Tag: trip

tristram alexander

Americas – Here I Come!

Posted on | by Salli Griffith

Some of the longer in the tooth members may remember me, probably most of you have no idea of who I am, that being said I thought some of you would be interested in my upcoming solo on and off road adventure through North, Central and South America in 2022.

In 2018 I decided that it was time to get really serious about travelling again after the Brexit referendum result forced me out of my European IT career. So I started to think about a really long overland trip. At first the enormity of what I would need to plan for, test and complete before even stepping on a bike was a bit overwhelming. So I broke it down into smaller chunks that could be simply achieved. Where to go in the world, solo or a tour group, what bike, how will I navigate, how will I stay healthy, accommodation, carnet de passage, first aid, search and rescue, the list was almost endless? This is why I initially allocated two years to planning and slowly over time I have now got a tick in 90% of the boxes on the list. I have managed this mostly on my own and with the help of the internet I have completed, or know what I need to do to complete all the tasks required for such a trip.

tristram alexander

My initial intended start date was March 2021, now revised to February 2022. I had always has a hankering to see more of North America so adding Central and South America was an easy decision. Next up, with a tour group or solo, this was not too hard to decide as almost every tour I looked into was passing through each country far too quickly and I wanted lots of time to explore, stop and start as I wanted to, so going solo was the answer for me. However, going into these countries solo added at least one additional complication if/when I got into difficulty or worse, how will I communicate to get myself out of difficulty. So the first task was to learn Spanish which I am still doing with my now friend Eric all the way from Mexico City; got to love Zoom.

The next big decision was what bike?

As I am short, the “off the shelf” adventure bikes were just not going to work without lowering the suspension at both ends and I felt compromising the handling of the bike. Not to mention these after market rear suspension linkages breaking somewhere stranding me in the middle of nowhere with no passing traffic to assist. I also felt that the “off the shelf” bikes are built to a price and not so much built to do a job. As the bike was going to be my home, office, entire world for a long time I wanted a machine that would not let me down.

Having followed Lyndon Poskitt on his races to places and through his Dakar racing a bike like Basil tailored to my short stature seemed to be the right idea. Knowing he built the kind of bike I wanted I contacted him asking him if he would build me a similar bike. This is how Goliath became part of my life and a ruthlessly money-sucking machine.

More updates in future installments.

Tristram Alexander

First published in Slipstream August 2021

Triumph Factory Visitor Experience

Posted on | by Salli Griffith

Triumph has been around since 1902. In its heyday the company was one of the world’s most successful motorcycle brands, but following sustained periods of low of investment and the arrival of Japanese competition in the 70s, the business collapsed in 1983. John Bloor, a property developer who had attended the auction to buy the land on which the old factory sat, decided instead to buy the name and rebuild the company.

The new Triumph ‘Hinckley’ range was launched in 1992 and the Phoenix was reborn.

They now make around 65,000 machines a year, and expect to produce their millionth motorcycle this year.

My visit started early with full wet-weather gear to get to Beaconsfield services in the pouring rain for an 8:30 briefing by Nigel Winstanley, who had organised the visit and was also trying his hand at being a run leader for the first time. His own KTM was off the road, so he had borrowed a replacement bike. With torrential rain forecast, a last-minute change of route was also in order. Given all these challenges it was perhaps surprising that the only thing to go wrong on the day was that Nigel couldn’t figure out how to get the tank bag off his loan bike to fill it up. Fortunately one of our group suggested he look for the key inside the tank bag.

The weather gods were looking down on us as the rest of the journey stayed dry. We had a very pleasant stop for breakfast at Reg’s Café in Banbury, a nice biker-friendly place with good food. We all arrived at Hinckley by 1pm in good time for our factory tour.

The visitor centre is an impressive new facility, opened in 2017.

Next to the café is a well-presented exhibition on two levels illustrating the history and technology of Triumph Motorcycles up to the present day.

Our guide Robert gave us the full 2 hour tour. It can be done in 90 minutes, but we asked far too many questions. The factory was not operating at the time, but it was obvious that they had set up with visitors in mind. There were video presentations in all the key areas, and other static displays, typically showing examples of the manufacturing process that key components go through.

Triumph is now a global business with factories in Thailand and final assembly plants in India and Brazil. Thailand is where they have their diecasting plant and injection moulding factory, as well as final assembly of selected models such as the new Rocket 3 and the Bonneville range. The Hinckley plant produces around 15,000 machines annually, mainly Tiger 1200s, Tiger Sports and Speed Triples. In order to avoid high local import tariffs, the factories in Brazil and India assemble finished bikes from kits of parts shipped from the UK.

The Triumph Rocket 3R

Robert explained that they build most bikes to order, with a mixed model line depending on demand. The only time they make a large batch of the same bike is when they build launch stock to introduce a new model.

Much of the Hinckley factory is dedicated to machining engine casings and crankshafts, plus the finish grinding of camshafts and cranks. We got a strong impression of how important consistent quality is in the manufacturing process. They take samples of crankshafts after they have been cleaned and washed. They pass the cleaning fluids through a fine filter and measure the amount of dirt particles trapped. Robert reckoned that a well-maintained Triumph engine is good for 250,000 miles, with many customers who have achieved this.

There was a large screened-off research and development section where they develop new machines, with around 400 people employed in R&D. Regular employees are not normally allowed inside, and they only get glimpses of new machines as they are taken out on test rides. The dedicated road-testing team may look to have the dream job, but they ride out in all weathers, doing several hundred miles a day. It would soon lose its attraction to all but the most ardent rider. It typically takes Triumph three years to develop a new model from scratch.

At the end of the tour we were shown an area where bikes were prepared for journalists to test.  There were around 20 new Rocket 3s ready for the world’s press to try in November. Although supplied with tyres pre-scrubbed in by Mira, the journalists clearly take every chance to explore their limits, and one pre-production bike had already been back in the workshop for repair after one tester slid it down the road.

If you’re interested in modern production methods, or are just into Triumph motorcycles, you’ll find the factory tour a fascinating experience, a real study of precision manufacturing and global logistics.

My thanks to Andrew Whiteman for his help with the article.

Nigel Winstanley

First published in Slipstream January 2020

Five Go Mad in Spain

Posted on | by Salli Griffith

Aragon MotoGP 2019 Tour

About a year ago a few biker friends and I were kicking around ideas for a European tour for 2019. My mates had done a few before, such as the MotoGPs at Assen, Catalunya and Misano. I started riding again in 2015 after a long break and had never done a ‘proper’ continental tour. We had toured the Lake District, Wales, the 2018 Isle of Man TT, the 2019 NW200 as a group, but I’d not tried riding on the ‘wrong’ side of the road yet, or on proper mountain roads (no offence to Wales!) For the 2019 tour, 5 of us settled on the Aragon MotoGP (myself, Rod, Stephen, Leigh and Paul). I had passed my advance test with TVAM in June 2019 but my friends are not advanced riders.

The first major ride on 17th September was getting to the ferry bound for Santander. We are all local to Portsmouth (1 hour away) but the ferry company made a late change to depart from Plymouth instead. Undeterred, I planned a reasonably scenic route, away from most motorways, for 3 of us riding down together which also gave me the chance to programme my new Garmin SatNav with waypoints. This all worked well until we couldn’t find somewhere to park and eat lunch in Dorchester. We eventually found a Morrison’s a few miles further on.

The tricky part came when we returned to the bikes and realised we were tight for time in catching the ferry, with nearly 100 miles to go and less than two hours ‘til last check-in. I pushed the pace on my ZZR1400 to make sure we didn’t suffer that embarrassment.

We met companion number 4 on the ferry. He had picked up a hired Africa Twin for the trip, after we persuaded him that taking his recently-restored 40-year-old Laverda might give rise to breakdowns and small amounts of mechanical chaos/oily puddles each morning.

I had placed a sticker on my right-hand mirror to remind me which lane to be in when I got to Spain. I emerged from Plymouth Sainsbury’s petrol station towards oncoming traffic. Not my finest hour.

After a merry evening over a few drinks on the ferry plus a bit of Croque Monsieur and Paella action, we had two cabins to try and get a good night’s sleep before the first full day’s riding in Spain.

Paul, the 5th and final member of the team, was waiting for us at Santander Port, having ridden 200+ miles from his UK home to Paris for a meeting, then a further 650 miles from Paris to Santander. Paul could have bailed out when work got in the way, but he was crazy enough to stick with the tour. What a lad! (And serves you right for retiring and then going back to work.)

Can’t stop smiling. What a road!

I led the group to the first hotel about 90 miles from the Santander ferry port. About 3 miles from the hotel, SatNav directed me off the motorway onto a much smaller road and about a mile later, diverted me back onto the motorway. WTF? Rod (who doesn’t have a SatNav) said “What was the point of coming off the motorway? It was a waste of time!” I was tired and stressed and replied, “I was following the SatNav, and I don’t f***ing live around here!”

The following few days involved a pattern of breakfast; checkout; load up the bikes and ride for a few hours; stop somewhere for lunch; then ride again until getting to the next hotel. Parking was often a challenge but once found we decanted the bikes; checked-in, showed (bliss); changed and headed out to dinner.

What wasn’t a blur of routine was just how fantastic the roads were. The tarmac surfaces felt like riding on a racetrack; there were very few cars; and the scenery was exquisite. Some of the rides were so good that we would stop for photos and rabbit on about certain bends or stretches of road. One mountain section was so damn good that when we got to the top we agreed to ride back down so we could do it all again.

Riding that big ZZR was quite a challenge for me on mountain descents where the mass and momentum was very different to riding my Aprilia Tuono Factory. Fully laden with a big chuffer like me on it, the ZZR weighed in at close to 900lb (or nearly 400 kilos). I had a purple patch where I followed the 2 BMWs in our group up a mountain pass and stayed with them for 15 minutes or so. It was exhilarating, but then it hit me when we found a short straight that I was exhausted from the concentration, the speedy smoothness over what might have been 100’s corners and the physical effort of leaning the bike left and right, over and over. But what an unforgettable 15 minutes that was!

Tito Rabat meets his heroes!

The Doctor looking cool on the grid-walk.

For race day, we rode for 2 hours in pitch black and rainy conditions, arriving at the Motorland Aragon circuit at 8:00am. We met with our host, Rubén Xaus (a retired racer nicknamed ‘Spider-Man’). He took us into the Avintia garage to meet the riders, Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham, take a look at the bikes and see what happens in the garage with bike set-ups, tyres, brakes etc. The personal highlight was two of us were given MotoGP Grid Walk passes. Being five grown-ups, we decided on who got the passes by playing, ‘Rock, paper, scissors’

I’m not easily starstruck but standing next to my hero Valentino Rossi as he got ready to race was just the best thing. Seeing all those familiar riders such as Marquez, Dovioso, Crutchlow, Rins, Vinales etc. was just brilliant. The brolly girls were beautiful but I did ask a couple to move a bit so I could get the entire bike and rider in shot (what a geek!). I walked so far down the grid I even spotted Jorge Lorenzo. Sorry, that was cruel!

So close!

At this point I want to say a massive thank you to my mate Paul who organised the race day VIP experience. I won’t forget it and neither will my mates. He also planned all the routes and booked the hotels. He and Stephen were the day-to-day route gurus when the SatNavs wouldn’t play ball all the time.

The ride back to Bilbao for the ferry home to Portsmouth was the only part where we missed a great set of roads. From Pamplona to Bilbao, the guys knew a lovely mountain road, only we never found it and ended up on some big A roads instead. After a cracking dinner in Bilbao, we knew that the tour was effectively over.

The next 24 hours was spent on the ferry to Portsmouth and a parting of ways, where we were already preoccupied with leaving in 5 directions. It was raining for the whole hour home, and the roads were clogged with cars and lorries, the road surfaces were poor, and I realised how spoiled we had been with our week on peerless Spanish roads. Hasta luego España!

Many flies lost their lives on this trip!

What did I learn from my first continental tour?

  1. I had packed well and took as little as I could get away with. I only needed my clear visor though as I never used the tinted one.
  2. I hate my Garmin SatNav. Even with pre-loaded waypoints set up a week beforehand and the routing style programmed to avoid motorways it drags me onto less good roads. It seems that a MyRouteApp SatNav course is needed to better understand the kit. Switching to Google Maps on our phones was better when looking for a hotel in a town or city.
  3. My Bluetooth earpiece was erratic. It spoke beautifully until we stopped for petrol or a pee, then it wouldn’t reconnect, even if I re-  booted both bits of kit. It was like an unruly kid that defied reason.
  4. My ZZR can ride like a dream in corners, but it takes a lot of effort at speed, and I enjoyed the scenery more at lower speeds. But crushing continents in a straight line is a breeze on it; what a smooth, powerful and comfortable bike it is. I covered 1,444 miles on the trip and could have ridden many more.
  5. The roads in Spain are fabulous. I cannot believe how good they were in terms of surface quality, lack of holes, beautiful bends. Leigh humorously speculated that the roads had been designed by bikers.
  6. Putting a sticker on my right-hand mirror was a great reminder of which side to be on. Apart from one incident by a Spanish gorge when I rode into the left lane, scaring three cars and myself to death.
  7. I’m a stickler for ‘all the gear, all the time’, which for me included an air bag vest. But it did get damned hot if we dropped below 50kph. Waiting in a hot lobby area to check-in after a day’s ride meant turning into a red-faced sweaty mess.
  8. I can see why so many bikers take on a European or Worldwide tour. It was addictive and fantastic.  Intense, but relaxing…nothing gets on your mind apart from enjoyment when you are riding.
  9. When I get tired towards the end of the tour, I’m liable to snap at one or two of my friends over tipping conventions. You know who you are.

The four bikers of the apocalypse.

What were we riding?

  • I (Brian) was on a Kawasaki ZZR1400 Performance Sport
  • Paul and Stephen on BMX S1000XR Adventure bikes
  • Rod on a Ducati Diavel
  • Leigh on a hired Honda Africa Twin

The routes we covered included:

Day 1 & 2 in the UK:

  • A ride to Plymouth from Hampshire
  • 200 miles and 4 hours riding
  • 24-hour ferry crossing from Plymouth to Santander

Day 2 in Spain:

  • Santander ferry to our first hotel in Cangas de Onís, Asturias (all motorway – dreary but necessary) plus 20 minutes to find the hotel even though SatNav said we had arrived.
  • 90 miles and 120 minutes riding.

Day 3 in Spain. Cangas de Onis to Riano:

  • Riding through the Picos Mountains and National Park. An epic day following a rambling route from Cangas de Onis to Riano, via Santa Maria de Valdeon, Puentenansa, Cervera de Pisuerga and Triollo.
  • 201 miles and 7 hours of riding

Day 4 in Spain:

  • Riano to Vitorio Gasteiz, via Cervera de Pisuerga, Reinosa, Huespeda and Quintana Martin Galindez
  • 198 miles and 5 hours of riding

Day 5 in Spain:

  • Vitoria Gasteiz to Zaragoza, via Corres, El Rasillo de Cameros and Agreda
  • 224 miles and 6 hours of riding

Day 6 in Spain:

  • Zaragoza to Motorland Aragon MotoGP circuit. And after the race, Aragon circuit to Graus
  • 172 miles and 4 hours of riding

Day 7 in Spain:

  • Graus to Bilbao, via El Pont du Suert, Jaca, Pamplona and San Sebastien
  • 315 miles and 8 hours of riding

Day 8:

  • Bilbao Ferry to Portsmouth
  • 24-hour ferry and a 1-hour ride home (50 miles) in pouring rain.

 

Brian Benson

3Rs Returns to Ross-on-Wye

Posted on | by Salli Griffith

The weekend of the 9-11th August saw 30 riders and 1 pillion head to Ross-on-Wye for a superb weekend, staying at the Penyard House Hotel. The weekend promised good roads in good company with observed rides to those that wanted them. The weather, by contrast, was not quite so accommodating.

As we gathered at Morrison’s Café in Reading early on the Friday morning, the rain promptly started. However, by the time we had finished breakfast and received our briefing, the weather had improved slightly and the sun even tried to come out. We headed off in 2 groups to wind our way through some lovely countryside on some great backroads – both groups arriving at the hotel within 10 minutes of each other having covered approximately 150 miles – great timing!

The Penyard House Hotel is a lovely place to stay. Set in some beautiful grounds just outside Ross-on-Wye on the A40. The staff made us feel very welcome; the food was tasty and the rooms were clean and comfy – what more could you ask for?

The main topic of conversation during breakfast on Saturday morning was the atrocious weather forecast. Torrential rain and gusts of up to 60mph in exposed areas. Not ideal biking weather! That said, the decision was soon made for the entire group to go on Kelly’s run which was heading north. It appeared that this would avoid the worst of the weather that was tracking in from the west – sorry Gary (next time). The run was excellent, almost 200 miles, mainly B-roads in the morning and then some nice, fast-flowing A-roads in the afternoon.

Saturday’s pre-dinner drinks were enjoyed outside in the sunshine – what a variety of weather we had endured that day. During dinner each table were handed a quiz paper with a selection of Highway Code and Roadcraft questions, along with some general motorcycle trivia. James did an excellent job as quiz master. Hopefully we all learnt something – if nothing else, that it was probably high time we re-read the Highway Code.

On Sunday we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before splitting into 2 groups and heading for home. The weather was much more favourable and some of us even got home in the dry, whilst those of us that took the more scenic route were not quite so lucky.

Whilst the weather was far from ideal it didn’t stop the fun. Keep an eye out in Slipstream for details of next year’s 3Rs trips.

Tom Grey

First published in Slipstream September 2019

Some comments from those who took part:

Can’t improve on a great weekend, just want more please.

I really enjoyed the 3Rs. What made it stand out for me was the company and a chance to meet some new TVAM people. The organisation was flexible and seamless with everyone working together.

It was my first 3Rs but hopefully not my last. I liked the size of the group as you got to speak with everyone.

Fantastic weekend, very good value. The 3Rs is by far my best TVAM trip to-date. Particularly impressed by the organisation, quality and value of the hotel and the smaller and friendly group of fellow TVAM riders. Please put me down for the next one.

Keep it small. The event has a great feel to it.

More people with pink hair! Really great weekend.

All in all a really enjoyable weekend with plenty of rocking, rolling and riding present – and quite a bit of the wet and windy thrown in for good measure.

Roll on 2020 with more 3Rs trips to enjoy.

Well done to the organising team!