Spain 2005 - this time it's four!
Total distance = 1060 miles
Moving time = 26:51
Total time on the road = 46:23
Average (moving) speed = 39.5 mph
Minimum temperature (UK) = 48.6°F (9.2°C)
Maximum temperature (Spain) = 94°F (34.4°C)*
The entire route
The entire route profile
The entire route temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit
The same in degrees Celsius is here
Sprint ST, Tiger, Blackbird and FireBlade!
Prologue
Last year I missed my annual trip (as it seems to have become) around the Picos de Europa. Instead I went to Alicante and took the long road home in company with Andy on his Fireblade.
This year it was cast in stone. The format changed on a number of occasions, with wives or without, 4 days or 8, with a rest day or keep riding. In the end, by democratic decision (almost) it evolved into an 8 day ride, mainly in the Picos (after an initial foray to La Rioja), boys only, no rest-day jaunt.
Various participants came and went. Of the initial volunteers only Neil (Triumph Tiger) and I remained by the middle of March. Then up popped Daryl (Blackbird) "Can I come?". I was surprised, he had experienced one expedition with me before and was prepared for another week of hard living. He did mention he wasn't sure if his leathers would fit by the end of the week but having cleared it with his bank manager declared that he was available. Andy (Fireblade) was the loose cannon. "Well, I'd like to come but I've got a new cement lorry arriving that week." he complained. In any case at zero minus 5 days it appeared that Andy's lorry wasn't going to make the deadline and so he was free to join us.
The route planning and organisation began in earnest at the beginning of April (although I had roughly mapped it out some 3 months earlier) and from that point in excess of 100 emails were exchanged - as the tag-line goes "No trees were destroyed but an awful lot of electrons were inconvenienced." The main thrust of the discussion was clothing, both on and off the bike. Was it going to be warm, was it going to rain, how smart do you have to dress in the Paradors and so on. I was not very helpful on the first two counts since one year I had the heated clothing on full blast and the next, even with an unlined suit, I thought I was in a sauna.
By the way, although this page is somewhat long-winded, don't despair, the rest is short (ish).
Temperature
The discussion about temperature brings me, conveniently, to my next point. I am, as it may be apparent to previous visitors to this site, somewhat meticulous in my data collection, and although I have a thermometer mounted on the fairing I had no means of recording that information. The purchase of the Garmin GPSMAP276C changed all that. Whilst playing with it in "marine" mode I found that there was a field "water temperature". How does it derive this? Well, for the uninitiated, the unit will accept data from an external source, The data has to be an NMEA sentence and given that data the unit will display the value. OK, next question "How do I get a device to measure the temperature, convert it to an NMEA sentence and deliver it to the unit?"
My search for information led me to Active Research Limited, where I spoke to the director, Phil Whitehurst. "I want to measure air temperature, convert it to an NMEA sentence and feed it to my Garmin. Oh and by the way this is for my motorbike." Phil didn't even blink (well I assume he didn't - difficult to tell really as he was on the other end of a telephone.) Anyway, the short story is that Phil got busy with his soldering iron and eventually I received the prototype "Motorcycle Air Temperature Sensor" in the post, four days before we left for Spain. Briefly it consists of a thermistor embedded in resin with a wire connecting that to a water-resistant housing containing the electronics and three wires exiting the other end of the housing (12v +ve, ground and NMEA +ve out). Connect it up and plug in the Garmin GPS and "Hey Presto" you are recording temperature with your track.
* As I didn't have a lot of time to play around with the location of the thermistor I opted to position it at the front edge of the lower right fairing where it would be in the shade and in the airstream. Unfortunately, when stopped the heat of the engine does influence the sensor, but there again anything within a couple of feet of a bike is influenced by the heat of the engine, including the rider .... useful on cold days, not so much fun in the heat. As a result temperatures as high as 111°F were recorded after we had stopped for 10 minutes or so. Therefore, when filtering the data for the charts displayed I have ignored any readings when stopped and for 10 minutes after starting to move again so the displayed temperature values are only those taken when the bike was underway and had been underway for enough time for the temperature to return to "normal".
The object of the exercise, apart from feeding my fetish for data collection, was to show the range of temperatures a rider will experience when riding in northern Spain and to illustrate the need for careful selection of clothing. I was expecting lower temperatures (as I have experienced in the past) however, for most of the trip we had some exceptional weather. Nevertheless, if you count the riding in the UK then the temperature range was 45.4°F (25.2°C) - how do you dress for that!
So, thanks to Phil, I could now record temperature. When I was casting about to find a solution, a number of other riders expressed an interest in the project. Phil will be keen to hear from them, so here are his contact details.
Phil Whitehurst,
Director
Active Research Limited
Unit 5, Wessex Trade Centre
Ringwood Road
Poole, Dorset
UK. BH12 3PF
Tel:+44(0)1202 746682
Fax:+44(0)1202 746683
Consultancy: www.activer.com
Sales & Products: www.actisense.com
To the ferry
I'd arranged for Neil and Daryl to pitch up at my house first so we could sort out comms etc. They duly did so, Neil and I synchronized PMR channels/tones. Andy was fixed up with my spare Autocom/Icom and Daryl declined saying he was OK as he had a GPS and wouldn't have to worry about directions (a slight error of judgment that events that were to follow would reveal)
It was raining. Neil had planned to leave his heavy weather jacket & trousers at my house but he was going to get very wet in his smart new Triumph Raptor jacket that had all the wet weather efficiency of a colander. I lent him my Triumph Chevron oversuit, which would take up a lot less space than his Hein Gerricke when packed for the Spanish bit.
In an email a few days earlier I had estimated temperatures between 47°F and 75°F. I was right about the former but severely out on the latter. But the 75°F was optimistic enough to make Neil plump for the Raptor.
On the eve of our departure I sent the following:-
SHOWERS. MODERATE OR GOODHere is the shipping forecast
BISCAY FITZROY SOLE
WEST OR SOUTHWEST 5 TO 7, OCCASIONALLY GALE 8 AT FIRST. THUNDERY
I have some spare Stugeron ;-))
So at 13:20 BST we were off.
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And they're off! |
During the ride to the ferry the road was a bit greasy and Neil was having a problem with his Bridgestones (the original tyre fit on the Tiger), they did not inspire confidence. By 14:47 we were at the ferry terminal and loaded on within about 5 minutes. Misfortune nearly occurred at this point as there was a wet greasy puddle at the bottom dead centre of the ramp to deck 2 and my front wheel slid out from under me as I hit this, but I managed to stay upright. The "tie-down service" is now excellent - wires along the deck and a pad is placed on the seat and a 9 inch wide ratchet tie-down is hooked onto the wires either side of the bike and tightened across the seat with the bike on the side stand.
Once cabin found and clothing changed I queued for a table for four for dinner in the restaurant. This has got to be one of the major irritations of the voyage, the process is so slow - why can't you book for dinner on-line? At 19:15 we mustered in the Piano Bar and at 19:20 Daryl and Andy, whilst turning a delicate shade of green, disappeared leaving the two Triumph riders to enjoy the meal. We had a drink for them too. Triumph 2 : Honda 0.
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I thought it was Kawasaki's colours that were green, not Honda's. |
Contents - click on the text to go to the relevant page
Day 1 - Santander to San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja - 132 miles
Day 2 - To Sigüenza, Castilla-La Mancha - 152 miles
Day 3 - To Parador de Cervera de Pisuerga, Castilla-León - 201 miles
Day 4 - To Cuérigo, Asturias - 128 miles
Day 5 - To Parador de Fuente Dé, Picos de Europa - 158 miles
Day 6 - To La Granda, Asturias - 132 miles
Day 7 - To Ruesga, Cantabria - 132 miles