Saturday
I am waiting in line at the P&O Dover ferry terminal. I have just filled up at Tesco after riding down from Derby, via London, on one tankful. My Honda Crossrunner is the only bike in sight. I'm called forward in front of the cars and caravans and get a spot right at the bow ready for a quick exit on the other side of the channel. After a pleasant 90 minutes relaxing in the lounge, we dock at Calais and I am first off.
How Calais has changed since I came here on a Honda 125 as a student teaching English in Lille in the 1970s. No messing with cobbled docksides and hidden railway tracks that can grab your front wheel in a heartbeat - it's now straight out and on to the motorway. It's as if Calais doesn't want you to stop too long to admire all the barbed wire, movement sensors and other security paraphernalia - or is it that they are in cahoots with the people that run the toll motorways and want to get you into their hands as soon as possible?
Northern France can seem bleak and featureless, and it is easy to rush through it to get on to warmer and more interesting places, but this is a place with a hidden heart of gold, not to mention that's it's also the final resting place of so many, mainly young men, killed in the muddy horrors of First World War battles. In fact, the motorway I'm on passes within a few miles of two commonwealth war graves, one at Lapugnoy where my wife's great uncle, 2nd Lt George Morrison (10th Scottish Rifles), is buried, and another at Péronne where my great uncle Sgt Edwin Smith (Sherwood Foresters) lies in a cemetery overlooking lush meadows that lead down to the Somme. Rudyard Kipling's son (played by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in the film 'My Son Jack') is buried just a few miles away in Loos near Béthune.
Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
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Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Honda CRF1100L ES Africa Twin
Without panniers he was adventuring nowhere - so at least Bertie's got something sorted now
BMW R 12 nineT
Chad gets a track day surprise when BMW's R 12 nineT turns out to be surprisingly fun on track
Test fleet: VOGE 525 DSX
After testing the Voge's abilities on a long ride, it was time to take it to the Cotswolds and see how it would manage on the rougher stuff
Portuguese Perambulations
Nearly over before it had begun, a brief workshop stint allows Spain and Portugal to be explored
Highway to Heaven
Three friends take on the challenge of riding the length of Canada, from Vancouver in the southwest to Inuvik in the north. The road is long, the conditions merciless, and wildfires are tearing through the country. To top it all off, the final leg of the journey is the ultimate test of gravel riding skills, nerves, and courage - it's the legendary Dempster Highway...
Battlaxes at the ready!
We tend to take tyres for granted, never really looking at them in any detail, or at how they work, just hoping that they keep us shiny side up at all times. Even in the wet
Ducati Riding Experience
When I rode the Ducati DesertX to France last year, I did have a bit of an explore on some easy fire roads and gentle green lanes in the wilds of the Médoc area, but was left with the feeling that, had I the experience, the DesertX would have been capable of taking me along some more extreme trails to some even more exciting places. If only there was a way of finding out just how well the Italian adventure bike could cope with some more extreme terrain...
Four pot flyer
Many said that sports bikes, and particularly bikes in the traditional Supersports class that was populated by 600cc inline fours, were dead. Maybe they spoke too soon?...
Eastern adventurer
With an increasing interest in smaller capacity adventure bikes, the market expands with a new entry
First Time Lucky?
It's ironic that the first all-new MV Agusta model to hit the marketplace right after Italy's No.1 trophy brand was acquired by Austrian giant Pierer Mobility, owner of off-road titans KTM, should be the company's first dual-purpose model of the modern era, powered by MV's all-new 931cc three-cylinder engine that's destined to form the basis of a whole series of new models in coming months and years.
