MooN

Back in September 2012 I made a trip that I had wanted to do for a long time. This Ride report was posted on Maximum bikes and I have resurrected it for this site, as not many of us can actually ride to create any ride reports at the moment. 10th June 1944. 4 days after the normandy landings & resistance activity in the Limousin region has redoubled in an attempt to prevent german troops moving north to reinforce the front. The 2nd SS panzer division "Das reich" commanded by Adlof Diekerman, harassed by resistance actions, Halts by the small village of Oradour sur Glane. Lunch is almost over, the restaurant & café begin to empty as the inhabitants return to their occupations & the children make their way back to school. 14h00; having carefully surrounded the Village, the SS give the order for all inhabitants to gather in the square. 15h00; the villagers are all in the square, & the school children arrive, in rows accompanied by their teachers. The SS have set up macine guns all around the square, facing the people. 15h30; The SS separate the men from the women & children. The women & children are led to the church. The men are divided into groups, which then disperse, at gunpoint to various locations in the village. 16h00; An explosion is heard, at which signal the machine guns open fire on the groups of men. Some men are finished off with a pistol shot to the head, most are not, & the piles of bodies are set alight. 17h00: the SS place a large crate in the centre of the church, from which a number of fuses run. the firing of the fuses provokes a thick toxic smoke & complete panic amongst the women & children who scrabble for the doors. The SS machine gun anyone appearing near the doors or windows. The fire spreads & the women & children die asphixiated or burned alive. One lone woman survived to tell the tale. Mme Rouffanche. The youngest of the children was 8 days old. The SS then proceeded to burn any bodies left over, some survivors were thrown down the well & the rest of the village was burned. That afternoon, the SS murdered 642 people & destroyed 328 buildings. The village has never been rebuilt. aA new village has grown alongside the old & the ruins have been left untouched. Since 1999 a "centre de la memoire" ( memory centre & museum) has been installed at the entrance to the village. This is what I wanted to see. being something of a technophobe, I tend to still route plan the old fashioned way, & don't have a GPS. I use a K. T. Kitchen Table! + pencil & paper. I set off late, due to Madame feeling a bit off, I ran the kids to school for 08:30, swung by the polyclinique to pick up me scan results (sinuses again ) & didn't get away from home 'till about quarter to ten. Not cold & not raining but very overcast. Forcast to improve over the course of the day. Didn't suit up to set off but within 10 minutes needed to here at Jussey, linking the N6 to the N151 It hammered down for about 5 minutes & then let up, but I was on the N151 & as usual loving every minute of it, as far as Clamecy anyway. After that it gets a bit booring as far as Nevers, then it's just "route express" (dual carriageway) south to Moulins.then a bit more interesting, but not a lot...) from Moilins to Montluçon where I stopped for a late lunch & just stopped at a McGonads for a spicy skank-burger or whatever it was. I was pushing on despite the numerous heavy rain showers, cos I really wanted to get to Oradour in time to do the Museum Visit & then see the ruins. I stopped for a ciggy at Gueret, & then attacked the smaller roads up to Le Grand Bourg, it had stopped raining but the roads were still wet I got to Oradour around 4 ish, with just enough time to do the museum & the village if I was quick in the museum... The Museum doesn't allow pics, so I don't have any. You want to see it? you'll have to go. The Museum explains more than I really wanted to know about the village, the political situation & so on & so forth, but also in detail what exactly happend on the 10 of June 1944 & goes on to attempt to explain why & what happened afterwards, Historically, to allow the village to remain as it is. Most of the "exhibits" are items that were left in the ruins, but that started to become seriously weatherbeaten & risked being lost entirely. The signs & explanations are in numerous languages... German being one of them. (I don't know what to think about that... is that good or bad?) After the, sobering, museum visit I walked on through to the village itself. I have loads of pics but I won't post them all. It did feel kind of bizarre taking photo's, people died here, it's not just some tourist attraction. Just a remark I made to myself on leaving the village. I think that Oradour Sur Glane (the old village) is the only village in france where you will not get people say "bonjour", to each other in the street... most will not even make eye contact, be they brits, french or dutch. (I didn't spot any germans) outside the village the inscription reads " Ici des hommes firent a leurs meres, et a toutes les femmes, la plus grave injure. Ils n'épargnerent pas les enfants" my translation: " in this place men made the foulest insult imaginable to their mothers & to all women, They did not spare the children" As you enter the village, the sign on the gate This is what the whole thing is about. This must never be forgotten, that men are capable of such atrocity. the well In which a number of bodies were found. The inscription reads "here some villagers were buried" (understand buried alive) " In this place of torture, a group of men were massacred & burned by the Nazis. meditate upon it" the garage the cars in the streets The forge The pharmacy "here were found 2 burnt bodies" the bakers the butchers the café "chez Lucien" at the bottom of the road there is the church. "in this place hundreds of women & children were massacred by the Nazis you who pass by, be meditative you who believe, say a prayer for the victimes & their families" the bell, melted by the heat of the flames The youngest child killed was only 8 days old... a quiet walk back to the bike & a quick word with two english guys on BMW F650's headed south, a father & son team who'd stopped by cos the dad's father had been here many years ago & told his son about it, who'd now brought HIS son to see it. Have a safe trip through the pyrenees guys. I took the road towards Limoges, it was now about 18h00 & I had obviously well timed my arrival on the outskirts of Limoges to coincide with evening rush hour...Still, I knew pretty much where I was going & I found the traffic easy to deal with, as most cars just pull over as the lines slow down, allowing even my fat arse panniers to filter through. I arrived at the Hotel easy enough a little before 7, having stopped for a coffee at a roadside café along the way. well when I say Hotel... it's a truck stop, with 6 rooms available. Room, evening meal & breakfast 46€. Well it was clean... ish. I usually reckon that the food at a truckstop is going to be ok if there's a load of trucks outside at mealtimes. By the time I'd checked in, unpacked & showered there were 70+ semis parked out the back & 4 or 5 jostling for position in the front... There's no pics of this cos it was a complete free for all the food was ok, good solid truck stop nosh, the entrée was a buffet so help yourself then there was lasagne & salad in portions that I would only feed to large wild animals... actually, come to think of it, I wish I'd have filmed it (with sound), it really was a bit like feeding time at the zoo. There was no way i was going to be able to sit & enjoy a quiet meal with my nose in a book. however it all seemed fairly good natured & as everyone was sat at long common tables, it seemed somewhat churlish not to just deploy my elbows & join the throng & was soon elbow deep in greasy pasta & knee deep in an animated discussion about french transport politics... of which I have no clue but just tried to avoid being rude about bloody frog truck drivers... I slept in late & by the time I was ready to go (about 9h30 ish) the parking was empty. The barman who served me coffee & croissant for breakfast said that it was like that every night of the week... So, Friday morning, only slightly hung over, even at this late hour a fairly thick fog lay over all, so I'd only have wasted time waiting if i'd got up earlier. The first couple of hours of my route were the scenic twisty bits & I didn't want to do that in the fog. I set off to cover the first 20 or so km before the real fun begins, in the hope the fog would have burnt off by the time I got to St Priest Taurion & turned up back into the hills. The bridge at St Priest, further on oh Borrox (as the japanese say) well that's put the kybosh on one section then... ne'er mind, plenty more where that came from by the time I'd got back to Le Grand Bourg, I felt a bit like I'd been in a washing machine on "spin" cycle... then the serious stuff started again, the interminable ride home along mile after mile of almost straight a flat roads, the only exception being the 1st section of the D940 from Gueret to genouillac which is superbe, long fast sweepers with good visibility & a good surface the views dont do it any harm either Sancerre a rest stop alongside the Canal laterale a la loire, somewhere south of Cosne sur loire oh look a boat! nearly home, my house lies somewhere in the fold of the valley, just this side of the dark hill in the centre & a bit further left overall distance was 806km & it only rained on the thursday morning.

I did a whole ride report on ouradour back on MB Pete. you want me to redo it here?

riding around the area I have sometimes come across a road junction layout that has really surprised me. i don't mean like the eternal unmarked "priorité a droite" which can catch one unawares, but a junction or a road that really puzzles me as to "Why?". I have noticed, over the years, a number of villages in the area that have a surprisingly wide road through the centre, or huuuge crossroads with large areas of unused space or again a small village with a really wide road, almost a bypass, but which no village of that size could possibly afford and the traffic conditions in the middle of nowhere simply cannot justify. there's no heavy industry in the immediate area and the road doesn't even seem to actually go anywhere. Having been sat on me arse for some time now I started doing some research as to why certain medieval villages in the middle of the burgundy countrysie halfway between "nowhere" and " somewhere else" would have a massive bypass or a huge junction leading to it. I noted the villages where I remembered seeing these anomalies and looked on google earth and google maps. having done that I rode a route that linked them and WOW. There is, across the heart of rural burgundy a 16m wide highway very straight, with no tight corners, only sweeping curves and large, open corners and junctions, much wider than normal french secondary roads. I then did some research online into why this should be and where this super wide road goes to and from, searching newspaper archives about exceptionel transports etc and was astounded by what I found. I re rode the route today, 60 km each way from Auxerre to Avallon and could now fully understand. Some pics ( in the rian mostly, so not good ones) The route starts at the port in Auxerre which I have often wondered about why it was made the way it was, you can see it best on google earth the section outlined is clearly a man made adittion to the river. There is a slipway at the north end and a 15m wide exit gate leading to the road by the carpark which leads in turn to the big junction. moving south from here the road leaves auxerre to join the RN6 which was the main Paris - Lyon road prior to the building of the Autoroute in the 60's. Shortly after leaving Auxerre and before the village of Augy there is the first of the junctions that intrigued me, turing left ino the countryside and no apparent destination this junction is about 20m wide and now has this huge pointless space in the middle which was tarmac but has been filled in to reduce maintenance costs. This is looking back towards auxerre. this road climbs the hill and reaches the village of St Bris le Vineux which is a medieval village but has this odd super wide bypass round the edge of it the original road through the village goes to the right of the V shaped house right of centre in the pic. the " Bypass" goes to the left, obscured by the roundabout vegetation. this is a really bad pic but shows the road from the roundabout, i measured it at a constant 16m wide between the buildings. the road then gous on east and south through the middle of nowhere but resembles a roman road, straight and wide, clear both sides for metres and only sweeping curves where not straight. ( actually not a roman road as these are well documented in the area and dead easy to spot when you know what to look for) the road carries on through St Cyr les Colons, Licheres prés Aigremont and Nitry where ther is another right hand turn that was obviously widened at some point the junction has clearly been widenend for vehicles turning right ( this is looking back towards auxerre, where the vehicles were coming from...) Now heading south the road continues pretty straight through Joux la ville, with the exception of a series of large bends at Lucy le bois there are no further obstacles until it arrives in Avallon and there is another overly large junction clearly cut out for vehicles making a left turn onto the RN6 Again you can clearly see the cut out ( turning righ from this angle) the route I've followed arrives from the right of the picture where that red car is coming from. this oddly incongruous route has now rejoind the RN 6, the main nort south artery. So, Why all this and what did I discover? In April 1943, the german Kriegsmarine needed to move part of their fleet from the channel and north sea coast to the mediterranean theatre but were incapable of breaking the British naval blockade in the gibraltar straights. They hatched and put into practice a plan whereby they moved ships upstream from Le harvre, up the Seine through Paris, and on up the Yonne as far as Auxerre ( the locks as far as auxerre are 90m long ). At auxerre they backfilled along the north bank to create a hard apron with a slipway. The ships were slipped, loaded onto 2x 6 axle bogies pulled by 3 tractors in front and and pushed by 4 tractors from behind they were transferred overland via this route, which avoided the tunnel at St Moré, and then on down the RN6 to Chalon sur Saone where they were slipped back into the water and could head south down the Saone and Rhone to the med. By July 1943, 53 vessels, minesweepers, MTB's and landing craft had made the transit. 5000 locals had been drafted to create the route, Any houses or buildings making the route too narrow or the corners too tight the inhabitants were given 24hrs notice and were simply buldozed, I can't believe how little known this exploit is, even here. there is very little information available and wht there is is only really from a single source ( Claude Delasselle, history professor and authority on the subject) but all thos little things that i didn't understand about the odd junctions and wide roads through medieval villages to no apparent destination are now glaringly obvious, the occupying germans simly widened and improved existing roads to their own ends.

's why it's got an engine the size of a small container ship! ?

a) it's not americain b) boss hoss isn't imported officially to France ( there is one importer who does americain cars and can get a boss hoss if you want one) so no dealer, or service, or parts or anything... c) this thing is actually rideable on european roads, or so i've been told ( i have been on the back of one) Unless of course that was a rhetorical question ?

yup, like t'others already said Bob, rocket 3. inline fore and aft triple 2458 cc 182 hp @ 7000 rpm 220 something Nm of torque and 290k dry weight, it's a f'kin monster. not my cup of tea at all but as an excercise in engineering it's a bit special. it has its officianados and fans who absolutely love it.

Wait! there's another forum?! why wasn't I told?

that's why I went and got the service done on the tigrou today, cos I reckon we'll get locked down again before too long.

Hullo, and welcome.

Oi, that's my line! Welcome gymwitch.

You think that's plush I should have taken a pic os the bar / lounge round the back where I dissapear into a large soft sofa with a book and free coffee on tap ( there's also a huge screen telley if you want, but as I was alone and prefer a book... the main drawback of this opulence is that I tend to fall asleep... and then start snoring... and then the mechanics from the Harley bit come round and complain they can't hear their bikes over the noise... ? same owner and site do Triumph, Ducati, kawazaki and Haley.

yup. its also a HUUUUge pain in the arse to get the tank off and airbox out of these bikes, it's the main gripe of owners who want to do their own maintenance. I did it once to see if I could change the air filiter. I can but it took me nearly an hour.

10,000km service intervals, so about once a year. intermediate service 200€ ish ( 207€ today) and main service with valve clearances etc is around 500 or 550€. that's at the dealers.

150km of Autoroute to Dijon in the pouring rain and apalling side wind, to be there for 14h00 so's to be home again before curfew at 18h00. It's like being back at bloody school, report back in by 6 and lights out at 8... Not a big fan of the autoroute by bike, especially in the rian when the speed limit drops to 110kph rather than 130, which means that you pay to go not that much quicker than on the normal roads, but when you're on a tight schedule they are effective. Even more so now I have a badge that means I don't even have to stop at the barrier and faff about getting wallet and ticket and such like. Chez Triumph the weather was a bit calmer by the time they's finished and I reckoned I had enough time to get home without using the autoroute. I made it with 7 minutes to spare . I have, over the years, ridden in my fair share of shitty weather, but for probably the first time i actually have gear that will cope with it. I did 300km is today in really wet conditions with temps around 10c and at no point was I cold or wet. The more I use this bike the better I like it. ?

at the dealers for a service today

I have always preferred the forum format to FB and was only dragged kicking and screaming into FB when max bikes dies and was reincarnated into an FBgroup which was stillborn. I have said before that I am an asocial person, perfectly happy to just do my own thing and feel no "need" to frequent other people or groups of people. I have tried, and have, over the years, signed up to a myriad of forums and FB groups at one time or another but I always unsubscribe within a few weeks for one reason or another. the only exceptions to that have been Max bikes ( and now here) and Les Motards Bourguignon which again started as a forum and transmogrified more or less successfully onto FB. Why? it's beyond me, On max bikes there was always that indefinable something that made me feel comfortable, so I stayed. it is, by definition "indefinable", though I think a large part of it is the lack of judgementalism ( piss taking and so on sure, but not seriously judgemental) which probably goes along with the average age of the inmates and the policy of no politics or religion which means that despite having to automoderate sometimes, there are few inflammatory posts or subjects that people are not capable of walking away from and ignoring.

Oh puhlease..., if you think I need Bucksters validation you really are loosing the plot.

ill have a look through wat I've got. Due to me being a moron can you confirm the size you need and that you're talking pixels width and height? that'll save me wasting your time proposing stuff that won't fit. I imagine I won't have anything high res enough but it's worth looking.

a mate of mine had one of those, but a 1000 I thought... ot 1100cc? on the original subject... I'm bad to the bone well me kneebones and shoulder bones and thigh bones are bad, does that count?

welcome. ?

we're on the 4th generation of those, they even have them in a small trailor, capable of controlling simultaneously 4 lanes of traffic both directions.... funny thing is though... they keep getting burnt, or shot, or painted out... but you're right, big power is pretty pointless these days, unless you live near a german autobahn

Lame threads? I distintly remember somebody ( who's name should be silenced forever and buried in the concrete of an underpass along with it's owner) faking an accident, with phtos and the lot

starting to look like there night be another lockdown coming here, media have been "leaking" the idea for the last week, prepering the terrain so to speak, the officials and govt offices have gone from "unneccessary" to " Unlikely" to " undesirable" to " can't be ruled out" to " it depends on the figures" to " possibility"... there is an official govt announcement due wednesday pm.

I think you're very brave letting children and/ or teenagers clean your bikes. Did I tell you about how No1 daughter cleaned the car u gave her for her 18th? ok it was my crappy old beaten up Yaris, but she went ahead and cleaned it thouroughly... The couple of tree resin spots on the bonnet she decided would come off with some scotchbrite pan scourer stuff... Neither me or her boyfriend ( who is an auto mechanic) will ever let her forget that....

much as I hate to admit this but there is some sense in what Bucky says, the actual weight of the bike is not really the issue ( on a road bike) it's more the centre of gravity. I remember riding a mates pan european a while back and being shocked at how light it felt compared the the tralp despit it's numerous extra kilos, all about weight distribution and centre of gravity. Untill you drop it.