Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Ride Out at St Tropez, Day 3 (Saturday)

















Today was Ride Out day. The Chelsea and Fulham HOG Chapter that I am a member of met at a villa on the outskirts of St Tropez and rode a 50 mile ride that took a couple of hours. The weather stayed fine, thankfully without the rain that had plagued a lot of riders on their way down to the South of France.

We ran south west along some twisty mountain roads before hitting the coast and heading back towards St Tropez. We stopped for a very good lunch on the beach at the Restaurant Plage Les Bronzes before making our way back to St Tropez.

The photos and video below show the Chapter Members meeting for breakfast, the ride itself and then lunch afterwards.





















Here is the video of the ride....






And here are the pictures from the post ride lunch....































































































































































My bike back in the Port of St Tropez.

Friday, 7 May 2010

St Tropez H-D Euro Festival, Day 2 (Friday)

Today was a busy day. Up early for a quick ride, then back to the hotel to collect my wife Jackie and to walk around St Tropez. The town still has some of it's previous glamour, but is very tired and many parts are in need to fixing up in order to justify the ridiculously high prices this place charges. Overall St Tropez has a good feel.

The boats in the port are stunning, but it seems odd that despite their multi-million price tags, everybody in the town was, for today at least, ignoring those boats and looking at the motorbikes instead. Speaking to the local traders, they all adore this bike festival, for it is very good for business. Many of the cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels are full so the influx of bikers is very good for business and a welcome boost to the local economy to kick-start the tourist season.

There are Harley-Davidsons everywhere. Standard bikes, tourers and many customs, some good and some not so good. In their own way, all H-D's are interesting as almost nobody keeps them as they rolled off the end of the production line. Just about everybody changes their H-D in some way or another, so almost all of these bikes are worth looking at.

The seafront in the port was full of bikes, making a morning walk very enjoyable. This afternoon a few of us went to the custom bike show in Grimaud - a local village with the show taking over the town square. The weather was good, so the show was very busy. I didn't enter my bike this year (it did well in the show 2 years ago, so it would have been a bit cheeky to enter it again), but I enjoyed looking at some of the new bikes.

Here are some photos of the day....





















Cool bikes with a stunning back drop





























Big bikes and even bigger boats!






















St Tropez Port, with its water facing cafes






















I am not sure about the colour, but note the right side drive




























Kilts for him and her




























Those bars cannot be comfortable




























The festival is very multi-national, with bikers attending from all over Europe




























Le Mans has to be one of the coolest back patches




























Geneva Chapter




























This guy travelled a long way!






















Nice paint job on a standard H-D bike























My red bike parked in the town square





























The Village of Grimaud, where the custom bike show was held























Some of the longer custom bikes at the show






























A very cool chain driven throttle to carb set-up
























Sleek looking bike























I didn't get the bands name, but they were good, but a little loud!






















Front ends at different rakes





























Whole lotta bikes
























Why would you take off the side stand on a road bike so you need to take a paddock stand with you?





























The owner must have thought one day "Lets a a new light to the back of the bike" and it just grew from there
























A young woman rode into the custom bike show on a "Chanel no. 5" bike. It looked good and smelled great!



























My friend Ian on his custom bike in the show






















This guy decided to rest, on his bike when it was in the custom show!




























A very narrow street in St Tropez




























Look closely - there is a dog in the buggy! It is 16 years old and blind, so its owner takes it for "walks" like this because otherwise it walks into things!























Some of the mega yachts in St Tropez

St Tropez H-D Euro Festival, Day 1 (Thursday)

We didn’t have enough time to ride down through France, so having made the decision to fly and risk getting delayed by the Icelandic volcano ash cloud, we were happy to arrive in St Tropez on Thursday afternoon on time. I collected my red bike from the company that transported my bike – this was the same people that moved all of the Harley demonstrator bikes here – I arranged with them that they would bring my bike too.

















I took a quick ride and had a coffee in the port of St Tropez, where most of the bikers hang out. There was just time for a few photos and then dinner.

I will post more tomorrow after I have visited the main festival site and the custom bike show.

The pictures are from the port area – some bikes, a nice boat and just for bobscoot – bike parking the French way!


















Sunday, 2 May 2010

Top 20 Biking Blogs











Well, I didn’t expect that!

Carole Nash, one of the UK’s favourite motorcycle insurance specialist has announced its Top 20 Biking Blogs.

Carole Nash said they had “been browsing the best of the biking web, picking out some of the best motorcycle blogs that we have come across in the past few months”.

Guess what??? My blog is on the list – I am chuffed to bits, but I am not sure I deserve this. There are what I consider to be far better motorcycle blogs out there than my humble attempt. I am pretty pleased they picked mine though.

Here is the link to their article. For an insurance company they have some great parts to their website.

Friday, 30 April 2010

Harley Night at the Ace Cafe

On every last Thursday in the month during the riding season, the Ace Cafe holds a Harley Night. Last night was the second such event this year at this famous north London motorcycle venue, so I jumped on my red bike and headed for the Ace.

Considering rain was forecast, it was a good turnout. There were many bikes there, lots of friends to see and catch up with and a “best bike” competition. Here are a few photos of the evening....






The Ace Cafe













One of the rows of bikes

















It was a well attended event













Cool custom bike, by Nick Gale













Very cool rear fender














Whoah!














Nice Bobber













No, I don't know why either!














Harley Race Bike














What did he put in his tank?














For a German Ex-pat













Mark Battistini, of Battistini Custom Cycles


















I liked the back of this jacket
















Oh, and what bike won the best bike completion? I am happy to say it was mine. I won tee shirts, £100 worth of parts at Battistinis Custom Motorcycles, bike cleaning gear and tickets for a bike rally trip to Faro in Portugal. As I won't be able to go to the Faro Rally, I donated the rally trip prize to the next Ace Cafe event which is raising money for a children’s charity.

A great night out.