The BMW K75RT, the Balita Roja, and copious amounts of food and friends.

The Balita Roja appears at the end of this story. In the foreground is my BMW K75RT and Pedro Garcia's BMW R100RS. Pedro's back for a few months from his new home in Brazil, where he hardly dares to ride his new BMW because of the violence and crime in the streets. So we took a five-day weekend to go to Vila-Real (Castellón de la Plana Province, Valencia, Spain) to meet up with a bunch of old friends of mine.

Starting off at home in Madrid

 We took a 50 miles detour off the highway to go buy aged queso manchego from this cheesemaker I discovered last year in the middle of La Mancha. Yum and yum.

We then went on to the Albufera, the rice-growing region of Valencia, where we met up with Jesús, a Royal Enfield friend from Córdoba, who was on his red Goldwing, which made me laugh.

The lunch was a set menu for 11 euros with fresh local fish salad for first course:

A cold fish salad

 And of course a Spanish seafood rice for the main course.

A kind of paella, of course!

Jesús, mesmerized

 It was fabulous to be able to eat outside in mid February only a few hours' ride from Madrid.

The (admittedly scanty) motive of this trip was to celebrate Javier Honrubia's 45th birthday, to inaugurate Phase 1 of the remodeling of the "txoco" that Bruno, Rafa and Juan have in Vila-Real, and to toast Bruno's new Royal Enfield Chrome and my K75. A txoco is an old Basque tradition: the menfolk buy a small locale in town and turn it into a gourmet man cave where they can cook and eat and drink with lots of friends. These guys decided to make one in a garage they have on the Mediterranean coastal town of Villarreal.

Jesús serving a dry Montilla sherry from Córdoba and lots of cured ham.

The day started with a ride into the mountains inland, up some amazing roads. It was a real workout for me as I still wasn't used to the center of gravity and turning radius and torque of the BMW. The twisty roads were excellent practice and lots of fun. My bud Javier brought his wife and son on the BMW 1200 RT with the FLEXIT sidecar, which he drove with astounding expertise. I want to get my Javi into the sidecar so he can come with us on other occasions.

We returned to the Txoco and found Rafa making the rice. Fresh shrimp, chicken, pork shoulder, peppers, fresh artichokes, snow peas and a flavorful stock turned this into the best rice I've ever eaten. Made by Rafa, a car and truck mechanic. Go figure!

 For Javier H's brithday we got him some nice biker gloves. He goes to India on business several times a year and always brings us back spare parts, decals, extras and essentials for our Royal Enfields. We owe him this and much, much more.

Meanwhile, Bruno was celebrating the arrival of his new "modern" 2013 Royal Enfield 500cc Classic Chrome:

A gorgeous bike, for sure. He had had an old Royal Enfield from the early 1960s but it took too much work to keep it going. I suspect we'll see him on the road more often now.

Afterwards, Pedro and I extended our trip a few more days to travel south along the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Valencia City

We saw plenty of kooky things along the way:

 And got to Punta Prima to stay at Grant and Ángeles's apartment:

Full English cooked breakfast

Punta Prima beach

Pedro ordered a light salad

I went for a bit of pork and dumplings...

A wee apple dessert

The Sign of the Plastic Paella

My BMW K75

Ready to return to Madrid

Lemon trees

Sumptuous weather

We then road back through La Mancha, and stopped along the way for lunch. I had to have pisto manchego with fried egg, of course: a traditional stir-fry of eggplant, tomato, onion, garlic, and zucchini:

 More shots of La Mancha:

Major success all across the board. The 1300-km-trip got me well used to the BMW's heavier handling, its great suspension, its powerful motor. I finally figured out how to turn on the heated grips on the way back, boy what a difference that makes in February!

My spoils of war

We all had such a good time, we're talking about a repeat soon. I'll buy bigger pants.

Rewards of a Nervous Breakdown

One of the rewards of having a nervous breakdown (if you're a motorcycle) is that you get your wiring rejuvenated and sometimes, if you're lucky, a few extra goodies get thrown in. In the Balita's case, she got a new speedometer dial. The old one broke when its cable got stuck on the clamp of old support of the rectifier, which tugged the main pin loose and broke the mechanism. Emilio had another one on hand and stuck it in. It looks pretty sharp, although I can't say what year it's from. Maybe one of you clever people know and can comment at the bottom of the page.

The old clock at 30,000 km

The old clock at 42000km

Presto! Chango!

A new speedometer, marking only 13,591.8 km. 

Since it's not been to the vehicle inspection test yet, there's no problem. I'll just have to add 30,000 km to the maintenance schedule from now on. 

Big Sister Comes Home

La Balita Roja is  a jealous beast.
For Twelfthnight I gave myself a present: I bought a fourth-hand touring motorcycle. A 1986 BMW K75C. With its original black plastic side cases and a 45-liter top case and support. Heated grips. Windscreen. ABS on front and back wheels.
She's been kindly called La Perla Pirata, which I liked. Also, Precioussss, aka Smeagol/Gollum's reference to the Ring. And the Bavarian Wardrobe, rather more unkindly but nonetheless true.
I saw it on the net, from a guy in Barcelona. Luckily my bro Javier Honrubia lives out there and went to see it, bought it for me, had a good look at it and spruced it up and then rode it all the way back to Madrid for me. Above and beyond the call of duty. Javier owned a K75RT for many years and can take one apart with his bare hands and put it back together with only a toothpick and some dental floss.
Here's the fateful Reunion Day:

On route to Madrid

I see the Perla Pirata arrive!

Flexit delivering the goods.

My new precioussssss

Running fine, the ITV vehicle inspection test passed through 2015.
Now it's time for us to get to know each other. She's a big fat sluggish thing in the city, but on the highway she glides along effortlessly. This is going to be fun to travel on and cover some miles.

But I get more smiles per gallon on la Balita, I have to admit.

The Balita Roja gets a new nervous system

The Balita kept losing its charge, the battery wouldn't recharge even on the go. Emilio Mazarías took it into his care and found the current being generated was too low (12.4 to 13.8 max) so it was using up battery even while running. He proceded to rip out lots of unnecessary wires, put in new better quality wires, and moved the rectifier in from its old place at the front of the bike to a space beside the battery, and reconfigured it all. It's now producing 13.8 at low idle, and boosting the reeves a bit shots that up to a more than decent 14.4, so we hope that has been solved. La Balita is running better than ever, but is still out on parole. I'm going to use it hard, to see if the new setup holds up robustly.

Emilio Mazarías doing neurosurgery on the Balita Roja

Rectifier gone!

Here it is, beside the battery!

New disco colored fuel tube

New curved windscreen

La Balita Roja in top shape!

New do, new you? A warmish winter day in Chinchón to sport my lack of hair.

Chinchón's old square

Snacking is serious business

Tapas, why not?

The future of transportation

Catching up, part 1 Good news and bad news

It's been a while since my last post, mostly because you can catch me on Google Plus, and if you interact, perhaps you'll get into one of my circles.

The good news: after the tumble on the fated Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid back in October, my biker buddy Javier "Flexit" H. brought me back a new, better windscreen. This one is curved and looks great.

I put on the stickers for the lettering a few days later.

The bad news: I put a cool decal on the tank, too, but it turned out a wee bit twisted off-center. Oh well. The tank is dented anyway so perfection was never in the stars. ;-P

So the Balita Roja is all jazzed up and looking good.