Fed up with Ryanair, I’ve been trying not to fly back and forth to England enduring the fascist paranoia in the airports and the crowds and delays. This summer, I’ve only flown back twice for my monthly trips to England, both flights only one way. I’ve managed to drive or ride the rest. This time it was planned that I would ride and I was looking forward to a long road ride on my new CBR1000RR8 as it is a great road bike, quite comfortable and economical. I had done a few track days and 2-300 mile rideouts on it, but the only way to really get to know a bike is to do a proper long ride; Jerez to London qualifies.

I’d managed to work the dates to include a track day on the way there and one on the way back. Spain has 3 GP circuits but the other two are so far away they’re difficult to get to as often as I’d like. Montmelo (Circuit de Catalunya) is 1100km away and Cheste (Valencia) 700. I’d managed to combine a visit to Montmelo with a trip back to England a few times before, it’s a magnificent circuit with the towering grandstands and the massive straight, but I’d never been to Cheste before. People had told me that it was all slow corners and not my kind of place, but still, it’s a GP track, so it’s got to be tried.

So, Montmelo on the way out and Cheste on the way back. Excellent!

I checked the weather before I left and it was sunshine all the way back to England with the exception of Western France (as usual), so I fitted a pair of Racetecs, changed the oil checked the pads, bungeed my bag on the bag and set off early Wednesday morning. The Montmelo trackday was on Friday so with 2 days to get there I could have some fun.

I started with my usual route through Cordoba and up to Ciudad Real, the first refill at 160 miles! Then up to Toledo still in the sunshine round the Madrid ringroad and up the A1 as far as the N110 for Soria. All going very well about 400 miles done and then in quick succession the sky turned black and my bag fell off the back of the bike.

A bungee had broken. I turned round to recover the bag and despite having slid down the road at 100+ there were only a few small holes and a broken zip. About 20 miles down the road it pissed with rain so I struggled into my 10 euro council waterproofs and carried on, grumbling into my helmet about weather forecasters. The rain was really heavy so I was going to stop in Soria, but when I got there it looked sunny in the direction I was going so I carried on over the mountains to Logrono, on the N111, a great road. 570 miles that day by 6pm no real aches and pains and only 4 tankfuls of fuel.

In Logrono I knew where to stay, the AC hotel with underground parking, where I’d stayed on my trip with the Desmosedici the month before. The lady at reception remembered me and did the room at the same rate. In the evening I went out to the Calle Laurel where all the Tapas bars are and there was a fiesta in the town so lots of bands in the streets and loads of people. The bars were doing a special offer, a glass of Rioja and a tapa for 2 euros, so about 10 of those later I was ready for bed.

The morning dawned bright and sunny, I was away by 8.30 and off to Pamplona and the Pyrenees. The N240 from Pamplona to Jaca is a fantastic road running along a huge man-made lake, loads of twists and turns. Rather than take the N260 after Sabinanigo I decided to take a very small road that cuts off the corner to Ainsa, but it was a bit of a mistake as it was very narrow and in bad condition. Beautiful scenery and mountain views though. I rejoined the N260 at Ainsa; this is probably my favourite road, running the length of the Pyrenees. I followed it to Sort, stopping for a nice lunch and a couple of cold beers in La Pobla de Segur, and the section from Sort to Adrall is the finest of the lot, beautifully surfaced, fast sweeping turns, no traffic and fantastic mountain views. From Adrall to Puigcerda, then down to Ripoll and Granollers, where I was booked in to the Hotel Augusta, just 2km from Circuit de Catalunya. 360 miles that day all on beautiful Pyrenean roads, fantastic.

My Finnish friend Pentti turned up from Madrid with his R1 on a trailer at about 9.30 and we had a good dinner in the hotel and an early night. In the morning we got to the circuit about 9. I checked the oil when we arrived and it was at minimum after just 1000 miles. Not good. I put in half a litre, signed on and we were on track at 10. A well organised day with rodadas.com, no bullshit just sign on and ride. Only 1 session was stopped all day when someone crashed on the 3rd corner on the first lap and didn’t get up. He turned out to be OK though. It was a fast track day full of club racers, and I felt quite slow, but riding at Montmelo is very enjoyable, it’s got so much MotoGP atmosphere. I saw 163mph on the Honda’s speedo on the long front straight, a bit down on the 170 I got on the GSXR last year. I’d love to ride there with the Desmosedici, but logistically it won’t be easy.

I like Pentti, he’s a good friend, but he has one very annoying characteristic, he’s faster than me! We did the whole day at the track covering nearly 200 miles, stopping for a good lunch at the nearby service station where the menu was only 7 euros. I was tired at the end but a good day. By the end of the day I wasn’t getting overtaken much and was passing quite a few, apart from the pesky Finn!

Back to the hotel and into the pool which felt great after a hard day on the track. There was a fiesta in Granollers and we debated going going into town but being old and tired we settled for another excellent dinner in the hotel, with a couple of bottles of Priorat which went down well. I put the earplugs in to sleep that night. The hotel is next to the motorway. The soundproofing is good enough that you can’t hear the motorway, but nothing can be proof against a Spanish fiesta. You could hear the music thumping from the other side of the motoway about 1.5km away till 6am. I slept well though and in the morning Pentti went back to Madrid and I set off for London.

I was a bit tired after the trackday, and mindful of the bad forecast for Western France decided to take the motorway across the South of France and come up through Clermont Ferrand. The traffic was unbelievable, it was the last weekend of August and everybody was heading North.There was a 10km tailback for the Spanish-French border and lots of stopped traffic all along the motorway. Not too bad on the Honda, I wouldn’t have liked to do it on the Ducati. After the empty Spanish roads, the crowded French ones always come as a shock, and this was the worst day of the year for traffic in France.

I was going to turn off for the Millau bridge but the 20km queue for that exit rather put me off so I carried on to Nimes and then to Alès and over the N106 Col du Mende one of the best roads in France. The weather was beautiful and off the motorways there was little traffic, you’d hardly know how mad it was. I joined the A75 after Mende 200km South of Clermont Ferrand. This motorway is normally empty and full of mentally fast corners over the mountains to Clermont Ferrand. This time it was busy with English cars and caravans who wouldn’t get out of the outside lane. At Clermont Ferrand, I turned off onto the N9/N7 which again was fairly empty and nothing like the A71 which was nose to tail heading North

On the N7 near Magny Cours I found the Auberge de Chaumiere which looked good. They had a room and I checked in. 550 miles that day and hard work with the traffic. I had a shower and checked the oil, off the dipstick again! The restaurant opened at 7.30 so I went in and had a great meal. Foie Gras, steak from the barbeque with a beautiful side dish of mushrooms, some fantastic cheese and a superb chocolate dessert, all washed down with a good Bordeaux..

I was worried the next day that the traffic would be even worse, so plotted a route avoiding Paris. Up the N7 past Nevers then turn off for Clamecy Auxerre and Troyes, all on really nice empty N roads. I stopped at the first garage and put a litre of oil in the bike. I haven’t had a bike that uses this much oil since my 1978 GS750. The roads were beautiful and quite empty till I joined the A26 at Troyes, which wasn’t too busy just English people going home. Every services was packed however, and at my last fill up about 130 km from Calais, there was a huge queue for the pumps and then a coach party turned up. I’d already been on reserve for 20 miles but put my trust in the Honda’s fantastic economy and headed for the next Petrol at 18 miles. Made it no problem with more than half a litre to spare and was rewarded with no queues.

Head down 130mph all the way to Calais and the Tunnel which was predictably heaving but got on a train an hour earlier than the one I’d booked and was home by 5pm

450 miles. 2200 miles in all ad the Honda had been great to ride, good fuel economy and range, reasonable comfort superb handling and a good engine although very gutless below 6000 rpm which is a pain on tight mountain roads. The handling is great it feels like you can lean forever, well now I’ve taken the peg feelers off only the sidestand touches down occasionally at the track. The Racetecs were great too, although they were completely shagged, all the way round front and rear by the end. It’s the most complete use I’ve ever got out of a pair of tyres.

Sunday night out for a Chinese (nice after a month of bland Continental food) and then to work on Monday morning. All was going well there but we still hadn’t managed to sell my GSXR1000K7 from last year, despite dropping the price to £5399.

It seems that people do so few miles on their bikes these days that having 16000 miles on it made it unsellable. Luckily on Tuesday someone with more sense than money emailed me and I sold it to him that day.

While the bike was in the shop we serviced it and fitted the new radiator supplied under warranty when the original leaked after 100 miles. Although Honda have lengthened the service intervals to 7500 miles, the bodywork takes so long to get on and off I think the service costs over 3 years will be about the same. I fitted a new set of Honda brake pads and new tyres, although checking the forecast for the trip back, I went for Dunlop Qualifier RR’s rather than Racetecs as I wanted something with better wet grip.

Back to Spain

On Thursday at 1pm I met up with Julian who was accompanying me for the ride back on his 2002 Fireblade and we headed for the tunnel. It pissed with rain on the way there, but when we got to the other side it was dry but threatening. We took the motorway to Rouen and N roads through Evreux and Chartres. I’d picked a nice looking hotel near Orleans to stop at, but unfortunately it was full and as it was 7pm and starting to rain, we ended up at a small hotel, very dark with a middle aged bloke and a woman who looked like she’d been dead for ten years running it on the side of the N154.I named it the Bates Motel. It was very cheap and the food turned out to be excellent, warm goats cheese salad, salmon for Julian and mignon de porc for me, excellent cheeses and dessert, with a nice bottle of Bordeaux.

The breakfast in the morning was also great: big bowls of coffee and lovely fresh French bread and croissants with creamy French butter and jam. However it was raining.

Waterproofs on, and on the motorway. I had planned to get off at Limoges and head for the Pyrenees but a check of the forecast showed rain to the West of us, so we stayed on the motorway to Toulouse.I checked the oil at the services halfway down but strangely the bike was now using hardly any oil. Outside Toulouse the sun came out so we went off the motorway and had lunch in a nice roadside place about 20km north of the city on the N20. The menu for 11 euros was good, tortilla, salmon and crème brule for 11 euros, including half a litre of local red. Refreshed we set off again and after phoning for further weather reports we headed into the mountains, for Andorra. The road from Toulouse, up through Foix to the border was good but busy but after the border the traffic thinned out and it was good to be on dry roads in the sunshine on the tight bends of the passes through the high Pyrenees to Andorra La Vella, the capital. Arriving about 5pm we checked into the Novotel with secure parking in the city centre, had a shower and a rest and went for a wander around the city.

It’s a very small town that’s become a large one, with a lot of banks. Beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, though. We went to a couple of bars then had a rather good pizza, some ice cream and went to bed early. 500 miles in the rain is tiring.

We awoke, predictably, to the sound of pouring rain. Coming down the mountain into Spain there was a lot of traffic, and it was hard to overtake in the wet.I was glad I’d fitted the Dunlop road tyres as they gripped well in the rain. After La Seu d’Urgell I got pulled by an unmarked car for overtaking on a solid white line. 60 euros later I was on my way. I caught up with Julian hiding round the corner, he hadn’t wanted to stop in case they were after him too. We got to Lerida, out of the mountains and it finally stopped raining.

Out of Lerida we took the N211 for Caspe and Alcaniz, a stunning road that runs along the side of the river Ebro, big sweeping corners no traffic and good asphalt. At Alcaniz we continued on the 211 towards Teruel, over some high (1400 metres) passes past abandoned mines. Great roads but it was raining again. At some points we were riding through the clouds, it reminded me of Snaefell. We were riding really fast round the open mountain bends the tyres gripping the wet tarmac really well, some of the most enjoyable wet weather riding I’ve ever done.

Then we turned on to the N420 coming down out of the mountains to Teruel. Arrow straight, we could see the sun over the valleys ahead so down behind the screen and 120+ down the mountain and bursting out into the sunshine. It was great to feel warm again for the first time on the trip. Outside Teruel we stopped at some services in the middle of nowhere, on the old road now replaced by the A23 motorway. We filled up and 2 cars pulled in. They were both English registered and full of Northerners. Very strange.

The motorway from Teruel to Valencia was fast and bendy and full of English cars for some reason which means that the fast lane was clogged and the inside lane was empty. I think the English are the worst motorway drivers in Western Europe. Still we did them all up the inside with the traditional 1 fingered salute. Winding down to the sea at 125-140 in the warm sunshine was bliss after the bad weather of the previous 3 days. I could smell the Mediterranean vegetation and the sea air.

Our hotel was just outside Valencia, on a golf course with swimming pool and beautiful gardens. I’d picked it for it’s quiet location. Of course that night they had a wedding. Spanish weddings start with fireworks and the noise levels increase from there.

Pentti arrived from Madrid about 10 and we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was excellent. Being as we were in Valencia we had paella, really good and some nice Rioja.

Mindful of the wedding I put my earplugs in before going to bed, a wise move as Pentti said he heard the disco start up at 2am. At 8 we were having breakfast and at 8.30 on the road to the circuit arriving at 9.

I checked the oil, still OK and lowered the tyre pressures. We signed on and at 10.30 we were on track. We were in the middle group for this track day as we’d never been to Cheste before. Julian had but he hadn’t liked the circuit so decided not to try to get on.

We set out on the first session, I was about 7th or 8th bike out but by lap 2 I was in the lead. It was a very slow group compared to the Montmelo day. Cheste is a very easy circuit to learn and by the end of the first session only 1 bike had passed me and I was happy that I knew where I was going. The Dunlops were gripping well and the brakes were fantastic which is good when learning a new circuit and you get one corner mixed up with another.

There’s a great kink at the back of the circuit flat out in third (about 140mph on the Blade) where you have to brake into a hairpin which opens into a double apex corner and then a fast chicane. It’s very technical and it was enjoyable learning the circuit and working out the lines.

By the second session I was lapping most of the group so we thought about asking to move to the fast group but Julian was timing them and said all the three groups were a complete mix of abilities so it didn’t really matter. I had several great sessions racing with a guy on a 1098 and another on an R6.

It was good fun carving through the traffic. The only fly in the ointment was that Pentti was still faster than me. Julian got him at 1.51 and me at 1.55.

The weather was perfect about 24 degrees and cloudy and we were racking up the track time. By 3.30 I’d done 125 miles on track and only Pentti was overtaking me. The grip levels were fantastic and I only had one moment when the rear tyre spun up in the fast left kink. For road tyres the Dunlops were performing really well, and hardly wearing at all. Pentti’s rear 211GP was completely shagged but unfortunately it didn’t appear to slow him down. We still had a long way to go to my house and I wanted to be home by lunchtime on the following day so we decided to set off and do as many kilometres as possible that evening to make life easier on the Monday.Before we left I checked the oil again and it only needed about half a litre to bring to above the full mark.

We took the A3 for about 50km then turned off on the N322 for Albacete. Although this was a great bendy well surfaced road I was too tired and my knees hurt too much from all the track action to enjoy it. I decided we should stop at Albacete only about 150km from Cheste.

We rode into the centre of town and found a nice hotel with private parking Hotel San Antonio 80 euros a night. It was only 5pm but I was knackered and after a couple of beers in the hotel bar went to sleep till 8pm. Julian woke me up to tell me there was a huge procession going on outside so I went out and there were loads of floats going by and loads of people in traditional dress dancing down the street. We watched the procession for an hour but it showed no sign of stopping so we went to a local Cerveceria for a few beers and a meal and watched the procession and the Feria on local TV. We had some nice paella again and a really good bull tail stew with potatoes.

The hotel was really well soundproofed so we didn’t hear the Feria but on the way out of town at 8am we saw a lot of people staggering home looking the worse for wear. The Spanish definitely know how to party better than anyone else in Europe I wish I’d moved here twenty years ago when I was young enough to enjoy staying up all night drinking!

We took the road for Ubeda still on the N322 there was very little traffic and we could cruise at 100-110mph enjoying the bendy bits as they came up. At Alcaraz there was a huge fiesta going on loads of people walking on the road and a procession with a statue of the Virgin. The road from Alcaraz to Ubeda was really good, well surfaced and lots of curvy bits, the weather was beautiful.

After Ubeda we headed to Bailen then took the motorway for Cordoba and Ecija about 160km, only about 1 hr, and then an hour and a half to home through the beautiful Sierra. We got home in time for the Feria in my village, people dancing Sevillanas at lunchtime and the big procession through the streets behind the statue of the Virgin at night, followed by fireworks and more partying at the Feria ground.
Dave Black

Sadly Dave died on the 18th January 2010 doing what he loved best - out for an early morning ride in Spain.