Got back from my trip 5000km round Europe in just over a week including 2 trackdays. Bought a new R1 in London, rode to Dusseldorf and stayed with a friend there. Had a huge meal of pork and beer in the old town there next to the Rhine which is great. It was all destroyed by us in the war but it's all rebuilt as it was and you'd never know. The brilliantly styled underseat exhaust of the R1 incinerated my brand new panniers, so I borrowed a bag from Matthias and strapped in on the back seat; except that I couldn't because of the aforementioned exhausts - no way to attach a bungee without it melting. Matthias and I set off with him carrying all the luggage on his trusty Fireblade. We were off to Most in the Czech Republic for a track day, but riding with Matthias wasn't easy, he's the only person I've ever ridden with who sticks to speed limits. This is OK on unrestricted Autobahns 220kmh + but when the limit changes to 110 you have to be careful not to run into the back of him as he slams the brakes on.

We arrived in Most at the hotel he'd booked but we didn't like the look of it- it was a motel in a servo in the middle of a dual carriageway. I'd spotted one earlier which looked nice , it was a 4* hotel in the middle of the woods above the town. We went there and they had rooms only 55€ each. We took em. Had a really nice meal in the hotel restaurant, all the staff claimed not to speak German, but if you spoke to them in German they understood.

The next morning we went to the track which was full of Germans with big motorhomes, there for a 3 day event. We were only doing the first day, and looking at a map we weren't even going to do all of that as we were booked in at the Salzburgring in Austria the next day.

It's 350 miles all on small roads to the Salzburgring so we decided to leave Most at 2pm. It's a great track, really fast and flowing. The first corner is a chicane followed by a fast left hander. Approached at 260kph it looks about 6" wide and takes a long time to work up to doing it flat out. The best I managed was no brakes, just a downchange, but I'm sure with practice it would be flat stick. The rest of the track is a series of fast esses, a bit bumpy but good.

The D208RRs I fitted had enough grip and the bike is a missile. It's like one of those video games where your bike is 50kph faster than everybody else's. There were a lot of old R1s there but there was no comparison for speed. We met a couple of really nice German guys with Aprilias who let us share their garage, and I was glad to discover that I hadn't forgotten how to speak German while learning Spanish.

At 2pm we set off for Salzburg, It was really hot 36 degrees and I got fed up with following Matthias at the 100kph limit. When 2 Czech bikers on an SP1 and a GSXR1000 blasted past the race was on. It was a great road, lots of varied corners and not much traffic. We had a really good thrash for about 100km but I got away from them, then they caught me up at some traffic lights. We had a laugh and then they turned off to Prague. I stopped at a petrol station and had a beer while I waited for Matthias.

Next we came to a gorgeous road through the forest to the German border. Well surfaced wide and twisty we swapped bikes for a bit to give my arse a rest from the R1 medieval torture instrument Yamaha call a seat. We crossed the border avoiding the gaggle of strangely dressed young ladies who were talking to all the car and truck drivers. I think we confused the border guard when he saw the German on the English registered bike and vice versa, but no problem and we crossed into Germany, where Matthias started sticking religiously to speed limits again.

My arse was really beginning to hurt. The R1 has a very hard seat and the underseat exhaust makes it pretty hot as well. In the hot weather we'd crossed Europe in this was causing severe problems to my Farmer Giles. By the time we crossed into Austria at about 6.30 they were in agony. I had to stop and we arrived at a town called Riem, which was very pretty and had a 4* hotel with rooms. We had dinner in their excellent restaurant and a couple of bottles of excellent local red.

Salzburgring

The next morning we rode the 50km to Salzburg and found the track which is really hidden away in the pinewoods down some very small roads. How they ever got a GP sized crowd in and out of there I'll never know. I've always wanted to ride there ever since I used to watch Schwantz, Lawson, Gardner, Koczinski and the rest there in the 80's and 90's. It's set in a narrow valley, and is the easiest track to learn I've ever seen, as it's basically flat out along the bottom straight, through the chicane climb the hill flat out through the gears leaning left and right as you go (170mph on the clock of the R1 up the hill), and then the main feature of the track the 160mph banked right hander at the top of the hill with armco on either side. A few wiggles and back to the beginning again. It was fantastic and the R1 was the tool for it keeping up with the locals in the fast group on sheer grunt up the hill, only to lose out on bottle in the fast right hander and then pass them again on the start finish straight. It was 36 degrees again and after about 3 sessions my Chalfonts were killing me. It was lunchtime so we went into Salzburg, where I found a hotel and checked in and then we had an excellent lunch washed down with nice cold local beer.

After lunch Matthias went back to the track and I went to the hotel to rest my sorry arse. I felt much better after a shower and a lie-down, but didn't feel like putting on leathers in the heat. I went back to the track and Matthias was about to go out for his last session, so I lent him my bike. He came back with same impression - ballistically fast and great handling and brakes. We had a beer together in the paddock bar and then he was off to a polo match (don't ask) in Munich and I had the small matter of a 2700km ride to the south of Spain which I had been looking forward to, but with my ring of fire it wasn't such a great prospect. I went back to the hotel and rested for the evening and had a good nights sleep.

In the morning I had a great breakfast and set off for Italy I love riding in Italy and the R1 is a good bike for the job apart from the seat and the difficulty in carrying luggage. I get very annoyed with the manufacturers, it would be so easy to fit a couple of brackets so you could bungee stuff on, but they just can't be bothered. I took Matthias' panniers and managed to fit them so they didn't get incinerated, but it meant staying below 125mph which rather spoilt the point of the trip. I've since ordered a Ventura rack, so we'll see what that's like.

I rode from Salzburg over some beautiful mountain passes to Lienz, crossed the Italian border and rode to Cortina, the famous ski resort which will forever be associated with dodgy purple or brown cars, thanks Ford! It's a beautiful place and my arse told me I should stay there, so I booked into a slightly strange full board hotel, which turned out to be full of Italian pensioners. Not a moment to soon, for it absolutely pissed down about 20 minutes after I got there. This was the only rain I saw on the whole trip. When it stopped I went for walk round the town which is very pretty and found all the shops were open even though it was a Sunday evening. When I found a pharmacy I dived in and loaded up on "Preparazione H" then went back to the hotel and had a nice Italian dinner, antipasto, pasta con salse di pomodoro, vitello tonnato, surrounded by a very decrepit looking bunch of Eyeties.

The Ring of Fire

When I left the next morning in beautiful sunshine, I took one of the most beautiful roads I've ever been on, winding high through the Dolomites with endless hairpins. Unfortunately the pain from the ring of fire was too much to really enjoy it. At the top of one pass was a souvenir shop and I dived in and bought an embroidered cushion which helped for a bit but it was difficult braking into corners as it slithered about a bit.

It was too uncomfortable, so I had to take to the motorway, where the wind pressure took the weight off my arse and the bike was pretty comfortable. I had a nice lunch of pasta and tomato sauce with red wine in a service station and ended up covering about 400 miles to stay in Cuneo at the bottom of the Alps.
Cuneo is a lovely town I found a really nice hotel with a garage for the bike and an air conditioned room for me right in the centre of the town. It was about 32 degrees, so I had a shower and rested my butt for a bit before going out for a pizza. Italian pizzas are great, I sat outside watching the world go by and sipping my red wine. Then I had a great Italian ice cream and went to bed.

In the morning I headed for the French border over the Col de la Maddalena which is fantastic. I first went on this road about 20 years ago and it hasn't really changed. With frequent stops to rest the grapes of wrath, it took a while to get to the French border where the road became so good that it almost took my mind off my arse. Well surfaced smooth and winding, I got some really big lean on and there was almost no traffic. This was when the rev counter needle fell apart, don't ask me why. All too soon I was at the motorway near Gap which I had to take for comfort reasons. At 120mph the wind takes enough weight that you can take the rest on the footrests and not on your arse.

I crossed France, stopping only for petrol, including a row with a petrol station attendant who was convinced I'd put 58 euros worth of petrol in my bike. Luckily I had the right money for the 17.5€ I'd really had so I gave it to him and told him to go fuck himself. About 4pm I was almost in Spain, so I stopped for the night in a little town called Rivesaltes which is famous for its Muscat wines. They were having a medieval festival which was fun, everyone was dressed in medieval costumes. I tracked down the best restaurant in town and booked a table for the evening. It was lucky I had as when I returned it was packed and they were turning people away. I had the best meal of the trip: salade de chevre chaud followed by a sort of large spring roll filled with delicious spicy lamb in a beautiful sauce with potatoes and green beans. For dessert I had a superb dark chocolate mousse. Because they were so busy, it took a while, so I spent quite a lot of time standing up to alleviate the pain.

Spain

The next morning after a breakfast of nice French bread and croissants I headed for Spain and home only 1200km away. Looking wistfully at the Pyrenees on my right I decided to stick to the relative comfort of the motorway. Passing a petrol station, the fuel light came on. The next sign said 50km to fuel. I slowed down to 140kph, which seemed incredibly slow and everyone was passing me. After what seemed like a long time we reached the petrol station where I still had a litre left. The R1 has a good fuel range, at 110mph it will do 38-39 to the gallon falling to 21-23 on the track and at 80-85mph it does nearly 50mpg. It was another really hot day 38 degrees at Alicante, so when I got to Murcia, about 700km, I decided to stop at about 4pm. I found a great 4* hotel there for only 79€ a night, aircon minibar etc.

I had a shower and a kip and about 8pm went out to find some dinner. This is not that easy in Spain and after walking around the pleasant squares and boulevards of the historic centre and having a few cold beers in the bars it was 9.30, but still no restaurants were open.

I went into a shopping centre but their restaurant had closed for the evening, but then I found a very nice Tapas bar which I sat outside while reading the latest Motociclismo and enjoying ham, smoked salmon and toasted cheese, washed down with very cold beer. Then I walked up the street to an ice cream parlour and enjoyed some delicious mango ice cream.

Thursday morning I headed for home. 300km of motorway got me to Antequera, then it was the superb A382. This a road I know well, it is a fast sweeping A road from Antequera to Jerez. I did the last 200km home in 1.5 hrs, a new record and when I got home I found they'd finished building our pool. Off with the leathers and in with a huge splash. I was very glad to be home, it had been a great trip, although somewhat spoiled by the haemorrhoids from hell. When I unpacked my luggage I discovered that the R1 had munched a second set of panniers and melted the waterproofs that I hadn't used for the whole trip. The luggage rack is going to be fitted next week. Corbin haven't made a seat for the '04 R1 yet but when they do, they'll sell a lot.

The superb new D208RR tyres I'd fitted before I left England were still on the bike and still had some life in them despite 3000 road and 300 track miles in eight days in which they'd never put a foot wrong even on some wet roads in Austria. There was a track day at Jerez on the Monday, so I went along to finish them off. The rear lasted till lunchtime when it started sliding around a lot, so I changed it for a Supercorsa in 190/55ZR17 which sharpened up the handling even more but raised the gearing a bit too much. The front lasted the whole day. Highly recommended.