SV650.org - SV650 & Gladius 650 Forum - Bike trip to France piccies

Just got back from a road trip down to the south of France using the Green route. Epic time, 2000+ miles covered. Nelli held up fine, even despite running WELL into the red temperature zone quite frequently. The bike ran superb, but the only niggle on the 2nd to last day was my damn coil stick is on its way out again. Still, she done bloody well. A selection of piccies, with a link to all of them at the bottom. Got some videos to sort out too :D

I had a lie in thursday, and was planning an early night. That idea failed after 2 hours of trying to get to sleep. I got up at 11pm and tanked up on coffees ready to meet the boys at 1.40am. Get down to folkstone for the 3.30am train.

Annecy again for the first night. Mega rains down the south had meant very high water levels compared to last year. Weather wasn't looking kind for the next few days :(

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After breaky next morning.

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Up into the mountains for the second night. We found a superb place for 20 euros in Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

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Next day, ohmygod... I've ridden the Bandit in snow, but it progressivly got worse. Up the Val D'isere

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Obligitory Snow Angle :lol:

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Weather was simply stupid. At a lot of times we were in 1st, riding over snow, with 20m visibility. We met some blokes on RG1200's the night before in the hotel. They set of before us, we saw them coming back down the mountain ;) We pushed on through and made it to Briancon :cool: Proper scarey stuff though going through the tunnel at the top as it was all ice!!

Next day, things had changed, rock on baby :D

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Highest road in Europe :D Chatted to some hardcore cyclists, sod that!!!!!

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This went on for miles, and yes we had MEGA fun ;)

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Got down to about 10km north of Nice, and minced in the pool. Got absolutly hammered on Rose wine :lol:

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Then we headed via motorways (just too bloody hot to quick for us cold Brits) to a little town called La Ciotat on the south coast. This was basecamp for a few days.

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The boys went to the beach to perve at boobs and get burnt (and they did ha ha ha). I wasn't into all that beach stuff so went for a bimble up to Paul Ricard racetrack. Buggers wouldn't let me in so had a drink and went for a blast round some roads by myself. Epic fun.

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After a few days, we started North again, stopping at a proper dodgy F1 hotel after we couldn't find anywhere to stay (hot, bothered, wanted to get out of the sun). My phone came out my pocket whilst riding, split into all its major components. After a bit of fettling, its sorted :D. We ended up in Gap. We stopped up the road for some breakie and watched the cliffjumpers.

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Back up some more excellent roads.

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We got to Gex the next night after following the Green route back up to Lake Geneva.

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THE flag, the only one that survived after we all lost ours on day 1 in the morning :lol:

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Got up the next day and it was mostly straight back roads (with the odd bends) and made it to St Dizier. It was then an early start up the motorways to Calais so the boys could get back for the footy (meh won't comment :lol: )

Oooo lots of cleaning to do...

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All the rest of the pics are at.

http://public.fotki.com/DaimoB/gener...ike-trip-2010/

I've got some videos to sort out too. Due to my bikes front end, the pictures always not directly in front, always up and to the right, but they will do. Will post those tomorrow.

Bike ran good, got both knees down a plenty (although im still faster not trying to get em down). My bike uses by far the most fuel, its quicker than the K4 GSR600, slower than an 08 R6 (both not by much either way), and gets left standing low down by the Tuono :lol: But who's do you think got all the attention by lots of weirdos :lol: