If you followed my previous road trip in Austria, Italy and Slovenia, you have to remember how it ended: i broke my engine.
It was planned that I should leave the day after my come back from Austria, in the French and Spanish Pyrenees. Unfortunately for me, following the disaster of the state of my engine after opening it, I had to cancel my plans.
The costs incurred for repairing it were too high. As a result, after a few calls passed l, I found someone who was selling a complete engine for a Daytona 675 with 4800 kilometers certified at a reduced price.
I took the opporunity! The engine is from 2011 but my motorcycle is a 2K8 model. No problem at all because the engine fits perfectly in my frame. The only problem is that the engine hasn’t been running for 3 years … I hope I don’t have any problems when i’ll start it !
After a good day of work, the engine is correctly installed in the frame. Go to Triumph motorcycle shop, in order to buy all the fluids to change them in my new engine t and start on a good base, change the air filters, oil … Checking the candles … Everything seems to be ok!
I turn on the motorcycle without the « pencils » in order to raise the oil to lubricate the whole, then we go up the whole.
The hour H arrived, first start since 3 years.
It starts as if nothing had happened! It muted smile on my face again !! I lost all my vacation budget to repair the Daytona but it makes me so happy to see her living again!
What a pleasure to hear the sound of a new 3-cylinder! I had forgotten that she didn’t whistle when it was new!
With my recent expenses in the motorcycle, earlier this year, including the complete change of all the bearings on the entire bike, when I had the frame painted, here I am now with a brand new Daytona !
You know, this bike represents a lot of things for me, I learned a lot from its handlebars, we traveled a lot together, the breaks, the falls, but also several countries, beautiful roads …
It’s a bike full of history to me, and it has invaluable value.
One day, I wish i could tell all these stories to my childrens, in my future living room, with this motorcycle just in front of our eyes. That’s what I hope.. Anyway, as long as it can be repaired … i will be there for her (yes i speak about my bike !).
The first tests on roads were very good, the motorcycle works perfectly and the engine is in good health!
Well … the Daytona is alive again, that’s fine. But now, I want to leave, and going to a road trip again.
I’m calling my mate Nico, from the Caffeine Crew, and Clément (Balou1sta), and I suggest to them to go to the Pyrenees for 5 days with about 1200 kilometers of motorcycle roads. This time, no hotels, no AirBnb, but a simple tent as a roof.
My two friends are okay, so we plan a day to start, together. We agree on early October, the first week (2016).
Yes, i know … riding the Pyrenees and sleep under the stars in early October, it’s a bit complicated, from a weather point of view. Especially as all this year 2016 will have been complicated … But, I think that maybe, for once, we could be lucky!
Last road trip of this year 2016! I decide to go to Clément’s home to drop some stuff and I find him working on his CB500 which is almost completely disassembled! Perfect, we leave in 6 hours! Between two laughs because of the situation, Clément announces to me that it is still necessary to test the bike ! It’s 11:00 PM … He hopes to test it in the night before departure.
Good luck Clement, I still have things to prepare but I really hope the CB500 will work! Departure tomorrow in the morning at 5 hours in direction of the Pyrenees!
The trailer
Day 1: Go to the Pyrenees
We take the road early in the morning. My bike, as well as that of Nico (Cafeine) were loaded into the truck just before departure. Sunshine is still not up, and that’s good, it will leave us the opportunity to appreciate the sunrise during the ride, and I will take advantage to try to film some shots for a possible intro.
Nothing better to start a road trip, a few rays of sunshine.
Lunch time is coming, and the stomachs are awake. We stop at a gas station, we take something to eat, and a big coffee. We also take the opportunity to put some gas in the truck, to be ready and anticipate the return. We still have a little less than 2 hours of roads.
I hope not to arrive too late in the afternoon, because we are going to continu the day with a loop of 200 kilometers on motorcycle! We can say that today, we are going to ride a lot !
It’s 3:00PM , we just found a place to park the truck for these few days. I hope that we will have no problems on it when we’ll come back , and that the truck will always be there and intact.
The time to load all our things, to fix all our equipment on motorcycles, we started our road book at around 4:00PM. Later than we expected but I don’t care because I know that for Nico and Clement, doing a lot of kilometers is not a problem.
We quickly leave the main axis and try to reach the D911 by a small road rather nice that the last one. Just the time to accelerate a bit, that we find ourselves directly behind a cops car. I don’t know about you, but when i’m in this kind of situations, I never know if I try to overtake them or not, even if I have the right! So the time I wait for the right opportunity, we remain behind them at 6000 rpm in 6th gear because we have no noise reduction ( yeah Clement, i know, i’m the only one without noise reduction …). Cops are now behind us, and everything is okay, let’s continue !
Arriving at the doors of the D911, we are faced with a major problem: the road is closed! And of course, the only way to reach the section originally planned is to get around the whole mountain. Here, it reminds me of a similar situation, one evening, not far from the border in Slovenia …
It’s time to make a new small road book of this first day, taking into account this closure of road.
The advantage is that the new loop is reduced, so fewer kilometers planned for today, but what is not done today will anyway be caught tomorrow.
We decided to go directly to the « Cirques de Gavarnis, » and we would try to stop at a store on the road to buy coffee, and things for breakfast tomorrow in the morning, because tonight , We sleep under the stars! Now, it’s time to reach the pass of Tourmalet on another side!
Tourmalet Pass
The pass of the Tourmalet was amazing!
At first the weather was good, but more we climbed, the fog was appearing… so much so that at one point we could see nothing more than 2 meters ahead of us! It was really impressive.
We continued to climb at reduced speed because of the danger that the fog would exhaust. But a few turns after, we literally were up to the clouds! The sky was blue and the sun shone a lot. Although the temperature were falling down, Clement, Nico and I were riding this pass with a better speed, keeping in mind that we have to be careful because of the cold and the road temperature. Obviously, our tires were warm and the temperature did not help for the grip! But we were able to play a bit until we arrived to the top of Tourmalet Pass.
You must know that it is the highest road pass of the Pyrenees located entirely in France with 2 115 meters of Altitude. Obviously, this pass is famous because of the « Tour de France », which passed through 78 times, more than one year out of two. It is the pass that has most often been crossed by this race, all mountainous pass combined. At the top, there is a commemorative stele to Jacques Goddet, who was the former director of the « Tour de France ».
As for us, we were lucky enough to witness a magnificent show at the top. We had the right to a sea of clouds, which climbed up to us and then went back all the way down into the valley. My only regret that day is not to have thought of making a timelapse of this phenomenon. But it does not prevent that these things are appearing. They are recorded in our memories!
Sunshine is going to disappear, it is time to pass away of the Tourmalet! Clement and nico are riding in front of me. The view is so magnificent that we still enjoy a bit, but then, we attack it !
Nico quickly passes with his SV and Clément follows him to the track. As for me, I am just behind and I appreciate the show of our 3 motorcycles riding it! The section ends relatively quickly, but the ground was not perfectly dry. Nico turns around and says to me “Tomorrow, we have to go back here and we get it all the way up!”
Just a little break, because it’s time to make a decision, the night is coming, and we’re going to have to find a place to camp. Before arriving to the town of Barèges, there is a small open supermarket. We bought something to eat for the breakfast of tomorrow.
The night has not fallen yet, so we go to the « Cirque de Gavarnie » which is an absolutely beautiful place! Too bad for us, because we will not be able to enjoy it fully because of the cloudy weather, but we are planning to arrive there and find a place to camp, and sleep.
The “Cirque de Gavarnie” (Circus of Gavarnie)
After we stopped, at Barèges supermarket, we continue on the same road that is supposed to lead us to the circus. The ground has just been done while ago, the ground lines are not even traced. We ride all this section at a good rhythm, not too fast, not too slow, just this rhythm with perfect speed where you are controlling absolutely everything, without any fears or questions, in an absolutely awesome landscape, where rock And the greenery is everywhere around you. The heavy atmosphere that we can feel, announces a dark night. A beautiful motorcycle moment as I like.
We arrive at Gavarnie, there is absolutely nobody. We went to the bottom, in order to watch this famous circus, which is characterized by an enormous half circle of 6 kilometers, and has an enormous waterfall.
We noticed a small place next to a horse enclosure, we park the bikes here and continue on foot.
We meet a little cat that purrs like an engine. I think he wants cuddles! Usually they choose me to do it, but this little boy want to play with Nico this time. We continue to walk, but unfortunately for us, a cloud is stuck in this huge valley, which prevents us for admiring the circus as it should. I am a little disappointed, because it was one of the landscapes that I really wanted to be able to shoot and appreciate as it should. This is life, sometimes the weather decides otherwise (a little too much this year).
We get the bikes quietly, and we try to find a place to sleep.
We emerge from the city and we go a little higher. We heard about a camper place, it could be a good solution.
A few kilometers after, we arrived right there. The waterfall of the circus flows. We can’t miss it because the sound of the water is really intense. We go into the garden, but it seems to be closed. A phone number is posted on the door, But everything is closed, we didn’t even try to call.
The garden very tall, and we decided to camp here tonight. No one on the horizon, mountains everywhere, and with the waterfall right next to us, I think this is the perfect place for a night. We all agree with this idea, so we just have to find a little restaurant for tonight, to eat something hot, before this night which is going to be very cold !
Back then to the side of Gavarnie, we stopped on a restaurant that is still open. They agree to serve us if we do not take things too complicated to do, because of the time.
After the meal, we go back to the garden. We go through a slightly different path, where we meet horses. I stop to watch them a bit, while we wait for Clément who stayed behind.
We leave and go through a small pedestrian road, or locals come out because of the noise of the motorcycles. Honestly I thought we were going to have trouble, but absolutely not. They stop us, laugh a bit with us, we exchange smiles together and ask us to pay to continue to pass. Obviously, it’s a joke on their part! Here we go again,, we still have to build the tents and the night has already fallen because we no longer see anything.
We arrive again at the inn, and we return the Daytona and the SV behind the fence in order to be able to illuminate and install the tents. The engine of the Daytona still turns, when suddenly we hear a window that is opening and a person starts to speak with us. I quickly cut the Daytona, in order to hear what the person has to say to us.
It turns out that in fact, a man lives here all the year and he is angry against us! Since we are simply in his garden with 3 motorcycles and all our stuff! Imagine you sleeping quietly at home, when suddenly you hear motorcycles in your garden and you realize that there are people who are getting ready to camp in!
I confess that we were bother! There is absolutely no excuse, but we try to resolve the situation by attempting a discussion with the owner.
In the end, he was super cool with us, since he let us camp in his garden for the night, and that for free. He just added, “Well, I’m going to sleep again, we’ll talk about it tomorrow!”
It is without a sound, that we set up our encampment for the night, each in his respective tent. We need rest, this first day was long … And it is only the first!
Day 2: Passes, Lakes and canyons !
First awakening after a night spent in a tent, with 0 degrees during a large part of it, but i slept vey well ! I remember being awakened by a big rain and winds. Nico,has no memories about it ! I guess he sleeps even deeper than me.
It’s time to look a bit at what’s going on outside. Opening of the tent, and I come face to face with this absolutely beautiful view! I wasn’t ready! So get back down in my sleeping bag, just to appreciate the view … You must know how to take time to appreciate nature, and enjoying this kind of things.
Second tent attempt out! Hoping not to have me once again by the landscape and go back to bed to contemplate it again!
I take my cameras, and I will go to do a little walk, to take some pictures and capture some shots.
First thing that marks me is absolute silence … Finally calm. In the distance, I hear the waterfall flowing, but I would go see it afterwards. The mountain wakes up, and the sun pass away the clouds. I decided to head for the waterfall.
As soon as I left the garden, I came face to face with. I decide to cross the rocks and going more deeper in the waterfall. A few meters further, the water formed a small bowl. Here, in summer, it must be the perfect place to chill a bit.
I take advantage of the calm and beautiful scenery to take some extra pictures.
Now I go back to the tents. Nico seems to be awake, but he’s still locked in. Clement snores again. I’m going to start pack my stuff and charging them in the Daytona, because I have a lot of business. Once everyone woke up, we headed back to the waterfall to have our breakfast and drink a coffee.
A moment of a big simplicity, but so pleasant …
The owner also wakes up and comes to chat with us. After the problematic episode of the last day, he doesn’t seem to be angry about us and we end up laughing all together, so much we dismayed about it. We apologized again and again. He explained to us that for him the season was over here. He had just bought a brand new volkswagen combi, and he was going to take the road for several months to discover Corsica, Spain, Portugal, Italy … a little to our way of what we are doing with motorcycles, but On four wheels.
That’s how we said goodbye. A good grip, a few nice words and a smile. Here we are again on the road, towards the Tourmalet pass, to climb it with, I hope, better conditions than the day before!
Let’s go the Tourmalet pass, by the same road as the day before. It is a pleasure to take it again, even in the early morning! We are lucky because the sun is shining, so it warms us a bit. The road is still wet, because of the rains of that night, hoping that the pass will be dry.
We meet a traveling companion on his 1200 RT loaded like a donkey! It’s a pleasure to see that we are not the only ones to try this kind of thing in the middle of October! The Tourmalet is now just in front of us, we’re pushing it a little more. Clément opens the road with the CB500. As for Nico and I, we’re right behind. I feel that this climb is going to be really cool!
At the end of a turn, guys who were at work came out of their company to watch us passing away. I admit that we arrived fast, they must have heard us from afar. At the moment of our ride, we exchange some friendly signs They seem pleased to see us passing just in front of them like this. We continue to climb it, until we had to slow down on the last meters of the Tourmalet pass, because of a Truck.
Arriving at the top, we don’t stop. We go directly to the other side of the mountain, then go down again.
The weather seems to be stabilizing. It’s cloudy, foggy in some places, but the ground seems to have dried, and that’s all you need to be able to ride these roads. You can maintain a good speed, and there is nothing better to swallow the kilometers without wasting time.
The Tourmalet pass is over! We had the opportunity to do it in both directions.
Now take the direction of Aspin pass! However something worries me, I find that the Daytona twisting a lot. And this was similar to when we were in Austria when my engine was broken. Nico has the same worries, because we notice that as soon as we loose our respective handlebars, bikes are twisting a lot. We quickly realize that this must come from our excessive stuff at the back of the motorcycles, so here I am reassured!
Aspin pass
Nico takes the opportunity to launch a clean wheeling on a small straight line. I go straight in the opposite way, to record it.
We’re now climbing the pass. The ground is perfect, and we are having different climatic conditions on this pass. At the beginning, the time is perfect, so we ride it at a good speed. Clément makes me laugh, because every turn he tries a different position: One blow the foot is out « supermotard way », the other after, knee down, then he stay very straight on the bike … To Nico, He doesn’t care. As soon as the road turns, his knee is down. You have to notice that he misses a slider on his right leg, but he often forgets it!
I am there, just behind, camera on, all smiling in my helmet, so it is my pleasure to attack a similar pass with all our motorcycles wheels on wheels like that.
Arriving in the second part of the pass, the weather becomes more complicated. The fog appears, and it is very dark! So much so that we are beginning to have trouble seeing in front of us. It does not necessarily slow down because visibility is still ok to ride at a good speed.
It’s our encounter with a cow along the road that will make us slow down a bit. One way to remind ourselves that in these mountains, we can have a surprise in every new curves. The fog will continue until our arrival at the top of the Aspin pass.
Here we are now going down of the pass, on the other side of the mountain. The fog disappears again, so we are riding it again at a god speed. The view is absolutely beautiful!
I really love the « darkness side » of the mountain.
You now if you read me since my previous articles, but I have a weakness for the dark atmosphere that mountains can bring, and the Pyrenees are clearly part of them.
The Aspin pass is over! We need to put some gas on bikes. My warning light is on, so I make signs to Nico and Clement that we will have to stop for supplies. We take the direction of a small gas station at the bottom of the pass of Aspin. Small wheeling with the SV, again!
Clément see that’s something is wrong on his CB500.
His handlebar is down at least 7 cm! Laughing at the gas station! A bit of mechanics is necessary. During this time, we take the opportunity to talk a bit about our ride on passes of Tourmalet and Aspin. The atmosphere is good, we are just laughing and the weather is with us. This kind of moments are so perfect.
Clement has finished to repair the cb, so took the road again and we are now going to cross to the Spanish side!
Road of Lakes
We planned on our basic itinerary to go through a section called the « Lakes Road ». It gives access to the Lake of Oule, « Cap de Long », « Oredon » and « Laquettes ». But we went so fast, we missed the turn.
I quickly overtake Nico and Clement to tell them to stop. We go back and take the road to the lakes. We take the director of the lake of Cap le Long, which is the highest one. The road to get there is really magnificent.
We take the opportunity to make a few stops and enjoy the different views that this beautiful corner offers to us. We will also make a stop in a curve to try to film one or two things from an external point of view, but the shot isn’t optimal.
Once we arrived at the top, the view is sumptuous! To our left we have the lake of Cap le Long. And right in front of us, the Lake of Orédon.
Impossible to leave here without flying the drone! I take out the baby and take off.
During the flight, a person approaches us, and asks me to bring the drone back and make it land. He explains that it is a protected area and that flights are prohibited. Nico and Clement talk to him. I take the opportunity to make a last fly to be sure to have everything filmed, and I make the drone landing. I don’t know if this man was right, but I didn’t want to make bad stories, for the simple reason that, until the time comes to us, I think I had time to capture everything I wanted. So there’s no need to go into endless discussions.
First, i was a bit chilly with this man because of his remark. But them, he told to us that he can cook for us. So we took a last photo of this place, with us on it, this time, and we went towards his restaurant.
We are these only customers. We start laughing on a lot of things with this guy.
He had a dog, a Saint Bernard, who had trouble walking. He explained to us that his dog was a « former rescue dog » in the mountains, and that one day, tourists began to hit him with rocks … and today, he can’t walk again because of this … Sadness … it made me much pain for this dog. You have to know it now, but I have a lot of respect for animals and it always hurts me to hear such things …
Our pancakes with 3 chocolates are arriving, and we continue our exchanges with the manager, what specimen! Between the local stories, the biker stories and the life stories, We spent two good hours up there talking to him, and he was also helped to move a huge coffee machine to his truck.
At the end of the day, the sun was disappearing in the mountain, and temperatures drop down very fast. It reminds us that we still have a a lot of road to do! So we said goodbye to him, and we go down the whole valley to continue our route and finally going to Spain.
Unfortunately, The rain is back. But normally the weather in Spain should be better …
I remember we suddenly found ourselves on a completely wet road, just after a bridge. Too bad because we had a high quality of ground and dozens of great fast curves! But this gave us a great panorama, and this until the tunnel that will lead us to Spain.
Espana ! Si !
Here we are! And as soon as we arrived, they are kilometers and kilometers of enormous great curves that are available to us! Sorry Clement, but I’ll go and let off steam a little !! 170, 190 km / h … crazy Stability ! Great sun ….. this is what i love !
We walk a few miles away and Nico’s first words to me, after opening his visor are: “ This is what you like mate! » Ah ah ! And how I like them !! With all that, we forget to keep an eye on the map. So we stop to check our position. Luckily, we find ourselves in the right place to turn.
We will not forget to note once again the quality of the ground, by some demonstrative signs between Nico and me. I think we are all in the same state at this time of day. We are amazed by what we are living. All settings are perfects. We are really in great conditions to ride bikes. And to this is added the fact that the landscape is really beautiful … Hope we’re going to keep this luck !
Before leaving, I take a look around us. The weather is nice, and the sunset of the day is starting.. The place in which we are reminds me the TV show « Breaking Bad » as well as the old western period, with this desert atmosphere, red earth.
Canyon of Aniscio
Here we go again ! We go on the HU-631, the road that runs along the Aniscio canyon. At first, the road is ok. A huge crack made me take off to the floor with the bike, something that calms me straight! And it is so much better because the rest of this road will give us some problems. Between the water of the previous rain that flows along the rocky walls, the enormous stones on the roads, and the goats … We’ll have to stay focused.
I remember having burst out laughing with Nico, after we stopped on this road, he told me something like “You have to be careful of this dangerous road, this is the kind of situation where you could fall down !’. It’s ok, he knows me well enough now to understand that this kind of problems can happen to me regularly! But after Nico started, the next turn, he lost his front and his back wheel ! He stops again, turns around, and we burst out laughing! Because in the end, despite his warning, He almost slides with his bike !
This is the kind of road where you have to stay focused all the time!
With our stops, Clement took a little ahead, but we will catch up with him because he found himself face to face with a group of goats, in the animal sense of the term! Clement even tries to tame one.
The rest of the road goes well. From memory the section is about fifty kilometers, but the road is catastrophic and totally broken. On the other hand, the landscape is awesome, and the view of the sun setting in the valley is just as much!
Once we are out of this section, Night begins to fall down. It’s going to be time for us to find a place to camp, and eat something! Because of the map, we know that the road we are going to take may be really cool to ride! It is 7:30 pm, and we chose to do it before we thought about going to eat. N-260, here we come!
Nico is right in front of me, and so Clément behind, of course. We have beat this section has a very good rhythm! Despite the fact that we did not see much with our poor headlights, it will remain a great memory! Even though I had to stay with my helmet visor opened all the way, and that my eyes were so red at the end!
This road has the particularity of having a succession of very short turns, tight, and lively! As much as you say you are never really sitting on your bike! What a pleasure ! We will stop a bit further, because a campsite stands right in front of us! Perfect ! On the same road, we have awesome curves and ground, a good camping, and later a good pizzeria!
It is time to talk spanish, language i didn’t spoke since a long time! My technique is to talk to myself for two or three minutes to warm my brain in the right language. Between French, Portuguese, English is Spaniard … It’s not that simple! (Yeah..i know .. :P)
I walked into the lobby, and chatted with the lady at the counter, who gave us a location for the night. I also ask her if she would not know a good address or eat, and she tells us an open pizzeria, in the next town, in Biescas.
We set up our tents for the night, and we take the motorcycles back to Biescas to eat.
The evening in the restaurant happens right, we eat and laugh … As usual! We will talk about trips, motorbikes, and a whole lot of other issues not very important. We then went back to our campsite, in order to have a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, another big day is waiting for us …
So let’s try to be fit!
Day 3: Desert, Thermal sources and Bilbao coast !
Waking up under the Spanish sun! It seems to be on a summer morning.
We had chosen to sleep in a campsite to finally have access to a hot shower. We go out of the tents, and we go straight to the shower! We stayed there for a good half hour, the water was good and warm.
Nico wanted to go again to the road of the previous day without stuff on the motorcycle. I stayed with Clement on the campsite, and we keep preparing everything away, while Nico has done it again.
We also take advantage of it to take care a little of the bikes, kind greasing the chains. We worked on the SV, and we adopt a special one on this bike ! Don’t know why, but it took us to be 3 to grease the SV. One who raises the motorcycle, the other who turns the wheel, and the other who greases! When we realized that Clément kept turning the wheel while Nico greased nothing more for several tens of seconds … we were laughing a lot.
No more bullshit! It’s time to get back on the road! Because today we must reach the coast of Bilbao, and we have about 400 kilometers to get there!
The first stage of the day is to reach the city of Jaca. For that, we hadn’t 50,000 solutions, the road to get there is straight. We take the opportunity to appreciate the magnificent scenery around us: mountainous, dry and desert. Nico slams a few wheelings, so obviously … I capture all that.
We are finally approaching Jaca, the tanks are empty, so we are going to refuel the bikes. The last few kilometers to Jaca allowed us to see many vultures flying very low. I had never seen so many!
It’s time for refueling! And it’s also time to move on to serious things! We took on the A-1205 which is an extremely winding road (and not badly broken)! The kind of road, or, at every turn, you never know what you’re going to have.
Clement opens the road, and Nico is right behind him. Both decide to ride it hard! This kind of road is not my specialty, but we are in a group so no choice, I have to follow them! Maximum concentration and go! Everything went relatively well until we arrived in a sort of straight line! By far, everything seems to be perfect, The only thing is that there is a huge break on the road. Not the kind of breaking where the motorcycle moves a little and all it’s okay … no … the kind of break that makes you take off the 2 wheels of the road! And besides, I have a lot of stuff on my bike, I don’t even explain the landing! Handling, hanging up the wheels … i was on a bad situation .. But Everything is fine, I’m still on my wheels but I’ve slowed down.
Nico and Clement don’t seem to have been destabilized by this break, at least at first, but in fact they were also, because we talked about it later. We found ourselves a few kilometers away, where we had a little break.
We discuss and drink a bit of water. Between two conversations, I notice something wrong on my motorcycle … Actually, I miss a shoe! I’m angry! I only have one shoe left for my pair of Etnies ! No way ! I do not give up this shoes here! I take the bike again and I turn around … I’m almost sure I lost it to the previous break on the ground, a few kilometers back.
Once down, it turns out that she is not there … I decide to continue, even to go up the whole road! And it is only a few kilometers away, in a straight line, that I see my blue shoe, far off the road! I picked her up and joined the group. I am reassured!
Arrival at Buernes, turn off into the A-1603. So … let’s be clear, the A-1603 … It was a great moment … PERFECT FLOOR, PERFECT WEATHER, TWISTED CURVES. We put the brains on OFF and there … It’s gone for a great motorcycle moment as we like them! 11 kilometers 800 of puuuuuure pleasure! Clément, Nico and me wheels on wheels! In a, if not even, the best stuff to motorcycle between mates! Unbelievable ! The road is not wide, and it is a double sense, so we still have a small margin of safety, but that doesn’t stop us to have a dirty ride on this section !
we arrived in front of the monastery of San Juan de la Pena, which seems to be under renovation. We parked in front of it, and it’s euphoria, check in every way, smiles, laught! Unbelievable !!! What a race on the road !
We continue because we still have many kilometers to do. We’re back on the road! We will mark an additional break a few kilometers away, because we arrived in front of a panorama, which gives us the view over the whole chain of the Pyrenees! I must to capture it with the drone !
The flight is going well. I am with Nico , and we will soon be back on the road. So I tell to the drone to come back. Nico tells me « Eh the drone isn’t coming to quickly? » Don’t worry Nico, i’m on it !
Bullshit …Normally this is the kind of things that goes “supa clean” as they say in the middle. But that day … no. The drone arrives at us at full speed, and I asked to him to turn to brake a bit. Except I don,’ know what happened, he did not react right away. Result, I almost cut out Nico’s head with the drone! He taps against the wood and falls just to my feet … How to explain. At my feet there is just the place for the drone, then a cliff of a hundred meters high … What a chance i had here !
The drone is ok, the zenmuse too. Fortunately, because I remind you that I broke a zenmuse in Slovenia two months ago. This one is new! But I broke 2 propellers. I don’t panic because I always have an another set of propellers in case of! But after opening my bag, I realize that i forgot them in Paris … Bryan, Bryan, Bryan …
So … I hope to find a store in the corner that sells propellers so that I can at least fly the drone on the side of Bilbao … We’ll see later …
It’s time to get back on the road, and join the N-240 in direction of Tiermas. The road was pretty good, so this allows us to capture superb pictures once again!
The old Tiermas thermal sources
We are now heading towards the town of Tiermas. But to get there, we still have a lot of kilometers. This one is not going to be very interesting. It will however offer us some big fast curves, which will allow us to ride a bit while taking advantage of the landscape.
I remember at a time the road began to climb. It was rising enough to prevent us from seeing what was behind it. As we went a little further, we realize that in the distance, a city was built in the heights. It’s called Berdun.
By approaching the town of Tiermas. The frame changes completely. We went from a very green and mountainous landscape, to clay hills! It is really beautiful ! The road gives us some stunning straight lines to push the bikes a bit. We are now ready for the huge lake of Yesa.
And we decided to go down there. Except that to get there, people usually use 4X4, because … how to say this…. You will soon understand ….
What a mess ! We go into enduro mode! In fact, on each road trip I always have an enduro section with the Daytona, it’s a part of the rules, I guess.
We arrive at the edge of the lake. Many people swiming, so we decide to go into the water too. We hadn’t realized that we were on the remains of a large thermal center. And talking about termal center, we talk about sources of hot water! The buildings are only ruins, but the source is always active and the water must be between 35 and 40 degrees! As much as to say that even people who are always freezing on water can’t have any troubles on going into this water!
So amazing moment. Ten minutes ago, we were on a big ride in the mountains and in the plains, we are now in the thermal springs! Road trips like this have sometimes very good surprises, and here is a beautiful one! Especially in the middle of October 2016!
We’d like to stay here all day, but it’s time for us to get back on the road. With our 250 kilometers to do again, it would be nice not to drag too much if we want to arrive before the night to the side of Bilbao. We decide to leave the water, to dry oneself quietly, and to take the road again.
Once on the bikes, we go up over the sand! Clement seems to appreciate it! He arrived up before us, and even allowed himself to go down the whole access and to iron in even stronger! We hear him laughing in his helmet, he seems to be happy!
I come upstairs, and I take a small path where I’m going to regret very soon. Judge by yourself !
I must have to going down, with the engine brake, motorcycle switched off.
Clement holds the back of my bike while being laughing!
Once out of this shit, we take the road again! There will be an extra stop at a gas station, where we will get full tank again, and we will have the opportunity to wash the bikes with water. They are full of dust and sand. We will then pass along a bar, we will stop a half hour because we are thirsty! We will also take advantage of it to chill a bit, because we are still at 200 kilometers to our destination.
Desert and straight lines everywhere !
The end of the day is coming, but not the end of our itinerary. We continue our journey towards Bilbao at a rather steady pace, 120 km / h - 170 km / h along the Spanish dersert. The scenery is really beautiful. The sun gives us an amazing light game. How lucky we are to have this climate in the middle of October! It’s incredible.
Despite the monotony of the road, we manage to have the right to ride a few kilometers of ultra fast curved roads! So we take advantage of that.
Unfortunately, these hundreds of kilometers of straight lines will have ruined my supercorsas, which are totally dead. The central line is barely perceptible! The wear indicator no longer exists. See the face of the tyres one wonders even if it already existed on this tyre there! But it doesn’t matter, I continue to ride it like we began. Then anyway, these are supercorsas, it still has a crazy grip!
The end of the day offers us a magnificent sunset. We are completely slammed, but we continue to appreciate this kind of things.
Last refueling, at night this time, and we are heading towards the city of Gernika-Lumo.
The city seems to be very animated tonight. Many people are out, it’s party. As a bonus, a DRAG race is organized, in an official way. Yes, yes, no joke ! i swear ! The police is here too, just to watch if everything is ok. Everything is occuring right in the middle of town … we parked not too far, we are going to eat tapas and drink beers on a big tapas bar. We enjoy this moment!
We will spend our entire evening here, until the city begins to empty, so we take the motorbikes, and we follow Clement, who knows a place to sleep on the beach. We will not mention the name of this beach here, because we want to keep the spot safe. It is the kind of little places that surfers love, and where fewer people know its location, better it is!
We arrive on the spot around 1 am, we set up the tents, and I take advantage of this beautiful starry night to try some shots of the stars. Perfect for a good night’s sleep!
Good night, guys ! And see you tomorrow for the last day of this road trip. Many adventures will still happen!
Day 4: 600 kilometers to go back to the truck
The day rises on our secret spot.
I woke up at 6 am. I take my camera, and I go directly to the beach, to enjoy the sunrise, the sea, and to stay a little alone in front of it.
Some surfers are already in the water. The waves are very small today, but it seems to be okay for them.
It’s low tide, I have the possibility to access a large rock by the sand. So I’ll go and sit down there. It’s so quiet here, so appeasing. We are far from all the Parisian pollution, from all the stress of the job, and from this routine that I despise so much, throughout the year. Riding bikes is my escape. And I’m so happy to have the opportunity to do this kind of travel, with people I like, and with mates who are on the same wavelength. No problems, only smiles, beautiful scenery and memories full in our heads.
The sea air makes me realize that Portugal miss me. I would go for a walk soon, enjoying my second home, which I don’t do enough unfortunately. I’ll have to work on it. I can’t wait to start this last day.
The final loop is not yet defined, but I think we are all okay to ride a lot today, because we intend to join the truck tonight and take the road directly to Paris during the night , In order to arrive tomorrow morning.
Nicolas is awake. Clement is waking up too. It turns out that he had a problem of “sardine” the day before, which forced him to mount his tent between 2 motorcycles so that it can hold. We put all our stuff on a side, then we go back to the sea.
Let’s go to breakfast. There is a bar restaurant right next to us, view over the sea. So we decide to take the motorcycles and then leave. Little technical problem, the Daytona doesn’t start. No problem, since yesterday, to install the tents, I left the lights on for a long time. My battery is old now, and doesn’t hold power. Let’s run a bit to start it again.
This morning we are greedy! Because we decided to ride about 600 kilometers before joining the truck. Today, part of the Spanish coast, then we return to the mountain, we cross the French border, and we return in the mountains in order to go back to the truck! It’s going to be long, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be good! But now, orange juice, cakes, coffee, orange juice, cakes, coffee, orange juice, cakes, coffee, orange juice … You know what i mean …
We pay, and we take the road! Here we go ! Last small photos of us at the top of the beach, with this beautiful view, and we definitely start the day.
It will not take long time for us to warm up, since almost the whole coast, is a crazy road! Hardly on the bikes we are already pushing it hard! With Nico, we laughed a lot because the only straight line that was in front of us, and Nico did a wheelie on it, but he didn’t see that at the end of the straight line, cops were parked there. But by chance, they haven’t seen anything!
We stop at a gas station, because we need gas. We take the opportunity to continue to check the map, and see where we are going to turn. For the moment, we continue along the coast.
The small crazy roads through the forest and the cities are connected. We had a little problem. We were getting ready to get out of the city, so are like 50/70 km / h in an area where the “Guardia” was carrying out roadside checks. Of course, guys jump right on! Voices rises a little, because they are annoyed by the fact that one arrives also “fast”. I try to explain to the cop that his panel “30 km / h” is tiny and especially its position sucks, that we absolutely cant see it and that we are sorry, but he doesn’t want to know anything.
What I said earlier about the guardia, that they are special, and that’s the kind of behavior … They took all our papers. Let’s go for 15 minutes of problems with them…
They check our papers, our driving lisences, make a few calls, to be sure that we are not wanted by interpole … well, you know what i mean.
Cops relax a bit after, and give us back our papers. Finally, they let us walk away. I knew them much less “cooler”, especially with strangers. Here we go again !
The Road Attack
Here we are again on the road, along the coast. We arrive at the point where we have to turn, in order to get back to the Spanish lands. From there, we’re going to have a few kilometers of bad roads.
Time is passing, and we finally arrive in a new section that promises something very “sport”, again.
My friends, what is following next is what is called a road bombing. Small pee, then we go back on the motorcycles. Visors are lowered, one places ourself correctly on the motorcycles, control behind us, nobody. Let’s go !
Jesus … Who had the idea to build that crazy road! We went through every corner, like a bomb ! Clement that makes us rub the CB500 from absolutely everywhere! Nico is just behind Clement, in his rear wheel, and I just behind Nico! It’s simple, If Clément falls, we all strike together! A hundred turns! Short, very short, long, wide, tight! Motorcycles are drifting… This is madness !! Incredible !!
At one point, I wanted to stabilize the bike in order to get into a corner where I came a bit fast. I press the rear brake to slow it down a bit, but nothing happens! I must have to put all my body on the right, praying for the bike doesn’t fall down and that everything goes as best as possible! Slight straight, I open wide to stay sticking behind Nico and I take the opportunity to lower my eyes and watch my brake pedal, I can’t see it !! We stopped just 2 minutes, in order to check it.
Once stopped, it turns out that my brake pedal is completely unscrewed. I screwed this quickly, and we back again on this crazy road! Always at the same speed! Even if worse!
I remember that in a big right curve, a grandmother was on the edge of the road along the safety rail. As much to say that in this kind of situation because of the speed at which we were arriving we hadn’t time for nothing! We all passed like crazy next to her! She must remember it again! The end of this road is marked by a lot of wood and land on the ground. This will eventually calm us a bit, and we will finish the last few meters of this section more quietly!
After passing all this on the ground, we went back on it again like crazy boys, until the next restaurant where we will stop eating something!
We stop in a restaurant along the road. Our tires are burning! We too! It is total euphoria, we absolutely understood nothing about that crazy road ! What the fuck was that !?
Now, it’s time for a good burger, and take the road again!
On leaving, Nico was parked right in front of me. He had my tripod on his bike, placed perpendicularly. It turns out that the way he was parked made my tripod exceeded by half. Nico starts the SV, and start. The tripod pulled out my entire bubble. A huge cracking sound. Nico cuts his bike and we are all freezed in front of the Daytona, where we see that the bubble and the front head are totally torn off! Big silence, “DAAAAAMN BOY I AM SO SORRY !! What the fuck is that ?!” I burst out laughing! “REAAALLLY The guy is so sad to not having a Daytona that he need to break it!” We burst out laughing again! It doesn’t matter! He didn’t do it on purpose and he is as faulty as i am. Here we go again !
Ispeguy’s Pass
After eating our meal, we head towards the Ispeguy Pass, which marks the border between France and Spain.
The first part is a forest section. The road is not very wide. If we come across a vehicle or an obstacle in front, we will have to be concentrate! Clement opens the road, followed by Nico and me just behind. Clement is fireing the ground !
By talking about obstacles, leaving the forest section, we cross several villages. On one of them, we meet a little girl on the side of the road. She told us to slow down, to pass slowly. The thing is, his gesture wasn’t understand by Clement. Instead of slowing down, he pushed it and wanted to get even stronger. As he told us later “I thought she wanted some actions !”
At the end of the curve, the little girl’s parents were present, with an enormous tractor, which was parked almost in the entire road! It could be a disaster for Clement! We were all surprised to find this in the middle of the road. That is why it is always necessary to keep in mind that anything can stand on the road, and that you must be prepared to dodge it if needed.
Lightly cooled by the tractor, Clement turns towards us and makes us a little gesture like “it was hot!” And indeed it was!
We calm down a bit, then we take our rhythm, a bit quieter this time, but always sustained, which allows us to always enjoy riding this superb pass.
Arriving at the top of the pass of Ispeguy, an awesome view stands in front of us. Clément took the opportunity to climb directly into the dirt. I will not personally try the experience!
His action will have made the few people present at the top of the pass laugh at that moment.
We cut the engines, we put off our helmets and we admirate the power of the mountain. The autumn color game is absolutely magnificent! All these shades of color, it looks like that the whole landscape is on fire.
Ponies and sheep are walking on the top of the pass. One of them came to say hello.
Nico takes a small picture with him, to immortalize all that.
We will still enjoy the view a bit, as it is definitely worth a visit. I would have liked to put my drone here, but unfortunately, following the episode of control missed earlier in the trip, and the fact that didn’t find stores to buy propellers, Impossible to make it fly agian during this trip.
We now are going to ride the descent of the pass, but on the other side of the summit, in order to pass on the French side. Clement and Nico are in front and start riding it. I stay behind, I am captivated by the view that the mountain offers us that day …
At the bottom of the pass we saw the French gendarmerie, which looks at us a bit suspiciously. Yes, I know, I always have a paranoid side, but I rarely make a mistake. And I think we didn’t catch us because we took over the direction of Spain, to go through another pass that is not far from our position and is worth a visit!
The road to get there really pushes us to ride fast! It is a wide road, with enormous hyper-progressive curves, which carries no trap. We are wheels on wheels. The feeling is really nice, the feeling is perfect and the ability to put the angle in good conditions really accentuates the pleasure. Clement is fireing it again with a few sparks due to the angle he puts with the CB500.
A stop will be marked at an intersection following this sick road. Already to talk and share our impressions.
I start to have problems when i’m riding in some curves, because everything that is on my bike is no longer really hooked. I tried to fixe all this again, taking care of everything well the motorcycle. Well, for the distribution of weight, we forgets! We don’t have time, but I’ll get used to it by rolling in the next few curves. As long as nothing is falling down, it ok for me!
Just before leaving, we installed a gopro, on the motorcycle ID of Clément, in order to capture a few shots from behind. I don’t know what’s going to happen, knowing that we had already tried the experiment on the CB of Schaaf in Italy in 2015. We had managed to capture good pictures, but the video was not very good because we had to much vibrations.
It will be seen if the CB of Clement will be more adapted to this position of camera.
Everything is attached, we take the road again!
We stopped at the top of a small pass that we just climbed, and we refuel the motorcycles!
The sun begins to set, and the cold is back. Nights fall much faster, and the cold too, here in the mountains.
We climb the valley, which offers us nice roads!
Let’s go to the last pass of this trip! And not the least! Here is the kind of pass that broke you, and even before you got to the fight!
I think this pass is the local spot of all the bikers in the area, as like “Chevreuse” in France. At first, nobody! We ride it hard!
We are still riding the pass, and we finally catch up with a group of bikers. In front of us, we’ve got a bike with a Flag of pirates hanging behind it. I first believed in the reincarnation of Albator on a motorcycle, then when approaching a bit more, it was a collective in … Burgman! A Team of Burgman 650 with a pirate flag! Everything is fine ! , we haven’t the same rhythm as before! We go from a big ride and now the traffic is bad!
Well … We try to overtake them as we can, but with all these curves, we haven’t got any visibility, so it’s hard to try. As soon as one of us overtake, he makes a small sign to those of behind to indicate that it is good, one can pass without worries, even without visibility.
It’s okay ! The Burgman team has been overtake! We back again on this crazy road!
God Damn ! After the Burgman team, we are now behind the “Hells Angels”, or “the sons of Anarchy” as you want! We went back on traffic.
We really have no chances on this road. It’s a shame because this road is amazing but there is definitely too much traffic. The ground is amazing, the curves are very progressive we are hot! Maybe a little too much! You will understand why.
We’ve got a possibility to overtake. As a result, Clément and Nico take the opportunity. I stayed behind, because a guy in CBR600RR looked hot to play a bit. So, I tur a few seconds later to overtake everyone with this guy.
The guy in CBR is right in front of me, the view is awesome! We accelerates more and more, before the next big left curve! By passing, i saw somthing wrong in the distance.
A guy fell down. I didn’t understand yet that this guy is my boy Clement, aka Balou1sta. It is only when i passed in front of him, that I understand it’s him! I hurry to stop my bike on the side.
A guy from the Harley’s group had also stopped and was right in front of me. This guy was huge not far from 2 meters. A mountain. For a moment, I was more captivated by this guy than by Clement! The guy checks that everything is ok and starts again!
But what happened? Clément: “It’s been a while since we were behind all these guys in Harley and I was fed up, I tried to overtake all of them in a straight line before the big left, but i came so fast at the corner entry that I didn’t get in the right place, the curve was closing more and more on me and I felt down … “
By falling down, Clement hit the safety rail which is protected by a “double rail” to avoid that we pass under it, a chance for Clément.
We check that everything is fine for him, then we start to control the motorcycle. I look at Clement, and I see him busy putting his bag back on the bike in a non-challenging way. I burst out laughing, so much so that I have tears in my eyes. Clement does not understand why, but, on each road trip, Clément fall down, and destroys a new suitcase. He really has no luck this year our Balou1sta!
The bike was destroy on some parts. The tank has taken a shot, half handlebar, retro, suitcases …
The exhaust twisted in a totally perfect way at the exit of the exhaust. It looks like an akrapovic’s exhaust now.
New problem, the gopro Nico is no longer there! We go up the corner and we rebuilt the whole scene of Clement’s crash, trying to put ourselves in the place of the Gopro (yeah I know, we sometimes do things weird!).
But our technique will have paid off since we find the gopro! Second problem, SD card disappeared from the Gopro! We realize a new build of the scene, this time instead of the SD card in the gopro! No comments please … It’s a technique like any other! And It will also pay off again !
We’re going to make a new brake, We’re trying to restart the CB500. Obviously, as it is a CB, it will restart without any problems! Just wait a while.
Nico, frustrated as not being able to ride this pass properly, decides to go back to it!
Clement and I will sit on the side of the road laughing and rest a bit until Nico returns here.
Going back to the Truck
As you can see, the fall of Clement delayed us a lot during the day. We have considerably reduced our pace, Clement wasn’t in great form since the accident.
Temperature has fallen again, and the night which begins to fall pushes us to finish quietly. It will take 3 hours before arriving at the truck. The road to our point of fall being relatively straight and annoying as fuck. We have to continue and not to stop, in order to not arrive too late to the truck.
We’ll have a break, because I was frozen. Clement had already lent me a neck-cover, but that was not enough. So I took one of my t-shirts that I squeezed around my stroke to get a little warmer, and prevent the air from passing.
We finally arrived! Now we are on the truck. We are all so tired, and as I hadn’t taken my transparent helmet visor with me, I was with my visor opened since night fell down. I let you imagine my head at the end …
I remember having a little more coffee in my bag. Since we also have a little gas on te bottle, we prepare 2 cups of coffee for 3.
Then we start to rebuild the trailer, which we have to dismantle completely to enter it in the truck, then we load the motorcycles on it, as well as all our stuff in the truck.
We are going to take the road in direction of Paris this time.
We ate on the road, later during the night, and we arrive the next morning at home, tired, but so happy and satisfied with our trip and what we lived.
Conclusion of the Trip
After my problems linked to my motorcycle, when i came back from Austria, i really needed to go back on the roads. This feeling of failure, although I was able to finish the trip this summer, left me with a bitter taste that I needed to make disappear.
This road trip in the Pyrenees, because of its simplicity in how the things were, allowed me a sort of return “to the basics”.
Each road trip to these difficulties, as you can see since you read and follow me. It is not the kind of holiday that would make many people dreaming, since we often come home more physically broken than when we left. But this return to the basics is, in my opinion, something essential, which m marks a break with the daily routine and also to realize that we have a lot of chance to have all this comfort in our everyday life; Something that we tend to forget over time.
During this trip, we traveled no less than 1,200 kilometers in just 4 days. Every had day a different atmosphere. We were able to live and feel the power of the Pyrenees mountains as well as the coldness of the nights in the mountains. Cross the arid climate of the Spanish desert, even in the middle of October, and finally, join the greenery of the Spanish coast on the side of Bilbao. So many changes of climate, of landscapes, in a so short distance. It is impossible for me to have a preference for one of them … Each area has been a marvel at every point.
I try to satisfy my desires of perpetual discoveries by taking the road regularly, and as much as possible with motorcycle. But in reality, travel calls for traveling. It’s an additional motivation to push me to go even further, and it does not matter what it may involve. We have only one life, and traveling, discover our planet is one of my priorities. I find it important, enjoyable and so rewarding.
I have the chance to combine 3 passions: travel, motorcycle and videos. As long as I could still, I would continue to discover (and make you discover) a whole bunch of countries, landscapes and cultures, on motorcycles.
As I said above, traveling calls for travel, and my ambitions grow with time, my travels, and the experience I acquired.
I finished this 2016 year on a superb positive note. I am happy to have done this travel there in the Pyrenees with my two friends Nico and Clement. The team is awesome, the atmosphere is great, we are really on the same states of mind. The cohesion of the group is escentials in this kind of travel, or everything is taken into mind: living together, respect, emotions, mutual assistance when it is necessary.
Plenty of beautiful things are coming for 2017. Some of them are emerging. I will remain blurred for the moment, but I can not wait for the good season to resume!