Well, its off to Barcelona tomorrow. Me and a mate have been made redundant as of January, booked this trip beforehand to go to a birthday in Spain. Thats me and the ZZR11 and Bob on the Hayabusa heading south tomorrow,back 15th.

Serviced my bike today, all set and hoping to get my ZZR past the 91k mile mark on this trip…..

We may be jobless come the new year but from tomorrow, we Own Europe. We will be Bombers….

Route is:
Hull to Zebrugge then Fontainebleau (Bobs girl lives there)
Fontainebleau to Le Puy and overnight at Balazuc, Ardeche
On south to Perpignon, weather permitting Andorra and Barca for Friday pm. Bad weather, hit the Med.

Then drinking, get robbed, and reverse the process to come home…

Bring it on… I cant wait, I love my bike!

Nice.

I am just contemplating what to change the Speed Triple for… plan is to spend next summer testing some bikes and change in the winter (only had the Speedy for 6 months or so… but getting the feeling that at least a half fairing would be a good plan for some long distance touring!)

Enjoy 🙂

Nice Bike!

Needs pics!

sizing up a new Brutale …. 🙂

All I could find on fotobucket was this… published in Superbike no less….

sounds bloody awesome, enjoy 8)

Enjoy!

Well I rode my bike to work this morning in the rain. I have now ridden a grand total of about 200 miles since passing my test and have only crashed once!!

On the way to Fontaineblea and work at INSEAD, business school…, from Windermere via southampton, Picos D Europa, Santiago De Compostella, Vigo, Girona and Andorra…

Bob

Moi

Ritual goat abuse followed, later I discovered one of my colleagues proposed to his wife here

Another work trip, Windermere, Fontainebleau, Budapest, Split, Cortina, Black Forest Fontainebleau, Windermere

I have covered 89k miles on this, I reckon on a 4k round trip this time so I should get into the 90's before home…. Love it!

It was going to be a ZZR14 this year until the job imploded but I reckon this one will run and run…

We are old buggers (Bob is 60 at the weekend), but we try to get jiggy with the bikes
After trip pics to follow.

Lucky you, I'm too stupid for such a lovely bike (something to do with loving a fully-open throttle I reckon). Enjoy, both of you.

That sounds like an ace idea. If I was unemployed, had a motorbike, had no family, or responsibilities, some money in the bank, plenty of free time…… that's what I'd do, although I'd mainly just bum around europe for about 6 months drinking beer and nailing euro-girls before befriending the heiress of a german brewery, spending an exhausting 7 months killing her with sex and then living my autumn years drinking free inheritance beer and flitting between riding and skiing around the austrian alps.

Samuri, you have passed the interview criteria, welcome to the team! Sounds just like one of our trips, in fact my GF is indeed German!

We are now in fontainbleau, cheeky beers on a warm, balmy evening outside the bar. T-shirts, euro-girls (no nailing however…), with 600kms to do tomorrow to the Ardeche.

Tuesday was a real shocker. 240 miles to Hull from Edinburgh, 140 of them in torrential rain on the A1. The irony is that bike tyres cut through the surface water quite well in straight lines and "making progress" clears the visor really well. Did really well passing cars.
The Garmin Zumo is brilliant, The Hid Xenon headlight is also awesome…
Bob made an twonk of himself on the dancefloor for the over 60's night on the ferry.. as usual. Downside is we didnt win the bingo…..

More tomorrow ….

And the weather looks pants for tomorrow….

sounds like you're having a ball

If you fancy stopping for a cup of (english) tea before you leave France, pop on by. I'm approx 15 mins from Le Boulou towards the sea; last exit before Spain

Sounds fantastic! Do you live in Windermere then??? Have to keep an eye open for a ZZR when out on the Speedy if so 😉

love the 2nd pic up from the bottom! sounds like a crackin ride!

Is that the GF being ridden? I'm so bloody jealous it's unreal.

Always loved the ZZR.
Never had the balls for the 11 though.
Much respect to you.

Rick turnd up at my work one day on that bike. Walked in, talked shop for a little while then said he was off on a trip. Where ya goin I asked. The Nurberg ring he replied. Then he got on his bike and road off. Cool 🙂

Hairychested….. dont mess with the German Hilti wielding GF…..

She rides this….

I hope that last picture stays as a red cross as my imagination is probably so much more interesting than the picture 😉

Poo

Rich Tee, we may just do that. Depending on the weather we hoped to go through Andorra, if its bad the the coast option will be the one for us. I tried to see if you had a contact in your profile. Should be on line again tomorrow. Mail your address/phone to rickDOTharrisonATimpactinternationalDOTcom. We will be rolling by on Friday 10th, returning past you, the following Monday….

Cheers

TLH, what were you thinking! Also there is another Duck sticker as on both bikes, on that lovely van you sold us….. and RobS, I live in Edinburgh so its a bit further for me!

I`m not that long home from a late night road ride.went out at 10pm and done 62 miles lol.hardly any traffic.. more deer at the roadsides than people.
Fitted heated grips last week so it was a good night to test them out.its chilly out there and the grips are hot enough even at 70mph to keep the fingers from stiffening up.

Have you got this months RIDE magazine,rick? Theres a bit on the zzr1400 in it. 197bhp and "limited to 186mph with a gear to spare".

6 lamps up front might just be enough to make dozy drivers wonder whats approaching as well.

I fancy something lighter though, been asking about triumph daytona 675s.

Well we are back, drove off the ferry today in Hull and a dry trip back up north which was a bonus….. Overall we had a great time, the trip down was a bit damp, smashed my laptop screen in Fontainebleau. Went to the Ardeche, tried to find forum member Rich Tee on the border. Ripped it up in Barcelona with Bob on his birthday. Back through the mountains near Andorra and north on the N roads to Fontainebleau. A strange one as well as the owner of the company and a couple of key people involved in our redundancy were there. 4 people at the weekend were also redundant, so a strange vibe….

and

As well as (yes its taxed, thats an old one still there…)

And

With

Overall a great run abroad, my bike is on 91200 miles and still going like a train…. maybe a ZZR14 next year but there is a small issue of a job to find! Once again, traveling by bike has been an engaging way of passing through places and catching up with people as well as a damn good buzz…..

Lets see what the next few months bring…..