Just got back from a quick dash in France (Brittany). I missed the ferry at Poole (my fault as I left late and the road from Bath is crap - and speed camera city. Sorry they are 'safety' cameras - but they don't measure safety as they measure speed...) Anyway Brittany Ferries sorted me out to go from Portsmouth to Caen that afternoon. I was at Portsmouth quite early and the thing that struck me was this EU thing is going to be a fiasco. The amount of freight going both ways is massive and there is no way that it could be checked. I had a fuckwit who wanted to search my bike for firearms and explosives. He wanted me to open my Ventura bag and I said that if you want to search it then you will need to take everything out because it is well packed. He asked me again if I had any explosives of firearms and when I replied that I hadn't, he told me to carry on. So if I had been carrying explosives or firearms then they would not have known. So that was a waste of my time. You get the same shit with passports. Everyone had to show them to get onto the boat but then we all have to get in a queue in France to show them again. Did somebody smuggle on to the boat at 20 knots halfway in the English channel? I have a British passport and the French border guard asked me where I was going and was I intending to work. Dunno if they are just practising for when we leave the EU but because it was 10pm and I had 180 miles to cover, I resisted from telling him that as we are still in the EU, he can fuck right off! My mate did get the ferry and arrived in Cherbourg only to find that his Garmin had decided that France does not exist! The 180 miles that would take roughly 3 hours took him 7.5. No satnav, no map and a fading battery on his phone! Amazed he did it but he did in the end. Although I am often told that my TomTom is crap, it seemed to understand what I was doing and travelling from Caen instead of Cherbourg wasn't an issue. Came across lots of other bikers from Ireland, England and Wales. The general consensus was that I was mad doing the trip on a Ducati. Why have Ducatis got this reputation? And for a change, as I was on the ST3 and not my Monster, it wasn't me that needed fuel first! I switched over my dash to km and I could do 350 easily. The most that I ever put in was about 17.5 litres in a 21 litre tank.
? Ive toured France on a 916, an 1198 and now a 1299S. I wonder why people do it on tourers, when my mates and I do it on sports bikes. Usually, high up in the alps, we're the only ones on full out sports bikes. Evferyone and their dog is on a touring bmw bag o shite. The alps were made for sports bikes and motards. Tourers are for peasants.
I crossed from Portsmouth to Caen 10 days ago, had no problem. The passport thing is all because the UK is not part of the Schengen agreement. I keep my phone charged via the USB port that my 939 Supersport is fitted with as standard, and if needed I would use the GPS on the phone. I don't use it though because I have a post it note in the tank bag which reads Caen, Le Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Anguleme, Perigueux. I just follow the road signs and manage to get the 630 kms home in about a 6 hour ride. Never tried that trip on the ST but the 939 SS is a much more comfortable bike for touring than my ST was anyway. Did the same trip, but to Cherbourg, 4 times in May/June, twice with my niece on her Monster 821 with no problems.
It is amusing how people still believe the 'Ducati's are unreliable' line - probably the same ones that believe that German cars are reliable!!
France, and Spain, are my favourite places to ride. Hopefully that enjoyment isn't going to be dampened too much by Brexit. We're off to Corsica next year To be fair your mates issues with his Garmin were purely down to errors and lack of preparedness on his part, nothing to do with how good, or crap, Garmin sat navs are. He'll probably find that he's either bought one that only has UK mapping to start with or he's cocked up a mapping update.
LOl. Peasant here. 1st trip was on an 06 R1, followed by Fz1s, GSXR1000 , MTS1200, S1000r, R1200gs, 1290GT, ...another R1200GS. While the sport jobs are ok around the fast smooth roads, the best bikes in the Alps/Pyrenees/Dolomites...S1000r and R1200gs. Worst bikes from that list? R1,Fz1s and GSXR. Dropped bars are seriously bad news on 'proper' mountain roads on the way back downhill. Add in bumpy roads and passes, compliant suspension wins out. A good motard? Cant disagree apart from typical tank range being shit. Interestingly last week there were an awful lot of bag o shite BMs, especially on the Giau pass. Two locals did manage to pass my bag o shite at the bottom of one of the passes. On a long straight. Why people do it on tourers? Assume you mean GS, Multistrada, Tracer...? and not big lumpy tourers with huge fuck off fairings, then the answer is because they do it soooo well, handle great, and do not torture your body after a few days in the mountains. Ridden well not much will pass them until the open roads.
Now ive sussed the pani (Ie you have to move on it and hang off) its the perfect bike for the tight twisties and alpine hairpins. The 1198 was a handful and tiring and always wanted to leap off the side of a mountain. Bugger to turn tight she was. The panigale turns like no other bike ive ever ridden, Its so flickable and can do a u turn probably by someone with better skills. Our first year over there we got overtaken in the alps a bit by tourers. Now weve been doing it for 10 yrs or so, nothing gets close. Apart from the odd local on a mad motard. We leave these guys well alone. But the German and Swiss on their kriegsmachines are fucking mobile chicanes and can fuck right off. The French and the Brits are generally fine though. But the Swiss are the worst. Bugger off you bankers.
Funnily we have been going for the last ten years also. We pass lots of Germans, Swiss, ...the Italians though, they vary a bit. Some plod, some are very fast, a few are bloody lunatics. Confirmed this year on downhill section mountain pass a few days ago. KTM 990 rider caught my mate out (1050 triple) on a hairpin, then passed our other rider at next corner (very quick rider on a Tracer). In fairness I pulled away everywhere except really tight hairpins, where he was just fooking brilliant at them...(but the GS is wide lol...)... we all got a wave when he pulled turned off, I think we all enjoyed some great 'competitive riding' on that section. As ever though, the rider makes more difference than the bike.
We met a local on an old KH750 up in the moontins. He was a certified fucking lunatic and although we could keep with him, theres no way any of us was brave enough to pass him. He was great fun and quite clearly highly skilled. It was tough enough trying to keep sight of him through the smoke, let alone trying to breathe in the rarified air at atltitude combined with his fumes. But fuck me, he could rag the arse of that fucker. Even on my 1198, there was no way I was passing him on the straights as hed be underneath me on the next corner. I figured it was safer where I was.
The Irish are signed up to everything, they said, and they get the same shit coming directly from Ireland. Thinking about it, I wonder if it's our fault! With an open border between Eire and Northern Ireland and then an open border between the UK and Northern Ireland, it would complicate things. I'm sure Farage has it all sussed out! I have found all of my Ducatis comfortable. Both times that I did the run to the ports we did 180 miles without stopping.
[QUOTE="To be fair your mates issues with his Garmin were purely down to errors and lack of preparedness on his part, nothing to do with how good, or crap, Garmin sat navs are. He'll probably find that he's either bought one that only has UK mapping to start with or he's cocked up a mapping update.[/QUOTE] That Garmin has been abroad many times. It had all of the European countries with just France singled out! It was probably an update that went wrong but I would maintain that if the update goes wrong then it should leave the old map on the device not updated.
It was an update that went wrong. Working now for France. I think that it is a fault, though. I seem to remember that the TomTom backs up first. i would assume this is if the update goes wrong. Maybe it did not realise that the update has gone wrong....
First lads trip, nothing booked apart from the Dover/Calais ferry. something special about the 1st one! Like riding around in the dark looking for accommodation 11at night lol...happy days.
I take a US20 on tail pack and thats that for 1 week. I carry no rucksack either but I do occassionaly use my R3 waist thing. Most of the stuff I take is washed in a hotel sink and is dry by morning. Ive been to France enough times now to roughly know my way around. Just having a mental map in head of major towns and cities is enough. I like venturing down departmente roads. Theyre the best. (empty) All you need is a credit card these days and an AA Gold card. None of my dukes has ever let me down. Despite filling a week old 1198 up with deisel at clackets at 4am. Falling off in Thonon at 1mph and breaking my thumb. All my problems have been me, never the bikes.
US20 is a great bit of kit. If you use modern base layers they will wash/dry overnight if it is not cold and damp. TBH, even damp the next morning it dries on you within ten minutes...if you can stand damp clothes. Took a load T shirts this year and really didnt need to. Base layer stuff the way forward to travel light. Big problem with having more luggage is the tendency to fill it!
I use a US20 and the niece my US30, both bought from a member here. As can be seen from the picture above, I also have the ST2 panniers with a detachable home made frame on the Supersport. These are really too big for one but being hard, don't need to be full.
Even me a female can survive 19 days in Europe with just a US20 I even brought back honey and Cabrales cheese last year Route is on TomTom but I normally laminate an A4 sheet (at work) with all emergency , hotel , ferry , contact details ‘just in case’ Love sailing to Santander - in fact I’m off there in three weeks time - yippee !!!
