Author: joshcapaldi

Well we woke up to frost on the bikes so the European warm dream is over. Today was cold like proper winter cold. Not ideal when you have a cloudy dull ride of 375 miles.

Danny and I are full up with cold and sneezing in your motorcycle helmet at 70mph is not fun. The ride was boring to be honest and the weather made it all the worse but with more layers than the Michelin man we made good progress.

So the jury is out on the methodology of a two day France leg this late in the year. That’s not so say we haven’t enjoyed it but it’s definitely not the preferred method Danny and Martin would reccomend unless you had to (for getting to and from the Moto Piston rally) And if you had to, take 3 days to get through France. I imagine they would reccomend a van. However they hadn’t ridden it until this one either so it was an option/trial they had to try to scratch the itch on. Even tho its my first time riding in Europe and attending the Moto Piston rally I would agree it may not be the best method this time of year.

However as far as the Moto Piston Rally is concerned it was superb! what an event in a spectacular location and I know I will be back for sure. Just maybe not riding down again and leaving the riding for the glorious roads down there.

So we said our sad goodbyes and hit the road to a much colder windy weather front and even a few spit spots but thankfully the weather held out. Mainly motorway and endless tolls on this one the pleasure cruise is over today we had to do miles, about 375 in total and as you imagine sore bottoms and some rider fatigue thrown in mixed with long boring motorways just meant we just pushed on.

So not a lot to report today and about the same milage on the cards for tommorow. But our ferry is not until 23.00 so lots of time. Very pleased to see a good turn out for the DGR tho yesterday so well done to all that made it!

So today the vibe was certainly somber as many were either packed up or packing. There was noticeably less people around and out on the ride. A casual 100 miles. Unfortunately we left a little late by 30 seconds and got stuck behind a rolling road block for a cycling event.

So we had to divert via the back side streets until we got back on track. Still some lovely roads tho the bbq was a bit of a disappointment. One sausage in a bit of bread does not a bbq make.

We stopped for lots of pics along the way.

We then made our way to the Moto Piston Club House and what a setup!

And now its all over and tommorow the journey back begins!

So with the excitement of a nervous/giddy kid before Christmas I slept for as long as I could however with an on the road start time of 8.30 am we have to be up early for breakfast. Others were out doing last minute stuff to their bikes, I just put a few more snacks in the top box turned the key and rolled up out the car park.

Well I must warn you there are not to many pictures today, when on a time trial mapped to be 310 miles on the must curviest roads iv ever had the pleasure of riding on you don’t have too much time but the video will be epic for sure so I shall not spoil that.

What I will say tho is we all made it round, some more than others but we all have the mugs of completion.

Simply put tho the hardest and most rewarding day on a motorcycle even if it was a cx500 and I’m very sure there were more than 5000 corners but the video will tell the tale when I’m back and have time to edit it.

Oh and if your thinking that’s it well we still have two days of riding here but now we can throw the maps away and follow the arrows and have more time for pics and music and just soak the place in. Then we still have about a thousand miles to ride home! All bikes are now working tho and they let Danny help with the officiating today so he got to do the course officially on his R1 and helped the stragglers and helped out at the checkpoints. Alain is claiming victory on his Blackbird but we are still claiming sports bike breaks are cheating and next time he needs to try it on an age appropriate bike.

Marytn and I stuck together on the cx’s and finished a little under 7.30pm a very long but rewarding day, now to go sleep!