Steve_M

I’ve been told by the hospital to keep a splint on my hand, to immobilise my thumb, for four weeks . No riding the bike, so the already long overdue service and MoT have been rescheduled. The bike is now SORNed until December when I should be allowed back in the saddle.

We’re scything our wildflower area… when I say “we” I mean I’m supervising due to being incapacitated. I have been mowing, though (the joys of a ride on mower)

There are these, of course. £200 new but even at This eBay price… I’ll struggle along without.

I’ve just been poring over my bike to see if there’s a lace to fit something like this to hold all the stuff you need to take on tour but are a pain in the neck to have in panniers/topbox (Eg. Puncture repair kit). Nope, nothing. Shame, ‘cos it’s a fine idea.

Only another two days to Monday…

Not so good. I managed to apply a tenon saw to my hand rather than the laminate flooring I was supposed to be cutting. Arrived at A&E at 2.40pm, left at 10.40pm. It seems I managed to slice into a ligament so had to wait for an orthopaedic doctor to become available to carry out running repairs. Now sitting with a rather sore hand …

Coincidental that I’m looking at Northern Spain at the moment, close to the border with Portugal, with a view to popping over the border for a day or so to see if it’s worth further investigation.

There were several on the Stelvio and one on one of the Italian passes. We’ve bought a couple from the Stelvio to go with those we have from the Col Du Tourmelet and Col de la Bonnette. I think we’ll stop now. None were using flash - or if they were I was too busy enjoying the road or dealing with traffic to notice.

The Route we took last year was mostly a function of seeking the best weather while finding interesting and scenic roads. I certainly wouldn’t have designed a tour to meander around how we did. We only had one instance of poor weather, on the Col de Rousett where we rode through thick cloud for a mile or two. We did stumble on a few interesting roads that we wouldn’t have encountered had our original plan not been hampered by unseasonably cold weather on the Col de l’Iseran and eastwards from there. We were quite taken with Gorges de Dalius, Col de la Croix de Fer (for the views) and Mont Ventoux. Col de Madeleine deserves a mention, too.

Thanks. Interesting about Machine being only short. Probably not worth heading over that way - we covered a lot of ground last year, including day or so around Vercors region but I failed miserably to remember Combe Laval while we were there. We rode the Route Des Cretes - I mis-referred to it as Gorge du Verdon. I thought that was great fun and not as scary as I anticipated. My good lady pillion, who is scared of heights, thoroughly enjoyed it. Though she wasn’t so keen on the viewing platform … We also rode the road on the southern side of the gorge which gives great views of the gorge and sections of the Route Des Cretes.

We chatted to a couple in a service station in Holland who were returning from Croatia and were full of praise for it. They did seem to have had an itinerary that included cities, which isn’t what we look for, hence my good lady’s response.

Which is what I thought of the Verdon Gorge before I did it (do it if you’re down that way. The views are to die for… an unfortunate choice of words, I know ). Hence the question.

We’ve been debating Croatia as a destination. She’s not keen, I’m ambivalent. Our tours are generally two weeks, as you say, Hull to Rotterdam (or, if we pop in and see the grandson on route, Harwich to Hook of Holland) is our usual approach. Perhaps more reading is needed.

Where to go? We’re probably returning to the French Alps in 2024, taking in some roads we’ve done before (eg. the Coll de la Croix de Fer has already been earmarked) and some new to us. Last year we took in both sides of the Verdon Gorge, which was a revelation, and wondered about including other balcony roads into next year’s trip. Much of the North side of the Verdon Gorge is one-way so any concerns about meeting oncoming traffic on a narrow road with a big drop were allayed. Now wondering if anyone’s ridden other balcony roads and what their experiences were. eg.Balcony roads

I’ve always used Garmin Express for updates, even the new XT, out of a habit really. As we tend to create each day’s route as we go along when touring I have had to carry a laptop, which is somewhat inconvenient and just one more thing to carry. Now I know how to load routes from my iPad via Bluetooth I’ll be doing that.

It worked for me (though we’re shacked up rather than married). Checking a nearby Waitrose was a failure on our part but we have found that they deliver from Hexham, a stroke of luck.

The North Norfolk coast road has been awful for as long as I can remember. It has a few high spots, but is generally to be avoided when on a bike. There are some decent routes but none use the coast road. I used to ride down to Suffolk to find decent roads when I lived in Norwich…

It’s managing expectations… I used to just let my old Zumo 350LM update overnight so never knew exactly how long it too. My new Zumo XT said 5hrs 45Minutes for its 1st update… it took an hour and a half. Much better that way than the interminable MS Windows updates that claim an hour and keeps increasing the estimate for the next hour…

Because they’re ar*eholes of the first order.

I really hope they find out who did this. Sycamore gap vandalism

Thanks for mentioning Glentress. The cafe there looks a nice destination for a ride.

Garmin Zumo XT and bike mount ordered from Sportsbikeshop, There’s an adaptor, made in and sold from Italy, to allow me to mount it on the standard BMW Navigator docking station with no messing about with wiring or ram mounts. A bit pricey but cheaper than asking the local dealer to rewire and mount the new satnav.

Best of luck with the weather. We’re just a few miles south of the Scottish Borders and it’s been hissing down for the last hour or two. You have my sympathy with the drive up this way from Narfolk (we moved from Norwich 4years ago).

Good morning. Today I’m looking forward* to a morning of scything part the garden. *that might not be strictly true.

No 150bhp (or 140, for that matter) bike weighing under 200kg could be defined as a leisurely sports tourer. Sure, some modern bikes have ludicrous power outputs but for everyday road riding … it’s pretty pointless. I agree with the previous comments that you should go test ride a few bikes. Park your prejudices about the various rider aids - the chances are they’re unlikely to intrude on your ride.