a long weekend sept '18

[MooN]

possibly the last of my september trips as work has evolved and we now are busier in september than in July August. It was my fist proper trip on the tiger which I bought in october 2017.

The 3rd week september is traditionally our "boys only" weekend away with the "club" ( inverted commas cos we're not officially a club anymore) and in 2018 the planned destination was the high Jura.  8 bikes in all and all except me had just the weekend off. I didn't need to be back at work till the thursday and had cleared it with Madame MooN that I would be an extra day at least. 

 day one went something like this:

Auxerre Besancon via A6 and A39 in order to get just east of Besancon for Lunch and then straight into the good bits. 

Up the Doubs valley to Baume les dames, Pont de roide, Maiche,Villiers les lac, Morteau ( sausages!), Pontarlier ( aperitif!), les gorges de la Langouette, Morez et premanon.  As usual, when riding with the group I don't get time to stop and take pics. but we did about 500km in the day with about 250 on the more interesting roads between besancon and Premanon. 

next morning i rode with the group as far as Cure where they turned back westwards and I carried on turning right down the eastern flanc of the Jura towards lac leman ( or lake Geneva as the uneducated call it) I dropped down the hairpins through St Cergue to the lakeshore and along the edge of the lake through geneva and out the other side heading North east alon the french shore and back into Switzerland at St Gingolph where I popped down to the lake edge and took this photo. 

To take the pic I was sat at the same table in the café Madame MooN and I ate at on our very first weekend bike trip nearly 25 years ago...

It was too early to eat so I set off again, heading for Martigny and the col st bernard. I stopped at a petrol station and grabbed a sandwich and a drink ( when in switzerland, drink milk and eat yoghurt, its devine!)  There were quite a few bikes about and I had fun annoying some power rangers and then trying to keep up with some swiss plated ducatis. My excuse is that they probably knew the road, being locals...

 

I stopped to picnic by the lake at the top which was heaving with bikes from all over. Me being the asocial entity that I am, I didn't stay long 

I rapidly withdrew, stopping a little further round the lake for the pic above. I then set off down the south side of the mountain heading for Aosta. I had a lot of fun on the way down but was very much put to shame by a complete nutter on a pushbike who would overtake on the straights ( 70odd km/h) and then get in my way on the hairpins. This is how I discovered that I can lean the Tiger considerably further over into the corners than I would have dared with the tralp ( Oh, and that the bakes are a little more efficient...) 

having skirted Aosta, I headed west and North back up the valley towards the Mont Blanc, on the Italien side turning southwest before Courmeyeur and heading back up to the french border and the col du petit St Bernard. 

 

 

looking north to Mont Blanc

I spent the night in a small gite in Bonneval, just north of Moutiers. I was totally knackered and had made very few stop, thus discovering pretty much just how many hours i can spend in the saddle on this bike and since the back op. I think it was nearly 9 hours if i remember right, including the few stops.

the next day was just an easy run home via Annecy and Bellegarde where I picked up the A40 westbound and thus onto the A6 northbound at Macon and Home for tea and buns by 5pm. 

i did manage to get a speeding ticket as a souvenir somewhere around Annecy and I also learnt that when an automatic camera flashes you in a Tunnel  you KNOW you just got flashed...

 

 

 

[XTreme]

Excellent Chris!

You going to hang on to the Triumph as long as you did with the Transalp?

[Sir Fallsalot]

Love the scenery there 

[MooN]

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Excellent Chris!

You going to hang on to the Triumph as long as you did with the Transalp?

Dunno mate, the time was right, physically for my back I needed something less... erm... vibratory... than the old tralp and I still had a couple of years befor N01 daughte started university so...

I'm starting to see reports of the first generation of 800xc's racking up 100,000+ km with no majour problems so I don't see why not. I tend to keep things till they're no longer fit for purpose so we'll see I guess.

[Pedro]

Those are some nice roads there, and I'm sure it must have felt great having a smoother faster bike on that longer day.

I am not a fan of Triumph trail bikes (although I've never ridden one) but it looks great in that color. Nice choice.

[MooN]

Hi Pedro, one of the reasons for chosing the triumph was that the triple engine is just soooo smoooth... once its set up properly and chain tension is right then its all just velvet smooth, so much less problematic for the back than a twin or a thumper ( which were the other options I had). riding position was also a major consideration, again due to back and knee issues but also cos I'm 1m90 odd to start with. I've a triumph "comfort" seat on it and since this trip have added 1 1/2 inch risers to the bars which makes it even better position wise. So far can't fault it. BMW was about the only alternative I didn't test ride as they were so far out of budget.

[Tym]

Nice scenery!