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Motorcycling from LeMans To Montlucon, France |
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Written by TobyDushieney
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Having travelled 380 odd miles from England, 7 fellow motorcyclists and I had completed the first stage of our trip from London to Santander, Spain, and having spent our first night in leMans, France, we were up early to get ready for the next leg of our trip, to Montlucon, a distance of around 200 miles.
by TobyDushieney
Having travelled 380 odd miles from England, 7 fellow motorcyclists and I had completed the first stage of our trip from London to Santander, Spain, and having spent our first night in leMans, France, we were up early to get ready for the next leg of our trip, to Montlucon, a distance of around 200 miles.
The previous day had been spent mostly on motorways to cut through as much as northern France as possible to keep the 2,200 mile trip down to 10 days, and give ourselves more time in the more picturesque southern region, the Pyrenees and Spain. However, today was to be a combination of motorway and country roads, and I was excited to find out how my Triumph Rocket 3 performed on more twisty roads.
There had been rain overnight and the forecast was not too promising. As we rode our bikes out of the underground hotel car park I was not relishing the prospect of bad weather, particularly as I hadn't ridden much in the wet in recent years, and my bike, a Triumph Rocket 3 Classic was brand new and with lots of shiny bits!
As we were waiting outside the hotel for everyone to get ready, we noticed an ambulance crew wheeling out a dead body from one of the flats adjacent to the hotel. It was a sobering reminder of our own mortality.
As we headed through town, the roads were drying out nicely and the cloud looked like it was clearing, which I personally found reassuring, and soon we were out heading for that famous piece of race track, the 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight, or Ligne Droite des Hunaudires to give it its French name.
It felt great to ride along this famous stretch of public road, which felt distinctly un-race track like given the houses and hotels that line the route. The only way you could tell it was a race track was because the road is lined with Armco barriers.
Having stopped for fuel, we then headed for Richelieu, hometown of the Cardinal of "The Three Musketeers" fame. Whilst the book is a work of fiction, Cardinal Richelieu is not; indeed he became Prime Minister of France in 1624.
The town itself is surrounded by 4 walls and entered through magnificent arches. We decide to stop for lunch in the main square.
As we ate, the sun came out and the temperature rose to make riding very comfortable.
As we set off I reflected on how well the Rocket had handled around the country lanes. It's not a scratcher, and if you try and ride it as such you will come unstuck, but if you plan any sharp bends before you arrive at them you'll be fine. The four pot callipers on the front haul this heavy machine down into the approach, but you need to be aware that the weight means that you can carry more momentum than you think into a bend, that can be a little uncomfortable until you get used to it.
Much has been made of the enormous rear tyre, and there's no doubt it affects the handling. It can move around quite a bit on seams and ruts in the road surface, but the bike is so heavy and planted one soon gets used to it and ignore it.
Eventually arriving at our hotel in Montlucon in the evening, we were disappointed to find the town virtually closed, so sampling the local food and wine wasn't possible.
But an "orange" weather warning had been put out by the French government for the next day, when the roads would be more "interesting".
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