle. I had been an ardent admirer of the new Royal Enfield Classic 350 since it came out here in 2022 - seemed to be exactly my type of bike.

For about 12 months now I have been mulling around whether I was better off having the '61 Crusader as a "true" classic bike or, for not a lot more money, swapping it for a modern version of the same thing, with lots of the feel and character but also reliability and modern brakes etc built in. But I have put so much work into the Crusader restoration that I didn't really want to let her go. In theory, she should be reliable for longer journeys, but at the end of the day she's a 62 year old bike and, more importantly, a 62 year old design. Having used the G5 for some extended journeys over the last year, I am very familiar with the feeling of hoping that you will get to the destination without incident. (We always have done, but you still worry, just because it's an old bike.)

Finally, I realised that the two things are very different aspects of the "hobby" of motorcycling, rather than alternatives. E.g. if I was into classic cars, I would probably have a classic for taking to shows etc and a modern car for enjoying driving adventures. Applying that to my bikes, I obviously needed to have my '61 Crusader for local runs out / taking to shows etc and a nice modern bike for my longer distance adventures!!

I don't have room for 2 classics and the 250 G5 was always a stop gap to give me something on the road last year, so she is currently for sale. The Finance Committee approved putting the money I get from the sale of Gloria towards a new bike. 

The only "modern" bike I was really interested in was the Classic 350, so I started looking around at nearly new examples. To cut a long story short, I was offered an exceptionally good deal on a brand new bike and some accessories, which actually ended up a bit cheaper than the second hand bike I was looking at! I snapped their hands off.

It had to be a stock Bronze Chrome version, which was my second choice of colour but actually having seen it out in the open I absolutely love it. I ordered some genuine Royal Enfield canvas panniers and frames to be fitted. (I actually ordered black ones but the dealer got it wrong and it turned up with brown. However, I think she looks way better like that!)

After a very long 2 week wait, she was delivered today by Roger. 

Here is the happy new owner.

I reckon those panniers look amazing!

So now I have to do the initial 300 mile running in period at a maximum 70kph / 44mph, which feels very slow but is made easier by the relaxed character built into the bike. 

Longer journey to the Midlands

I had a long overdue trip planned to visit the National Motorcycle Museum with Rob. The weather forecast was really good - no rain and temperatures starting to creep up. At just about 100 miles, it was a longer journey than I’ve done so far on Gloria but everything has been running fine so I decided to put my faith in her and give her a longer journey to stretch her legs.

We stuck to A roads - A41 south, then the A5 (the route of the old Roman road known as Watling Street) towards Tamworth and then the A38 down past Birmingham to the Museum which is just near the NEC. 

All in, it took just over 2.5 hours with a couple of short stops just to stretch my legs.

Rob arrived shortly after and we went into the museum to be met my hordes of men carrying pistols and rifles - there was also a “military” fair on there 😳. 

The museum is amazing. Over 850 British bikes on display and apparently at least one example of the more than 130 British bike manufacturers that have existed at various times.

It was nice for me to see an example of how my Royal Enfield would have looked when it was newly delivered to a dealer in 1961. I appear to have got most things right on mine and entertained Rob by turning into a super-geek, identifying a couple of areas where they hadn’t quite got it right. God, I never thought I would turn into one of those “types”!

We got to saturation point and couldn’t stand to look at anymore - fortunately as we were in the last hall - so we mounted up and took the back roads for a 20 mile spin back to Rob’s place in Tamworth.

So 120 miles today and Gloria didn’t miss a beat. My confidence in her has taken another leap forwards.

Monday morning we had a lazy breakfast and then I hit the road for the journey back. Slightly shorter at about 80 miles. The weather was gorgeous although it did get quite blustery for half an hour or so. 

I stopped off at the Lockside Cafe - one of my favourites if I’m passing through Whitchurch on the bike - and had a bite to eat and a coffee sat outside in the sun, watching the canal boats go up and down the staircase lock there.

So, another excellent adventure. We aren’t doing the Manx Grand Prix this year but have an even bigger adventure planned in May. This was a bit of a trial to see how confident I was in Gloria managing longer distances and she passed with flying colours, so we’re Full on with planning “the big one” now. Watch this space.

First trip out of 2023

The start of February 23 has seen the early indications of spring. Most of my time over winter has been spent working on the house and, more recently, a big push to finish the restoration of my 1962 Royal Enfield Crusader, but I've been itching to get back out on Gloria.

My son Rob was visiting the area for the weekend on his 125 Grom, so we took the chance to get out for a couple of hours around the lovely roads of North Wales. 

I'd been really slack, putting Gloria away after her last trip out sometime around October and hadn't drained the fuel tank, so I was half expecting some problems starting but, after pumping some fuel through on the starter and quickly cleaning up one of the spark plugs, she fired up and settled into a nice steady idle ☺ I put a dose of Redex into the tank to give any winter fuel build up a chance to clear.

I forgot to take any photos but we did a lovely 75 miles through two areas of outstanding national beauty, with a stop in Ruthin for lunch and to warm up! Gloria ran faultlessly.

Lovely stuff and can't wait to get out again soon.

Manx Grand Prix Adventures

My son, Rob, and I have been fairly regular visitors to the Isle of Man for both the TT races in May/June and also the Manx Grand Prix / Classic TT races in August, but it was 5 years since we both last went. So a plan was hatched that Gloria's first big adventure would be the 2022 Manx Grand Prix. 

Rob's daily rides tend to be big sportsbikes but, to keep things fair, he came on his little Honda 125 "Grom". The bikes turned out to be pretty evenly matched up to about 55mph, then the G5 still had something left in reserve. But the Grom's luggage capacity was nil and Rob had a huge backpack load on the way there and back.

Gloria was prepared and waiting as Rob travelled the 2 hour journey up from the Midlands to Chester.

We managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before quietly sneaking out into the road and setting off at 1am, bound for Liverpool Pier Head and the IoM Ferry.

Gloria made it onto the ferry without incident and was tied down with the other bikes for the 2.5 hour journey.

We got to the campsite at Douglas Rugby Club before 7am and very quietly set up our tents before snuggling down into sleeping bags to catch up on a couple of hours sleep.

There was supposed to be a practice session and the first race on our first day, but variable weather across the island meant that the racing was postponed and then cancelled. We had a great day over on the west side of the island though, heading out to pay our respects to the fairies before exploring around Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin and included taking in a couple of laps of the Southern 100 road circuit.

The "roads closed" time for Saturday racing was postponed by a couple of hours, so we took the chance to do a lap of the 37.74 mile course. We've done that many times over the years but this was the first time on smaller bikes and we both loved it being able to have a blast without ever feeling like you were riding beyond the bike's limits. Gloria had the upper expanses of her rev range tested out and passed admirably - made me laugh later when Rob referred to them calling a good thrashing an "italian decoke" when they are struggling to set bikes up at work.

Finally, we made our way to our first vantage point at the bottom of Barregarrow, a fast left hander with a vicious dip on the bend to unsettle the bikes. 

We watched the "practice lap" for Senior GP and Classic Superbikes followed by the postponed lightweight 250 race from here and then made our way up the lanes on the inner part of the island to get up onto the top of the mountain part of the circuit, at Brandywell for the Junior (supertwins) race. I find the variety of scenery on the course stunning and it was lovely being up there in the sunshine for the first race.

And to round off our "spectating from places beginning with B" day, we then made our way back down the lanes to Bradden Bridge. I adore spectating from there - it completely sums up the madness of the place, sitting on a stone wall 10' above the circuit, with an ancient oak tree plonked in the middle of the chicane, and a churchyard full of spectators opposite! To see, hear and smell the Classics racing through there is most definitely one of my real happy places in life. Rob is the 3rd generation of Shearers to spectate from there, as my mum and dad also used to go there in the 50s.

A wonderful day, with excellent riding, company and weather, was rounded off in the Rugby Club bar, where we shared a pint with a lovely French couple, Evelyne and Francis, visiting for the first time from Pau in the Pyrenees. What an adventurous pair, backpacking around England and Ireland (and wherever else took their fancy!) in their 70s.

Sunday was a non-race day and we did more exploring. We went up to the Grandstand and explored the pits; then went down into Douglas and were again struck by how bizarre the IoM is as a horse drawn tram trundled past our row of parked bikes on the prom.

While we were parked up, Rob spotted that Gloria was having an OCD moment...

We also did another lap of the circuit and I was chuffed that one of the photographers got a couple of good shots of us approaching and taking the Gooseneck, as we headed up onto the mountain.

We took the back road from Douglas out to Laxey and had ice creams on the beach and then made our way up to the Point of Ayre in the remote North Eastern part of the island where, for a minute or two, we were the most northerly people on the island!

On the way back, we swapped bikes for a while. The Grom was great fun - tiny and very flickable and surprisingly good acceleration for a 125, but I was glad to get back on Gloria 😁It did give me a chance to see what she looked and sounded like though while Rob was riding her.

The last day of racing was the bank holiday Monday. Three new vantage points for me today, the first being Ramsey Hairpin for the practice lap. One of Rob's work colleagues was racing (see next two videos) and it gave a really different perspective to understand the financial and time commitment that he had made to be there.

Next we moved a short distance up the circuit to the Gooseneck to watch the Senior race (which was where we had been "papped" the previous day 😄) .

And then for the final race we decided to head to Windy Corner on the way down from the mountain. It looked on the map like we could get quite close on the bikes and then walk the final part, but the last part of the track was on a goat track up the mountain! We ended up walking about a mile and a half in leathers up a 700' climb. It took us so long that we missed the first lap and just saw the second lap coming around, but then we also got to see the last 2 laps. Again, spectacular scenery and we were kindly offered a lift back down to our bikes by a couple of island residents in their Jeep.

That evening, we headed into Peel for fish and chips and then back to the campsite for a couple of pints of Bushys Ale. I found this plaque in the bar that they were selling and presented it to Rob in recognition of a fantastic few days!

So, our last day finally arrived and we had the morning spare before heading for the afternoon ferry. After packing up our gear, we headed off to Jurby Airfield where the VMCC had organised a race / track parade. As always, it was as interesting looking around the bike park, as it seemed that every visitor on a motorbike had descended there!

We then raced back to the campsite to pack the tents away and headed down to the ferry terminal, arriving with minutes to spare before the official check-in time! 

So, to sum up, a wonderful few days in motorcycling heaven. Gloria performed flawlessly, other than the iffy float valve that I've been working around and will fix in due course. In total, we did just under 400 miles and I really started to get to know her character and how best to ride her. There were some hills where some extra power would have been nice, but none that we couldn't make it up by changing down a gear and taking it easy! A lot of the time, it was me trying to ride her like the big bikes I've had in the past and relying on raw power!

Roll on the next adventure.