BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Not much today. Having a chilling out day.

simbo wrote: Sun Jun 29, 2025 6:31 pm Saint-Omer do I win anything?

Free drink next time we go.

MikeS wrote: Sun Jun 29, 2025 7:29 pm Free drink next time we go.

Just the one, I hope.

Returned from a weeks fly / ride holiday in Spain, close to Alicante.

Amazing quiet roads, with a superb surface which made for some very 'progressive' riding. A bit too hot (37oC), but nice and refreshing to dip in the pool after a long day on the bike.

It's run by a nice chap called Carl and includes breakfast, dinner and free beer!

https://www.spanishflyride.co.uk/

Love Spain, but prefer it in the winter. Lower heat and empty roads

I had great plans to head off for a ride before 0800hrs today. I 'needed' to collect some uniform shirts from the Ambulance Depot in Exmouth, which is around 370kms north of here & just under 4 hours travel time. Allowing for fuel stops, etc., I was hoping to arrive around lunchtime, collect my shirts, & some other bits & pieces, grab lunch somewhere, refuel & head home, so I'd be back in town before nightfall.
Alas, I didn't manage to get on the road until after 1000hrs, which saw me travelling the last 150kms/2hrs home in the dark.
Riding in the dark doesn't worry me in & of itself. In fact I quite enjoy it.
Riding in the dark on a stretch of road which has goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, horses, kangaroos , & emus wandering about on it wasn’t my best plan. But I made it home safely, so it was all good.
The weather was magnificent, at a pleasant 25-27 oC (until the Sun went down), a light breeze, bright & sunny, with some whispy clouds about.
Ebony behaved herself & relished the opportunity to tonk along at 110km/h.
There were the obligatory Tourerists, Tripple Road Trains, Grey Nomads (retirees in Landcruisers towing gargantuan caravans), Backpackers in Bongo Vans, & Couples in Camper Vans, all sharing the road surprisingly well.
It ended up being just on 10 hours round trip, around 770kms, with around 45ltrs fuel burned.
Tired now.

Sullivj wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 11:29 am Returned from a weeks fly / ride holiday in Spain, close to Alicante.

Amazing quiet roads, with a superb surface which made for some very 'progressive' riding. A bit too hot (37oC), but nice and refreshing to dip in the pool after a long day on the bike.

It's run by a nice chap called Carl and includes breakfast, dinner and free beer!

https://www.spanishflyride.co.uk/

I may think about this as a retirement trip next year

MikeS wrote: Fri Jun 27, 2025 9:16 pm 20250627_142105~2.jpgWent over the Stelvio Pass today, I absolutely fecking hated it. Would never do it again. The hairpin bends going up were horrendous, pick a line and get halfway round to be met with a line of bikes/ cars on the wrong side of the road.

I can hear it now...."F%@k me..."

You did well not to drop it Mike - We've all seen the videos of 'that' corner!

I put a new (to me) seat on mine today.

A couple of weeks ago I did ~2000 miles heading to Copenhagen and back (via FR, BE, NL & DE) and seat comfort was definitely the limiting factor, particularly when I had to ride from Copenhagen to Rotterdam for the evening ferry (the day after I ran a half-marathon I wasn't really trained for )

Since I got back I've been researching more comfortable seats and have picked one up from eBay which started out as a low Sargent but had had some additional gel padding added (so not quite as low as the original low seat).

I don't need a low seat and since I got the bike in January have been alternating between having the stock seat in normal and high positions trying to work out which I prefer so I'm kind of hoping that a 'low' seat in the high position will be right for me. If it's not, I'll move this seat on and try something else.

Today i was back at my mum and dad home. I started putting up a fence where i cleared all the brambles from.
7 x 750mm long met posts hammerd in place. 7x 1200mm posts fitted, and 3 x 11.5 meters rails fitted.
I still have 2 meters of fencing frame to put up and then its the around 150 x 1200mm feather edging to be screwed in place. And there is still loads more they want me to do. I said to my dad that he will end up out living me the amount they want me to do there.

Howelligan wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 3:38 pm.
Riding in the dark doesn't worry me in & of itself. In fact I quite enjoy it.
Riding in the dark on a stretch of road which has goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, horses, kangaroos , & emus wandering about on it wasn’t my best plan.

Sounds like a normal days ride out in Wales

MikeS wrote: Fri Jun 27, 2025 9:16 pm 20250627_142105~2.jpgWent over the Stelvio Pass today, I absolutely fecking hated it. Would never do it again. The hairpin bends going up were horrendous, pick a line and get halfway round to be met with a line of bikes/ cars on the wrong side of the road.

Yep … done it like you wouldn’t do it again, fully loaded 2-up … not particularly enjoyable

I've done it too. Lovely views, but I will never do it again. At the time I rode it, I saw 2 bikes down, with one needing an ambulance. I mostly got stuck behind motorcaravans. Too many idiots who thought they were top motorcycle GP riders. Not the road I expected.

I just debudded the flower heads and watered the plants. Sods law its now chucking it down

Doctor T wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 3:52 pm I just debudded the flower heads and watered the plants. Sods law its now chucking it down

I presume you mean dead heading? If you" debudded" then presumably you will have no future flowers.