On the Road Again!

Just an update. My return trip on July 1st will be on Irish Ferries. I have never used them before. I have enquired and mostly have stuck with what I know in the short crossing from Dover to Calais or even Dunkerque. So that's P&O or DFDS. For this trip I did the usual visit to all three ferry companies and Le Shuttle. Irish came out way cheaper at £32.63.  Why ferry and not the faster crossing with Le Shuttle? On this trip I will have ridden about 360 miles and the chance to have somewhere to have a rest and a coffee would be great. The Le Shuttle option is sitting on the deck or the ground waiting to board.  I have been using Le Shuttle for the best part of 25 years. I would estimate that something like 10% have been delayed at one end or the other. Once for 5 hours in Calais in the winter. Luckily in the car. Plus have sat in the dark in the tunnel on two occasions, with no information from train staff. Another reason for the shortness of the trip is due to "Grimm Up No...

Booked the ferries. Or rather the crossings. Out on Le Shuttle with Neill and Phil on 27th June at 0820.  We need to be there an hour before but personally I think 90 minutes would be better! We have to get through French passport control to get our Schengen border stamps. Returning 5 days later on the Irish Ferries route from Calais at 1750. It's quite late but I  want to give myself plenty of time to get back to Calais from Assen in one hit and then get through the marvellous disaster known at the UK Passport control. Not to mention the French clowns stamping my Schengen exit! All the holdups courtesy of those that voted leave in 2016 and the useless politicians on both sides that created this mess.

It's quite a while since we went to Assen for the MotoGP at Assen. Since then the main race day has fallen inline with all the others and is now Sunday. Tradition means nothing when TV money is there. TV is the dictator in all sports it seems. The last time we were here was in 2018 when British Superbike (BSB) had their overseas round. We had a great time. Claire and I went in the car and Neill on his bike. This year we will all be on the bikes and I will be with Neill and Phil, both on their BMW's and I guess I will be on the V-Strom. I am only doing the Dutch MotoGP part of the trip. Neill and Phil are going on to the Sachsenring for the German MotoGP the weekend after. In between leaving up and their return there will be some sightseeing and Dambusters crash sites. I am just looking at the routes Neill has planned. I should be able to get my trip inside the Le Shuttle's 5-day ticket.  There are two days in the plans before we get to the hotel before the GP. W...

Although my brother racks up the miles on his BMW with super long tours around Europe with his mate Patrick tagging along behind - a sort of motorcycling Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - we have been getting away for a MotoGP trip every few years since about 2011.  The last time was in 2022 when we went to Aragon.  Neill and Patrick! I let him lead, does that mean I become Sancho too? On the Vimy trip we were joined by Phil Hingert, another ex-SOC committee member and also a BMW rider.  So we are looking at a trip to the Netherlands for the Assen MotoGP.  The Three Amigos! Neill, Phil and me! More once we have secured the tickets in November sometime!

Eurotunnel was booked months ago and we have been waiting to see when tickets for the track went on sale. This week as it happens. To my amazement there is a 50% ticket reduction for those of us lucky to have lasted more that 65 years. I tried for ages to book seats in Grandstand 1C but it didn't work. I messaged Neill and he tried. I gave it one last time from the laptop and it worked successfully first time! So two seats booked. I have offered to go 50/50 on the tickets. It means it will cost me €25 more than the senior ticket would have.  Booking direct with Motorland rather than using the agents saves a few quid each. Official Motorland Site

After twenty years Suzuki have finally won the championship on the premier class of motorcycle racing with Joan Mir taking the number one plate. Joan Mir - 2020 World Champion It seems so long ago when Kenny Roberts Jr won whilst we were still in the two-stroke era. Kenny Roberts Jr - 2000 World Champion Those of us that are primarily  Suzuki owners and riders have waited so long for this day! Congratulations Joan. https://bikes.suzuki.co.uk/news/joan-mir-blog-what-its-like-to-be-world-champion/

Who could have imagined a championship without Marc Marquez? This is a chance for someone to kick on and take the #1 place.  But who will it be? It looked like Quateraro. Runaway winner of two races.  Then KTM with Binder, a winner in ČR.  Maybe Dovizioso, race winner Austria Part One? Then Oliviera wins the second race in Austria! It's all to play for!!!

We decided to have breakfast in the hotel and then leave. It wasn't cheap but you could eat enough to make sure that lunch wasn't needed. Over breakfast a couple of other guys said that there had been an accident after the racing and they couldn't get on the D338 from the Le Mans ring road.  It must have been behind us as we had no problems getting back to the hotel. Can only hope the riders are all okay. We left at a few minutes to 10am.TomTom decided to come back a different way to the one we went out. The N12 and N154 instead of the variants of the 138/338/438 that was formerly simply the N138. The route includes some sections of dual carriageway and single. The limit goes up and down depending on whether there's a "median" or not. The blanket 80kph limit outside towns stretched to 90 on some sections where they have a passing lane. Usually these were less than a kilometre! Must be fun on busy days stuck behind a truck! We made good progress to Rouen and on...

Moto2 was the first of a Marquez brothers benefit day.  British interest was minimal with Jake Dixon on the Angel Nieto team Triumph. In the end there was a three Spanish rider podium. I was down behind the VR46 grandstand at the end of the start/finish, queuing for the chance too pee up a wall in the official pissoir, when Marquez was on the podium. Suddenly loads of them in the grandstand starting booing and stamping their feet. Not very sporting. Back in position and before the MotoGP race there were speeches (in French) and then La Marseillaise. Hardly a whisper from the French. WTF? Tune into a rugby international and especially in Paris the French blow the roof off the stadium with their singing! Our interest was in Cal Crutchlow who had qualified 15th. And a second choice of Jack Miller from Australia. And of course Valentino. In the end Miller briefly took the lead in front of us before   Mark Marquez cleared off. Jack eventually dropping to 4th behind the two wor...

Started off badly!! We loaded the bikes and Neill set off and I went to follow. CLUNK!! In all the messing about I had set off with the bright yellow disc lock still in the front wheel and we took a tumble in the car park.  Luckily I had my left foot on the ground but Pepé is a heavy bastard and my leg crumbled and I had to lay it down.  It looked as though it rested on the left pannier. One of the French guys ran over to help. Filled will embarrassment I had it on two wheels without much help. Adrenaline I guess! The only damage was to the lock itself in that the key wouldn't unlock. It turned part way but the lock body itself was a bit skew-wiff in the casing.. Luckily another  French guy (GS1200 owner)  with an adjustable grip wrench broke the casing to get the key to turn. Otherwise I'd not be going anywhere. Phew. Modified Lock After that the ride down was a little odd as I was picking up every noise and weave in any uneven road surface as a problem of the tumbl...

Up early and breakfast taken in the hotel. We were away by about 0845 and the non toll road route took us the best part of 50 minutes. In the Rouge car-park they check the bike and with a log book put a sticker on the headlight and matching receipt for you. As we didnt have log books with us we ended up with wrist bands. Then we were off with our chairs and waterproof trousers. It drizzled all-day. At least with somewhere to sit it was less miserable between practice and qualifying. We'll a bit nearer the Dunlop bridge tomorrow. On the way back we stopped at a war memorial to Leclerc's armoured division that battles locally after D-Day to capture Alençon. Some shopping at Lidl and then dinner at Buffalo Grill again. Tonight was Caesar salad night. Up earlier tomorrow.

As usual the Shuttle was late leaving the UK end. Only 40 minutes so not long. Quiet if long no toll ride down. Made longer by blanket 80km speed limit outside towns. And innumerable roadworks and long detours or deviations as our French friends call them. Does that make us deviants!? Neill led us up what looked like a farm track and back again when Wailly Beaucamp had the high street dug up. The detour seemed about 10 miles to cover 1 mile of work. The wonders of France. PS, no bugger working though.  First stop in the Rouen ring at a McD for WiFi and lunch. Second stop for petrol. With the low speed limits Pepé managed 181.3 miles with loads to spare in the tank. Averaging over 46mpg. Neill's BMW 1600 was even  better. Just short of Alençon we stopped in "biker rest" stop organised by the local FFMC group. Free coffee etc but donations accepted.  And then to the hotel. We were later than anticipated but have room 6. Not very big but will do as we expect to be out in the...

When we went in 2012 it was pretty miserable and it rained nearly all the time.  We hardly had chance to get out of our waterproofs the entire weekend. The weather forecast id looking better this year - but do we trust weather forecasters at all? So what to pack? And more importantly what to wear on the ride down? And what to pack it in?  I have the Klicbag panniers but they are rather small for a long weekend away and need something extra.  Okay, four days and three nights away. When Claire and I went  to the Somme for the centenary I bought the Saddlemen sissy bar bag. It is enormous. Superb for two of us for a long weekend including dress-up suits and dresses. Later the same summer I used it for Czech for the GP in 2016 and It was great for a longer trip and I was able to stash some wine bottles in it.  So I need to find space for pants/socks/.t-shirts for three days, jeans and trainers (that take up a lot of space), hoodie, light w...

Planning a route is the easiest bit.  After all when you have a TomTom (other GPS systems are available) you simply type into it where you want to go and eh voila! It takes you there. Magic. Of course there are some settings and preferred roads you might want to set. For me it is no tolls. I don't mind highways but prefer them to be free. And so that was entered into the mix. Another consideration are fuel stops.  I didn't used to bother as I kept an eye on the trip counter and in conjunction with the fuel gauge decided when to stop when it looked likely that fuel was needed. Pepé has a sensible operating range of about 180 miles.  The buttock clenching stomach lurching maximum is about 200.  I try to never get anywhere near that far on a tank with 189 being the furthest I have risked in the past.  For this trip I looked for hypermarket fuel stops at around the 160-170 mile mark.  The home to hotel and hotel to home distance is around 230 miles. It does mea...

Only a fortnight to go and we will be off on the short run down through France to Alençon  and our hotel for the MotoGP weekend in Le Mans. I had a look at some routes to put into my TomTom. I copied them from Neill's MyRouteApp and then renamed them for my TomTom (with the AFR19 from end)  and added a fuel stop. Home to Hotel Hotel back home With no tolls specified on the unit and in MyRouteApp it looks about 226 miles each way.  At cruising speed of say 70mph I'd expect the Rocket to need a fuel stop at around 170 miles, so I needed to add one stop.  This is based on me having a full tank before getting on the Eurotunnel train at the UK end and filling up at the Carrefour in  Alençon after Sunday's racing. The no tolls route still uses sections of Autoroutes between Calais and Rouen but these are the free sections and then national roads thereafter.  With speed limits vastly reduced on national and departmental roads that should do wonders for f...

My brother, Neill, and I have been looking at this since the autumn.  By the time we thought of it, the hotels near to the circuit had gone up astronomically and were mostly booked up.  There are a few in the £150 to £350 a night category. So I had to expand the search outwards and to cut down the journey on the way there to the north of Le Mans.  Gradually the search area had to be increased up to 60kms radius. I have a booking with booking.com at a hotel just to the north of Alençon, breakfast included.  It's not far from the F1 hotel we stayed in back in 2012.  That seems to have disappeared from the booking's site.  The nearby Campanile where we ate is a lot more expensive and doesn't come with included breakfast.   I do like the Campanile idea though and Claire and I stay in them quite regularly when we are away even when we have Reggie with us.  But at over £40 a night more it might not be worth the change. How to get there? ...

It's a bit premature, but if you don't act quickly then the opportunity is lost.  I was looking at the "local" MotoGP dates in the calendar for 2019. As we are going to Assen in September for the BSB Round in the car or by bike (to be decided) I discounted that round.  It doesn't leave that many within a few miles of the channel ports and so I thought of Le Mans and the French MotoGP. It's the weekend of 17-19 May.  It's not a school holiday and so I should be able to get the Friday and Monday off the "book-end" the weekend.  I checked on booking.com and of course there's hardly a hotel in sniffing distance of Le Mans itself.   So I have booked a hotel,  on the usual "no prepayment/free cancellation" basis in  Alençon .  It's called the  Hôtel Inn Design Resto Novo .  Part of a small chain across France. When Neill and I went in 2012 (!) we stayed at the Formule 1 hotel in  Alençon .  We ate in the nearby Campanile and eve...

Finally getting around to writing up the trip - here .

The next and who knows, last Devall Boys trip? https://devallboys.blogspot.com/

No photos this time as I used the Canon and the Sony cameras rather than the iPhone. Have to wait until I get home to use the laptop. After breakfast Saturday we took the non-toll route to Le Mans. Woody leading as my TomTom was misbehaving. ( http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tomtom.html ) At the track they affix a sticker to the headlamp and give you the other half. On leaving both have to match. They also want to see the biker's log book. French ones are small, our are four pages of A4 and paper. As it is peezing down there is no way I am getting mine out of the topbox! We arrived in time for the Moto2 free session and all three classes qualifying. All the commentary in French. A summary in English at the end is spoken by a guy that learned English in a vacuum. It drizzled all day. Rained hard at times. Almost trench foot. Sunday. Up earlier, same route, same rigmarole to park, same logbook stays in topbox. Found a space near where we were yester...