Day 14. 4904 km. 89 hours riding.If you are a KTM-er, a Transalp-er or any other type of off-road biker, get ready for a good laugh.
For me “off-road” means something different than normally. It rather means “off-asphalt”. As gracefully as my Bellagio rides on straight roads and on the highway, it becomes equally stubborn as soon as it leaves the asphalt. It’s a heavy bike, low, with a big curvature radius, and difficult to maneuver in tight spaces and with reduced grip, even more so for someone my height, who needs to tip toe to keep it up on a straight surface. Well, taking all these into consideration, this is exactly what I did yesterday: I took it off-asphalt. First in Spain, by mistake - the GPS sent us that way. Well, it was actually semi-voluntarily; we could have looked for a detour but decided to try it anyways. Country roads, gravel, but straight - we pulled it off. The second time we asked for it. As soon as we entered Portugal we ran into a canyon on Rio Duero and we set our minds to camp as close as possible to the river. It all went OK until we found the perfect combination: tight curve, steep slope and lots of sand, when I couldn’t pull it off anymore. I got stuck, dropped the bike twice and managed to get the clutch to smoke when trying to climb straight. As a last resort we both pushed the Bellagio uphill, centimeter by centimeter, to a spot from where I was able to get down to an opening. And there I turned it around and managed to get the momentum to climb up. This time I pulled it off, but I think this was the limit.
[Here you should have been able to see a video of the happening, but I made the mistake of getting a laptop with Windows 8.1 so I don’t have enough memory to load it. If I watermark two pictures that together take 9 Mb, I actually lose 300 Mb of memory. Maybe I get to get rid of this crap in Gibraltar.]
If it had been raining enough to turn the sand into mud, we’d still be stuck there. In the end we camped farther from the river because it had gotten dark and did not want to risk another uphill pushing maneuver. In the bushes. And we had some fun with the camera and flash light…
For me “off-road” means something different than normally. It rather means “off-asphalt”. As gracefully as my Bellagio rides on straight roads and on the highway, it becomes equally stubborn as soon as it leaves the asphalt. It’s a heavy bike, low, with a big curvature radius, and difficult to maneuver in tight spaces and with reduced grip, even more so for someone my height, who needs to tip toe to keep it up on a straight surface. Well, taking all these into consideration, this is exactly what I did yesterday: I took it off-asphalt. First in Spain, by mistake - the GPS sent us that way. Well, it was actually semi-voluntarily; we could have looked for a detour but decided to try it anyways. Country roads, gravel, but straight - we pulled it off. The second time we asked for it. As soon as we entered Portugal we ran into a canyon on Rio Duero and we set our minds to camp as close as possible to the river. It all went OK until we found the perfect combination: tight curve, steep slope and lots of sand, when I couldn’t pull it off anymore. I got stuck, dropped the bike twice and managed to get the clutch to smoke when trying to climb straight. As a last resort we both pushed the Bellagio uphill, centimeter by centimeter, to a spot from where I was able to get down to an opening. And there I turned it around and managed to get the momentum to climb up. This time I pulled it off, but I think this was the limit.
[Here you should have been able to see a video of the happening, but I made the mistake of getting a laptop with Windows 8.1 so I don’t have enough memory to load it. If I watermark two pictures that together take 9 Mb, I actually lose 300 Mb of memory. Maybe I get to get rid of this crap in Gibraltar.]
If it had been raining enough to turn the sand into mud, we’d still be stuck there. In the end we camped farther from the river because it had gotten dark and did not want to risk another uphill pushing maneuver. In the bushes. And we had some fun with the camera and flash light…
The following day we’re heading towards Porto. Three hundred kilometers and three thousands curves. The road feels somewhat familiar – broken asphalt, uneven, melted, and overgrown with shrubs. After each curve you run into gravel broken from the road, or sand, or a flock of sheep – you can’t enjoy the road like in Austria for instance. After an hour of riding on these roads your shoulders are hurting as much as after a whole day in the Alps. Roads like ours ten years ago. As I was saying, somewhat familiar…
0 comments: