To the Moto Piston by Air Head.

[bubbles]

Back in 2008 Judy (Mrs bubbles) and myself visited the Moto Piston Rally in Spain with our friends Graham and Tosca, you can catch up with the ride report on that if you look for my signature line at the bottom of this post. In 2008 we were on modern bikes and as the rally is for pre 1980 bikes only, we were unable to enter the rally itself but for the most part were still made most welcome. Anyway we decided it would be good to go again and take part in the rally itself and as I have a 1978 BMW R80/7 which I have owned from new there was nothing to stop us, well only the fact that it had been off the road for 3 years and may need a few things checking before under taking the journey.
I got my bike back on the road for June this year ready for the Gentleman's Airhead Wee..kend at Sids place in Devon, where I replaced the cylinders and pistons, and fitted new rings and stainless push rod tubes.

Then with a bit of help from Pastyman who knows a useful chap who's good with heads I had new valves and exhaust seats fitted in a spare pair of heads and fitted these to my engine.

New tyres, replacement brake shoes and pads were fitted, all the fluids were changed and rear wheel bearings replaced.

So with just over 160,000 miles behind her and having owned her for nearly 32 years my old 80/7 was ready for her first trip abroad.

 

[Tarka]

Wow...owned from new for 32 years !!


Great stuff mate.




More ... we want more.....

 

[bubbles]

Last time we went to the Moto Piston Rally we had booked through MSL Tours and while this was good value the main drawback was that the hotel was in Suances which is a good 45km from the rally centre at Colombres. So we looked at the alternatives and found Ride Motorcycle Tours who were doing a similar deal using a Hotel in Llanes, a seaside town about 17km from Colombres and so we booked this and paid the deposit.
In early September just as the holiday anticipation was beginning to mount we received a letter and our deposit back from Ride to say that due to 6 riders pulling out of the tour at the last minute it was unfeasible and was cancelled. Judy got on the internet and tried to book the ferries only to find that the return ferry crossing was fully booked . We looked at changing our return dates but this throw up all sorts of other problems with time off work plus the additional costs of a longer stay, so it looked like our trip was off, which was very disappointing after all the preparation of the bike and having booked to enter the rally itself through the Moto Piston Club.
About a week or so latter Pastyman called in while out on a ride on his R100RT, and while we were sat around the table telling Tony of our sad plight Judy tried again to book the ferries and succeeded, so the trip was on once more .
We now booked the hotel though the Moto Piston Club, the arrangement being to take cash and on arrival in Colombres at rally control payment was made and the hotel was allocated.
Brittany Ferries have changed many of the Santander sailings from Plymouth to Portsmouth and this was the case on the dates we were travelling, as we live in Cornwall this meant a 200mile journey so we decided to leave home a couple of days early and stay 2 nights with Judys brother Steve and partner Carol in Farnborough. I reasoned that this would also give us a chance to sort out any problems with the bike on the first part of the journey or change to a different bike if necessary.
So home departure date was Monday 4th Oct. I had been working nights up until Sunday morning and there still seemed to be many last minute things to get done so it was past midday before we were at last ready to go...

Rather than take the main A30 dual carriageway out of Cornwall I decided we would take a route more suited to a classic bike, so we headed up the A39 turning right at Stratton near Bude onto the A3072 to Holsworthy then left onto the A388 which turns into the B3227 at Stibb Cross, this road can then be followed all the way to Taunton through the foot hills of Exmoor.

After just over an hour on the road we stopped for lunch at the Welcome Fryer in South Molton, we can recommend the fish and chips.....

then we carried on along the B3227, after Taunton taking the A358 to the A303 and a stop at Cartgate services near Ilminster for coffee.....

As the time was now getting on towards late afternoon we headed east up the A303 with just a stop for petrol after Stonehenge and arrived in Farnborough by early evening. The bike was put safely on the back patio.....

It had been a good ride up, we couldn't have hoped for better weather, a still sunny October day. But I was trying to be mindful of Judy's comfort with a stop every hour or so, for the past few years she has been more used to travelling on our K1200LT with its comfortable heated seat and back rest, but the 80/7 had handled the first 200 miles with no problems.

 

[rodsharp]

Then what??

 

[bubbles]

Then what??

Have patients rodsharp.
I could just post a load of snaps of the Moto Piston Rally but hopefully its more interesting to tell it the way it happened, plus I get to relive our holidays and have something here to remember it by. But I'm not the fastest at punching theses keys so it will take a little time.

 

[rodsharp]

Im waiting with interest. I entered the event in 2007 /2008 on a BSA which has now been sold thinking that I had finished with old bikes.
Absolutely fantastic event which I really missed this year and reading some blogs have decided to do again next year,and guess what ,my chosen stead is an R80. I have 11 months to find a nice one (no plastics but possibly an
R65 would be ok ) and welcome all information I can get .
Been told the R65 being a short stroke motor doesnt have the torque so not a very good plodder, any advice anybody? Looking forward to your next episode.

 

[bubbles]

Our ferry sailed from Portsmouth on Wednesday 6th October so we had a day in hand, I have pondered weather to include our visit to London on the Tuesday in this ride report, but it was part of the whole trip so here goes.
Luke our youngest, is studying for his Masters at a central London uni having just completed 3 years of his degree at Winchester, so we took the opportunity to meet Luke in London.
Its probably 25 years since I rode my my old 80/7 into London so it was all a little strange, many lower speed limits and a countless number of speed cameras.
We parked in King Street having arranged to meet Luke at Covent Garden.
(Next to a 1200GS)

Covent Garden, Apple Market, we did the touristy thing and took some pictures.

I have a life long interest in transport, rail transport in particular and as the London Transport Museum is in Covent Garden we took the opportunity to pay it a visit....

The museum is situated in the old flower market and is arranged on several floors.....

Starting on the top floor with some of the older forms of transport like horse drawn trams and this steam locomotive .....

Railway carriages .....

Electric locomotives .....

and rolling stock.....

with buses and tube trains on the ground floor.....

Cappuccino in the museum cafeteria.......

It was good to see Luke, keep up the hard work. It's strange to think I was younger than Luke when I bought the bike we were riding.

As we travelled out of London on the bike Judy took some pictures of the sights...

 

[bubbles]

Wednesday morning we woke to rain, we loaded the bike, thanked Steve and Carol for putting us up and headed out through the wet rush hour traffic, its times like this I really appreciate living in Cornwall, we just don't have anything like the same amount of traffic even in the summer holidays. By the time we reached Portsmouth the rain had stopped and bits of blue sky could be seen.
The ferry departure time was 11am.....

There were many bikes on the ferry both old and modern......

The deck hands strapped all the bikes down.....

We dumped out stuff in the cabin and went up on deck, Judy settled down with a book.......

While I took in the sights of Portsmouth harbour.......
HMS Liverpool

HMS Warrior 1860

HMS Victory

The last time we sailed out of Portsmouth on a ferry I think was 1978, the year before we got married, for a weekend on the Isle of Wight with my Suzuki GS550, this tower wasn't there then!

We had a tug helping on the way out......

 

[bubbles]

Judy took her sea sickness pill as soon as we left Portsmouth, I thought I would wait until evening when we would be leaving the channel and heading south when it may get a bit lumpy and of course I left it too late which meant Judy ate a good dinner while I just had a cup of tea, got very hot and felt a bit rough, I took my sea sickness pill, we turned in early and I soon felt better even though the boat was tipping about a fair bit.
By the morning the sea had calmed down and I took the gps up on deck......

I tried to get some pictures of a whale which was quite close for a while.....

First view of the Picos mountains.....

and into Santander......

 

[gas boy]

Looking good so far

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

I was there too

 

[bubbles]

Thanks gas boy .

How did I miss you JohnnyBoxer .

As we left the ferry Judy snapped this R100GSPD in the classic white and red just like my own gs.

The ferry docked at Santander 2hrs late at about 2pm, variously reported as due to the weather or an electrical fault, so we decided to take a direct route to Colombres using the 2 lane auto routes which once clear of Santander are free of too much traffic. The A8/E70 auto route runs out a couple of km before Colombres and drops you onto the busy N634. Why is it as soon as 2 lanes run out there seams to be 4 times more traffic?

We rolled into Colombres and stopped at the rally sign on point, this all being very familiar from our visit 2 years ago.

After handing the bike registration and insurance to the guy on the door for checking we waited in line. When our turn came we paid in cash for the hotel and rally participation, then we were handed a pack containing information on daily events, detailed route diagrams of each days rides, badges, stickers, a lapel badge each, a wrist band each, a rally badge with cable ties to fit to the bike and a much needed hand drawn map on how to reach our hotel.
Once outside again coffee and pastries were on offer to keep us going.

The 5,000 curves route, 460 km though the heart of the Picos Mountains, was displayed outside.....

I had planned on doing this but did not realise at the time that there was a separate sign on for this event, but as the ride lasted all day and was described as for experienced 'wild boar' riders with plenty of stamina and bearing in mind Judy's comfort on the back maybe it was just as well.

 

[bubbles]

Our hotel, in complete contrast to some of the large concrete and glass hotels along the main N634 coast road was more like an old Spanish farm house and parts of it dated back to the 16th century.

Stone and brick floors.....

There were 18 of us staying in the hotel, all of us participating in the rally.

Some of the bikes in the hotel parking area.....

Paul and a couple of other lads were from Kent and all three of them were riding Vincents.......

The down side of the ancient building was that you could hear every sneeze or other noises from the next room, and light could be seen between the floorboards from the room below.

The hotel was about 4 km from Colombres in the village of Villanueva and from our bedroom window we could see Colombres on the hill.......

The only sound in the mornings was the gentle clanking of the cow bells that they all wear round their necks.

The first evening a traditional Asturian buffet supper was provided in the sports hall at Colombres. This consisted mostly of cold meats and bread washed down with beer, wine or soft drinks.

Friday morning, following breakfast in the hotel, we rode to the main sguare in Colombres to take part in the organised rideout......

While we were waiting and admiring the bikes up rode a couple on an Ariel Square Four, we soon got talking and discovered that Bill and Lo were also from Cornwall and live in Truro, Lo with Judy, Bill can be seen between them......

Bill and Lo's Ariel Square Four......

The ride left Colombres sometime after 10am, we wound our way out of the town and mostly followed small scenic mountain roads, although we had a route sheet it was easy to follow the other bikes or if you found yourself on your own every junction you came to there was a red arrow on the road sign to point the way. Every now and again their would be some bikes parked up at the side of the road and you could choose to stop and take in the view or just watch the others go by for a while, all very laid back.......

The lunch stop was in Santillana del Mar, billed as one of the most beautiful villages in Cantabria. The local police were on point duty to direct us right into the old cobbled village square and for a couple of hours bikes and riders from all over Europe took over the village with bikes filling the square and parked down every street radiating away from it......

I think a this point I was gritting my teeth at the prospect of visiting the handbag shop which can be seen over my right shoulder.....

Lunch was all laid on with a large bread roll the size of a French loaf filled with meat and cheese, a drink of your choice and a sweet piece of cake a bit like custard pie.

When we were ready to go the ride continued along the coast back towards Colombres stopping to take in the view every now and again.....

 

[rodsharp]

Fantastic Im in the mood cant wait til next year,the club also run a summer event at the beginning of July ,maybe I shall have aquired an R80 by then and do both events. We stayed at the same hotel in the summer about 6-8 years back and we were the only guests. The ( only ) young lady working at the hotel did everything to look after us and called another villager in to cook when we wanted an evening meal. It was so peaceful and fantastic atmosphere if you dont need company. Very strange thing was, we were the only people in the hotel at night as she left to go home late evening and reappeared next morning to prepare our breakfast.
We looked at the hotel when doing the event couple of years back and they had extended considerably since our visit and building works were ongoing, hope they were finished when you went.

Looks like you had good weather,the sun always seems to shine on this event.

 

[Ullygully]

Hey up Bubbles glad you enjoyed the trip, we arrived back home very late Wednesday night, after saying over at the daughters in Warminster, still havnt got round to cleaning the bike, its still got the rally badges on, been at work since returning home only got today off, back tomorrow, no rest for the wicked or so they say, nice to see your pictures, even got my Honda in one shot.....anyway must go, cooking tea for our lass tonight, see you around.

Regards Dave (Ullygully)

 

[bubbles]

rodsharp, the young ladies mother is I believe the hotel owner and they both spoke English, which is not usual for this area. The young lady (I really wish I had found out her name now) was very helpful and had just come home from a job abroad to help her mother with the hotel full of guests, she also had links with the Moto Piston club and was out photographing the many events over the weekend, for a small fee she is sending us her pictures on a cd.
Why not put your name down for the Gentleman's wee..kend before it gets fully booked and bring your newly acquired airhead down to Devon in June to get it sorted for the Moto Piston events next year

Dave (Ullygully) good to hear you arrived home safely, stay tuned in there's more pics of you and your bike to come, still think it was a bit harsh making your missus walk up the hill




Bill and Lo had asked us back to their hotel for a drink, but when we got there we still had 1/2 an hour before the bar opened and as Bill had been having problems with a missfire on and off all day, while the girls went off for a chat we got the tools out........

I did ask Bill if he minded me taking some pictures of him working on his Arial, but I'm sure he thought I was quite mad.....

There were many other rally participants in the hotel carpark who offered tools or help.......

I had taken a spare set of points in case my electronic ignition failed and we fitted my spare condenser from these in place of Bill's to see if that would cure the missfire......

This rather purposeful Airhead was in the hotel carpark........

The Friday evening dinner was held in the Mirador de la Franca hotel, a large hotel right on the beach......

Some of the Moto Piston club members put on some light entertainment for us, thats Ullygully of this site and his missus on the left.......

The dinner started at 9pm and with 4 courses went on till 11.30, so it was gone midnight when we eventually got back to our hotel.


Breakfast in our hotel was at 9am the following morning so by the time we had finished and got ourselves pointed towards Colombres, the bikes on the organised Saturday ride were coming towards us, when we saw Bill and Lo on their bike we did a U turn and joined the ride about 6 bikes behind them.
The ride was heading up the Cuera mountain but first we followed an inland valley, just about the only traffic we saw was a post van and a hunting party who had dogs and guns, they were loading a wild boar onto a trailer as we passed. With so many bikes following the route there were people stood outside their farms and houses watching and waving as we passed, many riders waved or tooted in return.
We crossed a line of hills passing through many bends to reach the top and had a great view of the coast line as we crested the brow. A series of hairpin bends took us down the other side, when as we rounded one of these bends the bikes in front of us had stopped and two people were on the ground with a bike on its side, OH NO it was Bill and Lo! I went around all the bikes and pulled up in front of them, Judy jumped off and helped Lo up, many hands helped Bill get the bike up on the stand and check it over. It had all happened at very low speed and both Bill and Lo were unhurt, but a little shaken and the damage to the bike was small.....

We helped clear up a bit of oil that had spilt from Bills bike and directed the other bikes round it and then rejoined the ride, but Bill and Lo were not to be the only ones to hit the ground that weekend.

The route after following the coast road for a short distance struck off into the mountains again and we rounded a bend to find bikes stopped ..........

There were a couple of men driving cattle along the road in front of us......

I bet they hadn't expected several hundred bikes to pass that way and were probably cursing us in Spanish. Many of the older bikes were not happy stop/starting on the steep hill and waited at the sides of the road, even Ullygully on his 1971 750 Honda made his missus walk to the top of the hill after his clutch got rather hot.......

We passed the cattle.......

and carried on up the mountain road......

We had lost Bill and Lo by this time having stopped to get the camera out, and here is me pointing and saying look there they are waiting for us at the top, Bill waved us on and they joined in behind us.......

More mountain roads and scenery .........

The lunch stop......

Ullygully no his 750 Honda.....

someones BSA had some problems

 

[rodsharp]

Bill,s hotel looks like the one we stayed in last time and if so it was very convenient,within walking distance of Colombres so we didnt need to worry about how many beers we had. Can you remember its name as that is the one I would request next time.

 

[bubbles]

rodsharp, Bill and Lo's hotel was the San Angel on the main N634 coast road.


After the lunch stop we took the AS114 from Cangas to Panes.......

this is us missing the left turning just before the bridge, we did a U turn and took the winding and fun AS343/AS344 back to Colombres.......

Once back in Colombres town square we went down the ramp to the grassed area where the rally bikes were displayed for the afternoon.......

Bill and me......

the bikes on display were many and various......

A giant paella was prepared.......

and served up for rally participants......

we had a look around the bike jumble in the sports hall......

The bikes assembled for the hill climb......

and once the road was closed......

they headed off down the hill to the start......

Then they were timed back up the hill.......

Bill and Lo with their friends Phil and Simon watched the hill climb from the park......

 

[bubbles]

The Speed Demon, George Shuttleworth also took part. http://www.georgeformbylookalike.co.uk/

On Sunday we decided to do our own thing rather than go on the organised rideout.
We took the N621 to Potes.......

We had been to Potes 2 years before and found it a very pleasant, if touristy place on one of the main routes into the highest of the Picos mountains.

We wanted to take some of the locally distilled Orujo liquor back with us which many of the shops in Potes sell.......

Time for coffee......

I had seen on this site, a thread in which Timolgra told of a track which left the Potes to Fuente De road at Espinama, headed north over a pass and followed a valley to a road again near Sotres.

We found the entrance onto the track without too much trouble.....

and after checking the map passed over a cattle grid and started uphill.......

mountains all around, livestock on the track.......

This dog looked like he was taking care of the sheep, or maybe he was eyeing up his next meal.....

This track lead to a tiny chapel, we went further up and left, the track we would follow is on the ridge behind the chapel......

We had seen a few 4x4s traveling towards us in the opposite direction, when we came across one we stopped, I turned my headlight off to show we had stopped and let them pass before carrying on......

This would have been a good place to turn back.......

Judy had gone a bit quiet and was feeling the remoteness of where the track had taken us......

The route down got stonier and rougher .......

at one point the rain water had washed a gully into the track and on the steep decent I managed to drop the front wheel into it and down we went.
It all happened at very slow speed and we picked ourselves up to inspect the damage, Judy had bruised the inside of her arm on a rock and I had twisted my ankle so it could have been much worse but somehow the S fairing had several cracks on the left side. The most annoying thing was that this was the last difficult part of the track, as after this it smoothed out and became less steep.
We stopped once back on the road to check we were heading in the right direction for Panes........

and after our adventures offroad Judy was still smiling and hugged me in commiseration for the damage I had done, when she should have been hitting me for taking her on mountain tracks

We headed back to civilisation and dinner that night at the hotel Casa Junco......

more entertainment, speeches were made in Spanish mostly and cups and trophies handed out......

So the Moto Piston rally was over for another year.

The following morning was wet so we shelved ideas of a gentle ride back along the coast to Santander and took the main A8/E70. Soon after we stopped for lunch the rain stopped too, and so we had a dry wait to board the ferry which sailed at 4.30pm.........

It was 6pm Tuesday before we were leaving Portsmouth behind us and heading up the A3 to spend the night in Farnborough with Judys brother Steve again.
The following morning we visited our friends Graham and Tosca who we had travelled with to the Moto Piston in 2008, before heading home to Cornwall.
When we rolled into our garage that evening we had covered 1002 miles from the time we left 10 days earlier and had many tails to tell.

 

[Devon]

Another great report Bubbles I hope to get to the rally myself next year