http://www.roadracers.co.uk ....






  Rack 'em up

Late summer and time for a trip before the autumn really sets in. We have learned our lesson regarding exotic Italian machinery and we are Japanese 'four' mounted - two Blades and two Suzukis, not a V-twin in sight, although one of the Gixers is a 750.

Having learned our other lesson regarding luggage mounting we have fitted rear racks complete with matching, and properly fitting, tailbags. This avoids the need for bungees and lots of gaffa tape to protect the plastic, and the bags velcro on and off in about 2 seconds. For mappage we have junked the idea of tankbags and fitted a selection, well 2 anyway, of map holders. Tet has opted for the sticky sucky type while I have a Baglux one. The advantage mine has is a rear pocket, but the disadvantage is it need a Baglux tank cover to attach to. Not so much of a disadvantage though as this gives a nice fat grippy surface for ones inner thighs (ooer) during hectic braking moments.

Anyway, to the trip. We were taking the scenic route with a view to staying in Chimay and meeting up with the guys coming from Brussels the next day. The plan went a bit awry when we discovered there was racing at the Chimay circuit and all the local hotels were booked up.

It was getting late when we gave up our attempts to find accommodation and decided to head to Givet. Lost somewhere SW of Couvin on a little backroad heading across country we put Givet in the satnav and started off into the gathering gloom, the calm instructions "after 500 yards turn left" giving us confidence, although "turn around when possible" was a lot less reassuring.

The rain began to spit on my tinted visor as the trees closed in on us and the stupidly narrow road we were on twisted its way through the forests. This is the problem with satnavs and 'shortest route'. Things started to look uncertain when we saw the first Deviation sign, which was just a no entry sort of thing, rather than a detour. OK, not a problem, we'll adopt the usual approach to such detours when abroad, ignore the things on the assumption than motorcycles will always fit though somehow. Over the next few miles we ignored two more warnings of approaching blockage until we arrived near a small village. The bridge over the river was missing. With no other roads in site this looked to be an insurmountable deviation, however narrow the bikes may be. It wasn't even a very big river, and the village across the void beckoned with twinkling lights and even a decent looking bar.

After much interrogation of the satnav we gave up and selected 'fastest rout', avoiding the area we were in, and the little PDA did its thing. Unfortunately it took us miles up the N5 before heading in the right direction but at least it avoided small country bridges and we eventually made it to the Val St. Hilaire, the available rooms very welcome on a darkening evening with a light pattering of rain. As it was late we booked a table at the Auberge next door and consoled ourselves with an excellent meal and some fine wine whilst talking a good deal of bollocks.

Next morning the lads arrived and after a leisurely breakfast we decided to head south east with the idea of picking up some new roads into Luxembourg and then striking north to the 'Ring for some Sunday runden. A few wrong turns and some misjudgement of the map meant we were running late so lunch was Frites Americains with some interesting local variations beside the river in Monthermé, and not bad at all either when you're a bit peckish.

Then it was down to some good twisties through Luxembourg and on up into Germany, heading for Nurburg.

However, the darkening skies and the occasional spot of rain reinforced the pessimistic weather forecast we had seen that morning, and after some deliberation we decided to repair to Vianden, on the grounds that the skies looked the most promising in that direction.

And what of the bikes? Well, having the two Blades gave us a chance to compare the 2004 model with the new 2007 incarnation. To look at there's precious little difference, slight changes in the fairing and a new tailcan improves the back end somewhat, but the motor is a good deal changed in its power characteristics and that makes a fair difference to the riding enjoyment.

The old bike does feel a bit flat, even though it runs happily with a Gixer, but the new bike is much more engaging, with a good grunty feel and a nice step in the powerband around 7000 rpm. It's still a bit thin at 4000 rpm but I'm told a Dyno thingy will cure that. Or just keep it above 4000. And Blades are top bikes regardless of year.

Not so top that you can take liberties with a Gixer 750 though. Lenny was mounted on his K6 and chasing him through some of the unpredictable twists and turns of the Ardennes' hills and valleys showed just how good the 750 is when you're entering unknown bends in a pretty committed fashion. It seems able to turn that shade faster, to give the rider that extra millisecond or so to adjust line.

It must be more than simply size and weight, although the K6 is a tiny bike. The smaller and presumably lighter whirly bits inside the engine must add to the overall effect. And Suzuki have really got the setup sorted. It's often said that modern 1000s handle like 600s ... if that's true then modern 750s handle like 250s! Seems like 1000s will never catch up with 750s in handling.

Subsequent interrogation of Leonardo indicated that it's the slipper clutch that's partly the culprit encouraging such entry speeds. He reckons he just bangs down a few gears to ensure the revs stay around the 12000 rpm mark and lets the slipper clutch sort out the details. Try that on a Fireblade and you'll be sideways through the nearest hedge. Although of course the 2008 model has a slipper clutch ...
  V twins

Spring is sprung, and four of us decide on a revisit to the 'fire engine' road a little to the north of Sedan; so called because we met a fire engine there the last time - it was on call, and we weren't sure whether to overtake it or follow respectfully. Luckily it turned off and presumably rescued someone's cat.

The road, or rather the circuit of roads, offer lots of good bends, few junctions and very little habitation, so is good for a challenging blast, albeit the bends are mostly unsighted so it's also a good test of bottle.

On this trip we had a bit of a change from the usual Japanese fours, although Wayne's BC1216 was of course present we had a new Ducati 1098 S and an Aprilia Factory to sample.

The first problem was luggage - both of the twins have plastic fuel tanks, so the usual magnetic tank bags were not going to work. For the Ducati John elected to try a tankbag with five little sucker feet to stick to the tank plus a lanyard round the headstock for those less sticky moments. On the Aprilia I decided to experiment with velcro fixing using an old tankbag, taping one part to the tank and fixing the other to the bag, having removed the magnets to save weight (and credit cards!). Rear luggage was strapped to the pillion seats in the usual way, although this required a lot of protective gaffa tape for the Ducati.

The trip down towards Luxembourg from le Tunnel wasn't too bad, but the V-twins seemed a bit more knackering to ride than your typical four. Both the Ducati and the Aprilia have more extreme riding positions which don't work so well at road speeds, particularly with luggage added into the mix. And it was hot and sunny. Not bad in itself but it played havoc with the gaffa tape/velcro fixing for the Aprilia's tankbag and the whole lot degenerated into a sticky mess. Luckily John had some spare bungees so the tankbag was fixed to the rear luggage; not an elegant solution but it would do. Plastic tank covers are a bit of a pain when it comes to dreaming up new ways to fix a tank bag or map holder.

Arriving at the hotel we unloaded the luggage and next day could ride free of it, apart from John's sucker bag - he'd decided it would be handy for waterproofs and a map. Off to Wellin to meet up with Tet on his Blade; he was going to show us some good local roads.

With the Fireblade in the lead the pace picked up noticeably and I was having to thrash the nuts off the poor old Aprilia to stay in touch. If the revs dropped below 9000 the bike was just not able to keep up, so there had to be much changing of gear. This didn't seem to me to be like the V-twin riding I'd read about. I imagined a lazy torquey motor easily staying with peaky Jap fours with just a roll of the throttle. Praps it was just the Factory ...

One particular section was a fast winding road where we met a bunch of Belgian bikers. Well more of a sausage string of Belgian bikers really, as they were spread out over a fair distance and going a reasonable pace, so we had to work a bit to get past them. Of course, the further towards the front we got the more competitive the rider, until we reached Hyabusa man in the lead, who was going for it. I was at the back of our little group and it was getting harder and harder on the Aprilia to jump each successive rider between bends, redlining the Factory and hitting the limiter on the odd occasion to get past some overweight Jap tourer seemed a bit excessive.

After an hour or two's scamping about we stopped for map reading and John was voluble in his criticism of the Ducati. "Riding this bloody Duke's hard work, you have to change gear a lot more". So it wasn't just me then, John's V-twin was the same and it was the S version, supposed to be quick, but unable to keep with the fours unless ridden like a two stroke. Makes sense really - they develop less power and so it's logical that they have to be thrashed to stay with a well ridden Blade. The annoying thing was that Tet wasn't pushing his Blade that hard. And Wayne's ancient GSXR, albeit much modified, was having no problems at all. Well, apart from smoking us out .. worn rings it seems. To add even more insult to injury, John's sucker tankbag kept coming unstuck and was generally being useless. "Why am I bothering with this when I've got a K6 at home?" he wailed. "This Ducati's going back!"

And go back it did. John is again riding his Gixer K6 and the Aprilia was chopped in for a new 'Blade. So the V-twin experiment wasn't a great success. Perhaps they fill a different role to the ubiquitous Japanese four cylinder do-anything sportsbike. The idiosyncrasies may add a degree of character to the riding experience but can get in the way when you just want to cover distance and enjoy roads with the bike being almost incidental to this purpose. This is where the CBR1000RR or GSXR shines, keeping the bends ahead in main focus and letting itself become part of the background.

So it's back to Japanese fours for us. Well, until someone succumbs to an RC8 ....

  Bouillon

We've skirted past this holiday town set in the southern Ardennes a few times and even stayed there briefly last year. Sitting on the River Semois the town is dominated by the Castle Godefroid - open to the public if you're into that sort of thing. The houses and shops run along both sides of the river and are joined by bridges at each end.

It can get very busy during the local holiday period, late July and most of August, but out of season you get the benefit of numerous hotels and restaurants without too many customers. So accommodation is easy to find outside the busiest times.

The town's attractions include many walks and bike trails, animal parks, and plenty of huntin' shootin' and fishin' Plus loud music and firework displays may start up at any time just to surprise you. But of course we're here for the nearby twisty roads, of which there are a fair few and very quiet out of season; it's easy to ride for 20 minutes and not see a car.

The roads vary from pretty good minor N roads with decent surfaces running along the river valleys, to narrower but still very usable country roads which often climb up over the hills. Sometimes they end with a longish straight over the hilltop until they get interesting once again as they drop into the next valley.

Notorious bike roads are marked with large signs as 'Routes dangereuse' which obviously portends good things for bikes - just remember there may be some overexcited bikers coming the other way and possibly cutting corners. Best left for out of season or midweek use perhaps.

We're not talking south central France here, there just isn't the space for endless empty valley roads, but it's still pretty easy to string together some good twisty routes which don't go through too many villages; and the odd town is welcome for coffees and a crêpe anyway.

It's not worth straying too far south of Bouillon as the terrain starts to flatten out and the roads get very boring as you drop out of the hills, then it's a long treck south to the Alsace! But there are plenty of interesting roads to the north, such as the N808 up to St. Hubert and the N889 and N834 to La Roche en Ardenne, always a good lunch spot out of holiday times.

These obviously aren't touring roads, they're purely for scratching so not much interest on your Pan European. But then if you've got a comfy bike you can go a lot further to explore different roads so I don't think this area would be much of a challenge. Good fun on any sports bike though.
  Having a pop at the locals on the 641

As Tet has been resident in Brussels for a few months now it seemed a good idea to make use of his hospitality and his knowledge so far gained of the scamping roads used by the local riders and have a late autumn blast in the hills before winter sets in.

Weather forecast for the weekend was good, and this time of year getting a train sous la Manche can be done on the 'net just a few hours before you go.

Saturday morning sees us scamping off to Huy on the Meuse which is pretty much where the decent roads start. Coming out of Huy on the N641 there are is a little team lurking by some roadworks. They catch up with us through the outskirts of the town, but once out into the country traffic is light allowing us a good quick run, chased by the fastest couple of the guys, but we manage to keep our end up and they don't come past. Honour is served!

The traditional stop at the end of this road for a bit of banter is by the cafe at Pont de Bonne, so we pull in for a coffee but the two behind don't want to talk and pull in further on to wait for their mates. We watch a few bikes come and go and then on to the N623 to Hamoir, a really popular stretch with plenty of twists and some quick guys to chase. If this was England the road would be full of speed cameras, mobile pig vans and various other methods of relieving your money from your ever diminishing wallet. Luckily this is Belgium, so no cameras and absolutely no police anywhere.

Then we cut across and tried some of the smaller roads to the east before dropping south to Hotton for a spot of late lunch and then a blast down the N833 to La Roche for dinner, beers and a bed for the night.

Woke up to a misty start, but the sun soon appeared and warmed everything up. Off south-west out of La Roche and then cut across country on some excellent little twisties - N843 and then the N889 to Forrieres before taking the 803 down to St. Hubert. Very quiet generally these roads and they offer a good challenge.

Spot of lunch and it was getting time to head back, so we took a loop north-east and up the excellent N834 back to La Roche, a quick blast down the challenging N860 to Houffalize and then cut back up north taking in the N841 on the way back to Hamoir for a quick coffee before heading for home.
  On any Sunday .... in Belgium

After my move to Belgium back in June I have had a couple of visits from the lads making an enjoyable weekend scamping around the Ardennes, but I can't rely or expect them to pop over every weekend when the weather is fine, so largely I have had to entertain myself and get out on the bike for a solo jaunt, something I've never really minded, luckily, but always good to have a plan of action and a chosen destination.

Once I popped over to the 'Ring just to see exactly how far it was from my new home and how long it would take on the Blade, but it is a route I know and a good 50% of it is covered by using the E40 motorway towards Aachen and coming of at Eupen. After that I decided to work out a less motorway route, so I tried this last weekend, but poor weather stopped play as the roads were too wet just as I got to where my map indicated they would be good. However, all was not lost, I knew the roads leading to that part of Belgium could perhaps be bettered. After sitting down at my dining room table with map in front of me and high highlighter pen in hand I set about improving my route. I even shortened the E40 stretch by another 10 miles or so. Not difficult to do of course, but many of the roads leading off all look pretty much the same, so it's really a case of trying to avoid as many built up areas as possible.

Undeterred, I attempted this again this past weekend, with a much higher level of success. With the sun blazing and my leathers feeling surprisingly comfortable I set off. I fuelled up at the Leuven services after having to go into the kiosk to ask the attendant to turn pump 6 on, but he insisted I pay for the petrol first, I asked him how I would do this when I did not know how much the petrol would cost or how much fuel I required, he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know how much it would cost either, but he did tell me my Bancontact card could be used at the pumps.

There was a group of Belgian bikers sitting there having a fag and a coffee and I think they must have pissed the attendant off as I have never met anyone as unhelpful as him in my time here and never been asked to pay for fuel prior to filling up, even at the very same services the week before!! How bizarre. Anyway, the Bancontact card worked a treat and means I will never be stuck for fuel again, it works at all fuel stations with a machine (of course), even if they are closed, brilliant!!

I left the services and headed off to exit 25. There I turned right onto the N29 to Jodoigne (boring), then left onto the N240 to Hannuit (boring), got a bit lost following a sign to the N80, which was my route, and then found my way back onto the N80 (boring) toward Bierwart. As I got further south on this road I kept seeing signs to Huy, which was on my route, but I decided I would stick to my plan .. should have followed the signs!

At Bierwart I turned left onto the N921 toward Andenne to pick up the N90 to Huy. This last bit being a complete waste of time. I've just scribbled through this last part on my map with a biro, never to be ridden again. What did I say earlier about avoiding built up areas??

Next stop Huy. I had been here last Sunday so knew roughly where to go. I found my desired road (N641 to Modave), but soon came to a halt at temporary lights and behind the same bunch of bikers I had seen at the services. I was hoping they would be pretty quick and show me the way to do this next bit of road as it did look nice and twisty on the map and if they were on this road, it should be good, and it was, but not all of them were. To get to the quicker riders I had to get up front, so I did, but by the time I had got them we were in Modave, good little scamp though. The guys at the front of the group looked at me as if I were from another planet and promptly pulled over. Oh well, I had a plan and a route to follow so I did, straight on to Ocquier then left onto the N638 and then right onto the N623 to Hamoir. This road is very popular with the locals and you can see why, it's a lovely area and has some lovely roads which are well surfaced.

Not long after getting on this part of the route I came upon another group of bikers. Again, I got past the back markers and caught up with the leading trio who were going well. 3rd place man was on a 999 Duke, 2nd place man was on a 916 and 1st place man was on an SV1000, but by Christ he knew where he was going. I was very happy sitting in 4th place as these guys rode very well and luckily seemed to be heading in the same direction as me. What a pleasure it was to ride with some like minded individuals. Once at Hamoir they pulled over and gave me a wave, this being a big biker meet place on a Sunday it seemed.

From here I picked up the N66 and followed this all the way to Trois Ponts, this stretch not being as twisty, but quite good never the less. Except I think one poor Z1000 rider did find it twisty as his bike was stacked into a sign post with his mates all looking on, how, I don't know, maybe pulling a wheelie, as it was in a village too. At Trois Ponts the Bancontact card came in handy again and then I headed to Malmedy for lunch on fairly boring roads, but I'd had some fun.

Over lunch I decided to head on to the Ring and do a couple of laps as I had an 8 lap ticket still with 6 laps on it. From Malmedy I headed to Waimes and then to Bullingen on the N632, fairly quick roads, but quite open. Then right onto the B265 and the left into the B421 toward Stadkyll. Then left onto the E29 to Blankenheim, (forget this bit too unless you want to cover ground quickly?). From Blankenheim I picked up the lovely B258 and was at the Ring about 30-40 mins later, pretty uneventful on this stretch, but a lovely road and a had a good run with a lad on a Gixer 750, but he too turned off. What is it with these guys?? If you've got a sports bike, bloody ride it like one!! Maybe easier said than done for some?

Once at the Ring the circuit was shut, but no sooner had I taken my lid off and lit a ciggie than it opened. So off I went for 2 laps in succession, the first being very unhindered and all to myself and the 2nd a bit busier, but quick enough. Only saw one accident at Eischcurve, where a Blade had stacked it, oh and a coming together for 2 bikes at the top of Kesselschen. Other than fine and plenty of room to park up at the Ring itself, I thought it would be far busier, as it was the weather was excellent.

After a can of red Bull and a relax in the shade, I thought about the journey home. In the end I decided I'd do the quickest way I knew as I was a bit biked out. The B258 always seems better on the way home when you have re-profiled your tyres round the Ring, so a good trip back it was, apart from the 75 miles of E40 to Brussels, but hey, better than having to go as far as Calais I guess?

  Three go to Belgium and discover why 2005 Blades don't steer properly

The trip this time around was a Monday to Friday affair, so therefore missing out on weekend traffic etc. that would/could be in the hallowed area of the Ardennes, being chosen destination. Aiming for Le Shuttle to Calais, once on the M20 the skies started to darken and not before too long opened up on us, (July, are you sure??) By the time we got to the Folkestone we were too wet to put on waterproofs so tried to dry off in the terminal and then again on the train in the short time that we had.

Once we got to Calais it was definitely time to don les waterproofs and head out into the French rain, could it be any less wet than English rain? It wasn't long before we'd had enough of that (answer being no, of course) and decided to stop for a coffee, which soon turned into stopping for lunch.

We'd only made it as far as Desvres, just 25 miles into France. A joint decision was made to wait until the weather had passed. This took about 3 hours in all, but this was supposed to be fun and we couldn't see the point in getting cold and wet. And the wait was worth it.

The stint from Desvres to Chimay was pretty much dry all the way, but bloody windy. Time to give the Fireblade a try out on her fresh Pirelli Diablo Corsa rubber, mmm, more on that later. We had the usual GPS shenanigans and took various roads/tracks/paths to get to Chimay, but the reason for this is purely to keep away from the likes of Arras, Cambrai and St.Quentin etc. we really don't like towns us lot and the GPS systems are pretty good at avoiding them if programmed correctly. In fact GPS is pretty good at avoiding anything including tarmac roads too.

The ride down to Chimay is about 200 miles and we had plenty of time to do it in even with the long lunch stop. Once in Chimay the sun was shining and the quaint old hotel looked very welcoming. So too did the Trappiste beers that this town is famous for.

The first night was spent in the 'Casino' drinking Chimay Cinq and Leffe Blonde and eating increasingly strange cheeses to the late hours and having a merry old time, as one does when on holiday and under no pressure for an early start the following morning.

Tuesday, the sun was shining again, but between very dark clouds, which soon dumped their contents on Chimay. Today we were looking for the Chimay road circuit, which we found very soon. In fact there are 2 circuits made up of public roads, one being the long circuit and one being the short. Once we'd sussed out where each went, we started to do some lapping. The long circuit is the one I liked most which is about 3 miles long and extremely fast. The Belgians really know how to make a circuit too, even the bends are positively cambered and remember, these are public roads 99% of the time, definitely worth seeking out if you are down that way as the roads are hardly used, but in good condition and still used competitively. Not sure how long we would have got away with it before the local plod would have turned up though, but it was brilliant fun, especially as only one section of it was wet!!

The next stop was undecided and we had no accommodation pre-booked. What we had agreed was that it should be a destination not yet used by ourselves as an overnight stop. No GPS needed for this part of the journey as we know the routes quite well now, so just a quick glance at a map and away we go. Heading in the general direction of the Ardennes proper. We stopped in Trienge for lunch and decided we'd head for Clervaux as that was in Luxembourg, close to Vianden and also close to the German border, Germany being the home of the fabled Nurburgring.

We got as far as Houffalize and whilst having a coffee, Wayne went off and found a hotel at a very good rate with secure parking for the bikes. Even though Clervaux was only 27 kliks away, we were under no pressure and decided that Houffalize would be good enough for the night. Oddly enough, we went out drinking again and had good food too and all crashed out very happy indeed.

In the morning I was awoken by the pattering of heavy rain against the windows of my room. We all wandered off for brekky looking at a very overcast sky and rain pouring down that looked unrelenting. We had enough of wet weather riding, so decided we could do worse than stay where we were until it cleared, after all, we could scamp off to Clervaux later that afternoon when the weather improved. Weather improve?? Well, yes it did, but not until about 4 PM, after a few Leffe Blondes I decided against it and so too did the others. Really the day was spent doing what tourists do, wander the streets, eat, drink and be as merry as possible under the circumstances, which we did pretty well.

On Thursday we had to think about heading back. We hadn't even got as far as the German border, let alone the Ring. That said, we had had a relaxing time away from home and to be truthful, this was exactly what I needed. Anyway, onwards and upwards and back into those waterproofs.

The thought process was that the hills of the Ardennes were actually creating the heavy cloud cover and the rain falling from it, so we decided that as we headed west the rain clouds would disperse and leave us bathed in warm July sunshine for the remainder of the trip back.

If I could have planned it, that's how I would have liked it, but alas it wasn't to be. We rode all the way to Beauraing in the pissing rain, much of this with me hating my Blade more and more as I had absolutely no confidence in it in the wet, purely down to this lack of feel I had from the front end. So, I had finally determined after 3000 miles that it was not a fault with the tyres, it was something else, far more sinister perhaps. I had decided it was time to give up sportsbikes; Honda had let me down and it was time to go back to Supermotos, but ones with comfy seats, and that was what I was set on doing. My amigos were shocked.

Once at Beauraing, I had to stop as I'd had enough of riding through rain. So we had a long and pleasant lunch and once the rain had cleared, pressed on to Chimay - bound to be dry there, and sure enough, as we pulled up into the square of the hotel it did stop and the sun came out. The brightest thing I had seen for the past 8 hours had been the tailights of the bikes in front! We were soaked. Chimay had never looked better.

That night the three if us deliberated the problems of the Blade's front end and in the end we decided it had to be the HESD - Honda Electronic Steering Damper. I harked back to when I'd bought a Gixer 750 and had experienced a similar problem. I'd cured that by removing the steering damper, but that was a 20 year old design, still fitted to the K5 by the way, so the Honda item had to be better than that, surely. It couldn't be causing the problem, could it?

Could Honda's wonder Valentino Rossi tested electronic marvel actually be a load of old toffee and completely useless?

The next morning I was out there at 08.00, allen key in hand removing the plastic covers of the HESD. There was an 8mm headed bolt securing the HESD to the top yoke. I removed the bolt and made sure there was no fouling of the olive jointed connector to the top yoke and proceeded to play around with the damper unit itself.

Now, before I go any further, the PR blurb for the 2004 onwards Blade was that the HESD was a product of Moto GP and development by none other that Vale himself, so it had to be good. What it also suggests is that the damper should offer no resistance when stationary or at low speeds and that resistance will only increase as speeds and road conditions improve/worsen. However, when moving the damper from side to side with my own hand, ignition on or off, bike running or not, there was absolutely no difference. There was far too much resistance. I can only compare it to the resistance I would have felt from the old Arrow damper on the RR3 if it were on it's 4th or 5th click (out of 9). I'd only ever used it up to 2nd even at the Ring!! So perhaps this this was the problem.

Riding the bike from Chimay back to Calais the following day in the rain and the dry, yes the weather improved nearer the coast, it was like riding a different bike altogether. You knew I was going to say that though didn't you. Anyway, once home I took it to my local dealer and reported the fault to be investigated when it has it's next service.

So despite the rain we experienced everyday of the trip, it did prove worthwhile and will keep me sports bike riding for a while longer yet. The Blade now feels just like I would have expected it to, it's brilliant!!

  Getting lost

This time there were 5 of us making the trip, so navigation and staying together should be a simple enough affair, but perhaps not as easy as you'd think. Anyway, Newhaven - Dieppe was our channel crossing of choice.

Upon arrival at Newhaven, Pete's R1 was dripping coolant so once into Dieppe we decided it best to stop and take the side panels off to investigate the cause. The leak were traced to the bottom rad hose rubbing on the down pipe of his exhaust and over a period of time it had perished and created a small hole.

JtP and I shot into town to a Yamaha dealer but to no avail, so we armed ourselves with duct tape and various other leak stopping material only to arrive and find the chap from the garage had fitted some flexy hose. That stood up to the rest of the trip no problem at all.

In the middle of all this Andy fuelled his bike and somehow, unknown to him, he got the trailing petrol hose from the pump caught between his rear sprocket and chain. Feeling a bit of resistance as he pulled away, Andy did what come naturally and gave his Gixer a handful of throttle and promptly pulled the side of the pump off!! The owner of the petrol station was none too impressed to say the least and it took some major effort to disentangle the Suzuki

OK, so incidents 1 and 2 accomplished already and it's early yet .... only about 90 minutes lost.

Once we were under way we headed south on a route that was familiar .... only to become rather too familiar as we gradually veered off in the wrong direction led by Jean le Peinture. We arrived at Forge Les Eaux and I pulled up alongside John as he consulted his map. I indicated we should turn left, but he said "Let's head for Forge!!" in a General Custer sort of way and promptly roared off in the wrong direction. My words of "We are in Forge! ..... " were drowned out by the noise of his exhaust.

I didn't have a French map (big mistake), but I was sure we were going the wrong way. Luckily Percy had a map and he had twigged our mistake. He gave chase and managed to stop John after 3 or 4 miles and got us back on track. Another 30 odd mins lost, but we had all day and it was dry and warm ….. at present. Incident 3 now out of the way.

Next up, we had to navigate a small town with traffic lights and a level crossing. Easy enough you'd think, but here we spent approximately 60 minutes trying to regroup. Andy got stuck at a red light which we hadn't seen and therefore he hadn't seen us turn left after the level crossing, so carried on in completely the wrong direction. We stopped and John went back to find Pete, who was waiting for Andy. You still following this? John told Pete to join us, and Pete promptly went barrelling off down a road that Percy and I were not on, so we didn't see him and he didn't see us, but he kept going anyway. Andy found us after about 30 mins and several phone calls, but Pete didn't come back for ages it seemed. Time was getting on and we'd only done about 60 miles, another 200 odd to go? Incident 4 was now history.

From here on, we had a trouble free journey and managed to make up some time. This was somewhat forced upon us by the weather - it was raining - and we had to take to the more major routes to break the back of it.

As we rode through Givet I really wanted to stop at St. Val Hilaire and just stay there the night, but we had to press on for another 50 miles in the pissing rain - the downside of booking rooms in advance. We arrived in La Roche at 19:30 much to the delight of the Madame that ran our Hotel, I think she'd nearly given up on us.

That night we had an excellent dinner and during the course of the evening the skies started to clear. The next day was for road riding and we had a brilliant day. Got back to La Roche about 17:00 in time for an early dinner and an early night as the Ring beckoned us on Sunday.

Up with the dawn, well almost, and out of the hotel by 09:30 to arrive at the Ring about 11:30. Got there to find the car park only half as busy as normal and the sun shining down from blue skies above, Nirvana!! I did 6 laps with very little traffic and only 3 crashes to be seen. The track didn't close at all and not one lap was considered busy, I couldn't believe it. Guess we were lucky that the track wasn't open Saturday so mainly only locals using the place. Top tip there.

On the Monday we had to head home and again navigation seemed to be a problem from the off. JtP asked which was the way out of town. I said "To the top of the hill" indicating the junction 300 yds away "and turn right, then take the first left at the Shell garage". Well, the right turn was correct but the first left at the Shell garage was completely missed, so 3 of us stopped and waited. It didn't take long for JtP and Andy to realise the rest of us were not there and soon came back. Then we got cracking, leaving La Roche with ample time to spare for our 18:15 boat.

We stopped at Chimay for coffee and then got lost again and ended up near Laon, then we got stuck in St Quentin, and the pressure was building, we found our way out and started to make up some good time on the D930 all the way to Songeons. There we found a delightful little café that still served us a superb lunch and this was now after 15:00 hrs, rare for France. After being suitably fed and watered we tracked back to Dieppe with an hour to spare, got on the Seacat first and got the best seats in the house - at the back in the bar.

The trip was full of incident, but it was fantastic. Again, it was made up of good company, good riders and bloody good weather. Can't wait 'til the next one. Cheers lads, I loved it!!

  Vianden via GPS

Six of us set off early to catch the train sous la manche on a thankfully sunny morning. The weather stayed like this for the duration of our 5 day trip, perfect biking weather with not a rain drop to be seen. On the journey through the tunnel Wayne put the finishing touches to the route already planned into his GPS system - now improved with more selectability of routes so we can tell the thing which roads we want to take. I had my trusty map of Belgium, so failing a total blackout from outer space we should be OK!

We left Calais on the D roads and stayed on these pretty much all the way to Givet without a motorway insight. Bloody marvellous!! We stopped at Frevent for lunch, grabbed some cash and hit the road again. We arrived at Givet at about 18:30 for a chilled and refreshing beer before showering and wandering into town for a bite to eat.

Next day the GPS system wasn't playing ball. Seems that programing the route in slightly the wrong order confuses the system, so it was back to my trusty and somewhat weathered map of Belgium to guide us in the general direction of Vianden for the two next night's stay. We have some idea of this area now and do know some of the roads to avoid that may look good on the map, but in fact are bloody awful. So we sorted out a slightly different route that took us through some amazing up and down hill sections with bend after bend after bend. This is excellent fun as you get more confident and therefore faster and faster until you run enter a supposed 90 degree right hander that suddenly turns into a hairpin and you run completely wide right to the opposite verge.... luckily there was no traffic and I learnt from my mistake: expect the unexpected.

Then we stopped for coffee. We then stopped a little later for lunch and then stopped again for more coffee. We stop a lot for coffee, but when you have been doing loads of back roads that seem to have more than their fair share of cement dust and general mud from fields and farms that has turned to dust, your throat starts to feel like the bottom of Ghandi's sandal. We then arrived into Vianden about 17:00, down the hill to the hotel, secured the bikes round the back, unpacked, showered and went off in search of beer and food.

We'd thought about an early start to make the most of the weather and have a top days riding. So we set of about midday (in the end and much to JtP's disgust, "you can't do this in England you know!!"), but more than made up for the delayed departure by finding some more stunning roads that were very tight and twisty, particularly from Vianden to Clervaux. It's not an up and down route, but it seems to hug the sides of a valley and therefore make it very interesting. After about an hour or so of this it was time for a leisurely lunch.

Then we set off for the Ring. Oh yes, we incorporate a trip to the famed Nurburgring when we can. A small change to the planned route as we needed some smooth roads for some on bike footage, roads which were fast and flowing made for a pleasant change; there's nothing like variety to spice up your life.

The Ring was open from 17:15 to 19:30. We'd not done an evening visit before, but it seemed to be perfect; the track was quiet, so in the 4 laps I completed from my 6 lap ticket I did not get baulked or caught once, unless being caught by the likes of Wayne and Keith counts, but I guess it does ….. bugger!!!

On the way back to Vianden I had a go on Dave's ZX10R, and boy, had I been looking forward to this. Incidentally, the ZX10R for me is the best of the bunch from the 2004 breed of litre sports bikes. Anyone who has read the press reports about the ZX10R will have heard it's a bit of a beast, but I found it to be great and Keith found it to be a Ringmeister machine. The riding position is what sealed it for me though as the best all rounder. It feels just like my Blade with a nice reach to the bars and the seat high enough for my knees not to get cramped. The engine is a stunner but the front forks are what seems to let it down a bit. It's a shame I didn't get time to really try and set these up better, but I did wind in some more compression damping to help give it feel when turning and this seemed to help, I'm sure a bit more fine tuning of the forks would help it even more. When I got back to Vianden I didn't want to get off it. The last Kawasaki I owned was a KH250, it may be time to try another Kwacker soon ..

Thursday, and this day we needed to head towards the Mauberge region of France as that was roughly where our hotel was for our last night of the trip. In fact the town was called Avesnes Sur Helpe. Never stayed there before but we did ride through it on the way to Vianden and were somewhat perturbed by the amount of traffic (big lorries) that the town seemed to collect, but you never know until you try. However, we could not leave Vianden without being tagged as 'Tourists' so Mark, Keith and I went off exploring the town. We found a model shop that is run by Den Dinky (!?) and the station for the chair lift to the highest point of Vianden. Needless to say, Mark and I took a trip up the chair lift for some fantastic views of Vianden and the valley it is nestled within, stunning stuff and many a Kodak moment to be had. Then we all headed off round about midday yet again. What the heck, we're on holiday.

We got to Avesnes rather late, due to some antics by Wayne and a Seat Alhambra on a roundabout. Luckily for all involved, very little damage to both vehicles was had and even less to Wayne. In fact it was his derriere that caused most damage as it is this that slammed into the side of the people carrier as he came back to earth from orbit after doing an amazing stoppy, caused by his front brake lever being rammed into the car. In fact I do believe his belly pan may have left white paint the roof rack somewhat?? Maybe an exaggeration there, but the damage to the car was certainly much higher than Wayne's bike! Once in Avesnes, we found the hotel immediately and again started on beer and food. A table was already reserved for us by a forward thinking person. The restaurant was excellent and they even have a dog there that may have some Doberman in it, but I'll leave it at that.

We did actually hit the road about 10:30 am next day, shock, horror, but the best roads were now behind us and we basically had to negotiate a route across France without using any motorways all the way to Calais, which we managed, much of the journey without the aid of GPS or John - his map wasn't required because Keith could get there on feel. This confused John, but I think it's more to do with feeling the force, than just feel. Anyway, it's wasn't hard and we only had to do about 1 mile of motorway to the entrance of le Tunnel sous la Manche.

  Bulging Bastogne

June always seems a long way off for the first trip of the year, but when it comes around it's normally worth the wait.

The Ardennes bit of Europe was our chosen destination for a 5-day trip. This region encompasses parts of Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg and being hilly we expected some good roads. 8 of us set off early on Saturday, crossing the Channel via the Euro Tunnel - thank god for this wonderful piece of modern day engineering. The weather did not look good as we left the Chunnel.

We all waterproofed up except Mark, he was determined not to wear his new waterproofs, but the rest of us wanted to keep some level of dryness and comfort. We had devised a route to avoid motorways as much as possible and set off on our chosen route. The heavens darkened every minute of our ride, so we decided to stop for coffee etc. and let the weather make up its mind what it was to do. The sun came out, brilliant!! So waterproofs packed away and off we went again. We seemed to be following the weather whichever direction we took, but we were making progress, albeit slowly. The inevitable happened, the rain found us and we had to head for the motorways to make up ground quick, waterproofed again, except for Mark, we continued on like this until we got to Givet.

Givet was our first stop and the weather cleared that evening to leave a lovely sunny day for our first trip out on Sunday. We headed out to the southern part of the Ardennes and found some cracking roads, most of them being yellow D roads as these offered the best riding and the least traffic.

We did find a couple of long straights where two of the guys pitted the old GSXR1100G (now 1216cc) against the new GSXR1000K3 for high speed testing. The G wasn't quite quick enough to get past Suzuki's finest, topping out around 184, but good effort for a 17 year old bike! It was bloody funny watching from behind.

I got as far as a reading of 170 mph on the Blade and they just kept pulling away. However, as these two paced their steeds against each other we howled straight past the turning we wanted, but it mattered not. I was acting as pathfinder, and decided to take the next available left.

Once we had turned off we stopped and waited for the top speed junkies to return. On Wayne's arrival his acute hearing could tell that someone had a puncture. Dave the Pilot no less, his Aprilia slowly sinking on its back wheel. Luckily there were a host of puncture kits available and I soon fixed it, although those plastic valve adapters are crap and waste far too much air. Off we went for videos shoots of flybys and wheelies. Then we had some lunch and headed back towards Givet for a few beers and some dinner.

On the Monday we had to move on as there was no room at the Inn at Givet. This was a shame as it is a lovely spot and just at the beginning of the Ardennes and some damn fine roads. La Roche-en-Ardenne was our next port of call.

Nothing was booked in advance, but we were lucky and managed to get all 8 of us into a hotel on the river - not bad seeing as the place only had 9 rooms in total. Monday afternoon was spent chilling, checking out the town and doing the culture trip stuff, like visiting the castle, eating ice creams and the drinking beer. Particularly drinking beer.

It was a bloody hot day with the temperature climbing after midday we couldn't face getting leathered up and going out riding that afternoon. Besides, this was a holiday too and some R & R was much needed, especially by me.

Tuesday's weather was kind to us and we were set for a good run incorporating the more eastern side of the area, into Luxembourg and Germany, with lunch at Bastogne in Le Nuts Café, named so after the rather witty General McAuliffe who upon hearing the Germans terms for surrender of his troops during the Battle of the Bulge (WWII), told the Germans, "Nuts" and held out until the surprise German attack through allied lines was repelled.

After lunch it was a quick jaunt back to La Roche and then we could all decide if more riding was required or more time to chill out was required.

As it was again very hot, the latter was most popular with only JtP wanted more riding, so off he went with my map, the rest of us chilled and drank beer …. again.

Wednesday was the journey home, to which no one looked forward, but the weather was kind to us, in fact for most of the journey it was cloudy and little bit cooler which was very welcome. What was also welcome was JtP leading the way home. It wasn't until then that I realised how much fun I'd missed by being up front. I would be doing my utmost to keep a good but safe pace, going into corners and feeling my way round them for all the others following to use me as a bench mark and go in hotter and smoother and generally have more fun. Still, I'm not complaining, I did my duty and we all got home in one piece, mission accomplished!!

The Blade behaved impeccably, but it is only after spending this amount of time on it that I really got to notice a few things that needed a little sorting. I'd fitted a set of Rennsports and the rear felt a little nervous at times, this may have been the ever changing road surfaces more than anything else though as once lent over Rennsports stick!! The forks however, do need some hardening up, when changing direction quickly they are taking too long to unload which means they're too soft and have too much travel. That's my logic anyway.

A bit more preload to start with and then I'll play around with compression and rebound from there. Upon cleaning the bike today (an hour to degrease it), I noticed the left chain adjuster had would itself all the way in, but it didn't look like the rear wheel had been moving around, but upon cleaning the front wheel, I noticed I had put the wheel in the wrong way round, so the direction arrows of the wheel and tyre were facing the same direction, but that direction was backwards, what a prat?!! I'd just ridden over 900 miles with it like this and the front tyre felt great, needless to say though it's now facing the right direction and may feel even better. In two weeks time 5 of us are off over there again, so I'll be able to find out just what difference has been made.

If you fancy a good supply of bendy roads with little traffic, fast uphill sweepers, downhill hairpins and everything in between, then the Ardennes offer a great choice and only a couple of hours quick blast from Calais. Most of the locals seem to speak French, and the food is pretty reasonable. The weather can be a bit changeable, but you'd have to get down to southern France to improve on that.