Cascais Road Trip for the Harley Davidson Rally

Just back from an eventful trip to the Harley Davidson Euro Rally in Cascais, Portugal. Originally the plan was to go with three other friends, all riding customs and go there and back via the Portsmouth Bilbao ferry, but circumstances changed and plans had to be altered.

So last Sunday 10th June I got up early and rode 280 miles in the rain on my Othello Tracker to Plymouth to get the ferry to Santander and planned to meet two of them (Gary France on his amazing stretch chopper and his son Charlie on his Sportster) two days later in Penafiel in Portugal.  Getting to Plymouth was not pleasant with no front fender and cold rain the whole way,

but when I got there it was well worth it - the ferry had 200 Harleys on it for the crossing, and I hit the bar at 4:00pm before we had left port, and stayed there until 2:00am making many new friends.  We were due to arrive the next day about 12:15 and were only a bit late, when I got a text from Gary saying his bike had been hit by a the gear shift from Charlie's bike and it was being transported to Santander Harley Davidson for repairs, so I agreed to meet them there for half past one - by this time there was thunder and lightning and of course siesta time which meant they wouldn't open until 3:00pm - but all credit to them they fixed both bikes and we were on the road to Leon by six that night.  


However the bad luck was not over and about 8:30pm that night the chain on Charlie's bike a 1987 Sportster broke and got wedged inside.  Gary managed to get a recovery vehicle out who took us to Palencia by 11:00pm and found us a 2* Hostel in the middle of an industrial estate where he assured us a mechanic would come and fix the bike at 10:00am the next day.  Fortunately Danny the mechanic did turn up and after running around a bit got a new chain and at last we were back on the road and able to make our scheduled stop in Penafiel of Tuesday night - although somehow I managed to lose my wallet with all my money and cards out of my pocket on the road.

So Wednesday we set out full of optimism for the ride into Portugal and the coast at Figuera de Foz - and this was one of the best rides of the trip, over the river Douras and the wine regions and up into the mountains, before a nice ride to the coast - and the sun was out and it was warm - this is what riding is all about.

Thursday morning when we got up for the final 150 miles into Cascais the weather was not so good fine rain and wet conditions, and within a mile of leaving the hotel I lost my back end on a slippery zebra crossing and slid down the road.  I had a few bruises, but both brake controls were damaged and my handlebars bent and cracked.  Despite this I decided to get the bike going and get to Cascais about lunchtime ready for some well earned beers. 

As ever HD have done well with the resort, Cascais is a affluent seaside town and the whole marina and seafront was secured for bikes only with all the bars and restaurants geting involved to provide a brilliant party atmosphere for the next three days.  We had a great hotel the Farol Design Hotel just on the cliff above and it was a superb base for the whole weekend.  

The main plan for Friday was the Custom Bike Show and reluctantly I entered as in the past I have come nowhere and as much as I love my bikes they are not out and out show bikes but built for value and usability.  The competition was held at the Casino in Estoril and amazingly all three of us won a prize, with maybe quite a bit to do with the fact we rode them there.  I won Best Custom, Gary got the Peoples Choice award and Charlie won Best Sportster.  Although I am not a fan of these competitions mainly as they are so subjective, it was a real buzz after all out incidents for us all to win and certainly put a smile on our faces.

As my bike was damaged I was fortunate enough to be able to call on the services of We Move Bikes to get it shipped home, but I still had plenty of time to pose around the resort on it over the weekend.  Gary and Charlie rode back the hard way - I did 1100 miles overall and I suspect when they get back it will be about double that - congratulations to both of them.  But the point was proved these bikes are there to be ridden and not trailered to shows.

....and here is the bike show on Portuguese TV., with the nice lady standing in front of Charlies Sportster

Harley Riding in Cuba

At the end of last years's riding season, I saw an advert in HOG magazine to ride Harley's in Cuba for February 2012 - now Cuba, is a place I have long wanted to visit, and ever keen to start riding in the heat at an early opportunity, it seemed an ideal kick off to this years rides.  I booked up the tour and persuaded two friends from the UK to join me (Paul Leeson and Gary France).  The tour was arranged by experienced  MC-Travel from Denmark, who provide tours all over the place - check out their website www.mc-travel.dk  run by Michael Christianson.

Being a communist country with a difficult relationship with the USA, its not easy to do anything in Cuba, and regular direct flights were the first issue, we flew from Gatwick with Virgin, but they only go Sundays and Wednesdays and the tour was from Monday to the following Tuesday, so we added an extra day each end to spend more time in Havana.  Joining us on the tour were, 2 Danish couples and 3 guys from Canada, with Luis a Harylista from Cuba as our Road Captain, Augustino our Tourist Guide (with Junior the driver, in the back up van) with Michael Christianson bringing up the rear.  Here we all are at a site in Santa Clara where Che Guevara blew up a supply train, wearing our tour T Shirts.

The tour covered around 1400km of riding over all sorts of roads, all with pot holes, horses and carts, stray dogs, goats, pigs, turkeys, cows and cubans, but other than in Havana rarely any other vehicles.  We stayed mainly in the West of the island and spent time in Cinefuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara and of course Havana - rather than describe them in detail here watch the three videos below, the first by me made from my 15 mins of film on my Pentax, the second by Gary who must have filmed about 10 hours and edited it to this great film, and finally Paul's superb mix of stills and videos - both with great Cuban soundtracks

Highlights for me are without doubt experiencing the whole culture of Cuba, a land where time has stood still since Castro won the revolution in 1959, the building and cars are like no where else, and I dont believe will stay this way much longer as relations with the USA thaw and new investment will start to come in.  I also want to say how happy and well the Cuban people were, despite what appears to be an apparent poverty  they seemed content and looked after.  Its a great place - go there, ride the roads, visit the sites, drink Mojito's and smoke a cigar.

New Maidstone Harley Davidson Dealership

After a number of Harley Davidson dealership failures the Company is trying to re-build its coverage, with 2 new dealerships opening in the last few weeks.  Being based in Tunbridge Wells, I now find I have quite a choice, with 6 dealers less than 50 miles away.

• Shaw Harley Davidson near Lewes is 22 miles away.
• Maidstone Harley Davidson is 23 miles away.
• Warrs in Mottingham is 27 miles away.
• Lakeside Harley Davidson in Essex is 31 miles away.
• Warrs in Chelsea London is 40 miles away.
• Guildford Harley Davidson is 47 miles away.

Having travelled quite widely and seen HD dealers all over the world, I am way passed getting excited over a new dealership - I have seen all the bikes, accessories and clothing before and am not going to be buying any - still its always good to look.  The new dealership is in a converted industrial unit in Aylesford to the West of Maidstone and not far from the M20 motorway.  The refurbishment has been nicely done with a new planar glass front and a mezzanine for clothing - leaving a clear sales floor for the bikes - I am sure you get the picture.  Today there was a ride there by 1066 HOG, which I missed but was good to catch up with a few faces once I got there - I dont think they will entice any members there from Shaws.

So is it worth the extra mile for me from Shaw's - I dont think so, the roads to Shaw's are nicer, the product range is identical and I have a long relationship with the guys there.

Still I wish them success in these tough times.

2009 Harley-Davidson Streetglide

The Streetglide is my Harley-Davidson of choice - whenever I rent a bike in the USA I choose a Streetglide, and I have one at home for doing the shopping and any mundane trips that I do out and about, and sometimes for long hauls like my trip to Finland in 2009.  My current one has done about 9000 miles and the paintwork is a bit scuffed and chipped and I have been thinking of moving it on.  I took it to my local Harley Dealer and it seems even with the nice wheels and Stage 1 its only worth about £10,000.
So having had a long think I decided on the next best thing, and am going to bling it up a little bit.

• All the paint is now off and at the paint Shop ready for a 1970's style metallic blue makeover with AMF style stripes, and badges.
• I have a Screaming Eagle 110" in the garage which is going to replace the stock 96" engine.
• Finally I will install some Boom Speakers so I can blast my sounds out as I ride.

Hopefully back together and ready to ride in June.

No.7 Test Ride to Dungeness

Last Saturday I took my new No.7 Bike down to Dungeness for a 120 mile round trip test ride - which went very well apart from the clutch lever falling off - but this was soon found, fixed and back on the road.

The purpose of the visit was to indulge one of my other keen interests; photography.  A good friend Carl Abrams  had arranged for our local Flickr group to meet there and take snaps of the surroundings and the Supermoon that evening.  I of course was only interested in photographing my bike.  So here are my favourites, plus one of me riding taken by Carl, just to show my bikes are for riding and not just for show.

Cowboys & Indians

When I rode Route 66 we had a great guide by the name of Gary "Ga" to us - and since then we have stayed in touch and met a few times when he is over to do the Motorcycle Show, promoting tours in the USA with his company California Sunriders.  Well I had a chat with him at the last one on a cold November day in Birmingham and he talked me into a Cowboys & Indians tour of the South, - here is the sales pitch....

“We’ll visit old west towns like Sedona, Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ, Silver City, Old Mesilla, and Carlsbad, NM, as well as Fort Davis, San Antonio and Dallas TX. Along the way we will stop at various attractions, including The O.K. Corral, Copper Queen Hotel, Gila Cliff Dwellings & White Sands National Monuments, Carlsbad Caverns and Big Bend National Park. We will also take a tour of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. We are including two nights at a historic Guest Ranch just outside of Fort Davis, Texas where we will have a choice of activities such as horseback riding, pistol and rifle shooting, paintball, hiking, stargazing and more. We’ll also enjoy a fireside chuck wagon dinner under the stars of Texas.

The tour will be going through some of the best riding and scenery that the Southwestern United States has to offer. The ride has a variety of roads including the plains of W. Texas, deserts, and mountains. We will be stopping in the actual places many famous figures from the past called home and where they gained their reputations, such as Billy the Kid, Pat Garret, “Doc” Holliday, Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa, Apache warriors Cochise, Haskay-bay-nay-natyl a.k.a.“The Apache Kid” & Geronimo, Judge Roy Bean, James Bowie, William B. Travis, Davy Crockett, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Wyatt, Virgil & Morgan Earp, James and Bat Masterson, Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury and Robert “Bob” Ollinger.”

In all its about 2300 miles and I fly into Las Vegas on October 2nd ready to ride, so please check in for updates and posts.