Rode another bike is it treason...ha ha..

[marcm]

Mainly due to time constraints I've ended up using another bike for 5 days or so rattling around Pyrenees,but its all fine I've come home started up the tenere,washed it,had a run around on it and its going for mot this week..then hopefully going back to catalunya with some friends end of November..with the correct bike this time..
Ok so its an imposter but at least it was a yamaha....covered just under 3000 miles on a mighty wr 125 x,quite a lot of it on the mountains,the only thing that fell off was one seat mounting bolt...all I have to do now is decide why I'm back a very wet uk in the end of October.....I'm struggling very hard for reasons at moment other than a check up with the eye vet...

[marcm]

Found an ideal route over top from Spain to France that would be quite passable on a big traily no problem,even on one of them german things....the other route I found last year would probably be a bit of an episode on anything bigger than a 600/660 tenere...I did get a Germans ktm 625/640 thing across a couple of weeks back,then promptly dropped it immediately after getting up the difficult bit...and was then horrified at the weight of the thing getting it back up as I'd spent most of the previous week on the 2 stroke..
Here's a few of the Germans that stayed at my friends place down there for 2 weeks at end of September..
I think they quite enjoyed it,despite me struggling with the Spanish translating bit when it came to lunch times...




The mighty beta 200...completly underrated by anyone that thinks they need a 450 for the mountains.






And here 2 of tenere last year on the same bit of mountain as took the wr up...at 2200 metres tiny bike struggled a bit...and last year on the tenere in the march it was f.......g freezing....right back to work in the sunny uk for a bit..

[vanandy]

Hi marc, nice photos.
I think small cc bikes are the way to go.
Took me f800gs with a few mates to north Spain, great for blasting around twisty roads pasingtthe quent villages, but every time i seen a 250 / 125 / 600 slowly popping along the beaten track towards those queint villages I thought "I'm on the wrong bike".
Best of all you can get more of um into a van, drive to location and tour out without the luggage, that's were my head is at the moment anyway.
Enjoy Catalonia.

[marcm]

Hi andy
I had a complete variety,drive Newhaven to Spain in mercedes sprinter with 2 bikes and some logburners to take to Spain,went off for a day at a time taking the Germans up in the mountains on the gas gas,then after they'd left and I'd done a few other chores I went off on a couple of jollys on tiny bike with tent and crap for a few days at a time....returned with only one bike as gas gas is staying as an expat for the moment,returning in November with some friends,taking tenere down in mates van with their bikes,then I think I will return sometime later...tempting to shove an additional lodger in the other room in house to keep me San Miguel and panau chocolates while I'm gone...hope its all good on the island down there..

[vanandy]

I recon if you could get 6 polish in your house, live on champs and McD's. Fly to the Gas gas sounds good.
Island life zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, me f800 stator went kaput at 21000 miles, piss take £600 bmw parts, got an after market eBay.de item for £128. Stator only, BMW only sales stator and rotor.
Gonna finally fit a side casing to the xt next week. Going to fit an earlier ally item, it'll need a small bit of work to fit.
R100gs going this weekend, room for another money pit.