Motorbiking
"Biker" for me usually means motorbiking, though I also have a couple of mountain-bikes... see Trail Bike
My current motorbikes are a Honda CBR600RR ABS 2017 and a Kawasaki Ninja Z250SL.
Previously I have owned: Kawasaki ZX4-RR (Ninja anniversary edition), Honda CRF300 Rally, Honda CBR600RR 2005, Honda CBR600FW, Honda VF750F, Yamaha FJ600, Suzuki GSX750EX, Yamaha FJ750, Yamaha XJ900, Kawasaki Z750 and I passed my riding test on my Kawasaki KH250.
See also my Motorbiking web links
From the gleaming glaciers to the grunge of Marseille. You know you’re in Marseille when a pair of sportsbikes - a Yamaha R1 and an Aprilia - invite you to race on the urban autoroute, the riders’ flapping fluorescent t-shirts matched only by the fluorescent stripes of their trainers. Gone the fresh air of the mountains, the slight chill apparent from the glaciers more than 2km vertically above the little village of La Grave. The village where I stayed owes its prosperity to the cable car which lifts skiers up to the glaciers surrounding the Meije peaks (3984 m.). The name Meije is derived from the Occitan word for “midday” so this is an “Aiguille du Midi”, meaning that when the sun passes the peak it is midday.
Breakfast at the hotel with a couple of hikers doing the GR54, the tour of the Écrins. They'd been camping on a rock shelf plateau facing the glaciers, it sounds wonderful but they had brought too many kilos of stuff, especially as the weather had turned out hot. I think he was trying to save the hike - and a possible future marriage - with a night in the hotel. Last seen setting off without their big packs for a tourist day trip up the téléphérique.
A straightforward bike run down the valley of the river Durance, picnic passing the Lac de Serre-Ponçon; I filled with fuel at Chorges, nostalgic for the GLME 2012 summer camp there. Hot all the way and I yielded to the temptation to loosen some zips while waiting at lights in Briançon. A few kilometres further down the road, passing luscious orchards, I suddenly became aware of a sting on my shoulder. Emergency pull over to some shade but I couldn’t see either a sting on my skin or the perpetrator. An antihistamine tablet as a precaution and the discomfort subsided. It could have been a hot piece of road gravel, superheated by the midday sun on the black road but the mystery was solved the body of a honey bee fell out from my leathers back in Marseille. So confirmation that I don’t have a major allergy to bee stings. Sorry for the little bee though.
Pretty cols but the clearest of the clear days are gone now as the summer haze builds up, which will eventually lead to summer thunderstorms. First out of Bourg-Saint-Maurice to the Cormet de Roseland (1967 m.), one of my favourite col routes. It's a satisfying mix of a challenging and varied road plus massive scenery. There are good views of Mont Blanc (4808 m.) if you know where to stop.
I turned off the Route des Grandes Alpes to met up with Arno (out from Annecy on a day trip) at a petrol station in Albertville, the town which hosted the winter Olympics. We rode up to the Col de la Madeleine (1993 m.) together, another fantastically pretty route but now riding back south. It links the Tarantaise and Maurienne valleys so at the col you get views of Mont Blanc one way and the Ecrins the other way to the south. So a fine place for bikers to stop and chat. The chalet did a Salade Savoyade - Beaufort cheese and ham with walnuts - for me (as I'd just ridden through the Beaufortain, the Savoie valley from where the Beaufort cheese comes; meanwhile Arno enjoyed an Assiette véloiste - pasta with a fondue sauce and also some ham.
Read more: Bike adventure 4: Roseland - La Madeleine - Glandon
Lots of cols yesterday, big ones and not empty of traffic. Word is out that summer has arrived in the mountains.
Col de Vars (2108 m.) and Col d’Izoard (2764 m.) are classic “Route des Grandes Alpes”. Part scenic and part sporty. The Tour de France comes along here in couple of weeks’ time so the surfaces are all in good nick.
Gendarmes lurking in the shade at the start of the Combe de Queras; the massive limestone gorge between the massifs on the route. Looked like they were checking and turning back overloaded or unsound bikes (eg tyres).
But the Col de d’Izoard is mythic for pushbikers and they were here by the van load. A lot from the Netherlands. Not badly behaved but just so many of them. On the other hand, one of the Dutch saw me with my camera and asked me to take photos of him on his pocket Leica . He did a good one of me too on my Nikon.
Read more: Bike adventure 3: Vars - Izoard - Lautaret - Galibier - Iseron
Lunchtime: GPS shows 1250 m. altitude and the Cime de la Bonette is 2802 m. altitude so I still have more than a vertical kilometre still to climb since breakfast café & croissant at the Carnolès beach (Menton). Weather now ideal: blue sky and no wind.
Bike riding fantastic. This is the first full week this route has been open since the winter so it’s not yet got a lot of traffic. Indeed hardly any.... Sweeping curves and open straights. Lots of opportunities for low-gear high-rev riding except that the blue sky, jagged cliffs, cascades and thrusting mountain peaks are so attractive and distracting... Nice problem to have.Quiche Lorraine, Myrtille tart and can of Zéro finished so onwards and upwards.
Read more: Bike adventure 2: Menton - Bonette - Barcelonette
Now in Carnolés on the Côte d'Azur, it’s a suburb of Roquebrune for administrative purposes but feels more like a suburb of Menton as it’s on the same bay so gets the same gentle Riviera weather. Carnolès is usually the beach people mean when boast that they slept on the beach at Menton on their Interrail or hitching trip.
Long hot ride across the Var from Marseille yesterday. I took the direct route - ie the autoroute - as the forecast showed storms spreading down from the mountains from lunchtime onwards. Even so, having left Marseille at 28°C, I saw 35°C en route but by the time I was passing through Nice the blue sky had gone, the mountains were shrouded in dark clouds and the thermometers were showing just 25°C.
Subcategories
Alps Biker 2016
I'm riding light for a week on the mountain roads of the Alps. No laptop, although I do have my SLR camera but photos will have to wait till I'm back in Marseille..
I left Marseille for a long ride north via the Col de la Croix Haute (1179 m.) to Saint-Gervais under Mont Blanc. A bit of rain towards the end of the day which cleaned the Provence dust off my white leathers and boots but didn't soak me through.
