Category Archives: Uncategorized

Changing Down a Gear.

Posted on by
6

The more I travel, the more I have my faith in the inherent goodness of human nature restored.

Sure there are some crap things going on in the world at the moment and yes there are some truly twisted and evil people about, but they are the minority. That is why their perverse ways will never win against the greater majority.

Why am I being so philosophical? Well it’s probably got a lot to do with being in Italy!

What other country would come up with the idea of Cafe Corretto? It’s simple genius, espresso coffee is full of caffeine and wires you up, alcohol chills you out and makes you mellow; so the Italians figure if you put coffee and grappa, a fire-water made from distilled grape skins, together in the same cup, you won’t get wired or drunk! What a brilliant idea! I’ll have two, thank you!

I bowled into Livigno yesterday evening, with eyes like radar scanners having battled the crazy Swiss on autobahn and mountain roads and suddenly everything changed. Life became, just. . . chilled. At the customs post the duty officer just gave me a friendly wave and a thumbs-up whilst pointing at Baby Blue!image

Livigno is a funny place, it has “Duty Free” status and although not exactly a tax haven, it’s a near to one that you can get! The economy is based on tourism, skiing and shopping. . . Mrs Dookes is gonna want to come here I think!

Next I had to find my hotel, but the one way traffic system was baffling me so I stopped to ask help from a policeman or Carabiniere as they are called here. First thing he said to me was, “Bella moto/Nice bike!” Now that’s always a good start. When I told him which hotel I wanted he just waved me up a street that had “All traffic Prohibited” signs! Next, I pulled up in a small square just to get my bearings and a chap, who turned out to be the barman in a street side restaurant, appeared out of nowhere offering assistance; he’s now officially my new best Italian mate! We talked bikes, roads, mountains and watches…yeah that’s another story!

There’s not many places on the planet where I feel at home really quickly, but Livigno has hit the spot for me and I really can’t explain it, because normally it’s not the sort of town I’d choose at all…it’s those Italian laid back vibes I think! What’s more, just about everyone has a smile on their face! It’s probably those duty-free prices; petrol at €0.92/litre, it’s €1.40 in France for example.

I think the mountain air must have something to do with it as well!

Dinner of local air-dried beef with olive oil to start followed by venison ravioli in white truffle sauce rounded off the day beautifully, bellissimo!

Now, jotting this down over the most incredible breakfast; fruit, cereals, bread, dried meats, salami, cheese, pastries, cake, biscotti and of course more strong coffee, plus a view out over the mountains, life is still good and people are, well, just people who mostly want the same things from life….and despite what we in the western world hear from the media, it’s normally the simple things that make us most happy. In Italy that seems to revolve around a cup of incredibly strong espresso!

Talking of which, I was offered and accepted an “Espresso colazione,” that’s breakfast espresso. When it arrived, I estimate it was the size of at least four normal espressos and as strong as a nuclear reactor; I’m floating above the floor now!

With that, it’s time to get into my riding gear and go find some more of the most fantastic creatures on this planet; some more interesting people!

Ciao!

Dookes

Swearing at the Swiss, or Four Countries in One Day!

Posted on by
13

It’s true, we’ve been in four different countries today.

We started off in France, near Mulhouse, then crossed the River Rhine into Germany, fought our way across Switzerland and finally kicked the side stand down in Italy!
I’ve got to admit that I put Autobahn, by Kraftwerk, on the Boom Box as we hit the motorway in Germany and headed South, geeky eh?!?!?

I really don’t know what to make of Switzerland.

I adore the scenery of the Alps, love the varied yet efficient railway networks and some of the cheese is ok, BUT…there’s an awful lot that I don’t like about the country.

Take for example the cities, on the face of it everything is glossy, upmarket and nice; scratch the surface and take a few back streets you’ll find there’s a seedier side. Graffiti covered walls, seedy run-down buildings and a thriving undercover drug culture are painfully prevalent; the gulf between the haves and have-nots is wide.

Then there’s the roads. The Swiss have a long history of genuinely innovative civil engineering. They have successfully built a network of highways that has conquered the various testing terrain that their landscape has put before them. Sheer genius. It’s just a shame that they have yet to discover how to safely drive on these wonderful creations!

In previous posts I’ve commented on Swiss driving and I can confirm that if anything they’ve got worse, a lot worse! Tailgating at high-speed, lane changing without notice, exiting at the last-minute and cutting across traffic when doing so, using mobile phones when driving, lane hogging…I could go on, but I’d only sound like I was moaning! Anyway, I went into fighter pilot mode; head on swivel, watch out for the sneaky attack out of the sun and never fly straight and level for more than three seconds, it worked I’m still alive! I hope this doesn’t sound too jingoistic, I’m just writing about what I see and experience!

Driving aside, all the Swiss I’ve spoken to are really lovely, it’s what happens when they get behind a wheel….

Back to the trip report then.
We cut across Switzerland from Basel to Zürich, through countless tunnels (I hate tunnels, remember) and followed along Lake Walensee to Maienfeld where we called in on the Harley Dealership. Then it was into the canton of Graubünden to Davos, where we turned left and climbed into the snow and over the Flüela Pass.

Flüela Pass 2389metres.

Flüela Pass 2389metres.

image

image
Dropping down after topping the pass we came to some road works and stood for a few minutes at traffic lights. Some others bikers came up the hill waving frantically, something was clearly not good. The lights went green and we gingerly moved off, rounded a corner to find hat the road surface had been removed! Not just planed back, no this was like all gone, all that remained was loose gravel and clay and on top of which it continued for about 200 metres around a hairpin bend at a gradient of around 10%!!!! Now big twin Harley’s aren’t made for off roading, I’ve done a bit on Harls on the flat in Spain, but this was, frankly, scary! So, gentle on the brakes, both feet down, stay in first and walk the bike down onto the tarmac…we survived!

At Zernez we took the Offenpass road and I must admit to having a ball throwing Baby around the various bends, which were testing but not too bad for a big bike like her!

Sometimes even big V-Twins look small!

Sometimes even big V-Twins look small!

Offenpass

Offenpass

The sneaky way to get to Livigno in Northern Italy, where we are for the night, is to use the single lane, two-mile long, Munt la Schera tunnel. This was built by a Swiss Company for a hydro-electric scheme in the 1960’s and once the construction for that was finished they agreed to maintain the tunnel for public use, subject to a toll – of course, they are Swiss after all!

Lago del Gallo, Livigno.

Lago del Gallo, Livigno.


I have to say it was quite an enjoyable experience, trundling through the tunnel all by ourselves and quite a different way of arriving in Italy!

That’s it for today, 243 miles in total and our first hairpins knocked off too!

“Wir fah’rn auf der Autobahn… ”

Catch you later.

Dookes

PS Happy solstice!

A Strange Little Chapel

Posted on by
3

Only a couple of days ago I realised that my route plan for this trip was taking me fairly near to a building that has fascinated me for over forty years. Not only that, but the story of the man behind the building I find equally compelling.

The building in question is the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut and the man is known simply as Le Corbusier.

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland in 1887. He trained first as an artist, before branching out as an architect, town planner, writer and humanist. He was a prominent figure of the modern art movement and is credited as a leader in what is today called “modern architecture.” He was a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete as an architectural art form. He died in France in 1965.

Le Corbusier’s most famous religious work is the chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut, built in 1955 on a hill overlooking the town of Ronchamp. image

It was to this beautiful hillside that I turned Baby late this afternoon. In a way I was undertaking a bit of a pilgrimage and I wasn’t disappointed.

The predecessor to today’s Chapel was sadly destroyed at the end of World War Two, but it gave Le Corbusier a blank canvas with which to work for its replacement.

The building is highly irregular in both plan and section, frankly I find it stunning. image

Le Corbusier wanted light to become integral to the design so the roof doesn’t actually sit on the walls! It is standing on a series of columns with the walls providing a filling, at the top of the walls, which themselves are perforated in windows, are thin glass fillets that allow light to shine through and make the roof appear to be sitting on a cushion of light.image

Externally I found the building stunning enough, but inside took my breath away!

I don’t normally get very excited about religious buildings, yes I love the great medieval cathedrals for their impressive structural engineering; I like the wonderfully quirky Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and there’s a very small old church in Dorset that once quite charmed me, but nothing compares to this Chapel!

I wandered in and for a moment just stood taking it in; before, almost overcome by the atmosphere, I had to sit down on a simple bench against the wall furthest from the main altar. The place just oozed peace and tranquility.image

When the building was opened in 1955 Le Corbusier said;

“By building this chapel, I wanted to create a place of silence, prayer, peace, inner joy.”

Well, he certainly did that.

I don’t honestly know how long I sat there, I just didn’t want to leave and I really could feel an inner peace. imageI’m not at all religious these days, but you know, something reached out and touched me there and I feel better for it.

Catch you soon.

Dookes

Sunday Miles

Posted on by
4

I like Sundays in France.

Being here on a Sunday always reminds me of a time in the UK before the politicians caved in to the greed of commerce and allowed the shops and just about everything else to open on the seventh day. Sunday’s were special at home back then and thankfully they still are in La France. Almost everywhere is shut, except for mostly small family restaurants, the odd grocery store that opens until noon and of course the small artisan boulangeries.

The wonderful ritual daily tradition of purchasing fresh bread transcends everything, even the Sabbath!

This morning as Baby and I began the long slog across France to the Rhine valley we also partook in a spot of “Pain achats” (bread shopping) to make a sandwich for lunch. It’s a simple pleasure, yet quite wonderful, to queue in a small bakery and be embraced by the heady smells of fresh bread. Our boulangerie was in Mehun sur Yevre, a small somewhat down at heel place, about halfway between Vierzon and Bourges. At €1.10 for a pain traditionnel, I think it was good value for a crispy golden baton of fresh bread.

Pleased with my morning purchase I hit the road, hard. Bourges to Clamecy on the N151, 100 miles of largely straight old Roman road across rolling countryside and at times dense forest. The sort of road where you have to be careful, too many hidden dips where approaching traffic can lurk to catch out the inattentive overtake and where the long straights can bring on mind wandering boredom, if you are not careful!

N151, built by Romans.

N151, built by Romans.

That said, it’s also a delight on a Sunday with very little traffic.

We crossed the River Loire on a lovely stone built multi-arched bridge at La Charite, pausing just to grab a photo.

Loire bridge, La Charite sur Loire.

Loire bridge, La Charite sur Loire.

By Clemacy, we were in Bourgogne; land of fine if a tad expensive wines, endless wheat fields and superb herds of Limousin beef. We took the more serpentine D951 for Vézelay and Avallon, time to enjoy some twisty bits!

Vézelay is a lovely hill-top town that is reputed to be amongst the most beautiful in France, but as a result get stuffed full of tourists and today was no exception! The town and it famous 11th century Romanesque Basilica of St Magdalene are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The basilica, Vézelay.

The basilica, Vézelay.

After Avallon we hit the Autoroutes; first the A6, the infamous Autoroute du Soleil where the Parisiens try to kill themselves during the annual holidays as they race flat-out towards the Mediterranean! Next we took the A36 and dropped into the Saône valley.

I’ve got to say that although Baby is ideal for mile munching, riding these Autoroutes is as tedious as it gets! I was delighted to turn off at Baume les Dames and onto the D50 for a bit of chilled exploration in the Haute-Saône region of Franche Compté.

What we found, I’ll tell you about in another post!

Tonight our overnight stop is near the Swiss border; 340 miles today and I’m glad to see the back of a lot of them!

“Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.”

Catch you soon.

Dookes

The Dear Cher

Posted on by
Reply

Visitors to France will be familiar with the colourful signs that proudly inform travellers that they are entering a new Département. For those not accustomed to French regional government, it’s sort of similar to the County principle found in the UK and USA; though in the wonderful French way it’s not quite as simple as that – there are also other regional layers of administration, but let’s leave that aside for now!

Many of the Départements take their name from geographical features, most common of which are the names of rivers. For example, from Angers today we passed through Maine-et-Loire, Indre-et-Loire, Loire et Cher and finally ended up in Cher.

As rivers go I have a real soft spot for the Loire, it’s such an incredible thing and to me oozes character. The Loire is over 1000 kilometres long, drains more than a fifth of France’s land area and is the 171st longest river in the world.

It rises in the highlands of the southeastern quarter of the Massif Central in the Cévennes Mountains; flows north through Nevers to Orléans, then turns west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean at St Nazaire.

Which sort of brings me to the River Cher. I’m sorry my Dear Cher, but I really can’t get very excited about you as a river! True the Cher is about 400 kilometres long, but for a lot of this it’s a mere trickle and for the rest becomes weed laden, muddy and lazy.

The old Berry Canal deep in Cher country.

The old Berry Canal deep in Cher country.

What the Cher does have going for it however is wide floral water-meadows, fertile plains and simply gorgeous countryside. It’s very hard to put your finger on exactly what it is that the Cher has going for it. There’s certainly nothing spectacular, so maybe that’s it in a nutshell it’s just all roundly nice, easy on the eye and totally bucolic! Soft and gentle, just like the wines that are produced in this central region of France.

Cher country, big skies and soft greens.

Cher country, big skies and soft greens.

I’ll raise a glass to the Cher, the Dear Cher!

“I will walk alone by the black muddy river,
And listen to the ripples as they moan.”

Catch you all soon.

Dookes

PS 385 miles today. Fancy some more tomorrow?

24 Heurs du Le Mans

Posted on by
4

When I put this trip together I was aware that the Euro 2016 football championship was taking place in France, but a quick check of venues showed that I shouldn’t be bothered by any disruption; actually what is a bit strange is that although France are the hosts there aren’t any of today’s three games on television here!

What I forgot to check was the date of the famous Le Mans 24 hour motor race I had routed myself right through the city of Le Mans and today the race started! The sad thing is that I love the city, especially the old quarter, Vieux Mans and I had hoped to enjoy a coffee there on my way through. So you’ll have to be content with a couple of photos from a previous visit!

Vieux Mans

Vieux Mans


Le Mans trams in the Cité Plantagenet.

Le Mans trams in the Cité Plantagenêt.

I also adore the magic that is the famous race, where cars and crews are pushed to the limit; massive sports cars power along the Mulsannne Straight in the darkness and their headlights light the trees in the forest of the Sarthe at midnight. I haven’t yet been to the race in person; I keep promising myself to go to one year….only not this one! A couple of years ago I spent a very enjoyable morning in the 24 Hour museum, which is located on one of the permanent parts of the circuit, half of it is public roads for the rest of the year. It’s well worth a visit, even Mrs Dookes enjoyed it!

Le Mans Bentley Speed 8, Winner Le Mans 2003

Le Mans Bentley Speed 8,
Winner Le Mans 2003

So there we were happily trudging along the A81 heading East, getting near to Le Mans and the traffic just went stupid, from 110kph to 10kph in about 300metres! Time to bale out and find another way; which is just what we did, cutting South across the beautiful countryside of the Sarthe towards Angers.

Now here’s a strange thing, every time I go anywhere near Angers there’s always roadworks and not just a bit of resurfacing! Oh no, we are talking “let’s dig it all up and rebuild it” stuff! Diversions, temporary surfaces and just as we got on the brand-spank-me new stuff, it promptly welcomed us by having a thunderstorm and turning the new oily asphalt into black ice! Twice, as I accelerated off roundabouts, the rear wheel lost traction…now that’s quite a peculiar feeling to have the rear wheel spinning when you are going in a straight line! Bear in mind as well, fully loaded and with me on board, Baby weighs in at just over half a metric tonne….and we lost straight-line grip – twice!!!!!

Thankfully, the rest of the mile munching day wasn’t quite as “interesting,”

Dookes

On The Road Again

Posted on by
6

Good morning everyone, it's a decent day here in Brittany on the North West corner of France.

The ferry crossing last night would have pleased Mrs Dookes, had she been with me; the sea was glass smooth and the ship had very little motion, a bit disappointing really!

I woke with the first ray's of morning streaming through my cabin window and just had to get up on deck to watch the sun rise out of the Eastern sea.

I had an old dear friend who has sadly "gone on," he spent many years at sea, both in the Royal Navy and then the Merchant Marine; Tony always used to say that dawn was the best time to be at sea on a ship. I think he nailed that pretty well!image

I’m just South of Rennes now, 140 miles in two hours, not bad! Traffic was nice and light until the Rennes Rocard, then we hit the shoppers…

Ok Baby is fuelled and I’m topped up with espresso; screw it, let’s ride!

Catch you soon.

Dookes

Badges of Honour

Posted on by
4

I’ve just finished preparing “Baby Blue” for our latest trip, which is just as well because in less than twelve hours we will be sailing to France.

As usual I’ll be taking the Plymouth – Roscoff service, which is run by Brittany Ferries. At eight hours it’s not the quickest crossing of the English Channel, but it is one of the longest and as the port of Plymouth is only 25 miles from Dookes H.Q. it makes sense to use it; an overnight crossing with a cabin and comfy bed makes it a no-brainer!

One of the last preparation things I had to do was to remove last year’s Swiss Autoroute Vignette from Baby’s screen. I must admit that I was a little sad as each of the stickers represented a bunch of great experiences, but hey it just makes room for new ones!

“What’s a Vignette Dookes?” I hear some of you saying.

Well. . .

Many Autoroutes/Motorways in Continental Europe are toll roads, you have to stop every so often to either grab a ticket or pay the toll charge. This can be a pain in the rear on a bike; you have to remove gloves, find the ticket, find cash or your cash card and then pay the toll. Yes, sure in some places you can obtain an electronic pre-pay tag, but mostly it’s not worth the hassle setting the things up if you are only passing through and are not resident. In Switzerland and Austria they have a different approach, you have to purchase a “Vignette” and stick it onto your windscreen before you venture onto an Autoroute.

Vignettes: Yellow - Swiss. Blue - Austria

Vignettes: Yellow – Swiss. Blue – Austria. Grossglockner speaks for itself!

Austria are pretty good to occasional users/visitors as not only are annual Vignettes available, but also short-term ones too which are ideal for people just either passing through or on holiday.

In Switzerland there is no choice, only 12 month Vignettes are sold at 40 Swiss Francs a pop – that’s about £29 at current exchange rates. Typically for the Swiss the sticker has to be displayed in very precise way on the vehicle and woe betide you if you don’t get it right or fail to display a sticker, big on the spot fines apply!

On the face of it the Vignette seems a bit pricey, but compared to French or Spanish tolls it’s actually not bad value and the joy of not having to stop every time you enter or exit the Autoroute is also well worth it!

I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying that we are heading to Switzerland, at least that’s the plan at the moment, once we get off the ferry!image
“Like a bat out of hell, I’ll be gone when the morning comes.”

Catch you soon, on the road.

Dookes

Feelin’ like a Road-Trip

Posted on by
12

OK it’s getting near time to hit the road again, I’m getting jittery to start rolling and Baby Blue is nearly ready as well.

First up, I got her booked in for a slightly early 10,000 mile service. Now normally I like to service my bikes myself, but as Baby is still under warranty it’s only sensible to let the dealership do the work and stamp the service record. At the same time I had a new set of Dunlop tyres fitted; the old ones were in surprisingly good condition, but don’t like to push rubber right to the limit, so new ones it was. image

It’s a funny thing with new tyres on a motorbike, they always feel lovely and “round.”

Yes I know tyres are circular; wheels aren’t normally square unless you have a special set that won’t roll away downhill!

By round I mean that they are round in cross-section, a worn tyre “squares off” because most of the time you ride your bike upright and so naturally it wears the centre section of the tyre more than the outside. In time this means that you can actually feel a shoulder forming in the rubber, leaning the bike into corners becomes hard work and at worse a bit “interesting!” A new set are just roundly lovely and roll into bends beautifully.

The only downside with new tyres is that they need to be gently broken in, there is always have a slight residue of release agent on the surface which for about a hundred miles can make them a bit slippery and it’s also a good thing to get them bedded in on the wheel rim too; so it’s gently-gently to start with and 100 miles after leaving the dealership, I had a big stupid grin across my face!

The next job was to change the exhaust pipes for touring mode. Normally I ride Baby with a set of Vance and Hines Round Slash slip-on pipes, they sound lovely, but for long distance travel play hell with my tinnitus, even with ear plugs and a super quiet Schuberth helmet! So off came the V&H’s and on went the standard silencers, not as cool, but not as tiring either! It only takes about thirty minutes to make the swap, but I recon for long days in the saddle it’s well worth the hassle!

Standard muffler fitted, Vance and Hines on the ground.

Standard muffler fitted, Vance and Hines on the ground.

Ok, you got me now…..where am I going?

I’m going to sound a bit boring, but I fancy heading back to Italy again – can you actually be boring wanting to return to Italy???? Baby and I have some unfinished business in the mountains up near the Swiss border and I honestly have fallen quite in love with the country. So we’ll jump on a ferry next Friday, have a trundle across France; visit Switzerland, then drop into Italy and see what happens from then on!

If you fancy joining in for the trip, we’ll be happy to have you ride along with us!

“Get your motor running, out along the highway….”

Catch you soon.

Dookes

PS
As I type this post I find myself trying to make sense of another tragedy, this time in Orlando USA. The inhumanity we, as a human race, continue to demonstrate to our fellow beings never ceases to amaze me; what is so bloody difficult about respect and tolerance?
image
“Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?”

Testing The Slim

Posted on by
5

With planning for an imminent road trip well underway at Dookes H.Q., I thought that I’d better get Baby Blue sorted and serviced before hitting the highway. She’s just turned over 9000 miles and is due her next service at 10k, so if I set out to ride any respectable distance she’s going to pass that easily; better get a service in first and whilst we’re at it a new pair of tyres too!

Soooo, yesterday morning I dropped her off at Plymouth Harley Davidson for the work to be done. I had hoped to wait whilst the technicians did their work, but for various reasons things got a bit stacked up and it was obvious that a quick turnaround wasn’t going to happen. The Dealership Manager Chris Iris appeared and after apologising for the delay offered me the chance to try out a new Harley Davidson Softail Slim on an extended overnight test ride.

I’ve got to admit that I was a tad peeved about the delay, but Chris’ offer was very fair and well the chance to test out a brand new model with only 160 miles on the clock was too good to miss.

The Softail Slim model has been around for about four years now and is the modern successor to my beloved “Harls,” a 2003 Softail Standard Centenary Model. Harris and the Slim share the same frame layout which really shows off the bulk of the V-twin engine. The Slim has “Fat Boy” type inverted front forks with a chunky great 16 inch wire spoked front wheel between. The engine is the 103B twin cam, that’s 1690cc of air-cooled grunt! In the classic way of all Harley Softails the rear suspension is hidden underneath the bike. The wire spoked rear wheel matched it’s front partner and looked super, I love “wire wheels!”image
One thing I took an instant dislike to was the “Hollywood” handle bars, I’m more of a “Semi-Ape” man myself and the wide flat bars are just not my thing at all!image

Harley Davison are making all sorts of statements about how this bike is 1950’s retro-styled and that it nods in the direction of the original custom bikes. I think the modern parlance is “Old School.” Now I’m as partial to old bikes as anyone, but I really feel that 1950’s or any other decade’s styling belongs in it’s original decade. I’d rather buy a genuine old bike, than a new one that’s pretending to be from another age!

The Softail Slim is certainly a smart-looking machine, if a tad Spartan. The seat is only a single, so no room for a pillion. Everything is minimalist, little things like combined rear brake lights and indicators are impressive, but I was left feeling that it was all a bit austere. image

The twin stock pipes look great and give the Slim a nice throaty rumble.

Once I started riding that things started to really get disappointing. I’m very used to riding Softails and this one just didn’t feel “right.” The riding position may look as cool as you like and be ok for a short hop to the local café or shop, but you won’t want to be covering great distances on this machine. The saddle wasn’t at all kind to the Dookes derrière and the knees up under your chin position is frankly uncomfortable.

At low-speed the Slim handles crisply and responsively, turns in nicely on corners and sharply accelerates with swift throttle response. Above 45mph the naked bike and appalling riding position both combine to make for a teeth gritting hang on tight experience. Harley claim a top speed of 110mph, if you can get anywhere near that and still hang on, I wish you good luck!

Overall, I got to say that I was disappointed with the Slim. The on the road price is £14,995, it’s a lot of money for what is basically a posing bike and lashed up from parts of other models at that! So no I won’t be adding one to the Dookes stable anytime.
image
Thanks again to Chris at Plymouth Harley Davidson for the opportunity to try out the new model.

Back to the planning now, catch you soon!

Dookes