Gentlemen, I have returned largely in one piece and will try and upload some pics hopefully later this evening, but have'nt got that many. The reason I have so few pictures is that the guy who arranged the whole trip kept us on the bikes pretty much from breakfast to bedtime, with the odd stop for coffee, petrol and lunches. I didnt keep an exact record but I covered over 800 miles in the 4 days and I'm aching all over!. I bought a gel pad to put on my seat for the grand sum of £45 off a guy who's travelled to india and back on a 1950's Royal Enfield, and he said hes used one for that trip and trips to the Andes all without a sore rear end. Well, all I can say is his rear end has a) more padding than mine, and b) definately has a lot less weight resting on said rear end!. By the end of the weekend I could bear no more than 45-50 miles without a quick break!.
So how did the bike do? Well I cant really do much other than praise it. It had a service when I bought it a few months ago and so basically all I did was squirt some lube on the chain, pump up the tyres and go. Unfortunatly throught a combination of wet road, blind lorry driver and tiredness ( and lack of skill no doubt) I managed to drop the bike at low speed just outside calais. Luckily not too much damage was done as I partially broke the bikes fall by being pinned between the bike and the road (ouch!). I had to bend the gear lever and so on back into shape to work and carry on, its not pefect but itll do for now. Also there was a good bit of oil on the tarmac which continued to drip whenever I stopped for the next day, but then stopped. I checke the oil window and it was full so will have to get it topped up again of course, but hopefull not too much damage done.
Anyway will post bit more later, but I can certainly recommend the Eifell/Mosul area for bike touring, the roads are twisty, and full of bikes, we genuinely saw more bikes than cars most day on the backroads, and the scenery was georgeous!
