Steve_M

Day 3. Rail trip to Carcassonne, booked into hotel early. Spent the afternoon wandering around and trying to kill time between calls to the BMW garage and NWBA in an attempt to get some idea of probable outcomes. Early afternoon the BMW garage discovered that an alternative part might work. Asked my permission to try it… Booked hotel in Labege for the following evening in the optimistic hope the bike would be ready to collect later. Train to Labege: I popped in to the BMW garage on route to the hotel. The part had been fitted but not road tested. That should happen the next day.

Day 2. Advised that the bike would be going ro “a BMW garage in Toulouse” during the day. No other information received. Internet search revealed one BMW bike dealer; Moto Ride in Labège. Time to get relocated to near the bike. A word with NWBA to discover they couldn’t find a hotel in their price range in Toulouse. We offered to subsidise to a more expensive hotel - they counter offered that if we find a hotel they’ll refund £90 of the cost for the night. No hotel rooms under £500 Toulouse*. Bugger. A second search revealed on at £130 for the night. Quickly took that one up (later found it was a last minute cancellation which we spotted moments after it was released).. Taxi to take us to Toulouse arranged by NWBA. Thankfully they picked up the whole tab for that (>€300). Booked in to the hotel St Sernin mid afternoon. Phoned NWBA to see if they had an ETA for the bike to be fixed (yes, optimistic) to find that it was up to me to manage that communication. Phoned the garage - used google translate to work out wha5 to say first- handed to someone with a decent smattering of English. ETA? No idea, could be two days, could be a week. The Green Flag options now appeared to be Bike fixed in the next few days: they’ll pay for hotels and reasonable transport Bike not fixed for a week: They’ll get us home and repatriate the bike. Now it all depended on what the garage found and how soon they found it. Complication: the garage couldn’t find the right part by part number. Anywhere, not even from BMW in Germany. Uncertainty is a killer. Still, Toulouse is not a bad place. With no hotels available for the next day we booked a hotel in Carcassonne for the following evening and decided to go there by rail. *There were major events, including a celebration of the Olympians and Paralympians happening.

I have mentioned elsewhere that the bike broke down last week while we were on our annual tour. This is a quick précis of our experience as I remember it. Please bear with me as I may need to do this in several instalments. Some of the Day 1. Starting the bike after our overnight in Comus it failed to rev properly. A warning light and the engine symbol was displayed on the dash. As Comus is somewhat remote we decided to ride the bike in limp home mode to the nearby town of Camurac from where we called Green Flag. The call centre response time was better than I anticipated (under 10 minutes as I recall). The call handler followed a script and asked a few security questions and details of what the issue was with the vehicle. At this point I was making it very clear that the “vehicle” is a BMW motorbike (emphasised as I’ve heard stories about recovery vehicles not equipped for bikes) needing to be taken to a workshop with BMW diagnostic tools. Once done, the call centre handler outlined terms and conditions for the recovery and repair. I gave the location using the town name and the name of the town square where the bike was located. The call centre operator asked for the what3words location. I had to go out of the call to find the app on my phone - he stayed on the line so I was able to give the location.. He then asked for payment of the excess by entering my card details on the keypad. Unfortunately, having gone into what3words the keypad wasn’t available. He suggested we end the call and he would call right back (I had little faith ….). He called right back. I then paid the excess. He advised that the recovery vehicle would be with me in the next couple of hours. We went and had a cup of coffee in the cafe over the road while waiting. The recovery vehicle arrived after about an hour and a half. The driver spoke no English, and our French is minimal - and certainly insufficient for the task ahead. Somehow we muddled through confirming this was the bike, supplying VIN number, and managing to ride the bike onto the back of the truck for the driver to tie down. The driver took numerous photos and then we headed off to Villeneuve-d’Olmes - not that we knew that at the time - squashed together in the cab of the truck. Having arrived at Garage Sgobbo we were led to the reception area and left to our own devices for a short while. One of the Sgobbo guys who spoke English popped by and told us that they were trying to find a BMW dealership to take the bike, but we’re having difficulty as they were shut. It might be in Toulouse or Narbonne based on their previous experiences of BMW bikes. I asked about the chances of getting a coffee. He offered to take us just up the road where we could get one - an offer we accepted (and a mistake!). We were dropped at a shop which had a seating area and abandoned To our own devices. Toilets? Non! We had to wander out into the nearby country lane and pee in a ditch. I then had a call from a phone number from Chelmsford: this is a company called NWBA (I forget the full name) and a young lady by the name of Mariyam asked me about what our situation was. Having explained that the bike wouldn’t be fixed, she said she would arrange overnight accommodation and a taxi to take us there (picking up our overnight bags on route). Accommodation? Up to £45 pp/night does not get you luxury. We ended up in a hotel, La Gargantua (see photo), in Lavalanet. Clean. Basic. No restaurant no breakfast option. As a place to stay overnight and eat out, Lavalanet is far from ideal. Day 2… TBC

For several years I rode all year for my commute and for leisure. For a while during the divorce it was my only vehicle - I was covering around 12,000 miles a year for a while. Now retired I ride when I feel the need regardless of season, providing the temperature is above 4° C (the point at which there is reduced chance of black ice).

Good-ish morning good fellows and fellowesses. it’s 7.48 here in Laxou and I’m looking forward to a 5 hour ride to Rotterdam. Actually, that’s not strictly accurate. I have 5 hours of motorway like roads to endure after a night with delayed sleep due to a hotel fire alarm (false alarm, may I add) which means I’m feeling a bit weary already. The hotel was pretty rubbish at managing the alarm with people wandering around not heading for the fire escapes, no staff giving guidance. It would have been a disaster had it been a real fire!

I’ll try to précis the tale when I get time once I return home. There are learning opportunities…

Good morning all from somewhere in the middle of France. From this you may note that the bike is once again functioning and we’re making progress towards Rotterdam to our rebooked ferry crossing.

I was able to get to the NCP by the Railway Institute a couple of weeks ago. Luckily I was able to park the bike actually inside the RI building so don’t know if it’s free.

I’ve used MRA via web browser (Safari) on my iPad for planning the daily routes for this tour and it’s worked pretty well. Transfer to the Garmin Zumo XT satnav using the MRA App and Garmin Drive is simple. The only issue we’ve had is when the hotel’s Wi-Fi has been poor - I’ve had to use my mobile data

Find your way to the Goodwood Revival to see it re-enacted. You may need a second mortgage but it’s well worth it.

Went into limp home mode on Monday. Green Flag’s partners have had it moved up to Toulouse where it’s at the BMW dealer’s workshop. The actual fault may have got lost in translation but it’s a problem with the fuel system.

We may just beat you there. Latest update is that the bike may be repaired by Friday evening.

Any chance I could hitch a lift over to Hull - all being well I hope to be in Rotterdam by Sunday lunchtime (big assumption that the bike is fixed ).

Good morning. After a fine evening out dining in the Place du Capitole (see photo) in Toulouse we’re now stuck awaiting an update on what’s wrong with the bike. I don’t expect good news. We were fortunate to get this hotel room - pretty well the last one in Toulouse as there are numerous events happening this week. We may have to relocate if the bike isn’t fixed and the nearest (affordable) hotel is nigh on 100 miles away.

There’s a massive effort to put full fibre internet into the rural community around us. As the roads are relatively narrow closure is probably the safest option for the people doing the work. Difficulties arise when diversion signs are scattered Willy-nilly around the place pointing in numerous directions with no reference to which road closure the particular diversion sign is for. For visitors to the area it would be easy to do several laps of the locality by mixing up which diversions to follow.

Good evening from Toulouse. Bike still off the road but now, I’m told, at a BMW dealership. Fingers crossed it all gets sorted tomorrow. Photo is view from our hotel window

We’d had an excellent, and interesting evening at a small hotel in a place called Comus the evening before. The bike started fine but wouldn’t rev. We managed to limp to a nearby village from where we called Green Flag. Their initial response was excellent but there’s been some difficulty finding a garage to deal with the issue and communication hasn’t been great. Currently in a room in Lavelanet waiting for the Green Flag peeps to find out when we’ll be ready to be taken, with bike, to BMW garage in - we hope- Toulouse.

Spot on… Limp home (1500 miles from home?) mode engaged.

Good evening from near Toulouse and it was all going so well.

Good evening from near the eastern end of the Route Des Cols. Photo from yesterday ‘cos I haven’t transfered today’s photos over, and i didn’t post last night because the Wi-Fi in our really rather nice hotel was somewhat lacking.

Good news. Wishing her a speedy recovery.

Good evening from the Pyrenees.

Welcome. I’m sure there’s plenty of mechanically knowledgeable peeps on here to give support (not me. I know nothing other than how to pay someone to do that stuff). Oh, the CBR1000 - I always liked them and now I’m trying to remember why I never got round to buying one.

My VFR800fi with what was effectively the standard system got within 1Db of the limit at Cadwell Park - every ruddy time. My FJR1300 and R1200GS were well below on the one occasion each were my steed.

Chain?