Pedro

"Chuis", in 80's portuguese

Jesus, and Pete says he rides in ghost towns

I don't get all this Kawasaki bashing, most Kawasaki riders I see on the road are going hell mostly on 1400 ZZR or GTRs, or the ocasional ZX10. Usually, when I see a Kawasaki on the road it's blasting past me on a motorway.

Nice area, always looks like a western setting.

I don't get what Ducati is doing to this bike. They came up with a design that worked well using classy engines that were neither too powerful or bland, and now they just launch these stupid versions trying to get to every weird niche? Or just trying to get everyone to buy them just because they're a new version of the same thing?

Is it because it’s only got 40hp?

North is old money and industry, blue colar and foul mouth people that are honest and down to earth, south is finance and banking more than industry, overpaid people that spend too much on superfluous shit and end up being broke next to their relatives up north that get paid half as much but live better. North is better wine for less money, south is overpriced cocktails. North is in your face hard truth versus south being backstabbing sweet talking ponces, you get the gist of it. PS: I'm from the north, so this is my disclaimer for considering my opinion above

Ericeira? Yes, very much upmarket and very overpriced, it's very pretty as well and worth a visit. It's one of europe's surfing paradises and it´s near Lisbon, and also where Lisbon's wealthy intelectual or political families have been keeping weekend homes since forever. I get a kick out of being out of place there, being from the north and foul mouthed and sticking like a sore thumb amongst southern twats or foreign surfers. But it's a very pretty place, with a very chilled vibe on week days, and I wouldn't say no to a small place with a garage there.

Yes, but mostly in surfing places or the Algarve. The english guys I'm refering to, though, are guys I used to meet when I spent a lot of time driving on the Nurburgring.

Some of my english friends say I sound like Borat ... twats, they are, guvnor

Correct, it’s one of Portugal’s prettiest 20 towns, I think. you just spend two days here, Pete, and I’ll show you a little tour with those blue houses, nice eating, nice drinking, and some nice roads, and you’ll be able to show these portuguese twats (that warm bikes up forever in 20 degrees) what styling and profiling really means!

Got to hand it to you, when you’re right, you’re right!

Looked delicious, ignore these uneducated buffoons

I don't know:

First of all, most pictures were taken just for you guys, didn't feel like stopping at all ? My home is about one and a half to two hours away from Sofia's, if I take small scenic roads. A little tired of being alone by myself I offered to visit and cook dinner, we were to meet halfway for a coffee. As I ride off the weather is looking a little much like not-summer. We were to meet at my cafe of choice for going to have something on the bike, it's located in Serra de Montejunto, which is what divides inland weather from coastal weather, going there on the extreme summertime provides me with easy relief from the summer heat. Riding into a very low cloud A few minutes after I arrive, she does too: Thinking of wether to ride straight back or not, it starts to rain heavily so I choose to have a nice hot toast and coffee in the dry and heated cafe. After, I put my padded winter mid layer on and plastic rain overpants, in June ?, to go to Ericeira. Ride there was wet with roads covered in mud and grime, I followed Sofia as she was breaking in her brand new Pirelli Supercorsas in less than ideal conditions In Ericeira she went straight to work and I went for a warm shower instead ?, before visiting her current patients, that were born not long ago and now getting a feel for chewable food: They're rather more interested in playing and exploring than eating: Dinner was prepared by me, and consisted of tinned sardines cooked in paprika and turmeric seasoned onions and tomato, African inspired, it tastes a lot better than it sounds, and was served on toast on top of goat's fresh cheese. Too much wine was consumed so the next day I slept a little later with her dog for company, also lazily taking some effort to get up: Instead of riding back home, on friday I did a little ride around the area, successfully avoided more than a few rain drops, and managed one single picture of the entire thing, stopped for refreshment: Today, weather is glorious in sunny Ericeira, so had breakfast at a street side cafe and took my sweet time walking around before riding back home. Riding back, I used countryside roads to head home, crossing the Lisbon wine area without taking any pictures as basically whenever I though of doing so the pretty landscape had already passed Stopped for a cafe at lunch time back at the same hilltop cafe, but since it was almost empty I decided to stay for lunch. Had a nice burger, cooked while both other bikes there idled away for 15 minutes, some people must really worry about riding off on a not hot engine. They proceeded to stop 1 km away for almost another hour Burger was not worthy of a picture. Going back down the hill on the other side, almost home A brief stop for urination purposes was made a lot better by pissing with a view: Arrived back home with a terribly dirty bike to a dark and moody sky. Might even wash the bike once it has properly cooled off, if it doesn't rain.

From the title of the thread, and the first picture, I imagined Michelin would have a bike riding in from of the Tour de France peloton throwing money at them

That’s the stuff, proper pics of great wine scenery and a very french lunch!

I thought you would look more french than that

I don’t think I have a cockney accent

right, WOT in a 125hp bike digging into sand is exactly the thing I'm not very comfortable with

Great stuff, Bob. Bike looks great on those trails, sure enough it'll feel like a pig when going through the kind of mud you're used to taking lighter bikes on proper knobbies on. I have great admiration for guys who can use a big bike to do stuff like the trial's riding type stuff shown above, that shows real skill. I loose all confidence when on the GS and the nice hard dirt turns to sandy trails. Soft ground just makes me wimp out, I'd like to say it comes from not wanting to damage the bike but in fact it comes from not knowing what to do with it on soft terrain, may take a class one of these days when stuff opens up again.

Of course not Pete, nobody ever gets injured doing stuff in snow

Good stuff, Moon. Bet those are great roads if you find with little traffic, but they're getting a little too strict with the speed limits now, aren't they?

In the future, I'll just send my bike to get groceries by itself