BARBIE TRIVIA
2012 will be the tenth Barbietour
In total 11 countries have been visited (incl England and Wales)
10 riders have participated (incl 2 Germans)
All the Barbie tours to date have covered 16983 scheduled European (excl UK) miles.
Add extra for getting lost etc.
The 17500 mile barrier will be breached on day 3.
On Monday 3rd September 2012 Barbietours (incl uk miles) will have travelled the equivalent miles of the circumferance of the planet Earth
After Barbie, John has completed ALL Barbie days EXCEPT 2. Mac has completed every day except BT1 and 9
12 of those miles were on unpaved roads. !
This years trip will add 2308 miles with 100 miles of motorway.
BT10 sees the trip reduced by 1 day back to BT8 length
We have 1 x 2 night stays ie 1 days riding without luggage.
The longest day is day 2 at 259 miles, with most of the rest at about 220-250 miles. There are 2 days at less than 200 miles including day 1 at 180 (ferry arrives at 12.15 pm.)
The average daily mileage is 230 which is the third highest (226 miles is the average)
I would love to calculate the number of miles excluding roads we have done twice (or more) but life is STILL too short !
Barbietours has ridden 76 days on the continent and another 10 days will be added this year
We have stayed in 48 different Hotels/ locations and this year will only add 4 new venues.
We have used 6 different Ferry routes
Only 1 major 'incident'
Still only 3 occasions where the group 'lost' a rider. (Ainslie, John and Mac in Paris)
Numerous occasions where the group 'lost' the route.
46 (approximately) Wiener Schnitzels eaten by JB this was NOT added to last year and is unlikely to be topped up this year.
2 Rabbits have been eaten improperly.
(UK miles, hotels etc have not been included in the Barbietour Stats.)
On monday 3rd September 2012 Barbietours (incl uk miles) will have travelled the equivalent miles of the circumferance of the planet Earth
The Statmeister
This years tour was blogged to the Triumph Sprint Website and below are the posts that were made during the trip. Not all of the hotels boasted Wi-Fi so some postings are missing. I will try and update this trip report in due time.
24-08-12
Barbietours X - round the world and then some.
27-08-12
Damp start didnt cover day 1.
50 miles not actually raining 50 miles raining, and 250 miles of pass my waterwings, mother. Hotel in forest of dean, a bit average really.
Day 2 a gentle and dry toddle over dartmoor to the ferry in plymouth.
Day 3 held in the black hole of calcutta (aka the bike deck) for ages followed by a blat along the mway for 60 miles (who the feck thought up the idea of a 1 euro ang 8 cents toll charge (they were not impressed when i produced a 50 euro note ) and a further 90 miles af twistys to la belle france.
came out of 1 tunnel and it was like entering a blast furnace. Weather uncomfortably hot and sultry. Not something we fair scots are used to.
Knee suffering a bit but iced and elevated now.
kid in dining room of our small hotel very confused when i gave him the thumbs up for wearing a Triumph t-shirt. Landlord is a biker, so our bikes are in a gazebo in the beer garden.
wi-fi fairly dodgy though.
27-08-12
Now THAT was a lightning storm last night !
5 hours of immense ''fireworks and accompanying sound effects with just a dash of scottish 'showers' but warm ones.
28-08-12
270 miles 1very sore knee and 1major falling out, not a bad day really.
how did i find this hotel in the middle of npwhere?
Its a cracker though, mind you no one else here has a motor on their bikes.
200 miles to millau tomorrow
29-08-12
200 miles turned out to be 240. Had to go to the bridge visitor centre to get a bribe / present for one partys better half. Resulting in 2 trips over bridge and tolls rather than the planned 0 times. Staying in the annex of a bowling alley in an industrial estate on outskirts of millau. (Barking mad but cheap, clean and relaxed).
Bum took a major pounding today but the gorge roads are just brilliant. Another 200 miles of them tomorrow
some rain forecast for tomorrow thoough.
Ps let mac lead today, but we are here now .
30-08-12
I was going in for a bit of spirited gorge riding this morning when things went tits up on a downchange. The gear selector fell orf
lucky it was fixable by three numptys and a pair of pliers.
Later, while the others were buying a picnic i noticed 1 headlight down, got it changed before they got back with the food. If 'le plod' now stop me will they notice my spare bulb is burnt out ?
And who, exactly when buying cheese in france comes back with a net of baby bel
It was a shame that Barry wasnt with us because he would have loved the odd 1000 ft drop at the side of the road.
Was cracking round a right hand bend and noticed my crash helmet was about a foot from the armco
Posted by Eyore
Baby Bel , isn't that a compound for repairing leaking roofs? Yuk. Don't forget my Brie de Maux.
Glad your having a great time and Luckys luck is still holding out.
Glad your having a great time and Luckys luck is still holding out.
Another disagreement last night, resulting in me ( childishly) walking out of dinner and walking 2 miles into town for a Leffe. Route back to our industrial estate bowling alley involved back gardens and tgv lines
240 miles past Carcassone towards the Spanish border today.
I will be leading from the rear.
Today should also bring up 50000 miles for the barbiebike (hope nothing else falls off today)
Met 'Monsewer et Madam Chav' on a bmw 1400 on the mountains, taking their pet rat out for a drive - we do not have a monopoly on this kind of stupid bahavior. The 'rat was actually a small dog that travelled inside Mme Chav's top of the range BMW jacket.
The driving has been very polarised so far with some very good and some exceptionally bad. I did wonder yesterday what was going to hurt me less , the oncoming car, the oncoming overtaking car (occuping the entire rest of the road) or taking the dive over the armco. I am still here so it obviously worked out ok but would not suggest it as any kind of weight loss program.
1-09-12
One of our party has now departed home so now we are down to two. We are now domisiled in Ainsa, Spain. 240 miles yesterday, 250 today including some of my favourite roads.
I would love to know the local decision making for resurfacing roads
in Spain, some beautiful bits of tarmac leading onto crap surfaced
nadgery roads. The resurfacing of the gorge road at Castlejon de Sos is
great though.
Barbiebike now suffering with (i presume) a coroded clutch micro switch,
meaning that i am reluctant to turn her off unless i am in a populated
area because she is sometimes reluctant to recommence, must have been at her 50k birthday party the other night.Tomorrows itinerary includes a visit to last years accident blackspot, if we get up early enough!
2-09-12
280 miles today and now stying in an old convent. Some extreme wind in and out the leathers plus a visit to last years crash site. Then some eejit tried to help a re-enactment, took a while to calm down. This time on a right hand bend and i was about a foot from the road edge, how he/she missed my pannier, god alone knows.
Got to do my evening devotions now (at the bar).
Posted by Eyore
Gordon Bennet, I dont know if I can stand the suspense of finding out
whether or not you have survived another day. Hope Mrs Ken dosent get to
read this unexpurgated version of your trip 4-09-12
Wifi-less last night in the Pico's, an area of brilliant scenery and even better roads, magic hotel, owner insists on all bikes being put in his garage, next to his skidoo.
240 miles today to Navia, on the north coast ready for the run back to Santander tomorrow.
The twiddle repair to the clutch micro-switch is working so well that i dont even need to bother with it to start the bike now.
Posted by Count von Count
This is a great series Barbs, shame it's nearing the end. Measure not the days in your life, measure the life in your days!
6-09-12
Who the feck thought that a ferry arriving at Plymouth during rush hour was a good idea, Brittany ferries really need to revert to their old schedules.
Staying the night in Gloucester, having consoled a fellow traveller who was being done on the way up the motorway for doing 117 mph. Turns out he had been visiting old friends of mine living in France, small world, eh.
Last couple of days in Spain looked like we may have to don waterproofs, but we got away with it. Lucky, completed the trip with the traditional laying down of the bike in the ferry port. At least there are always willing hands to help him up. He also suffered mossie bites on the last night to go with the ones i got 2nd night.
Now back on blightys rain drenched shores.
After 2900 odd ( sometimes very odd) miles we finally get terminally separated in Plymouth! But met up at the hotel.
7-09-12
385 ish miles today. Motorway Gloucester to Preston, turned off motorway straight into fog.
John (well his bike) having overheated in Plymouth had a very rough sounding bike and after a few miles of backroads in indeterminate weather, decided to abandon the route and took the straight road home, while i found the fog visibility to be aprox 50 meters over Middleton in Teesdale. Came home via Ingleton and (nearly) twice brewed.
Started and finished the trip in waterproofs, which were not required on the rest of the trip.
total distance 3458 miles in 14 days.
53.4 mpg
46 mph average speed
max 94.6 ( kph obviously officer ------ ahem ahem )
PHOTOS OF THIS TRIP
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