Leaving in cold temperatures for a mostly motorway ride to Santander was not the greatest. The glove liners went in at the first opportunity and others put on extra layers. At Bilbao we ran into rain for the first time on the trip and the trucks on the motorway made it all the more unpleasant. I had a wake-up call when I missed staying off one of those raised white arrows on the motorway surface in the wet and the bike did a back-end 'wiggle' even though I was neither accelerating or braking. I knew I shouldn't have been on it, but just didn't see it in the poor light and reflection from the rain. While telling Jean about through the helmet intercom, I then promptly went over another, with not quite the same severe effect, to be told "So you do it again"! Yep, 2 mistakes in quick succession, but a really good lesson, well learned.
However, we did all get to Santander early for the ferry and were able to embark some time before it set off. This allowed some relaxation in advance of what was to be a miserable crossing of the Bay of Biscay, where the crashing of ship into the waves and the bangs and rattles that resulted gave everyone a very broken night.
The disembarcation was very slow and riding through Plymouth was likewise, so it was an hour and a half before we got going on the M5, only to encounter serious side winds for the whole journey home. We had a stop at Wayne's, where John's wife Sue was waiting to pick him up by car, and enjoyed a very welcome bacon and sausage butty, compliments of Julie. Very appreciated indeed!
The last leg home didn't cloud the enjoyment of the whole trip, the weather being incredibly kind to enable us to enjoy the riding and the scenery. The company was very good and we had a lot of laughs. Robert, our leader, said he hoped Jean hadn't found them too purile and childish. She said that was why she enjoyed the group so much, as she had the trip. The pillion touring seat I had fitted to the new bike worked a treat - 2,650 miles and without the discomfort of the 900 mile Howitzer trip in May on my old bike's standard seat for Jean.
It was great to bump into other HOGs by chance at various petrol stations across France on the way out, some of them several times, and then see them again at the Rally.
There remains for me an admiration for Harley-Davidson, whose marketing skills have brought about so much brand loyalty as to cause many thousands of people to ride their machines to one place, buy and wear copious amounts of their branded clothing, and cement people of widely varying walks of life together in a unique camaraderie. As the saying goes "If I have to explain, you won't understand"!
A brilliant trip and the bike performed very well.
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