In a way this is the exactly the point of this thread Simon, so please free to chuck it out there...
When you tossers were much younger…
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In my case it was the floor of the spare room of a hotel receptionist along the French riviera, late at night. 80 euros cash in hand.
I was traveling with my girlfriend at the time, so the 80 euros was purely to pay for the sleeping space
But this was fairly recent (around 2012 I think) and we had GPS and my current GS. Just bad planning on my part.
Still recent years: in 2005 we traveled to Spain and Portugal. Crossed Portugal by its length. Beautiful trip (even if a tad hot at 40 degrees in the south). Again planned with mostly Lonely Planet guides, Michelin maps and paper maps.
Towards the end of the trip we wanted to do some sea time. We arrived in Albufeira where we found a house to rent taking to someone in the square. We chained both bikes to a light pole nearby and wrapped them in blankets to protect them a bit from the sun, and fucked off to the sea by bus for the following few days.
That was also one of my first contacts, at the time, with Brits
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OK then, one of my favorite “adventures” was getting back from Morecambe Bay scooter rally in 1986
First, a bit of background…
A mate of mine had a habit of going as fast as he could go on his kitted Vespa PK50, downhill past the police station on the high street. As he got to the cop shop he’d change down to 1st gear and dump the clutch, resulting in a screeching skid for about 50 yards accompanied by the engine reving to about half a million rpm. This amused him much
Anyway, due to similar abuse at the rally in Morecambe Bay he blew his engine up, in those days we didn’t have AA cover and it was a long walk home
We very fortuitously found a long piece of rope from some roadworks, which I tied to the backrest of my scooter and tied the other end around the headstock of my mate’s scooter, off we set to tow him home, 130 miles with my 3 speed Vespa 100, 2 up with tent etc.
Halfway back I’m running out of petrol, it’s Sunday and nothing is open, this is long before GPS and 24hr petrol stations
So we took my petrol tank out of the frame and bungeed it onto the back of the scooter of the other lad riding with us, he went off to find petrol as he was the only one with any left.
Luckily, a bit later he came back having found somewhere open, so I put my now full tank back in and off we went again
Sometime later, on a bit of dual carriage way, I felt my scooter start pulling left and right violently. I looked around to see what was happening.
My mate, who had decided to zigzag back and forth from one side of the double road to the other, like a fecking water skier, was now sitting in the middle of the road watching me drag his scooter down the road on its side
TWAT !We eventually got him back, his scoot was in a sorry state, with severe road rash and a blown engine, but I got him home
This is the beast I towed him with, my first road legal bike, pictures from other rallies
Note : the reg plate bears witness to my inability to pull wheelies
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I think our first trip was '72. The Belgian 500 GP was always the first aiming point, followed by Heidelberg.
Wife had the map and signalled with taps on the shoulder for direction. Camping was the order of the day unless foul weather forced us into a Gasthof. Never once did we book anything.
After Heidelberg, it was usually "head south", Italy, Yugoslavia and the like.
Got as far as Calafell on the Norton 750. A full days ride from Geneva
Wife had the map and signalled with taps on the shoulder for direction. Camping was the order of the day unless foul weather forced us into a Gasthof. Never once did we book anything.
After Heidelberg, it was usually "head south", Italy, Yugoslavia and the like.
Got as far as Calafell on the Norton 750. A full days ride from Geneva
I have noticed, this year, a lot of scooter rallies. Pure coincidence, who knows, but they do seem to have a good time. I even wave to them now - well why not!
yes, they come past here, presumably heading to the coast. I can hear them go along the Welshpool Bypass down in the valley below me
It is not a good idea to be sitting on a roadside bench, enjoying your fish and chips in Clitheroe, when a gazillion 2 stroke scooters come past having been on a ride out from the Ribble Valley Scooter rally in the town.
My first Tour that involved a boat trip was when I was 20 in 1981 Larne to Stranraer, down to Droitwich Spa to pick up my girlfriend who I met at Uni then a week in Wales followed by a week in Cornwall camping at various locations with a Craven topbox and homemade panniers. First trip to France was 1984 (at23) Michelin maps France North France south for transfer days and Les cartes Departments for the areas we were touring in. Francs and Thomas Cook travellers cheques and AA "five star cover". One of the girls who was with us worked in the "First Trust Bank" (Now Allied Irish Bank) and got us all credit cards for buying petrol. Navigation was by map and written instructions like a Tulip map i.e road numbers and left and right arrows for turns and distances between junctions and landmarks near turns if known. This worked well particularly in rural areas. The biggest issue in those days were travelling through cities if you didn't have a detailed map of the city and you missed a road sign and ended up in a residential area or something. It always happened when you were getting soaked or sweating your bollocks off.
My wife is really good at map navigation and map reading so before GPS, on car trips she did the navigation and I drove. It only nearly went very wrong once in 1989 visiting friends in Edinburgh at their flat in Haymarket she directed me to turn left into a four lane wide one way street.......a very swift U turn ensued.
Touring from Northern Ireland is a bit of a pain in the bum as you have 500 miles to get from Scotland to the Channel ferry ports and we always tended to do it in one hit when we were young. You could buy a "Land Bridge" ticket. We tended to use Portsmouth to Le Havre route to avoid London and get a sleep on the boat. When I had kids and used to drive to France we got a late boat usually stayed in the lake district somewhere and took the Condor Seacat ferry from Poole to St. Malo. Getting my first GPS a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 in 2004 was a game changer in terms of ease of navigation.
Somewhere in the Massif Central 1984 My 1978 CB750F2 and my mate Brian's 1980 GS1000G (Later to be written off on the way home at Nogent le Rotrou on the way to Le Havre) when tired, he turned left in front of a car coming from the right as he looked the wrong way. AA five star cover really worked well for hospital treatment (broken leg) and a flight home. Me on the other hand trying to explain (in bad French) that his bike would be picked up and storage would be paid for, to a Peugeot dealer in Nogent, was interesting. Only truly clarified when a worker from the patisserie next door was summoned as he could speak english.
My wife is really good at map navigation and map reading so before GPS, on car trips she did the navigation and I drove. It only nearly went very wrong once in 1989 visiting friends in Edinburgh at their flat in Haymarket she directed me to turn left into a four lane wide one way street.......a very swift U turn ensued.
Touring from Northern Ireland is a bit of a pain in the bum as you have 500 miles to get from Scotland to the Channel ferry ports and we always tended to do it in one hit when we were young. You could buy a "Land Bridge" ticket. We tended to use Portsmouth to Le Havre route to avoid London and get a sleep on the boat. When I had kids and used to drive to France we got a late boat usually stayed in the lake district somewhere and took the Condor Seacat ferry from Poole to St. Malo. Getting my first GPS a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 in 2004 was a game changer in terms of ease of navigation.
Somewhere in the Massif Central 1984 My 1978 CB750F2 and my mate Brian's 1980 GS1000G (Later to be written off on the way home at Nogent le Rotrou on the way to Le Havre) when tired, he turned left in front of a car coming from the right as he looked the wrong way. AA five star cover really worked well for hospital treatment (broken leg) and a flight home. Me on the other hand trying to explain (in bad French) that his bike would be picked up and storage would be paid for, to a Peugeot dealer in Nogent, was interesting
. Only truly clarified when a worker from the patisserie next door was summoned as he could speak english.
Brilliant, Thank you for sharing your story. How very different are time we live in now to those you guys had lived through back then.My first Tour that involved a boat trip was when I was 20 in 1981 Larne to Stranraer, down to Droitwich Spa to pick up my girlfriend who I met at Uni then a week in Wales followed by a week in Cornwall camping at various locations with a Craven topbox and homemade panniers. First trip to France was 1984 (at23) Michelin maps France North France south for transfer days and Les cartes Departments for the areas we were touring in. Francs and Thomas Cook travellers cheques and AA "five star cover". One of the girls who was with us worked in the "First Trust Bank" (Now Allied Irish Bank) and got us all credit cards for buying petrol. Navigation was by map and written instructions like a Tulip map i.e road numbers and left and right arrows for turns and distances between junctions and landmarks near turns if known. This worked well particularly in rural areas. The biggest issue in those days were travelling through cities if you didn't have a detailed map of the city and you missed a road sign and ended up in a residential area or something. It always happened when you were getting soaked or sweating your bollocks off.
My wife is really good at map navigation and map reading so before GPS, on car trips she did the navigation and I drove. It only nearly went very wrong once in 1989 visiting friends in Edinburgh at their flat in Haymarket she directed me to turn left into a four lane wide one way street.......a very swift U turn ensued.
Touring from Northern Ireland is a bit of a pain in the bum as you have 500 miles to get from Scotland to the Channel ferry ports and we always tended to do it in one hit when we were young. You could buy a "Land Bridge" ticket. We tended to use Portsmouth to Le Havre route to avoid London and get a sleep on the boat. When I had kids and used to drive to France we got a late boat usually stayed in the lake district somewhere and took the Condor Seacat ferry from Poole to St. Malo. Getting my first GPS a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 in 2004 was a game changer in terms of ease of navigation.
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Somewhere in the Massif Central 1984 My 1978 CB750F2 and my mate Brian's 1980 GS1000G (Later to be written off on the way home at Nogent le Rotrou on the way to Le Havre) when tired, he turned left in front of a car coming from the right as he looked the wrong way. AA five star cover really worked well for hospital treatment (broken leg) and a flight home. Me on the other hand trying to explain (in bad French) that his bike would be picked up and storage would be paid for, to a Peugeot dealer in Nogent, was interesting
