Well as promised on another page somewhere, a couple of us returned to the sunnily excellent South of France in mid August 04, for a much needed Hoonabout after the pretty dreadful 'summer' in the UK, and once again France didn't disappoint.

The weather once we'd managed to get past Lyon was magnificent, every day dawned to bright blue clear sky's and temperatures hovering near to 27-28 degree's and once again the roads beckoned.

The first couple of days saw us set up camp in the Ardeche and what I'd recommend is you stay near to the Auto Route de Soleil at Bollene (Junction 19) make for the Etap motel, which can be seen to the left behind the Peage at Junction 19, price was 34 euros for an on-suite room, and was much better equipped than the Formula 1 motels we used last time out, and there is also a Maccy D's within crawling distance for convenience, if pre-prepped food is your idea of eating out in France, but at least they sell beer...... Hic !!! which is most welcome when you arrive late and it's the only place open within a 5K radius.

Then when your ready for some swervery make for Pont st Esprit (D994) towards St Martin le Ardeche where you'll find the perimeter road around the gorge which is truly excellent, everything and more, that the RPM best roads DVD promised, although in August it seems half of France take their holiday's and the 30 or so kilometers around the Ardeche was festooned with all manner of tin boxes doing their utmost to spoil "Le Grande Hoonabout" ..... the Ardeche perimeter road is described as a little slippery in the RPM DVD, well to be honest I didn't find this to be so, abrasive yes, slippery not particularly and after a couple of day's playing around there, we made for the south proper.

The next few day's we decided to go to Toulon again and stay in the same hotel we stayed in last year, (New Hotel Tour Blanche) mainly because we tried some other places and they were all fully booked so booking is vital around this time of year, and the prices were pretty similar to last years being 98 euro's for a shared room, so not too bad when the cost is split between two, maybe a little pricey but it's a top quality 3 star hotel in the hills over looking Toulon Port, so well worth the10 or so extra euro's over some other places I personally think.

After a week of some truly excellent weather, some great biking roads, and all round jolly good time, we headed for Calais and the route back north saw us taking to the N85 Route Napoleon, and once again the first half of the N85 from Grasse is open with decent sweeping bend's where apexing can be a fulfilling chance to get some knee down action, the top part of the route from around Gap and Corps onwards to Grenoble is less rewarding as it's mainly built up but does have some twisty moments, and talking of Corps we made a bit of an enforced over night stop in Corps at a very charming and friendly hotel called the Hotel Napoleon for a quite reasonable 53 euros including brekky, after my bike decided to go all tetchy and develop an electrical misfire in the pouring rain, but that's another story best left for another time.

All in all, a top week hooning about in brilliant (for the most part) sunshine, in the end covering a little over 2,300 miles, we managed to get from Calais to Orange in around 9 hours with 10 fuel stops, the train departure was delayed for almost an hour, which made getting up at 4.15am a bit of a waste of time, and I'm not going to mention that Fireblades fitted with rearsets aren't really made for touring comfort, but I expect you already know that if you've ever ridden one any distance, with rearsets fitted, but once in the land of twisty hairpins RRV was in 'her' element, and my R1 mounted mate wasn't any quicker round these roads...... There's life in the old girl yet.....

Looking forward to "Le Grand Hoonabout" 2005, better start saving now then.

---

November 2004.

The 13th is a date which some people consider is unlucky...... Well not for me I got a new toy in the shape of a Tri-colour 2004 Fireblade.

I've had some goodies fitted from new, which are a top notch Datatool system 3 alarm, which I'm also going to get fitted at some stage the add on pager alert, which I've seen advertised, also some R&G crash bung's, which I had on a previous bike but not my RRV (maybe I should have done Eh !! ) and a Scottoiler because of my blasts across to France, but mainly 'cos I always forget to lube my chain and what with the legendary Blade 'boot' now only big enough to carry a packet of 3, there's no where to put the chain lube, on foreign hoon's... Oh well, the underseat pipes do look the "dog's".

As I write this, the first week in December 04, my new 'baby' has done precisely 16 miles since that nice Honda stork delivered her, the winter ..... has been dreadful 'spose that's what you get for buying a new bike in winter. I'm ever hopeful the sun might shine if only for a couple of hours, so I can get some miles done; spring's on the way though or so I'm lead to believe... I can't wait .... 2005's going to be a stonking year I can just feel it.

30th April 2005.

OK so what's happened in between winter and now, well 'Bladey' has had her first service, I've bought fitted, removed and sold an Akrapovic race can, all within about 2 week's , as it was just to damn loud, and it messed up both the throttle response and stealth capability of 'Bladey' now whether I'm just getting old (Nah, hope not) or what I'm not sure, but I actually liked the fact I could ride at 10/10ths and not announce my intentions to all and sundry within a 4 mile radius......

Yes I could have had a PC111 fitted, and in fact I do have one waiting to go on, but I didn't want to spend the best part of £200, a month before I hoon off to France, to be honest. So the PC111 will go on at some stage later in the year, and possibly ?? with a removable baffle type end can of some such, but I'm still looking into this at present, as I don't want to remove the midrange boosting exup valve in the original can, really.

And it's a bit odd that this is the first bike I've "EVER" owned and not felt the need to immediately change the exhaust..... Weird....

Suspension has also been tweaked, marginally and I've lowered the front preload to that recommended by Ride Magazine and set it to 9 full turns out from max, but I've left all the other setting's as Honda intended, and the bike now feel's much better in turn's and on bumpy roads, and the front isn't trying to break my wrists any more. I've just been out doing what Honda intended for the bike and that's riding the little beauty.

So not much has changed really ???

---

---

Home | Blade History | Blade Specs | Blade Gallery | Fireblade Future 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Web Master 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5  | Product Reviews | Fireblade Goodies
Reader Rides 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9  - 10 - 11
Setup Guides | Workshop Guides | Links Page | Honda News
Guestbook - Sign - View | Fireblade Forum | Site Map

© Copyright 2002-2008. honda-fireblades.co.uk. All rights reserved.
site designed and maintained by Richweb Design ©™®