The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Ninjachica]

Good:
Weather was good yesterday, although a bit chilly to start with. Met up with the lads and set off for the mountians. Why do they do it? Winter in the mountains, and summer at the beach! It really needs to be the other way around.
Breakfast at the bar was tasty.
Then had a very wriggly route to the matinal, which we couldn't find! Hey ho. Not may left now, before the end of the season - but still plenty of bars to try.

I had my new jacket on (Oxford Dakota), and it was very toasty.

Bad:
Went to get my reading glasses out in the bar, and found the zip on the outside pocket of my rucksack was open.
B*gger. F**k know what I've lost out of there.
(*when I got home, my glasses were on the coffee table, so that saved me £1 for a replacement pair!)

Ugly:
En-route, the chap in the lead stopped in the middle of a junction, deciding which way to go. He left all of us across the junction / middle of the road / seriously dodgy.
Apparently, this was the 3rd time he'd done it.
We finally got to where we were going, and an almighty row broke out, about how he was going to get us all killed. Wow. Never heard anything like it. It went on for 15 minutes, then calmed down a bit. I waited down the street in the sun, while they thrashed it out. Then it started up again. After 10 minutes, I though, f*ck this, I'm leaving. Just as I decided to go, the mate of the lead rider walked across the street and got on his bike. I waited to see what was happening next, then after 5 more minutes of raging, the lead guy left - with his mate.

It was not nice to hear (I don't speak Valencian, but I do understand it), but it was justified. If you ride in a group, you can't just stop whenever you want - there are others to consider. Spanish drivers don't tend to look beyond their bonnet, so a cluster of bikes stopped in the middle of a bend is asking for trouble. Also, the roads here don't have any verges. You are on the road, or in a ditch.
Added to that, on several occasions in the past, this particular guy has arranged to meet someone to sort out some paperwork (stopped on a roundabout and rang his contact, while the other bikes waited, wondering what was going on), gone to a street market to buy a jacket (everyone followed him like sheep, thinking they were going to a nice bar), went to another street market to buy a tool (same issue).

Needless to say - we won't be going anywhere with him again. That was perfectly clear in every language!

[bobsnicholson]

Never a dull moment over in sunny Espana.
Thing about Spain is one can ride almost all the year. Some months can be cold but good kit sorts that. If is persisting down you (read i) didn't go out.
Forgetting things comes with age me thinks, i think if my b---s weren't in a bag i would forget them
Weather has been quite nice here last few day's, in fact today very mild, 13/14c.
That leader shouldn't be on a bike.

[Beelady]

That reminded me of the most dangerous ride I ever went on. 45 Harleys set off from Canterbury to travel to Austria for Harley Davidson's 100th birthday party. John and I chose to ride at the back which we reckoned might be the safest place. We managed to get onto the M20, supposedly in several separate groups, which didn't work as they all turned into sheep who couldn't move without all their flock mates to make them feel safe. However, it didn't last long as we had a party of 6 Americans amongst us. We didn't know they didn't like rain. You should have seen the chaos that ensued when they thought stopping under a motorway bridge to put their waterproofs on was the right thing to do and they were even more confused when everyone else, who had almost collided with everyone else, started shouting and waving their arms. It didn't do much for Anglo American goodwill. John and I quietly rode past and waited at the ferry port for them all. Amazingly nobody got hurt, but that was just luck.

I have to say, it was the best party I've ever been to. I spent all night dancing on the tables with the Dutch Harley riders and it was wonderful, even though I only drank water for the entire week. We managed to abandon our group (ended up with 90 bikes from Kent altogether) and had a lovely ride back with just a couple of close friends. We went to visit the champagne houses in Reims and the Harley dealership there took us all out to lunch, which certainly wouldn't have happened if a French contingent had rocked up at the Canterbury dealers. Much more civilised abroad.

[Piglet]

Thing about Spain is one can ride almost all the year.

One can ride almost all year in Iowa (or all but about 5 days with tire studs - nothing works well in foot deep snow).

[Piglet]

However, it didn't last long as we had a party of 6 Americans amongst us. We didn't know they didn't like rain. You should have seen the chaos that ensued when they thought stopping under a motorway bridge to put their waterproofs on was the right thing to do and they were even more confused when everyone else, who had almost collided with everyone else, started shouting and waving their arms.

That is unusual behavior - normally they stop under an overpass and wait for the rain to stop. Only "crazy people on metric bikes" ride in the rain in in The Colonies.

[Beelady]

It's against the law here, piglet. We were all confused because they wanted to stop and they were all confused because everyone else was trying to shove them back onto their bikes and get them moving.