Better Man because of it? (Lorne)

I collected my scooter from Tims and made the short journey home in the pouring rain to end the trip. I would have worried about the rain previously but now that Ive driven to Nice, I'm a scooter explorer. I feel that the journey has made me a much more confident rider.  But has it made me anything else? Unfortunately not, I wish I could say I was a different person with a new outlook on life; I think that I'm just the same person who has had a great experience.
Would I do it again? Oh yes! journeys are great and having a trip to plan and look forward to are a good tonic. Thanks to Tim and Scott for a good time.

Everyone/thing home safe and sound

After loading the bikes onto the van and sending the driver on his way, we were left scooterless to enjoy a a few days without the usual worry of wether to don waterproof over trousers or not.

The van driver, Steve, was a lovely chap - very keen to ensure our bikes were safe and sound.  He had driven from Alacante the previous day and appeared to only need strong coffee before setting off again toward the Italian Alps.  The bikes were scheduled to travel on the van via Geneva and Paris, arriving in London on the following monday or tuesday to be left at Scotts house.  However as he was journeying, Steve contacted us to say that as other jobs were now coming in, he could organise himself (for a small extra charge) to drop Scotts bike in London, and continue on to Birmingham to drop Lornes and my bike.  We were grateful for the opportunity as it would save us a day train-ing down to London and riding the scooters home again.

Despite a couple of days delay while Steve had to have a wheel bearing replaced on his van, our bikes finally arrived home all in one piece.
We were delighted with Steves service and highly recommend him;
  ESD Enterprises Ltd
  01278 321247
We shall certainly use him again on our next trip!
Hmmm, I wonder where our next trip might be to?? ;-)

Easy way home for the bikes

If only we could afford to take some more time off work. We all agreed we'd love to ride the scooters back home - but only after Scott and I had paid a visit to a piaggio service man.
Alas, we can neither take more time, nor pay for a service, and so the bikes will be transported home.
Our driver had come from Alacante, and was on his way to the uk via Geneva and Paris.
It took 2 hours to get the bikes securely strapped into the van, and after consuming several cups of strong black coffee, our driver was off on his way again.
Bon Voyage Scooters, see you in Blighty

The return journey

I've been avoiding talking about this critical part of this trip - getting the bikes back home.
I've been avoiding talking about it because;
1. It's boring
2. I didn't want to think about the end of the trip
3. I hadn't got anything arranged!

It was always my intention to find a courier who was making a return journey to the UK via Nice with an empty truck. I posted the job 2 months ago on www.anyvan.com for truck drivers to bid to collect and deliver our bikes.
We had a fair amount of interest, starting with bids at £1000, but these soon dropped to £450ish - and then it was down to details of dates and insurances.
I had hopes to have this nailed down before we set off on the trip, but it wasn't! Half way through the week I admitted to the chaps that we didn't have a solution to get our bikes returned, and we got to thinking about alternative arrangements (including flying back later in the year to ride them home, or buying a trailer and getting a ball hitch fitted to my car).

But by Friday, things were starting to look up on Anyvan and we had a bid from a company who appeared to tick all our boxes. So we made an agreement, paid a deposit and now sit and wait to see if they do turn up on Thursday to collect. Stay tuned

Finished? Not quite

As we sat in the bar on the Promanade D'Anglais reflecting on our marvellous achievement, we wondered where we were heading for for the night.
The whole plan of this trip was to meet up with my and lornes family for a short holiday at the end of our journey. It was always planned that when we hit Nice we would head for the rented holiday home. I am sure when families were booking this accommodation I'd heard them say it was "about 30 minutes outside Nice"

As we sat in the bar watching the sun begin to set we looked (for the first time) at our final destination address and tapped it into scotts tomtom. The house was 35km away! Tomtom suggested 45 minutes But as we looked at the winding mountainous map route we knew it was going to be longer than that.
By the time we had got out of Nice, it was dusk. And we still had the mountain roads to face. I've mentioned before about the stress that piss-poor Vespa headlights can create. On top of that exhaustion. On top of that a sick engine. On top of that, both Scott and I had low fuel warning lights flashing! The race was on.

Despite taking wrong turnings and getting split and lost at traffic lights, I think it was a marvellous ride. Speeding up a mountain road on a wing and a prayer to get there before complete darkness and before fuel tanks ran dry. It was rather exciting :-)
It was completely dark when we finally arrived in the remote little village of Levens but the fuel held out

It was a strange feeling to "arrive"; great to have achieved the trip, but sad to have finished the trip. I guess all good things must come to an end, and we all agreed, it was going to be nice to not to have to put helmets, gloves and boots on again for a few days :-)

We made it!

19:06. "Promenade D'Anglais", Nice.
3 men, 3 Vespas, 5 days.
Caen to Nice, cross-country, 865 miles

Well deserving of "trois pression si'vousplait"

Oops

Q. Why do people in the south of France ride motorbikes in just shorts, tshirts and flip-flops?
A. Because its so freeking hot here!
Q. Why SHOULD people in the south of France wear proper motorcycle protection?
A. Because its so freeking dangerous driving round here!

It's ironic that in the place where you really should wear some protection, it's too hot to wear it.

We hit the coast at about lunchtime with much excitement to finally "see the sea". And exactly the same moment, we hit the traffic - it was rammed. Nose to tail cars.
A year or so ago the French government made noises about making it illegal for motorbikes to filter through traffic. In protest of this suggestion, bikers organised a day where they all behaved by this "no filtering" rule. The result was total gridlock - it demonstrated that with current (and increasing) traffic volumes, it is essential to get the motorbikes making progress by filtering. And they do. With great enthusiasm

I'm not really a fan of riding in traffic congestion (my bike likes it less so) but its water off a ducks back to Scott who regularly rides through central London.

Cars were chokablok and motorbikes were buzzing in and out of the most impossible spaces. Overtaking in the lane of oncoming traffic appeared to be an accepted and natural thing to do. Initially we sat among the cars avoiding such silliness, but it soon became apparent that ducking and diving was not only essential to progress, but essential to our air-conditioning, an so we joined in the madness. And actually it was quite good fun.

When you do your motorcycle training there is a saying that is drummed into you; "only a fool breaks the 2 second rule" which prompts the rider to leave good stopping space between you and the vehicle in front. The rule is good for anywhere on the planet, but unfortunately in some places it is simply impossible to practice. If you leave a space someone else will fill it.

We ducked and dived along to Cannes where we stopped outside the famous Cannes Film Festival venue for a photo opportunity. The place was heaving with people and traffic. We had just got back on the road when the inevitable happened. I ran into the back of a car (a Mercedes E-class)

It was only a bump really. A paint scuff, but it was enough for a wheel skid, bend my front mug guard and require an exchange of insurance details. It was rather embarrassing and another pain in the arse delay. I did the formalities while Scott and Lorne sat on the pavement and took the piss.

I wasn't overly fazed by the bump. It was an inevitable battle wound, and I take a degree of comfort in that my wheel skid was considerably less than that of Scott's only 15 minutes earlier - he was just lucky that time!