Four go to The Moto Piston Rally in Spain.

[bubbles]

Part 6

Well I did'ent mean to leave it over a week since I was last here, but life has been a bit frantic lately so here is part 6

On Saturday we returned to Colombres to find the town jumping with a real carnival atmosphere, the whole event seamed to have notched up a gear or two, and the bikes were returning from the Ruta Costa Verde ride through the mountains and coastline.....

A couple of GSers we parked near....

We visited the motocycle jumble held in the local hall and a marquee....

Even the cooking was on a large scale.....

As the bikes arrived back in town they were put on display in the main square....

This GS looked a bit modern to me but it looked like he had taken part, should be at least 25 years old to enter the rally.....

I just loved these guys they had really dressed the part and it got me thinking what it must have been like back in the days when taking a bike to Europe would have meant craning it on and off the deck of a ship and many of the mountain roads would have been little more than goat tracks, a real adventure.....

Honda CX complete with cardboard fairing, the dispatch riders bike, I know, I
used one for doing just that .....

more to follow.

 

[bubbles]

Part 7

Saturday afternoon was given over to the hill climb up the road from Bustio into the town square at Colombres.

The competitors enclosure at Colombres before the bikes went down the hill to start.

They leave the enclosure and head down the hill to the start.....

The road was closed off, and all without the aid of multiply police presence in florescent jackets, well there was one local bobby in the square nonchalantly smoking in his shirt sleeves. I wish I had taken his picture now.

More to follow.

 

[badgerrrrrr]

Good write up Geoff mate, see you at the xmas dinner , looks like you had a cracking time
Cheers Mark

 

[bubbles]

Part 8

Sunday was our last full day in Spain, while in Potes on Thursday Judy had seen signs to a cable car up into the mountains about 12km to the west,so we decided to head off on our own and investigate.
We took the road towards Colombres and came across the last organized ride out of the rally heading out to Arenas de Cabrales, a 120km ride.........

The road to Potes

At Potes we did the tourist thing wondering through the little back streets....

We spotted this lizard on the top of this wall.....

The road west of Potes 291m climbs imperceptively to Fuente De 1078m in approx 12km, it looks new and has well surfaced sweeping bends which hides the amount you are climbing......

At Fuente De which is the end of the road we were waved on past the large lower car park to the small upper parking area right next to the lower cable car station. These bike were also parked there........

The upper cable car station, can you spot the two cable cars? .....

Going up....

At the top 1834m.......

One of the old cable cars on display near the lower station......

As I said earlier this was the end of the road from Potes......

but there is a track which passes over the top to rejoin a road further on and while I had no plans to take the LT that way it seamed like a good idea to investigate in case I came back with the gs

I walked a short way up the track......

I had spoken with a UK rider of a gs1150 in Potes who said he had ridden the track last year......

but I suspect these signs say its not allowed.......

We headed back to the hotel for our last night in Spain taking in more of the mountain and coastal scenery......

more to follow......

 

[Tractorpilot]

Went up Fuente De Cable Car in 05. That mesh balcony thing - well, it took me a while to convince myself it was safe to step out on!!

 

[bubbles]

Part 9

Before we left on Monday I took some pics of a few of the bikes in the hotel parking area.......

you dont see many of these about.......

A rather nice Norton

and a smart gs I think this came from Yorkshire.....

Ferry departure time was 4pm but because there were so many bikes booked on the ferry we had been asked to report to the ferry terminal 2 hours before. So we packed the bikes and took a leisurely ride to Santander with a stop for petrol.....

and lunch we arrived back at the ferry......

The bikes were secured.....

and depature was right on time.....

A short 20 hours later and we had a naval escort back into Plymouth.....

stern first into the dock......

lorries off first.......

We had a wait of over an hour to get through passport control,that was after I had bump started the LT cos the luggage in the topbox had switched the internal light on and flattened the battery, Graham got a deck hand to help him and they pushed me backwards up the ramp a short way........

While we waited a 1200 was towed away, someone said it was stuck in gear.

Well it only remains to thank Graham and Tosca for joining us on our first MSL tour, a good time was had by all and we are thinking about going back next year on older bikes and joining in the rally. We covered just over 680 miles on great roads in good weather, Graham and Tosca covered an extra 400 plus miles on top of that with their journey from Surrey to Cornwall and back.

 

[Barry G]

Great pic's jeff, I never thought we see the end of this epic tale,
If you're going next year let me know I just might come along on the old Sunbeam.

See you on the 30th ho ho ho

 

[bubbles]

Thanks Barry,got to the end of it eventually, I can't take credit for all of them, as you may have guessed seeing as I appear in some of them. Looking forward to the dinner next weekend hope the weathers good or we'll have to eat Nates dinner too.

 

[Trippy]

Nice report and photos.
Looks like a nice place to visit and I have that time off in 09 so thats another maybe.
I guess there are a few tracks to ride in the area.

 

[bubbles]

Nice report and photos. Is it a yearly rally and what dates was the main event?

Thanks Trippy, yes its put on every year by the Moto Piston Club. The event covered 4 days 9th Oct to 12th Oct with events and ride outs each day, its getting more popular each year, I just hope it does'ent out grow the small town of Colombres.
Their web site below.
http://www.mcpiston.com/ingles/iinicio.htm

 

[Trippy]

I'll have to read it properly when I have more time but it looks like a great option for 09. So the rally is a classic event that you need to enter but other bikes can just show up and visit the show etc. Nothing stopping you just getting yourself there and fitting the events around doing your own thing and riding the trails. Is that right?

 

[BegesRus]

Waht a good write up

necessito ir a moto piston pronto

 

[bubbles]

I'll have to read it properly when I have more time but it looks like a great option for 09. So the rally is a classic event that you need to enter but other bikes can just show up and visit the show etc. Nothing stopping you just getting yourself there and fitting the events around doing your own thing and riding the trails. Is that right?

All very laid back, plenty of UK riders there, as you say you can just turn up and take in the bikes and atmosphere of it all or enter the rally,your bike should be over 25 years old then you can take part in the organized road rides. The only thing we paid for was entry into the motorcycle jumble, 2 euros each I think.

 

[Trippy]

Thank you, it sounds and looks a great event.

 

[davsato]

i was there

hi, we were there, you caught us in a pic in the background at the hotel carpark.
what did you think of the hotel food? mostly okay but some of it, especially the baby eels and the cat sick pasta tubes, i could do without. the jurys still out on the deep fried custard.

whoever said you couldnt follow the route of the rally was wrong, except for the hillclimb it was all on public roads open to all. you couldnt enter the rally though, but we followed the routes more or less (slower than the guys doing it, some of them were bonkers!)

thinking of doing it again this year, its gone up a bit but still good value.

 

[russ996duke]

what a great ride report.../good foties and it did what all good ride reports should do......make you wnat to get out there and ride!!

 

[bubbles]

hi, we were there, you caught us in a pic in the background at the hotel carpark.
what did you think of the hotel food? mostly okay but some of it, especially the baby eels and the cat sick pasta tubes, i could do without. the jurys still out on the deep fried custard.

whoever said you couldnt follow the route of the rally was wrong, except for the hillclimb it was all on public roads open to all. you couldnt enter the rally though, but we followed the routes more or less (slower than the guys doing it, some of them were bonkers!)

thinking of doing it again this year, its gone up a bit but still good value.

Yes the food was a bit variable good you found yourselves in our photos.
We too are hoping to go again in 2010, I have a 1978 80/7 (owned since new)so would like to book with the Moto Piston Club and join in the rally, maybe see you there

 

[bubbles]

what a great ride report.../good foties and it did what all good ride reports should do......make you wnat to get out there and ride!!

Really good to see people still reading and enjoying this ride report, thanks for the reply

 

[Irishdude]

Yeah looked like ye all had a good time.
I'll have to check that out next year.

 

[beany]

exellant ride report