DangerRuss58

Just after I bought my bike last February I had made my mind up to ride it back to the UK, another Adventure for the old man! I was going to use the trip to coincide with a race meeting at Santa Pod one of the biggest of the year "Dragstalgia" where I was going to race my slingshot dragster. by March I had booked the crossing tot he UK via the Chunnel on one of those open ended expensive bookings just in case, and I was coming back on the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe I left home nice and early all packed up, well over packed actually as usual, I had remembered to re-set the suspension settings and checked my tyre pressures again something I am very slack about as a rule. I set off along the coast up to Valencia then across to Zaragoza and up to Huesca which ended the really boring part of the trip, the next part was the bit I was really looking forward to, over the Pyrenees via the N330 the only problem was that particular area had just got over the wettest period on record and I caught the tail end of it where I found out that my "shower proof" riding gear wasn't!! but the roads were great and in between showers the views were still incredible. My destination for the night was a budget Ibis Hotel in Pau just over into the French side of the Pyrenees a distance of around 400 miles. the budget hotels are great for stop overs cheap with car parking as a rule, I wouldn't want to spend any time in one though,they had a small bar which I made use of later in the evening but they don't do food only breakfast so after unpacking and a quick shower I hung my stuff up to dry and went for a walk into town for something to eat, I didn't have to go far as the first roundabout from my hotel had the usual food outlets burger joints, pizza etc. After the usual continental breakfast it was pack the bike up time and leave via the nearest petrol station, I am now heading for a small Hamlet north of Limoges near the town of Bethines called Les Brouillons to a bikers B&B called Belonga Mick it's on Google just type it in. I was riding up to Bordeaux via the national park The Landes De Gascogne which is very pretty where you will see familiar names of villages on sign posts such as Cadillac and Bergerac. Then round Bordeaux up to Limoges and then Belonga Mick along the lovely D179 The small hamlet of Les Brouillons was just about deserted when mick an old friend bought his first house there he has renovated the inside and made it a very comfortable B&B he now has a Gites and is working on another house he has bought, a very relaxing place with great food, the are is often over looked by tourists but its a motorcycling dream. This part of the trip was the shortest only 300 miles After a lovely evening of drinking too much beer and catching up as we hadn't seen each other for three years I went to bed, Up early for a full English breakfast pack the bike up and....wouldn't start, battery was flat. I had fitted a set of auxiliary lights which didn't run through the ignition so I think I must have accidentally switched them on while walking the bike into the barn when I arrived, A two hour wait for the battery to charge up enough to start . I was now leaving a lot later than I had wanted to, good job I had an open ended crossing, So now it was a dash up to Tours and then Le Mans and Rouen along the coast to Calais well the Tunnel. The only problem I had was if I would make it in time to be let into he race facility. The race meeting was from the Friday to the Sunday but the gates were open from 2pm to 8 pm on Thursday to let racers in to set up. I was pusing it a bit but got on the train around 8pm European time 7pm UK time had a great chat with a fellow traveller on a BMW adventure bike. Got off the train then another dash up the motorways to Wellingborough I got to the gates at gone 9pm but luckily the security guards knew me and let me in, it had been a long day and boy did I sleep well that night 420 miles to Calais and and a further 160 once I got of the train. Friday downed and it was time to sort the car out after it had been fitted with a new cam shaft, My race team "Slimline Racing" consists of myself owner and driver and my eldest son who is my crew chief and my Brother Dave and my BUG (Back Up Girl) Dianna who works a photographer and reporter for eurodragster.com. How it works is my son keeps my Dodge ram at his home and on race day he drives it from Swindon to Luton to pick my brother up then to the storage depot where the trailer is kept with the race car inside the hook up the trailer and drag the whole thing to the track. The car is called "Tight Fit" and is rather rapid with its race desiigned V8 injected running on Methanol. We had a great weekend racing and drinking far too much alcohol while listening to live music on the premises. I had an 11pm ferry booked for Sunday evening so had to leave the Pod at around 7pm after I had helped the team pack everything away, I managed to get a couple hours sleep on the ferry then it was time to unload at Dieppe in the dark and make my way back to Belonga Mick where i was going to spend a couple of days so Mick could show me around this beautiful part of France. A short vid of the ride around Belong Mick Two days went far too fast and it was time to leave again my route back home was the same as my route to the UK stopping at Pau on the way back I was glad to get home. In total I was away for 10 days I had ridden around 2600 miles and the bike had returned just short of 55 mpg I love this bike.

I have never been a bike snob to me of it has two wheels and engine it's a motorbike..respect! I have owned all sorts of bikes in my life I have never understood the "Them and us" thing when regarding Harley's and BMW's I have toured on Adventure Bikes and been off road on sports bikes..not always out of choice LOL My off road skills are about the same as my cooking skills nearly non existent. I just didn't want to put a ride report up on a bike that perhaps didn't conform to the general opinion of what is an Adventure bike..I'll go and write it now!

OK so I was looking through some of my stuff to see what I could put on the Ride report topic and one of the biggest trips I ever did was on my old Harley, my thinking has always been: "a trip is an adventure therefore whatever I'm riding by association is an Adventure Motorcycle" so before I annoy anyone what are you thoughts on this?

No I didn't know that Pete but if you travel down the N332 towards Javea and Benidorm you find them sitting out at the side of the road on little white plastic chairs..not hat I take any notice of course!

I live around half way between Valencia and Alicante and to be honest if you keep off the main roads you are hard pushed to any other road users, after my little off in March we didn't see another human in over 3 hours, the main roads are not that bad either , some great motorcycling roads around here.

Last October I was in a similar position to what I'm in now in regards that I couldn't go out on the bike, for nearly 4 weeks road repairs had shut both the roads that led away from my garage. One Sunday I was so fed up I got up early and moved one the barriers out of the way and went for a near 500 mile ride out to a place here in Spain called Consuegra and back. Consuegra is famous for being the home of the famous windmills from the Don Quixote story by Cervantes. It was long old run for a day out but worth it, the weather was brilliant and being a Sunday not too much on the road and the views when I got there were stunning. If any of you get out that way its worth a stop.

So instead of flying off the bike and hurting yourself you get your chest crushed instead or as well as if you are going fast enough hmmm. I also remember it wasn't that long ago when the Government were looking into making leg protectors mandatory on motorcycles.

Before I bought this bike I did a fair bit of research and I also test rode a few bikes I was after an adventure bike as most modern sport and sport tourers seem to be getting more and more compact I liked the V Strom I didn't like the BMW GS at all which surprised me and the Multistrada doesn't give you much room to move about on the seat and I really dislike the looks, the build quality on the Versys wasn't too good and couldn't for some reason get a test on a Triumph Tiger types but I had heard complaints about heat and service costs etc I made up my mind that it had to be no chain so that left the Goldwing and Super tenere or back to he belt driven Harley's. I test rode the Godwing and yes it is gorgeous but so expensive and a bit difficult to do anything on it yourself and I really wanted an adventure style bike so the last bike I test rode was the Yamaha and it just fitted me I loved it and I didn't even notice the shaft drive it was that smooth so i bought one which here in Spain is an expensive business as I would say bikes are 20% more expensive than in the UK then you have to pay 4% matriculation, paperwork, registering the bike etc, so my XT ended up costing me Just short of £15500, so at the moment it is the only bike in the garage.

Loaded on the way to the UK and back, I don't travel light

After the spill the first thing my missus said " is Angela OK?" not worried about me just our friend who was on the back at the time, my wife Lorni who is a nurse gave me a complete check up when I got home now I have to admit this is the second wee accident I have had in two years I was riding home along the A21 on my XJ900 on my way back from Lakeside Harley with a couple of gaskets that I needed for servicing my old Springer when the Zafira in front of me just stopped...no brake lights just stopped I hit the brakes but ran into the back of him broke the screen and front mudguard I rode her home but she didn't feel right yep forks were bent, what had happened was the car in front of the Zafira stopped dead the driver an older gentleman had got blinded by the sunlight the Zafira ran into the back of him before he knew what had happened hence no brake lights. After that I told the wife that was enough and I sold all the bikes and trailers that I had, but once we got over here in Sunny Spain well it had to be done? managed nearly 7000 miles last year will be lucky to see 700 this year.

Yes the S10 is a big old bus but then I#m a big old boy LOL. Not long after I bought the bike I was going out on her for a spin she was on the centre stand so while sitting on her I pushed forward to get her off the stand without looking, I had left the side stand down as well! so as she came off the centre stand she bounced off the side stand and threw the bike over to the right and over she went, again no damage but it was on flat solid ground and I managed to pick her up on my own I think the panniers help by not letting her all the way down, Where I had my little spill a few weeks back what doesn't show up on the photos very well was it happened on a steep hill with loose gravel and sand underfoot that's where the trouble lay I have had a fair few bikes in my time over the last ten years they have been mainly large cruisers/tourers IE three Harley's a Goldwing and a Honda Valkyrie Interstate and even an immaculate XJ900 after my Yams first service she would leave all of them for dead, I have had her sitting at 206km/h according to the sat nav which is fast enough for me, And when fully loaded as per the photo no difference she doesn't even notice the weight, I'm certainly not dissapointed with the engine in fact somewhat surprised at how good it is even the mpg is brilliant on my trip to the UK and back she averaged 5.2 litres/km which is just over 54 mpg and on an unladen trip of just over 450 miles taking it easy I returned an incredible 4.6 litre/km which is a little over 61 mpg this is not unheard of on a Super Tenere. Throw in their legendary reliability and and a brilliant shaft drive then I have to admit in over 45 years of riding this is by far the best bike I have ever owned. Perhaps the Gen2 engines were re-mapped a bit? Yes I do agree the S10 is perhaps too heavy for serious off roading especially if you have road tyres on like I did ,, they are going to be changed once we get out of this lock down situation and ABS that can't be switched off is a pain, I have since learnt that a fuse can be removed to turn the ABS off. Everyone is different and its horse for courses I suppose and of course everyone will admit that their current steed is the best bike in the world.......probably!!!

The damage to the bike was a few scratches on the crash bar and a small dink in the bottom of the pannier I got away with a small graze on my arm and my pillion got a bruise on her hip and shoulder. It took us 4 attempts to try and get the bike upright I don't think I could have done it on my own. That bottom picture is how I like my bikes to be..upright!

On a trip across the mountains to Benidorm with a pillion I came a cropper on a very steep descent on a gravel road and yes I now hate ABS, and yes I will buy new tyres and yes I did cry a bit, However luckily only minimal damage to both humans and machine and we did manage to continue to our destination. There is an article on here about heavy dual sport bikes what I will say is "When is a bike too heavy for off road use?" When you can't pick the dam thing up ...!

Thanks for the add guys