Malvern to Calpe and back again

Malvern_Beemer · Apr 30, 2013

Just back from a 2810 mile round trip to Calpe in Spain. Three days down, three days in Calpe and then three days back up. Riding with an old friend, Jason, who was on a Suzuki Bandit 1200 (nice bike but chronically short legged in the mpg department). We went through the tunnel and then across northern France and down through Dijon (night stop) and Perpignan (night stop) on the toll roads before finally arriving in Calpe. Came back up through Zaragoza, the Pyrenees, Pau (night stop) and Le Mans (night stop).

If I was doing this again I wouldn’t go down through northern France. The landscape is uninspiring to say the least and the first two days were really just about pounding out the miles, though the night stops in Dijon and Perpignan were pleasant. The highlight of the trip for me was the ride up through the Pyrenees between Huesca and Pau. Truly breath-taking, hairpin after hairpin. I will definitely be re-visiting this road.

Stayed in Ibis hotels every night during the ride down and back up, mainly for the indoor secure parking and found them to be good value. Lucky enough to be able to make use of my dad's beach front apartment in Calpe during the stay there.

After owning the bike for five months this trip really brought home to me what a fantastic machine the R1200GSA is. Never missed a beat and was always a pleasure to ride. After >400 mile days I wasn't desperate to get off and I genuinely woke up each morning eager to get back in the saddle. Don't let anyone tell you the R1200GS has no character. It has it in spades!

The weather was mixed some sun and lots of rain but the Rallye Pro 2 suit did its job and I stayed dry underneath despite some really long rainy days.

Using PMR radios linked into our helmets to allow communication between us during the trip proved to be really useful especially when navigating through busy city centers.
The only bit of kit that disappointed during the trip was the Garmin Zumo 660. In busy cities where speed was crucial to make the right turnings the Garmin was always slow to update and I was having to slow down to allow it to keep up. It was constantly getting one way systems wrong (particularly in Zaragoza (Spain) and Rouen (France). At one point it just gave up completely during the run through the center of Zaragoza but luckily I had TomTom installed on my iPhone which is mounted next to the Zumo in a weather proof case and this proved to be a more than adequate back up system, never went wrong and was consistently more accurate with timings and distances than the Zumo. I’ve now ordered a TomTom Rider v5 to replace the Zumo.

Hugely enjoyable trip. Already planning next years jaunt across Europe. Did I mention what a fantastic bike the R1200GSA is?

Apologies for the poor quality snaps but they were all phone camera images.
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Malvern_Beemer · Apr 30, 2013

a few more pics:

modman · May 19, 2013

Tony, I only just saw this, you should have told me about it

I'm jealous of some of the roads you got to ride and enjoyed the photo's. I also jealous of your Dad's place, that's just unfair!

Where to next then?

Malvern to Calpe and back again

Malvern_Beemer

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Malvern_Beemer

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modman

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