markie_wales
Registered user
Before any of you get any ideas, no the “split rubber” tour title does not refer to a) a trail of Spanish Senoritas now impregnated, b) any particular form of “interesting” dress we may have gone out in late at night in certain areas, or c) more than the average number of punctures!
After a tricky few years in Chateaux Wales, I was really looking forward to this trip. Bike was running well, tyres had enough life left for just over a week of off roading, my wrist that I had broken ~10 weeks before was “OK” although I expected some discomfort at some point, yup the Pansy-Foo-Foo Off road Motorcycle Club 2014 tour was a Go!!
We caught the ferry from Pompey down to Santander and on arrival there was a little bit of rain, but not enough for waterproofs, and the really good news was that was the only rain we were hit with on the whole trip. I say “hit with” – but more of that later
We were heading for Miranda de Ebro that night as we had some nice trails starting from there. If you do the same, follow the route below [1]. It takes you over a couple of nice passes, along by some water, options of doing some easy trails, and the roads and views are brilliant.
Oh and you’ll see the top of what is now known as “Nipple summit”.
It’d been a while since we’d been in Miranda, and it was surprising that they were so pleased we’d come back, that they were holding a Fiesta. The upside-down guy on the “people tower”, was then lifted up high – poor phone pics but you get the idea. What a welcome back to Spain! Our usual haunt in Café Mozart was heaving, but still managed to get a couple of seats at the bar, and got the usual “L” size burger (don’t try the XXL!!). And as we walked back to the hotel they’d even laid on some fireworks.
Sunday was the first day on the trails proper, but as is the way of these things the road to the trail was shut due to road works, so a quick shifty at the GPS and we saw there was a trail that by-passed the road works – damn I love Spain.
My mate by passing the road works.
Unfortunately he dropped it in some soft mud, but no damage to the bike or him, so all good. The views on these trails are great, and I wonder how much you’d see by road.
Some of the trails this morning were pretty fast going, but coming over one rise, there were a couple of cars and they had a tape across the trail. Very odd, never seen anything like it before. Anyway, we back tracked, tried a different way, but were blocked by another car / tape. We “think” it was some kind of off road push bike race and from one of the hill tops could see an area that seemed to be blocked off so decide to head off to a near-by road by finding whatever trails were available. Getting towards the end of one of these before joining a big trail, the ruts got deep and over grown so I decided to hop onto the edge of an already harvested field for the last 30 yards or so. “Humm small, overgrown ditch between the field and the trail, should be OK with a bit of momentum” … err no. Ran out of momentum going up the other side, and the bottom of the ditch was about a foot lower than my leg could reach
Oh well, soft drop of the side-stand side of the bike – no damage done!
We got back on the road and hit the next main trail. Lovely thing, started off through some nice trails then went all to s**t and we spent a while trying to work out how to get back on the route we had, and after cutting around the edges of some vine yards managed to get back to the trial. A right blast along that one, then through a tiny hamlet and onto the next one up a long wooded trail. My mate had just said how much he like this sort of trail, when over the course of perhaps 50 yards my bike went from “a bit down on power” to cutting out and refusing to start. As I was between tress and it was hot, I turned the bike round, and rolled it down the hill about a mile to a shady spot with some grass to the side.
Type of trail we were riding at the time of the failure:
OK feel free to miss the next section of turmoil, boredom, too many beers and sluking!
########### Start of dull bit ##############
Given I had dropped it on the left side, checked everything there and thought (as it turns out wrongly) that the fuel disconnect didn’t look right. After splitting it, reconnecting it, checking fuel could flow through both parts a few times, finally it got going again. Decided to go back to the road and give it an “Italian tune up” and it ran great. Off to the next trail and bugger me, if the same thing didn’t happen after ~3 miles of going up hill. Turned it round, rolled down the hill, tried restarting it after ~2 miles of rolling and it fired straight up. Right, time for lunch and a think. Good lunch in near by village of Fresneda de la Sierra Tirón and we decided to head for Burgos as it was the nearest big town (by pure luck, and we only found out when we got there, had a KTM dealer!). While looking for the hotel and riding really slowly around Burgos and the bike getting hot, it cut out and wouldn’t start again. My mate went off to sort out a hotel, I sat on the grass in the shade a bit narked to be honest. By the time my mate gets back it’s running OK again. Check in, shower, change, and realise there is a KTM dealer about a mile from the hotel! Walked up there, yup still a dealer, and opened at 9:30 on Monday, so off to the local tapas bar for a beer and a snack. Followed by lots of other Tapas bars[2] and more beer/snacks. One such fine establishment was the “Dolar Bar” which had a) an interesting décor with a train track hanging from the ceiling which had trains going “Choo-Choo” around it, and b) Gin and Tonic in “near” pint size glasses. This place was made for me
Up to the dealer for 9:30, but as this is Spain, and Monday morning, it was a little later before they turned up. Luckily the owner/manager spoke a fair bit of English. I explained what had happened and thought it might be a stuck float / muck in the carbs, and said he’d get his mechanic to take a look as soon as he got in. Which was about lunch time!! Anyway around 4:00 ish I got a call to say one of the carb diaphragms was torn and yes there was some dirt in the carbs (expect to see post soon on in line fuel filters). He couldn’t have been more helpful and said to come up and see it anytime. Thing was the replacement had to come from Austria and wouldn’t be there until Thursday (remember this is Monday), and when pushed what time DHL usually arrived he said mid-day/early afternoon. He’ll clean the carbs before it arrives to save time then. Great. Well with nothing else to do, I went and drowned my sorrows. A lot. Bored the next day so hired a car and went to the beach. Weds my mate went off for a road ride around and about, and around 6 ish we went into town for (yet another) wander. Luckily we had not succumbed to the evil spirit, as at around 7 he called to say the part had arrived a day early, all was refitted and the mechanic had taken it for a quick spin and all seemed well. Did I want to pick it up tonight? I’m open until 8:00 but will stay later if needed? Damn right, walked back to the hotel, got kitted up, hopped on the back of my mates bike and we were there before 7:30! Only changed me 3 hours labour for the whole thing, and as there was none of the “we can look at it in 3 days” crap paid by credit card, and gave him a 10 euro note to have a beer with his mechanic. He refused, but after some persuading took it!
########### End of dull bit ##############
Welcome back!
So with the bike picked up, we went out for a slow ride round town to try and over heat it, and up any of the big hills we could see. It was pretty dark by now, so that’s the only test I could do with it. It was great to be back riding though!
We decided that we’d ride Thursday but stay in the same hotel in Burgos on Thursday night “just in case”. Off to Dolar Bar to celebrate and then off to bed.
Thursday came bright and sunny, the plan was to go back to the trail where it cut out the last time, without the luggage and just the usual tools/tubes etc. So bouncing up the trail I went past the point I had broken down 4 days earlier, without a blip, and from then on the bike ran great.
########### Proper end of dull bit ##############
People sometimes ask why I bother going to Spain to ride off road when I can easily go to Wiltshire / Wales / the Peaks etc I hope some of the photos from this day explain (Also I’d never get a pass to ride for 7 – 8 days straight!).
A stop for lunch in the mountains
Along one of the ridges:
http://youtu.be/CPZxQ1QqTKU
Friday we finally checked out of the hotel, but with our “plan” shot to hell, we decided we’d just mooch about and take what ever trails we came across, fancied, were on the GPS and or were of a decent length. It was a cracking plan, we had loads of options, some worked really well, some dead ended and we had to back track, but it was a great days riding. Well almost. Having been blatting around for a few hours, we can across the shallow ford, with a concrete bottom (you’re already ahead of me aren’t you??). I went first and the back slide out so quickly, I was not able to catch it. Down I, and the SE go. Luckily the water was only about 3 or 4 inches deep, but it’s amazing how wet you can get lying in that! Mate walks in to help me pick it up, and we both nearly go over as the bottom of the ford is covered in some sort of slime, and I’m amazed I got as far through it as I did. Trying to pick the bike up, just had the tyres sliding away, but finally managed to get it out. Trail side repairs to the RHS hand guard (needed bending back – expect to see a post soon on what I need for HDB hand guards with ROX risers), and the rear brake lever got bent (will replace but was “OK” for the rest of the trip). Can’t believe my mate didn’t take a picture of the bike in the water before he came to help!
Near the end of the day we realised we were not too far from Miranda de Ebro again so headed that way. We also realised we were being chased by a load of rain storms, so it was a case of nail it on the trails, and take the odd road ride for 10 miles to stay ahead. You can’t see it that well in the pic but one was behind my helmet.
Miranda seemed to forget who we were and there was no Fiesta, but a load of food and some beers still made it a good evening.
Waking up to the last day with a ferry to catch at 8:00pm, we hit the trails heading north. And what a mix it was. Fast, open tracks. Narrow, nadgery, rutted trails. Rock plates. A few miles of fist size rocks. Steep descents that were covered in loose rocks/gravel with tight hair pins through streams. You name it we hit it! But the views / scenery were spectacular.
This rocky bit was a lot steeper than it looked. The second pic with the front compressed, may back me up on steepness but doubt it!
We even hit a trail being blocked by cows (and a bull) “enjoying themselves in a physical way” - given I wouldn’t want to be disturbed either, we switched he engines off and let him finish his business
Some of the trails in this area were closed/blocked, but once out of the low hills and up high everything was open, and we road pretty high up for some more great trails and scenery. We got to one fork in the trail with a sign bang between the two trails saying “Authorised vehicles only” – but we had no idea which one it referred to, so decided to take the “up” rather than “down” trail. Ended up running along the top of a ridge which was great riding, and the trail surface was easier than the lose rocky climb up.
Pics from the last day showing the great scenery etc.
Let’s go up there…..
Looking back down from the top of that hill
Same area
Ended up stopping for a late lunch in Orduna, great big (albeit thin) steak, chips, roasted peppers, salad, bread, couple of café-con-leche’s each, for the pricey sum of ~12 euro each – bargain! Had parked up next to a beautiful HRD something-or-other (I don’t really know classic bikes), was going to take a pic, but the chap came back, jumped on, and blatted off with a fantastic sound/smell. By the time we were done, we had about 4 hours to get to the ferry with about 2 hours of riding to do. So bimbled over a couple of passes, back past “Nipple Summit”, a LONG stop for some more coffee and still got to the ferry early.
So how would I sum it up? Well the riding, when the bike was working, was great, but given the amount of time I was away, and the amount of riding I actually got to do, not 100% sure it was worth going. However, you can’t predict these things, and it’s the first major breakdown in 15 – 20 years of doing these trips, so can’t complain too much. So to try and rekindle my Spanish riding enthusiasm, getting booked up with Red Tread in Spain for 3 days riding on someone else’s bikes, who has spare bikes!
Drops – BMW 1, KTM 2 (one of which was wet)
Miles – about 760
Planned days of riding – 7 and a bit
Actual days riding – 3.5 - 4
Best bit – probably the last days trails
Worst bit – 3.5 days of no riding – in some ways has put me off going again, but guess that will fade.
Cheers
Markie
[1] Santander, Villanueva, Vega, Vega de Pas, Medina de Pomar, Trespaderne, Miranda de Ebro. It takes 3-ish hours compared to the 2-ish on the motorway, but well worth it.
[2] I would thoroughly recommend La Quinta Dl Monje – it’s in a road full of great Tapas bars this this one’s a bit special
After a tricky few years in Chateaux Wales, I was really looking forward to this trip. Bike was running well, tyres had enough life left for just over a week of off roading, my wrist that I had broken ~10 weeks before was “OK” although I expected some discomfort at some point, yup the Pansy-Foo-Foo Off road Motorcycle Club 2014 tour was a Go!!
We caught the ferry from Pompey down to Santander and on arrival there was a little bit of rain, but not enough for waterproofs, and the really good news was that was the only rain we were hit with on the whole trip. I say “hit with” – but more of that later
We were heading for Miranda de Ebro that night as we had some nice trails starting from there. If you do the same, follow the route below [1]. It takes you over a couple of nice passes, along by some water, options of doing some easy trails, and the roads and views are brilliant.
Oh and you’ll see the top of what is now known as “Nipple summit”.
It’d been a while since we’d been in Miranda, and it was surprising that they were so pleased we’d come back, that they were holding a Fiesta. The upside-down guy on the “people tower”, was then lifted up high – poor phone pics but you get the idea. What a welcome back to Spain! Our usual haunt in Café Mozart was heaving, but still managed to get a couple of seats at the bar, and got the usual “L” size burger (don’t try the XXL!!). And as we walked back to the hotel they’d even laid on some fireworks.
Sunday was the first day on the trails proper, but as is the way of these things the road to the trail was shut due to road works, so a quick shifty at the GPS and we saw there was a trail that by-passed the road works – damn I love Spain.
My mate by passing the road works.
Unfortunately he dropped it in some soft mud, but no damage to the bike or him, so all good. The views on these trails are great, and I wonder how much you’d see by road.
Some of the trails this morning were pretty fast going, but coming over one rise, there were a couple of cars and they had a tape across the trail. Very odd, never seen anything like it before. Anyway, we back tracked, tried a different way, but were blocked by another car / tape. We “think” it was some kind of off road push bike race and from one of the hill tops could see an area that seemed to be blocked off so decide to head off to a near-by road by finding whatever trails were available. Getting towards the end of one of these before joining a big trail, the ruts got deep and over grown so I decided to hop onto the edge of an already harvested field for the last 30 yards or so. “Humm small, overgrown ditch between the field and the trail, should be OK with a bit of momentum” … err no. Ran out of momentum going up the other side, and the bottom of the ditch was about a foot lower than my leg could reach
Oh well, soft drop of the side-stand side of the bike – no damage done!We got back on the road and hit the next main trail. Lovely thing, started off through some nice trails then went all to s**t and we spent a while trying to work out how to get back on the route we had, and after cutting around the edges of some vine yards managed to get back to the trial. A right blast along that one, then through a tiny hamlet and onto the next one up a long wooded trail. My mate had just said how much he like this sort of trail, when over the course of perhaps 50 yards my bike went from “a bit down on power” to cutting out and refusing to start. As I was between tress and it was hot, I turned the bike round, and rolled it down the hill about a mile to a shady spot with some grass to the side.
Type of trail we were riding at the time of the failure:
OK feel free to miss the next section of turmoil, boredom, too many beers and sluking!
########### Start of dull bit ##############
Given I had dropped it on the left side, checked everything there and thought (as it turns out wrongly) that the fuel disconnect didn’t look right. After splitting it, reconnecting it, checking fuel could flow through both parts a few times, finally it got going again. Decided to go back to the road and give it an “Italian tune up” and it ran great. Off to the next trail and bugger me, if the same thing didn’t happen after ~3 miles of going up hill. Turned it round, rolled down the hill, tried restarting it after ~2 miles of rolling and it fired straight up. Right, time for lunch and a think. Good lunch in near by village of Fresneda de la Sierra Tirón and we decided to head for Burgos as it was the nearest big town (by pure luck, and we only found out when we got there, had a KTM dealer!). While looking for the hotel and riding really slowly around Burgos and the bike getting hot, it cut out and wouldn’t start again. My mate went off to sort out a hotel, I sat on the grass in the shade a bit narked to be honest. By the time my mate gets back it’s running OK again. Check in, shower, change, and realise there is a KTM dealer about a mile from the hotel! Walked up there, yup still a dealer, and opened at 9:30 on Monday, so off to the local tapas bar for a beer and a snack. Followed by lots of other Tapas bars[2] and more beer/snacks. One such fine establishment was the “Dolar Bar” which had a) an interesting décor with a train track hanging from the ceiling which had trains going “Choo-Choo” around it, and b) Gin and Tonic in “near” pint size glasses. This place was made for me
Up to the dealer for 9:30, but as this is Spain, and Monday morning, it was a little later before they turned up. Luckily the owner/manager spoke a fair bit of English. I explained what had happened and thought it might be a stuck float / muck in the carbs, and said he’d get his mechanic to take a look as soon as he got in. Which was about lunch time!! Anyway around 4:00 ish I got a call to say one of the carb diaphragms was torn and yes there was some dirt in the carbs (expect to see post soon on in line fuel filters). He couldn’t have been more helpful and said to come up and see it anytime. Thing was the replacement had to come from Austria and wouldn’t be there until Thursday (remember this is Monday), and when pushed what time DHL usually arrived he said mid-day/early afternoon. He’ll clean the carbs before it arrives to save time then. Great. Well with nothing else to do, I went and drowned my sorrows. A lot. Bored the next day so hired a car and went to the beach. Weds my mate went off for a road ride around and about, and around 6 ish we went into town for (yet another) wander. Luckily we had not succumbed to the evil spirit, as at around 7 he called to say the part had arrived a day early, all was refitted and the mechanic had taken it for a quick spin and all seemed well. Did I want to pick it up tonight? I’m open until 8:00 but will stay later if needed? Damn right, walked back to the hotel, got kitted up, hopped on the back of my mates bike and we were there before 7:30! Only changed me 3 hours labour for the whole thing, and as there was none of the “we can look at it in 3 days” crap paid by credit card, and gave him a 10 euro note to have a beer with his mechanic. He refused, but after some persuading took it!
########### End of dull bit ##############
Welcome back!
So with the bike picked up, we went out for a slow ride round town to try and over heat it, and up any of the big hills we could see. It was pretty dark by now, so that’s the only test I could do with it. It was great to be back riding though!
We decided that we’d ride Thursday but stay in the same hotel in Burgos on Thursday night “just in case”. Off to Dolar Bar to celebrate and then off to bed.
Thursday came bright and sunny, the plan was to go back to the trail where it cut out the last time, without the luggage and just the usual tools/tubes etc. So bouncing up the trail I went past the point I had broken down 4 days earlier, without a blip, and from then on the bike ran great.
########### Proper end of dull bit ##############
People sometimes ask why I bother going to Spain to ride off road when I can easily go to Wiltshire / Wales / the Peaks etc I hope some of the photos from this day explain (Also I’d never get a pass to ride for 7 – 8 days straight!).
A stop for lunch in the mountains
Along one of the ridges:
http://youtu.be/CPZxQ1QqTKU
Friday we finally checked out of the hotel, but with our “plan” shot to hell, we decided we’d just mooch about and take what ever trails we came across, fancied, were on the GPS and or were of a decent length. It was a cracking plan, we had loads of options, some worked really well, some dead ended and we had to back track, but it was a great days riding. Well almost. Having been blatting around for a few hours, we can across the shallow ford, with a concrete bottom (you’re already ahead of me aren’t you??). I went first and the back slide out so quickly, I was not able to catch it. Down I, and the SE go. Luckily the water was only about 3 or 4 inches deep, but it’s amazing how wet you can get lying in that! Mate walks in to help me pick it up, and we both nearly go over as the bottom of the ford is covered in some sort of slime, and I’m amazed I got as far through it as I did. Trying to pick the bike up, just had the tyres sliding away, but finally managed to get it out. Trail side repairs to the RHS hand guard (needed bending back – expect to see a post soon on what I need for HDB hand guards with ROX risers), and the rear brake lever got bent (will replace but was “OK” for the rest of the trip). Can’t believe my mate didn’t take a picture of the bike in the water before he came to help!
Near the end of the day we realised we were not too far from Miranda de Ebro again so headed that way. We also realised we were being chased by a load of rain storms, so it was a case of nail it on the trails, and take the odd road ride for 10 miles to stay ahead. You can’t see it that well in the pic but one was behind my helmet.
Miranda seemed to forget who we were and there was no Fiesta, but a load of food and some beers still made it a good evening.
Waking up to the last day with a ferry to catch at 8:00pm, we hit the trails heading north. And what a mix it was. Fast, open tracks. Narrow, nadgery, rutted trails. Rock plates. A few miles of fist size rocks. Steep descents that were covered in loose rocks/gravel with tight hair pins through streams. You name it we hit it! But the views / scenery were spectacular.
This rocky bit was a lot steeper than it looked. The second pic with the front compressed, may back me up on steepness but doubt it!
We even hit a trail being blocked by cows (and a bull) “enjoying themselves in a physical way” - given I wouldn’t want to be disturbed either, we switched he engines off and let him finish his business
Some of the trails in this area were closed/blocked, but once out of the low hills and up high everything was open, and we road pretty high up for some more great trails and scenery. We got to one fork in the trail with a sign bang between the two trails saying “Authorised vehicles only” – but we had no idea which one it referred to, so decided to take the “up” rather than “down” trail. Ended up running along the top of a ridge which was great riding, and the trail surface was easier than the lose rocky climb up.
Pics from the last day showing the great scenery etc.
Let’s go up there…..
Looking back down from the top of that hill
Same area
Ended up stopping for a late lunch in Orduna, great big (albeit thin) steak, chips, roasted peppers, salad, bread, couple of café-con-leche’s each, for the pricey sum of ~12 euro each – bargain! Had parked up next to a beautiful HRD something-or-other (I don’t really know classic bikes), was going to take a pic, but the chap came back, jumped on, and blatted off with a fantastic sound/smell. By the time we were done, we had about 4 hours to get to the ferry with about 2 hours of riding to do. So bimbled over a couple of passes, back past “Nipple Summit”, a LONG stop for some more coffee and still got to the ferry early.
So how would I sum it up? Well the riding, when the bike was working, was great, but given the amount of time I was away, and the amount of riding I actually got to do, not 100% sure it was worth going. However, you can’t predict these things, and it’s the first major breakdown in 15 – 20 years of doing these trips, so can’t complain too much. So to try and rekindle my Spanish riding enthusiasm, getting booked up with Red Tread in Spain for 3 days riding on someone else’s bikes, who has spare bikes!
Drops – BMW 1, KTM 2 (one of which was wet)
Miles – about 760
Planned days of riding – 7 and a bit
Actual days riding – 3.5 - 4
Best bit – probably the last days trails
Worst bit – 3.5 days of no riding – in some ways has put me off going again, but guess that will fade.
Cheers
Markie
[1] Santander, Villanueva, Vega, Vega de Pas, Medina de Pomar, Trespaderne, Miranda de Ebro. It takes 3-ish hours compared to the 2-ish on the motorway, but well worth it.
[2] I would thoroughly recommend La Quinta Dl Monje – it’s in a road full of great Tapas bars this this one’s a bit special
