This year's EMM was to Andorra, a long ride but some great roads in the area. The tax free status potentially means an opportunity for cheap petrol and bike gear. I travelled down to Portsmouth with @rotaxracer and @Coman stopping at a pub near Petworth for supper and then taking the overnight Ferry to Caen. After only a few hours sleep we arrived in Caen at an ungodly hour of the morning, disembarkation was swift and customs and passport checks have improved since 2022. One issue was the amount of force they had used to tie my bike down. It had actually bent the seat base and I had to stand on either end to force it back into shape so it would attach to the bike, luckily it recovered OK. We were out of the town and headed south on the Autoroutes until the need for coffee and breakfast became too much and a quick pit stop was taken. We skirted Le Mans (the 24hr car race was starting that weekend) and finally swapped the boredom of the Autoroute for some N Roads and a lunch stop. The weather was pretty good with just a few brief showers. Returning to the Autoroute we arrived at our overnight stop south of Limoges by about 4pm. We were joined by long time EMM member Scott who had flown in from the USA especially. In an act of selfless stupidity he had ridden his hire bike from the South of France to meet up with us. We had a great evening with a few local beers and it was enlivened by the arrival of a French Norton owners club. Day 2 saw us heading South again (back down the Autoroute Scott had ridden up the day before!) South of Toulouse we finally hit the N roads for good and made our way into Andorra. As we reached the mountains the rain started and it poured heavily for about 50 miles. We filtered past huge lines of cars as we rode up into Andorra. Near the top the road was packed out with parked cars and the air was blue with tyre smoke. At a small circuit there was a drifting competition going on, at least they could get cheap petrol and tyres I guess. We arrived in town and Peter had to buy a pair of trainers as he'd accidentally left his in the cabin on the ferry. We rode up, and up, and up to arrive at the Hotel Coma-Bella. Just as we were unpacking there was a torrential downpour which we were glad we hadn't been riding in. The evening briefing was followed by beer, banter and excellent food.
With 24 bikes it's not really possible to ride as a large group, especially given that some people like to ride at different speeds. Many of the group know each other well and 'buddy up' with others that ride at a similar pace. It's strange but we still all often end up coming together again for coffee stops and scenic viewpoints usually only a few minutes apart. The first day of the EMM took us on an excellent route into Spain with a stop for a 'massive' lunch, which was really inventive Spanish cuisine. The weather was great, very hot as the day wore on. Total milage for the day was 170, which was about right, once again there were evening thunderstorms. Day Two of the EMM and we were heading into Spain again. Sadly things went a bit pear shaped during the day. The morning ride went really well with some fantastic fast flowing roads, after a while we turned off the main route and ended up on a narrow road which wound it's way up into the hills. The road surface deteriorated and the intercom headsets were filled with calls of "gravel, gravel... pot hole". We came around a downhill corner with a nasty washed out pothole and gravel covering and found Steff and his son Ezio parked up, with Staff looking worse for wear. He had slid off coming round the corner and was in a great deal of pain sitting on the crash barrier. The bike was not too badly damaged and we fixed this up with some cable ties and tape. Steff was feeling very faint and had hurt his foot and knee. The road was very quiet with little traffic and looking at the map we could see there was a town about 5km down the hill. Steff was just about able to get onto his bike and pretty much freewheel into town with a posse of outriders leading him. The chemist we stopped at took one look and she went a bit white but with the help of google translate she told us there was a Dr's surgery around the corner. Once we arrived the Doctor assessed Steff and ordered an Ambulance, he realised that he'd dislocated his knee! You can see the marks the bike made as it went down. One of the guys with us, Faber, had driven his bike in a van from Portugal, so he and Jan went back to the hotel and came back with the van to collect Steff's bike. This put rather a dampener on the day and the group that had stayed with him retraced our route back to the hotel. The weather once again turned wet and even snowed when we got to the top of one pass They were able to sort out the dislocation at the hospital and Steff arrived back at the hotel, after an expensive and painful taxi ride, sporting a plaster from his groin to his ankle. His main worry was his daughter was getting married the next weekend. Luckily they were able to get a flight home and Ezio came and picked the bikes up in a van some weeks later. .
The following day the group dispersed and we all went on our way. Four of us were headed for the Tarn gorge area, we had hoped to ride some of the passes and roads in the Cathar area but the weather was very bad so we skirted south and East to try and avoid it. We made good progress but could see huge thunder clouds ahead of us and took refuge in a service station and supermarket to plot a route around them. I'll gloss over the story of the truck driver who moved his lorry whilst one of the party was having a wee, much to the amusement of two french housewives. It was an interesting route with great scenery on the later stages. @rotaxracer and I had stopped at the same hotel in Meyrueis a couple of years ago and it was a very busy spot, parking was very 'snug'. Gregg joined us later in the afternoon as he had been making sure Steff made it to his plane. https://www.hotel-meyrueis-lozere.com The following day my route planning went a bit awry. I usually use the green edged roads on the Michelin map roads as a good guide, but I should have checked street view and how long the actual rides were taking for the milage! It started well with a trip along the Tarn Gorge, and a visit to le Pointe Sublime (viewing spot above the gorge). Uncle Peter @Coman left us to head off to his his chum in Provence and we headed North We stopped for lunch, just before 2pm, at a hill top restaurant popular with hikers. They originally said they couldn't do lunch but relented and produced some bread, meat and cheese. However I think he took advantage as it cost us a fortune! Pressing on the roads got more and more technical, constant bends with poor surfaces. At one point we ended up going up a 'road' that was more like a mountain path just about wider than the handlebars. There was a bit of a mutiny and maps were consulted however from where we were it was difficult to plot a quicker route. Things did improve and we arrived in Le Mont-Dore just as the rain started again. An evening of beer, Pizza and red wine quelled the rebellion and peace was restored.
Final day - Scott and Gregg headed off towards the Alps and for Scott to return to Nice to drop off his hire bike. Peter and I headed north for a long Autoroute slog of 390 miles. It was a fairly uneventful run until we started to get close to Caen. I was OK for fuel but Pete started gesticulating furiously that he need fuel (for some reason the intercoms had stopped connecting). Pete was riding his BMW XR100 and I had generally been putting more fuel in at each stop. I thought he being a bit of a wuss as I was still showing a range of about 50 kms. We made it to the outskirts of Caen and found a service station. He then managed to get 19.2 litres into his 20 litre tank, so maybe not such a wuss! We headed up to the coast and found a nice beachside restaurant for a meal before getting the overnight ferry back to Portsmouth. The ferry was goo and we were enjoying a few final ferry beers before the 'singer' drove us out of the bar. The next morning we had a good run back across the south downs and a quick breakfast stop. All in all another great EMM. Total milage - 1983 Total Cost - didn't keep count, smiles, good roads and the company of life long friends are worth more than cold hard cash... Just planning now for EMM 2024 - can't wait.
EMM European Multistrada meeting. Multistrada owners from all over Europe meeting up for two days ride outs. (There are a few ex Multi owners that are still permitted to attend)
