It started out well but we lost Paul quite soon. This was expected, as he was travelling back up north into Northern Germany where he lives, and then there were five (sorry, 6 including me!)
The weather was wonderful but grew steadily worse as the day went on.... Into France with about 100 miles to go and Richard the 2nd's bike failed. He was just coming off a speed hump when he heard a clatter and a loud 'clacking' sound. Al hd spotted that a bike was missing and headed off after our leader, but he'd got too far ahead. Al hid under a bridge and spent the next 10 minutes with missed calls and left messages until finally our leader got the message.
Now it really started to rain.
Back to the scene and the lads were getting well wet (watched it all peeping out of the pannier). Ricard the 2nd thought that the gearbox had failed. We all had ideas about what was wrong... I said it was the dog that done it, but no one was listening : (
A chap stopped in his car and was clearly wanted us to go back to some premises with him; but of course we didn't want to intrude (being English and reserved don't you know, but the rain got the better of us. Al got his brolly out, much to the amusement of the others, who after a millisecond of thought agreed it was an excellent idea and wished they'd got one.
Richard the 1st took this picture and put it on the BMW forum and it started a 3 page set of comments ranging from 'aghast' and 'what's the world coming to...' to those who proudly showed their own brollies in various pictures!
Anyway, the chap returned and we were persuaded to follow him and wait for the recovery services. Nice man, made us coffee, fed us and gave us the run of his garage whist we waited.
He had lots of images of passing cars, that he'd fixed, shown proudly on his wall. I did wonder just how much work he got from those speed humps and whether he put them there in the first place....
Recovery arrives and the broken bike is put on. Richard the 2nd wearing his Honda hat (sacrilege on a BMW outing, though it was reliable however and never broke down.....
Whilst pushing the bike to the garage he'd had another mishap and dropped it, a bike that had never been on it's side. Al said he wished he'd got a photo but I said that would have been cruel.... wouldn't it??
Richard the 2nd is pragmatic and not too down. Al admits he couldn't have given this pose for a photo had our bike failed like this.
And then there was 4 (5 including me)
The weather got worse, then got better and was dry and sunny as we arrived at Avallon. We'd lost some time so we hit the motorway and goth up to 90-100 mph. I felt like I was being shaken to bits. We made good time and arrived at the hotel in Avallon. Can't get the tune with Peter Kay out of my head, I know it's 'Amarillo' - but it still sticks!
We hope to see Richard the 2nd again before we head home but it's looking unlikely. Initial reports from the BMW garage suggest a terminal failure in the gearbox. Sadly a good test of the recovery system back to Sheffield with hotels and hire car provision for Richard : (
The remaining group head out for the evening. Food at a local cafe that only serves meat involved a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in French by our leader before success and a vegetarian meal created.
A good end to a long day. Sad to lose Richard from the group of course. Al says he is an excellent rider and was a delight to follow. Still, no one was hurt and a failed gearbox that happens on the move often involves a loss of control, so we were lucky.
Al finishes off the evening with a brolly shot of the guys;
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