Brian the Barnes (aka BB) and myself meet and chat quite often and we both love motorbikes and France, Indeed, as far as I remember we have met up about 10 times in France over recent years, and BB has also ridden down to Italy 6 times. I love to ride through Europe, Italy to the UK many times as well as Italy to the south of Spain, great experiences.
So we recently got our heads together and decided that Lyon for a weekend was a good idea. About 1600 kms each, he was travelling from Coventry (UK Midlands) and I from Amalfi (south Italy) so, er, what could possibly go wrong?? Well quite alot, as it turned out. Watch this space.
I decided to take 2 days to get to Lyon so about 800km per day which for the FJR1300 is a relative breeze. The FJR carries 25 litres of petrol so 400km between fuel stops is easy. BB instead decided that one (long) day was good, but at least he rode down towards the Channel Tunnel on the previous evening. He too was riding a recent FJR1300. In my opinion and experience there is simply no better bike for fast long distance work. I have never ridden or owned any of its main rivals like the Kawasaki 1400 or the BMW 1600 but from what I read the Yamaha is much more suitable for me than the others.
My trip north went well, the weather from Amalfi up to Fiorenzuola was great, warm and dry. I intended heading into France through the Frejus Tunnel which is lower than the Mont Blanc Tunnel and shorter to Lyon than the coastal route. Luckily, as I knew the warm Italian weather could not last, before leaving the hotel I put on my waterproof suit and headed north. Well I was correct, it got colder and colder and then started raining as I climbed towards the tunnel and then started SNOWING gulp! Luckily the white stuff turned instantly to water as it hit the ground and then about 5 kilometres after the tunnel the snow stopped and things warmed up again, phew!
I then reached Lyon fairly quickly and found and booked into our hotel right by the river and in the old centre of the city, lovely place, and I went out for a long warm around the very large Saturday market on the river bank and the weather was fine but with a cold wind. BB arrived on Sunday so we went out for the serious part of our trip, food and French beers of course!!
Monday morning we got up and headed home. Weather was again cold but dry so I headed south towards Marseille and then into Italy whilst BB headed north along the excellent French motorways. He only got about halfway to Calais when he had a very dramatic moment, the FRONT tyre of his FJR delaminated and he reacted very quickly and managed to keep the bike upright and stop on the emergency lane, phew! He was quickly loaded onto a breakdown truck and taken to a tyre shop where he had a new tyre fitted, well done the French!!
All in all a very eventful weekend for us both so perhaps mid March is not the idea timing for a long bike ride I guess!!!!! A few pics follow
Leave a Reply