Adventures of blacktiger. - Page 3

blacktiger · 10-16-2011, 01:55 PM

16th Gap to Auxerre.
Woke at 08:00, got up and got dressed ready to go. Heated jacket liner on today because it was going to be cold early on. Bought 3 pain de chocolates just down the road. Then off into the 7C heat! Beautiful sunny morning though and was soon wiggling my way through the mountains and looking back down at Gap....

Routed over an interesting pass that I’d never ridden before, the Col de Pennes and you know? Some people go to exotic places to ride roads like this...

But here it is in France.
Some mist in the valleys...

As the pass dropped down the western side...

Then it was goodbye to the Alps and hello to the river Rhone and on past St. Etienne and up towards Roanne. I stopped for fuel and routed to a little town in the middle of the back of beyond that I’d been through a few times called Luzy. The roads all around there are really fun to ride and give the edges of the tyre a good work out. About 20 miles from Luzy I stopped to take a photo of an endless view...

When I went to create a waypoint of the Zumo with the photo number as its name, as I had done all round this trip, the Zumo froze up. Wouldn’t do anything. I rode on for a bit to see if it would wake up but no. I stopped to take the battery out which would shut it down but could I find the little Allen key? Nope! So there I am lost in the middle of France without a map or GPS. So, as I said, I have been through this area before a few times but my knowledge of it is not “back of the hand” stuff. I knew a few names of places and roughly where they are. So it was Luzy to Chateau-Chinon to Avallon to Auxerre. Actually, looking at it on the computer now it doesn’t look half bad and the roads were real fun so no photos I’m afraid.
Got to Auxerre around 18:00 and wanted to be on the north side so routed around the edges and found Les Hotel Clairions, 2 star, big place quite posh for a 2 star and €61.00. Free Wi-fi so getting this update done.
ODO 256.6 wrong because of the frozen Zumo.

blacktiger · 10-18-2011, 06:26 AM

17th Auxerre to Home.
Slept well until about 06:30 when someone in the next room started to fiddle with their toiletries. I gave up at 07:20 and got up and went for breakfast and packed a sarnie for lunch. Out into the foggy gloom at 07:55 only to find that the connecting cable for my heated jacket liner had gone missing somewhere. So no heat but it was about 8C first thing and I was well wrapped up anyway.
Couldn’t see much for the first 2&1/2 hours because of the fog by which time I was just about getting onto my favourite “avoid Paris” route around the north of said Paris. It’s a good mix of roads but mostly runs through and across farmland with good vision which can be ridden at a good lick.
ETA at Calais started at 14:39 but with a few pee stops and for the pre-packed sarnie that dropped back to 15:30. Last night, I had booked the 17:30 Sea France ferry and was hoping that there’d be an earlier one but alas no. I went into the terminal building and had a sandwich and coffee and wrote this journal whilst waiting.
Onto the ferry on time and a reasonably smooth crossing despite the wind getting stronger as we crossed. Greeted in Dover, as is quite usual, by a strong westerly and the threat of rain. Tried to keep my speed down on the way home and arrived at 19:30 to find the house was still there and a pile of mail on the door mat.
ODO 355.
TOTAL MILEAGE = 6326 MILES and the bike now needs another service.

Conclusion.
This trip is one that I’d been planning to do for quite a few years. It was to follow the Carpathian mountain range from CZ around into RO and Transilvania. I could never get anyone else interested enough to commit so I decided to just get on with it and go on my own. By careful placing of my annual leave I was able to get 24 days off work. So I decided to add Macedonia & Greece and a return through Italy to the trip. It covered 7 countries that were new to me. SK, PL, H, RO, BG, MK & GR.
The places and the people are, as ever, unique but at the same time all welcoming and willing to talk and accommodate you in your travels. A particular mention to the Bikers’ club in Baia Mare. Great bunch of lads and bought me beer all night. Can’t get better than that. I never usually like to go back to places again because there are always so many other places to visit around the world but I will return to some of these places again because you can never take it all in on a fleeting visit such as I’ve just done. Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia all need a longer trip to explore the real back roads and the scenery, which is mostly why I go, and is worth the cost of fuel and time.
Haven’t really mentioned the Tiger800XC because it just got on with the job which, I suppose, is what you want. The aerodynamics that I have on the bike worked very well and the fuel consumption was pretty good, although I did take it quite sedately due to trying to make the rear Heidenau K60 Scout tyre last the distance and because of the condition of the roads. Turns out that there’s plenty of tread left and I would expect it to go another 2000 miles. Not bad for a 50/50 dual sport tyre. The engine is just superb and will pull from tickover to red line. Effortless is the word to describe it. Just dial in whatever speed you want and it’ll sit there doing it.
Was it the right bike for the job? Absolutely. Some of the roads I came across were really bad and some just turned to dirt at times. So an adventure touring bike with good suspension to soak it all up is essential. The Tiger800XC did just that. It is, IMO, THE best bike for this job on the planet at the moment. At touring speeds it has a genuine 200+ miles range, is comfortable for riding all day, albeit I used an AirHawk seat. Its ease of handling in every situation means that you don’t end the day aching or tired. It give me the confidence to go off the beaten track and into the unknown. Brilliant. Thanks Triumph for making the best bike on the planet.

hummel · 10-18-2011, 12:33 PM

Thanks for a very detailed report.Good to hear your views on the tiger.As bikes go they are good value too.

blacktiger · 10-18-2011, 01:10 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLyZhi61pI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf1muBlY_Qc

blacktiger · 10-20-2011, 08:33 AM

Seems that I've exceeded my monthly limit on Photobucket so they've kindly locked out all the links.
Photos can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/hgmillichap?sk=photos
or here http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/p...EUROPE%202011/

XDragRacer · 10-20-2011, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacktiger

Seems that I've exceeded my monthly limit on Photobucket so they've kindly locked out all the links.
Photos can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/hgmillichap?sk=photos
or here http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/p...EUROPE%202011/

Takes away much of the magic, separating the images and the words, blacktiger. Any way you could spring for an unlimited Photobucket account? Few will collate your RR and images separately, I'd imagine, but--your call.

Regardless, thanks for sharing.

blacktiger · 10-29-2011, 04:54 AM

OK I coughed up for a "Pro" account

so we're back online.

burgerking · 10-29-2011, 07:54 AM

Great RR blacktiger

love the beer

pics

Looks like your 800XC is as reliable as my 800 Roadie

dimitris_greece · 10-31-2011, 11:47 AM

The trip was very nice, i liked the detailed informations.. I want to do some day such a long distance trip.. :-)

soph9 · 01-04-2012, 04:04 AM

nice trip you had...much different riding than what we did up in Alaska...I sure wish I had more money and time..

so many beautiful places in the world to ride....I noticed you have the city tank bag...I used it on our trip...Cheryl had the Triumph ADV tank bag...much better for long trips...the city bag was too small for me at least for a 44 days ride. Love our bike but you know that....hope you get on with more adv on that Tiger of yours! Thanks for sharing!

OmenF1 · 06-05-2012, 10:51 AM

Superb RR and what a cool ride !

Tiger 800 is fabulous indeed, thanks for sharing !!

BR

Omen

blacktiger · 10-15-2012, 08:05 AM

I'm just about to leave, with a buddy (Explorer) for a 12 day trip to Sardinia to watch the WRC rally which will, most likely, be Sebastian Loeb's last ever gravel rally as he's heading to World Touring Cars next year.
Chunnel to France. Jura mountains, Swiss, Grand St.Bernard pass, Aosta. Ferry Genova to Porto Torres. 7 days on Sardinia. Ferry to Marseilles. Then 3 days winding up through France on the most enjoyable roads we can find.
Photos and video to come on the way if I can get Wi-fi.

MikeTheMechanic · 02-14-2013, 08:33 AM

Great trip!

Written from the Southest Part of Europe (Crete).

Dru · 02-15-2013, 06:02 AM

Great report!

10-16-2011, 01:55 PM	#31
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	16th Gap to Auxerre. Woke at 08:00, got up and got dressed ready to go. Heated jacket liner on today because it was going to be cold early on. Bought 3 pain de chocolates just down the road. Then off into the 7C heat! Beautiful sunny morning though and was soon wiggling my way through the mountains and looking back down at Gap.... Routed over an interesting pass that I’d never ridden before, the Col de Pennes and you know? Some people go to exotic places to ride roads like this... But here it is in France. Some mist in the valleys... As the pass dropped down the western side... Then it was goodbye to the Alps and hello to the river Rhone and on past St. Etienne and up towards Roanne. I stopped for fuel and routed to a little town in the middle of the back of beyond that I’d been through a few times called Luzy. The roads all around there are really fun to ride and give the edges of the tyre a good work out. About 20 miles from Luzy I stopped to take a photo of an endless view... When I went to create a waypoint of the Zumo with the photo number as its name, as I had done all round this trip, the Zumo froze up. Wouldn’t do anything. I rode on for a bit to see if it would wake up but no. I stopped to take the battery out which would shut it down but could I find the little Allen key? Nope! So there I am lost in the middle of France without a map or GPS. So, as I said, I have been through this area before a few times but my knowledge of it is not “back of the hand” stuff. I knew a few names of places and roughly where they are. So it was Luzy to Chateau-Chinon to Avallon to Auxerre. Actually, looking at it on the computer now it doesn’t look half bad and the roads were real fun so no photos I’m afraid. Got to Auxerre around 18:00 and wanted to be on the north side so routed around the edges and found Les Hotel Clairions, 2 star, big place quite posh for a 2 star and €61.00. Free Wi-fi so getting this update done. ODO 256.6 wrong because of the frozen Zumo. __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)... blacktiger screwed with this post 06-05-2012 at 10:54 AM

10-18-2011, 06:26 AM	#32
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	17th Auxerre to Home. Slept well until about 06:30 when someone in the next room started to fiddle with their toiletries. I gave up at 07:20 and got up and went for breakfast and packed a sarnie for lunch. Out into the foggy gloom at 07:55 only to find that the connecting cable for my heated jacket liner had gone missing somewhere. So no heat but it was about 8C first thing and I was well wrapped up anyway. Couldn’t see much for the first 2&1/2 hours because of the fog by which time I was just about getting onto my favourite “avoid Paris” route around the north of said Paris. It’s a good mix of roads but mostly runs through and across farmland with good vision which can be ridden at a good lick. ETA at Calais started at 14:39 but with a few pee stops and for the pre-packed sarnie that dropped back to 15:30. Last night, I had booked the 17:30 Sea France ferry and was hoping that there’d be an earlier one but alas no. I went into the terminal building and had a sandwich and coffee and wrote this journal whilst waiting. Onto the ferry on time and a reasonably smooth crossing despite the wind getting stronger as we crossed. Greeted in Dover, as is quite usual, by a strong westerly and the threat of rain. Tried to keep my speed down on the way home and arrived at 19:30 to find the house was still there and a pile of mail on the door mat. ODO 355. TOTAL MILEAGE = 6326 MILES and the bike now needs another service. Conclusion. This trip is one that I’d been planning to do for quite a few years. It was to follow the Carpathian mountain range from CZ around into RO and Transilvania. I could never get anyone else interested enough to commit so I decided to just get on with it and go on my own. By careful placing of my annual leave I was able to get 24 days off work. So I decided to add Macedonia & Greece and a return through Italy to the trip. It covered 7 countries that were new to me. SK, PL, H, RO, BG, MK & GR. The places and the people are, as ever, unique but at the same time all welcoming and willing to talk and accommodate you in your travels. A particular mention to the Bikers’ club in Baia Mare. Great bunch of lads and bought me beer all night. Can’t get better than that. I never usually like to go back to places again because there are always so many other places to visit around the world but I will return to some of these places again because you can never take it all in on a fleeting visit such as I’ve just done. Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia all need a longer trip to explore the real back roads and the scenery, which is mostly why I go, and is worth the cost of fuel and time. Haven’t really mentioned the Tiger800XC because it just got on with the job which, I suppose, is what you want. The aerodynamics that I have on the bike worked very well and the fuel consumption was pretty good, although I did take it quite sedately due to trying to make the rear Heidenau K60 Scout tyre last the distance and because of the condition of the roads. Turns out that there’s plenty of tread left and I would expect it to go another 2000 miles. Not bad for a 50/50 dual sport tyre. The engine is just superb and will pull from tickover to red line. Effortless is the word to describe it. Just dial in whatever speed you want and it’ll sit there doing it. Was it the right bike for the job? Absolutely. Some of the roads I came across were really bad and some just turned to dirt at times. So an adventure touring bike with good suspension to soak it all up is essential. The Tiger800XC did just that. It is, IMO, THE best bike for this job on the planet at the moment. At touring speeds it has a genuine 200+ miles range, is comfortable for riding all day, albeit I used an AirHawk seat. Its ease of handling in every situation means that you don’t end the day aching or tired. It give me the confidence to go off the beaten track and into the unknown. Brilliant. Thanks Triumph for making the best bike on the planet. __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)...

10-18-2011, 01:10 PM	#34
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLyZhi61pI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf1muBlY_Qc __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)... blacktiger screwed with this post 10-18-2011 at 01:26 PM

10-20-2011, 08:33 AM	#35
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	Seems that I've exceeded my monthly limit on Photobucket so they've kindly locked out all the links. Photos can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/hgmillichap?sk=photos or here http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/p...EUROPE%202011/ __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)...

10-29-2011, 04:54 AM	#37
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	OK I coughed up for a "Pro" account so we're back online. __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)...

10-18-2011, 12:33 PM	#33
hummel Adventurer Joined: Jan 2010 Oddometer: 11	Thanks for a very detailed report.Good to hear your views on the tiger.As bikes go they are good value too.

10-29-2011, 07:54 AM	#38
burgerking echt bezopen Joined: Oct 2005 Location: Holland Oddometer: 394	Great RR blacktiger love the beer pics Looks like your 800XC is as reliable as my 800 Roadie

10-31-2011, 11:47 AM	#39
dimitris_greece Adventurer Joined: May 2011 Location: Athens, Greece Oddometer: 25	Nice road trip! The trip was very nice, i liked the detailed informations.. I want to do some day such a long distance trip.. :-)

01-04-2012, 04:04 AM	#40
soph9 Bike Addict Joined: Nov 2009 Location: Maple Ridge, BC Canada Oddometer: 1,980	nice trip you had...much different riding than what we did up in Alaska...I sure wish I had more money and time.. so many beautiful places in the world to ride....I noticed you have the city tank bag...I used it on our trip...Cheryl had the Triumph ADV tank bag...much better for long trips...the city bag was too small for me at least for a 44 days ride. Love our bike but you know that....hope you get on with more adv on that Tiger of yours! Thanks for sharing! __________________ Cheryl & Leslie's 44 day Tiger 800XC Alaska ADV OUR BLOG 2010 F650GS Cross Country RR '13 BMW F800GS soph9 screwed with this post 01-04-2012 at 04:12 AM

06-05-2012, 10:51 AM	#41
OmenF1 wannabe explorer Joined: Jan 2011 Location: Belgium Oddometer: 59	thanks ! Superb RR and what a cool ride ! Tiger 800 is fabulous indeed, thanks for sharing !! BR Omen

10-15-2012, 08:05 AM	#42
blacktiger ^OP Tigers R great. Joined: Nov 2005 Location: St.Leonards on Sea, England. Oddometer: 2,516	Sardinia next. I'm just about to leave, with a buddy (Explorer) for a 12 day trip to Sardinia to watch the WRC rally which will, most likely, be Sebastian Loeb's last ever gravel rally as he's heading to World Touring Cars next year. Chunnel to France. Jura mountains, Swiss, Grand St.Bernard pass, Aosta. Ferry Genova to Porto Torres. 7 days on Sardinia. Ferry to Marseilles. Then 3 days winding up through France on the most enjoyable roads we can find. Photos and video to come on the way if I can get Wi-fi. __________________ 2002 Tiger955i in black, 68500 miles. 2012 Tiger800XC in black, 19000 miles. Bike history [(N) = bought new] :- YAS1, RD350B(N), XS750(N), XT500, XJ650(N), XJ900S(N), CBX750, XL185S, XR250RF, XR600, 600LC4, TDR250, R100GS, TS200R, Tiger955i(N), Scrambler900efi, Tiger800XC(N)...

02-14-2013, 08:33 AM	#43
MikeTheMechanic Insomniac Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Crete,Greece Oddometer: 47	Great trip! Written from the Southest Part of Europe (Crete). __________________ Motorcycling in Greece Visit Crete, Greece

02-15-2013, 06:02 AM	#44
Dru Studly Adventurer Joined: Sep 2006 Location: The Big Smoke Oddometer: 556	Great report!

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