Having travelled 380 odd miles from England, 7 fellow motorcyclists and I had completed the first stage of our trip from London to Santander, Spain, and having spent our first night in leMans, France, we were up early to get ready for the next leg of our trip, to Montlucon, a distance of around 200 miles.This day was to going to be a combination of picturesque back roads and motorways, which meant that it would probably mean about 6 hours riding.
There had been rain overnight and the forecast was not too promising. As we rode our bikes out of the underground hotel car park I was not relishing the prospect of bad weather, particularly as I hadn't ridden much in the wet in recent years, and my bike, a Triumph Rocket 3 Classic was brand new and with lots of shiny bits!
As we were waiting outside the hotel for everyone to get ready, we noticed an ambulance crew wheeling out a dead body from one of the flats adjacent to the hotel. It was a sobering reminder of our own mortality.
As we headed through town, the roads were drying out nicely and the cloud looked like it was clearing, which I personally found reassuring, and soon we were out heading for that famous piece of race track, the 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight, or Ligne Droite des Hunaudières to give it its French name.
It felt great to ride along this famous stretch of public road, which felt distinctly un-race track like given the houses and hotels that line the route. The only way you could tell it was a race track was because the road is lined with Armco barriers.
Having stopped for fuel, we then headed for Richelieu, hometown of the Cardinal of "The Three Musketeers" fame. Whilst the book is a work of fiction, Cardinal Richelieu is not; indeed he became Prime Minister of France in 1624.
The town itself is surrounded by 4 walls and entered through magnificent arches. We decide to stop for lunch in the main square.
By this time the sun had decided to make an appearance, and the temperature was around 25 degrees, which made riding pleasant.
The Rocket had been a joy to ride even through the country lanes. It is by no means a "knee down" bike, and indeed you will get caught out if you try to ride it that way. The secret seems to be to push hard on the straights, but to carefully study the road ahead paying particular attention to vanishing points and setting it up before entry into bends.
The massive rear tyre does squirrel around on uneven surfaces, being so wide it is subject to severe tracking in any ruts in the road, but you soon get used to this and gently leaning the bike over and letting it do its own thing inspires confidence.
We arrived at our hotel in Montlucon, an unprepossessing town at about 5.00pm and after storing the bikes in the underground car park, headed in for a shower and a well deserved beer.
There was a government Orange official weather warning for the next day, which was ominous.
By : Zac_Kurtsmier
No comments:
Post a Comment