Alarcón with the Royal Enfield Amigos

There's a groups of us who met online at the fororoyalenfield.es forum and have become pretty good friends over the past few years. Meeting up for our yearly event isn't enough. Last year we convinced Juan and Bruno and Rafa to invite us to the reinauguration of their txoko en Villarreal (there a post here about that), for instance. This year Juan, Bruno and I travelled on Semana Bruno before going to the event--it was probably the best ride and the best riding companions I've had since Pedro G's visits from Brazil. Last Holy Week we descended on Jesús and his wife and family in Córdoba to see the processions, and it was so much fun. Javi came on that trip and loved it (we went by AVE fast train).

So the idea came up not to wait too long and to meet up in some middle ground for a weekend, which turned out to be the ancient medieval walled town and castle of Alarcón, off the N-III highway between Madrid and Valencia.
Javi got a bad cold and backed out at the last minute, so Flexit and I rode our old BMWs on Friday afternoon, leaving the A3 motorway at the town of Honrubia, which happens to be his last name.

We rode into Alarcón, in the late afternoon, the perfect time to see it glow in the sun. Amazing place!

On Saturday I finally got to meet Lawrence Duffy, from England, who has a place in Castalla, in Alicante, Spain and was heading back to England (slowly) by bike that weekend. So we met up and he spent the weekend with us. He fit right in, very pleasant, easy going, nice and speaks Spanish. And his Pan-European is a fantastic bike to tour around in. I'm looking forward to seeing Lol again. 

Everyone rode the bike they felt like riding to Alarcón. Only Bruno decided to ride his Royal Enfield!

We took a side trip up to the Roman ruins of the town of Valeria. Not much left there to see but the countryside was interesting and the roads were nice and curvy.

Mostly though we ate. Several times a day, as much as we could. These guys have an appetite to rival mine!

 The humble porrón found its way to our table. I couldn't resist.

I've borrowed a bunch of Jesús Luque's photos (below). I hope he doesn't mind!

 Juan gave up on the Roman ruins after about 3 minutes. He found a much better place to spend the time!

 It also turns out that it may have been Jesús's last voyage on his Goldwing, since he has too many motorcycles and the Goldwing takes him too long to keep fixed and in perfect condition.

Cardo Scala Rider Q3: hi-tech toy for a ride on a BUllet

To intercom or not to intercom, that is the question!
Why in the world would I want to spend all that money on being able to talk while I ride? I thought the whole purpose of riding was to be left to your own thoughts for a change, NOT chatting, texting or blogging.
Still,  I knew my riding companions Bruno and Juan always rode with their helmet-to-helmet intercom device so that they could talk to each other (and to Juan's cousin Rafa, who also has one, when the three of them go for a ride). I gave it some thought and decided to join the chat. I didn't actually buy one until I was literally on my way, the Balita Roja all packed up like a pack mule.

This is the Balita parked next to the motorcycle gear superstore Autoservicio del Motorista, on C/Bravo Murillo. 74 in Madrid.

I bought the Cardo Systems Scala Rider Q3 for 179 euros. I had been warned by friends to be sure to buy the same brand because there is no compatibility between brands yet. Which is VERY STUPID. Who would buy a phone if you could only talk to other people with that same brand of phone?
Anyway, I bought it and during our lunch break on the second day (on the first day I had to charge it overnight) Bruno put it together. My HJC FS-10 helmet it turns out does NOT have any pre-installation space for the ear speakers, so Bruno dug into the styrofoam and made space for them after lunch. The waiter was not really amused but it was an, uh, emergency.

It took us about 2 hours to get them to communicate all together. Juan and Bruno have Scala Rider G4 with two channels, mine has 3 channels. You have to put cell phones to Bluetooth, otherwise they take up one of the intercom channels and you can't connect three people. The screw on holder mount is easy enough to install, but the earphone speakers stuck too far out and hurt my ears, so Bruno, being clever, took a cutter and scraped out some space for them in the styrofoam padding.

Once we had all three interconnected, we were off. What a difference it made!
I am now a firm believer. Here are some of my reasons:

1. SAFETY: There are lots of times when the lead biker can warn you about what's up ahead: gravel on the left or right, potholes, oncoming truck invading the lane in a curve, etc. This was particularly true on the narrow mountain roads with lots of blind curves. You can also warn those up ahead if you see something they're missing (my friend David turning left practically into a car, for instance). 
2. NEVER GET LOST: One problem of riding in a group, even a small one, is getting split up. A roundabout, a traffic light, a truck or car blocking your view of the bike ahead. It always happens. But once we got interconnected, we never split up during the next 6 days and 2500 km. That saves a LOT of time and a LOT of frustration.
3. FUN: on some of the boring bits or straight superhighway, it was fun to be able to talk to the buds and joke. It's not distracting at all--you don't have to pay attention to their stories or jokes if you don't want to. It's a lot more distracting to take a phone call, I imagine. I haven't done that yet and have no immediate plans to do so. But...

All in all I can say it's a good investment.

5th Annual Royal Enfield Amigos Meet-up

DAY 1 of SEMANA BRUNO 2014

A few months ago my friends Bruno and Juan, brothers-in-law from Villarreal, started talk about going up to this year's meeting in Barcelona by taking the long way. I couldn't resist. 

So I took the week off last Monday, packed my bags and rode off to Medinaceli to meet them for lunch and travel on a sweeping arc along the back roads, through the Pyrenees, to Andorra, and down to BCN by Friday. 

Medinaceli has a Roman arch just sitting there since the 1st century. 

 

Juan and Bruno got there quickly. 

Lunch at El Aljibe was excellent:

And dessert was sweet:

We rode on to a small village called Rello, with its medieval walls and castle and sleepy narrow streets. Gorgeous and unexpected. 

Amazing. 

 

It was getting late, time to move on to Berlanga de Duero with its fantastic castle and walls. 

We made it to Calatañazor (where Almanzor lost his tambor) in the late afternoon. 

And after a snack, off we went to our casa rural lodgings in a town called El Royo (Soria). 

Exploring the Back Roads of Spain: my BMW K75RT and Pedro's BMW R100RR. And an aperitivo. And lunch, of course.

Last Monday the streak of perfect spring weather began. Monday promised to be 24ºC (about 75ºF), sunny, no wind. Perfect in every way. Since I had finished all the translation work I had on Friday and there was nothing left pending for Monday, and seeing as how Pedro was still in town, I just had to take the day off and go for a ride.

Curiously enough, there are large areas of Spain Pedro's never ridden, despite his being from Maranchón and these places within a day's ride of Madrid. But as he pointed out on this ride, the back roads now are in superb condition, no traffic, clean wide shoulders, excellent asphalt (generally) but back when he was riding around in the mid 1970s these roads were torture. We decided that this was something tangible Spanish citizens got out of joining the EU back in 1986, and that much of the EU structural funds in the FEDER program was well spent. Summer in Portugal last August showed Javi and me that although the money got spent, not all countries produced the goods.

Another friend Paco was the first to take me down a few of the roads south of Toledo, in the wilderness  and vast emptiness of a region called la Siberia extremeña for good reason. So that seemed like a good choice for the day.


View Larger Map

In any case, the first stop was for gas. At 1.40€ a liter, Pedro says it's gone down a bit since his last visit home (last year), but I'm skeptical.

Still, my 28-year-old K75 is getting good mileage: 5.5 liters per 100 km. As far as I can tell from the ITV vehicle inspection cards, this bike has more than 280,000 km on it. That's about double what the guy who sold it to me claimed, but...

A selfie on the fly:

Next stop: exit the highway and get onto the fun roads. A stop on the Tajo River at Malpica del Tajo, on the bridge beside the Castillo de Malpica, still owned by the Marqués de Malpica and Duque de Arión. Nice cozy abode, I'd say.

My BMW K75RT: 28 years old and still kicking

A Duke's home is is castle. Quite literally sometimes.

Even the iron bridge is cute.

Another 30 minutes of driving some gorgeous roads. Pedro pulled out his special solar-powered GPS for a quick look, since he had no idea where we were. I used my X-ray vision to determine our precise location: San Bartolomé de las Abiertas.

"What's the name of this town, anyway...?"

Next thing we knew,  it was time for an aperitivo. This little town had a very pleasant square for a vermouth.

The free tapa with our drinks

Loyal to my Royal Enfield, still!

Our aperitivo only made us hungrier, so our next stop was at the first roadside place we could find that looked good.
This "Mesón El Labrador" advertised all over the countryside, proclaiming charcoal grilled meats, specialty of the house was a huge sirloin steak 2 inches thick. Yes, sir!

But not quite. There was no grill, in the end, since they don't light it during the weekdays. There was no table service outside, so we had to set the table ourselves and then clear it. A basic plato combinado (10€) was tasty but not the juicy steak I had in mind. The sliced fresh tomato was fabulous: sweet and flavorful.

The road beckoned even though we were comfortably chatting about the sorry state of the world (Brazil in particular, which is where Pedro's been living for the last 6 years) and catching up. The road down to Herrera del Duque is a national highway in excellent shape, very little traffic. It passes by and over some of the reservoirs built along the Tajo River as it heads to Portugal and eventually empties out into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon, giving the Portuguese capital an amazing and gorgeous miles-wide waterfront. Here it is at the Cíjara Reservoir.

The rest of the trip was amazing but I have no more photos. The little mountain forest path we rode up to Villarta de los Montes and on to Horcajo de los Montes is AMAZING. The pine forests give way to live oak forests and then onto normal oak forests. Miles and miles of rolling hills, not a person, house or village. We saw a car. One. This road was a single narrow lane, unmarked, the pavement in poor shape with lots of gravel, so we made our way slowly to Horcajo. Once past there, the road turns fine and we rode through the National Park of Cabañeras, beautiful and fun to ride, with nice curves and safe asphalt, gorgeous landscape. Anyone riding to central Spain needs to try this route.
After the park, on the north side, there's a stretch of 8  km of absolute straight-as-an-arrow-come-hell-or-high-water road (reminds me of the Roman road through Gloucestershire in the UK) that suddenly turns left and leads up a low mountain pass, now with fabulous curves and breathtaking vistas of the hidden green valleys of the Montes de Toledo.
Then up through the posh villages for rich hunters, and onto the main autovía from Toledo to Madrid. We rode past Toledo just as the sun was setting. That will require a trip all its own, for a letter date.

Maybe tomorrow or Monday ;-)

More touches to the Balita Roja

Improvements, I call them. There's always something fun to add to a bike like a Royal Enfield. This week, I decided to blow my bonus and get some things done.

1. The heel shifter. Instead of having to use your toe to push up on the lever to shift upwards,  you use your toe to press down and downshift, and your heel to shift up. It keeps your toe from wearing out on the shoe or boot. 
2. The seat has been re-upholstered. The fake leather had split, so it needed to be done. This time with a cool red edge thing going on, just for fun. 
3. The drop bars. The black matte bars should help if I accidentally drop my bike at a stop or as I get on or off. Yep, it happens to the best of them. I think matte black is not so visible as chrome, but...
4. The aluminum bars holding up the windscreen have been cut back and capped. Looks much better, although I'd still prefer to have the single-bar solution. Still, it looks better than before.

What do you think? Aside from the Balita needing a good bath and waxing...

Saturday morning I decided to go pick up the K75 from Pedro Ogrix's house, where he had let me recharge the battery overnight a week ago. The weather looked like it was going to clear up, although windy. Javi had a meeting all morning so Pedro and I went off for a ride to the southeast, to Colmenar de Oreja first, where we parked outside the old fortified church and was an aperitivo on the Plaza Mayor, one of the better-kept secrets in the area. So well kept that there's no sign or indication about how to get to it, and there are no through streets in the center of the town. We asked several people, were given then customary contradictory answers, and eventually lucked into it. The sad thing is that that was the third time I've been there and I still could't say how to get back again.

Anyway, there was a classic car show going on, and while I'm not big on cars, there were some lovely ones there.
Afterwards,


ll

I then took Pedro down some of the best roads for bikers in the region.  The road from Valdelaguna to Belmonte del Tajo is spectacular, as is the one from Colmenar de Oreja to Villarubia de Santiago. We went on along the Tajo down to Ocaña for lunch on its Plaza Mayor, which was empty despite the nice day. 

 The menú del día was 10 euros, not bad for outdoors.
We headed back through Aranjuez, and passed under the windows of my old apartment on the Calle Primavera, then on to Villaconejos, Chinchón and Titulcia and then to Morata, where we stopped in at Angeles and Grant's place there (they were spending the weekend there with our friend Olga, too, fortunately).

RIDING THE BMW K75RT:
I hand't been on the K75 in over 2 weeks, and so it was nice to get to take it out on the roads. At first it felt so unwieldy but then it felt normal and then quite a delight to ride. No vibrations, good pickup, comfortable (the full fairing is great in the wind!). I really want to take the K75 on a long journey. But first I'd better have it thoroughly checked out, and set up its maintenance schedule.