now showing ::: wrecked metals

now showing ::: i.d.w.p.

wish list ::: the dilema continues!!!

snakebikes LED-TaillightTurnsignal-Combination

wish list ::: xenolen

if only they had a tail/brake/turn version of the angel or cobra...

xenolen

wish list

RODDER TAIL LIGHT FINNED HARLEY BOBBER RAT HOT ROD

slammed 2"

la cruz verde

Ver mapa más grande

do you have a few hours to burn in the afternoon and weather is great?

its been a while now since i started this blog, and being from madrid and writing about motorcycle rides, this has to be mentioned.  la cruz verde has to be one of the most popular places for motorcycle riders in the area.  infamous for its dangerous curves, famous for its fun and enjoyable turns, always depending on which side you look at it from.

photo by "d"

to kill yesterdays august afternoon, "d" and me went to check out the beach in madrid... yes, madrid has a beach.  its fresh water and (one of them) located on the shores of pantano de san juan.  chilled by the beach while others went for a swim and decided to take on a little trip in the area and show "d" around.

from pantano de sanjuan we headed towards robledo de chavela, famous for its space agency antenas, and from there on to el escorial, famous for everything that happened way before any human vehicle flew.  this time travel road is what we all call la cruz verde.  short section of the m-512 but a blast to ride along.  you might see some careless riding and you will stumble upon the occasional flower arrangement, remembering someone who lost a life on the road.  it will be good to keep an eye on your soroundings to avoid an unpleasant experience.  however, it is worth the time.

once you pass the cruz verde bar, you will get great views of the monasterio del escorial from the top of the hill, which in my opinion, is much more impressive than to see it up close.

photo by "d"

the monasterio del escorial was built by king felipe II.  this is also where all spanish kings are burried. you can see all the black marble coffins inside at the panteón de los reyes.

photo by "d"

probably the last great sight before heading back to the city is the road crossing over pantano de valmayor... the icing on the cake.

la canalla ::: the process ::: taking shape

paint job done.  round oil tank to be mounted and now looking for a EFI sportster tank and speedo.

to lower the handle bars or not to... that is the question.

designed by reefonline
all actual work is done by  iron cycles

struts from rocket bobs

struts from rocket bobs

madrid - montreaux jazz ::: intercom

attaching the iphone to the handle bar was one part of the dilema.  so how do we get to listen to the instructions? we had to look for an intercom set up which would allow us to comunicate (pasenger-pillon) and listen to the navigation instructions.

for this trip we will be using a cheap intercom which will allow us to conect the iphone to the system through a 1/8" stereo jack which we bought in lidl some time ago. so far it has worked alright. however, the plan is to upgrade this some time in the future. the idea is to get our hands on a set of bluetooth intercoms which will provide several solutions simultaneously.

• connectivity between passenger + pillon + other drivers
• the ability to connect different speaker/mic options

as of today, and after a lot of researching on-line i have found that the sena smh10 is probably the best option. i have also read really good reviews on the cardo g4, but this one does not allow to change the mic/speaker system.



many of you might be wondering, why change the mic/speaker? well... being a harley rider, i am unsure about how the engine and wind noise will affect the performance of the mic, so i thought... why not plug a throat mic instead of the regular mic? im sure this will most probably ensure a clear communication between rider and pillon.

so i found an intercom set which includes a throat mic, but it aint bluetooth. it is manufactured by firefox technologies and seems like a quite affordable option, but then again, it still lacks the bluetooth feature to be perfect.

another very attractive option would be the imc motorcom bts 300ps which has the option to plug in a different selections of headsets/mics, although i have not found much info on them on the web, so ill keep looking for product reviews before making a final decision.

madrid - montreaux jazz ::: iphone motorcycle dock

we continue preparing the trip.

"la canalla" has been in the workshop. bmw marrakesh brown paint, side mount plate holder and new round oil tank in which we plan to fit and relocate the ecm. this way i´ll be able to keep the rear fender to the minimum expression while having the posibility to put on the detachable sissybar for traveling. with this project we are trying to prove that looks can go hand in hand with being practical, and thus having a bike which will turn heads as well as being able to ride it loaded with luggage to far away destinations.

when thinking of riding through france, switzerland and italy, cash comes to mind. tolls are known to be some of the most expensive in europe, and we want to avoid this since the essence of this blog is to guide you through the best and most beautiful roads on a budget and in as little time as possible. we also want to avoid boring expressways and want to enjoy the transition from the coast in the languedoc-roussillon to the swiss alps. for this we decided we will make use of technology. this is quite unusual in our travels since we have always believed in following our instinct and knowing that getting lost has a positive outcome. however, since this time we are traveling further and we have a tight deadline to get to places, we are setting up the tomtom gps on our iphone 4 and we will follow instructions on how to get to valence, bern, milan and saint tropez.

we have read on different iphone holders to atach the phone to the handlebar and finally chose the one made by 4lock. it costed 37€ plus 19€ for shipping charges to madrid. it should still be on the way, so we will review the product once we have it with us.

madrid - montreaux jazz ::: the plan refined

so the day is getting closer

finalising everything and getting the ride ready. "la canalla" is now in surgery: new paint, new oil tank, lower suspension and final version of the rear fender are in the works. on the meantime, we are planning the return of our trip in a different way. we are thinking of visiting more friends. so the itinerary would go as follows.

july 6th: bern - milan
july 7th: milan - saint tropez
july 8th: saint tropez - barcelona
july 10th: barcelona - madrid


Ver mapa más grande

madrid - montreaux jazz ::: the plan

so it´s been decided.

on friday july 1st we will be on our way to montreux jazz festival.  the goal? to visit some really special friends and catch james blake in concert.
the itinerary (always subject to change)

july 1st: madrid - barcelona
july 2nd: barcelona - valence (france)
july 3rd: valence - bern


Ver mapa más grande

base will be set in bern and from there we will engage in different activities in the area including bike rides and montreaux jazz concerts.

july 7th: bern - avignon
july 8th: avignon - barcelona

we will be assisting barcelona harley days and hopefully catching up with friends over there.

july 10th: barcelona - madrid

will be documenting as much as possible.  keep checking updates to see how the trip evolves.

evolving

vance & hines 2-1 competition series and mesh air cleaner

stock pipes and air cleaner

2008 harley davidson cross bones flstsb
new pipes and air cleaner

north spain route ::: spanish summary

a short version of the tour around northern spain was published on "la voz ronca".

hope you guys enjoy it.

we would like to thank bea for this great oportunity to tell our spanish speaking audience about our little adventure.

getaria biarritz ::: the movie ::: by bru no

thanks to bruno!!!



this video illustrates the trip to biarritz mentioned here.

enjoy!

bay of biscay and galicia ::: part IV

View Larger Map



the last leg of our northern spain trip seemed pretty quick, nonetheless, it was not short of sights i´d like to spend more time at.  galicia is extremely famous in spain for several reasons, one being its amazing and rugged coastline and its top class seafood which is not expensive at all.  however, as we were on a sort of tight schedule, we could not dedicate the time needed to ride all  the way along the coast down to vigo.  instead we took the shortcut riding inland.

2010 is "año santo xacobeo", which happens every year on the 25th of july (patron saint of james, son of zebedee) falls on a sunday.  for this reason it is a very popular and significant time to walk the st. james´way, the pilgrimage to the cathedral in santiago de compostela.  it was quite a common thing to see these pilgrims walking by the road towards santiago, some in search of pardon, others to achieve the goal as a personal challenge with no spiritual significance.

not a bad plto have lunch, somewhere on the way...

another significant place was padron, where the famous capsicums and the saying "coma os pementos de padrón: uns pican e outros non" come from.  these have to be one of my favourite finger foods ever!!!  watch out for the eventual spicy one if you are not used to spicy food.  the surprise factor has turned this delicacy into a fun and social culinary experience :)

once we hit pontevedra we had the ocean back in sight... this time the atlantic.  the "rias baixas" offers a very particular way to see the sea, similar, in a way, to that of the scandinavian fjords at a much, much smaller scale, but indeed beautiful as few places i can think of on earth (this is me being biassed i guess).  the way the sea hits the land in this region is what makes the conditions ideal for a great variety of sea food to be found here.  this trip is not for someone on a diet or people with anisakis.

the 4 heroes

as we felt the end of our trip was getting closer exhaustion was getting to us, and watching some of the greatest sunsets i´ve seen, over an ice cold beer, made the arrival in vigo just perfect.  now all we had to worry about was the absolutely fantastic bollywood themed party i really hope starts happening every single year!

playa de américa, nigran

nigran and baiona are full of places to have a nice quiet drink by the sea, i´d like to recommend playa de américa or patos.

sunset over nigran

make sure you put this destination in your bucket list and you wont regret it.

bay of biscay and galicia ::: part III

asturias & galicia


View Larger Map

thursday was a day full of stories. we were already almost hitting our final destination and the end seemed closer than i wanted, but we were about to continue having all sorts of things happenning to us on the way.

shortly after leaving cangas de onis, we stopped for fuel and as we were riding out of the petrol station, charly broke his front brake lever... thank god it was not sunday, although finding a business which is open during lunch hours in spain can be a difficult task. all we had to do was wait till 4 or 4:30 and find a workshop or a suzuki dealer that would have a spare lever. fortunately we were fairly close to oviedo and the road was not as curvey as the ones we had just passed the previous days. at least till oviedo.

old "águila negra" brewery

so we found a suzuki dealer which happened to be right next to a typical asturian cider house where we had lunch while we waited for the shops to open. again, we found great typical food for a ridiculously cheap price. if you happen to be in oviedo, visit "sidrería tierra astur".

after lunch we were in desperate need of a "siesta", but we also needed to make it to galicia before sunset if we wanted to be in shape for the party in vigo on saturday, so we continued getting slowly back to the coast. the road to get to the coast from oviedo is perfect for motorcycles. great scenery and plenty of good places to stop and have a bite if you need to. however, we had a little episode with a dude who thought tailgating was fun. we saw a "guardia civil" patrol car and had the chance to report him. hopefully he will think twice before repeating his feat with other riders.

the last part of this leg was a walk in the park, and the atlantic weather made itself a little more obvious as we aproached ribadeo, a little cloudy and more chilly than what we had so far.

a sight worth mentioning, just before hitting ribadeo... there is a helipad and a storage area for windmill sweeps. this region of spain has plenty of windmills on the top of the mountains used to generate electricity. the sweeps are huge, so they are transported to the storage facility by truck and then lifted by helicopter to the top of the mountains where they are assembled. how i wish i would have stopped to take a picture.

initialy we wanted to stay overnight in ribadeo, but finding a nice place facing the sea was hard, and we were told by the locals to go to foz instead.

we followed instructions and ended up finding a great apartment for the 4 of us for 120€. 2 rooms, kitchen, living room with a huge t.v. and a balcony facing the sea. couldnt be more perfect.

foz

foz happened to be a great place to go out at night too. plenty of young people and super cheap drinks. we ended up at a bar called zooropa, which had a bingo night, so for every drink (4€ /drink is super cheap in spain) they would give us a card to play bingo. our friend "ñas" decided to fuck with us a little and crossed the last remaining number of one of our cards without us noticing and we called bingo. funny moment of the trip. the whole bar was carefully listening to all the numbers being checked, but when number 35 was checked... all started laughing. we were shocked to see ñas laughing too and gave him the "youuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!" kind of look... hahaha fair enough, we had a laugh ourselves i guess.

bay of biscay and galicia ::: part II

cantabria & asturias


View Larger Map

after spending a few days in and around san sebastian, we headed west towards galicia. we had 3 days to hit nigran. also we had to make it to santander to have lunch with silvie (a good friend i met while living in manila), so we took the expressway from san sebastian. this takes around 2 hours on the A-8 and its actually not as boring since it goes through some very nice looking places.

lunch in santander was good thanks to the company, but food was absolutely horrible. this is where i need to make emphasis on how difficult it is to have a bad meal in the north. we were the most unlucky. we were looking for a place near the beach and at the same time, somewhere where we could sit while watching the bikes (we had luggage on them). we ended up at cafetería orsay, right outside artamentos las brisas. they charged us the ridiculous amount of 17 € for a "menu del día" which was worth absolutely nothing. paella was horrible, spaghetti was worse (how hard can it be to cook spaghetti???) and the fish was prehistoric... thank god we were with silvie and friends, they saved the day!!!

after lunch we continued our trip riding past comillas and san vicente de la barquera. these must have been some of the most beautiful sights we´ve seen on our trip. the coastline gets pretty rough and the cliffs make incredibly nice pictures. again, if you come here during the last days of july or during august, you will be sorounded by a constant sea of people. but still... worth seeing.

shortly after san vicente de la barquera we took a detour to continue through the mountains towards cangas de onis and oviedo instead of going along the coastline towards llanes and gijón.

i have driven through these roads several times before. always in a car. only now i realised how impressive the mountains are and really felt we were minuscule compared to the rock walls rising above our heads. we took part of the road that goes around the "parque nacional picos de europa" and decided to turn back and leave that road for another ocasion. i guess this will remain on my "to do list" a little longer.

the alternative route we chose to take was not bad at all. driving through the north side of the national park, through cabrales and very close to "lagos de covadonga" was just what we needed. sharp turns, steep slopes, and beautiful sights. i need to mention, if you like strong cheese, you need to visit the region of cabrales...

our day ended at cangas de onis. a cozy little town with extremely friendly people and really good and cheap food.

we stayed at a hotel called los robles, and to be honest, we did not have to go very far to find a restaurant for dinner or a bar to have a few drinks. they offer a lunch menu for 9,50€ and a dinner menu for 10€. we ordered extra bread and extra drinks including coffee and they did not charge any extra whatsoever... absolutely fantastic.

i need to make a special mention to maria jesus... the woman in charge of the tobacconist right next to the hotel. i went in to buy some rolling tobacco, filters and papers and ended up having this very interesting talk with her. aparently she lived in angola for 16 years before the war. i think i would love to pay her a little visit some time soon. maybe even send her a postcard!!!

bay of biscay and galicia ::: part I

biarritz


View Larger Map

the rocket queen headed north once again. this time, the plan was to ride along the northern coast of spain, from san sebastian and ending up in galicia for a very good friend´s birthday party. as usual, the start and finishing points were both madrid, so i will skip writting about the madrid - san sebastian and vigo - madrid parts of the trip since i have written about them before.

the initial idea for this tour, was to combine mountains and beach for the summer holidays, starting with baqueira in the pyrinees, near barcelona and riding to the basque country. Of course, reality ended up being nothing like what we had planned.

we started our trip in san sebastian where we spent a few days in the jazz festival combined with a little riding along the coast and across the no longer existing border, to france.

heineken 45 jazzaldia

while in san sebastian, most tourists end up in the old part and around the port. this is something you must do if you have never been in the most beautiful city in spain, but dont think there is not much out in other areas.

boneless wings @ narru

for me the great discovery this time was narru. fantastic pintxos for a quite reasonable price, which unfortunately is the downside to eating in the basque region (it gets quite pricey). you will see, once you go in, everyone orders the house specialty for a good reason. you cant leave without trying the boneless chicken wings. everything we tried was incredibly tasty, so if you see yourself in this city and would like to go somewhere out of the ordinary and stay away from tourists... check this place out.

hendaye on the north shore and hondarribia on the south shore

the riding started from guetaria, and headed to san sebastian, along igueldo. after riding past san sebastian, we headed to jaizkibel. a similar kind of road to the one in igueldo which brings you up along a road full of curves with breathtaking views of the bidasoa river and the bay of biscay. this is a very enjoyable ride, and even in the summer, you might want to bring a jumper or a jacket with you, just in case...

lunch was in hondarribia, where you will find a great selection of restaurants along the sea walk. i have to say, it is very hard to have a bad meal in the basque country.

after lunch, we headed across the river into hendaye and again along the coast all the way up to biarritz. unfortunately we must have chosen the day when absolutely everybody decided to go to the beach in the south of france. traffic was horrible in most towns so riding through them was everything but smooth. this is why i always believed, the best time to visit this area is september, when the weather is still nice and most vacationers are gone.

in biarritz, we avoided the grand plage and headed a little north, just in front of the hotel sofitel biarritz. this part of the beach was not too crowded and a little less rowdy than the main part of grand plage. if money is not a problem, do go to the hotel du palais for coffee, or a meal. the setting is quite interesting.

biarritz

madrid - getaria 4 - 6.09.2009

expand map

back to the north, and more specificaly, back to the basque country. i will probably have repeated entries on this region for several reasons. the first being i have family ties to san sebastian and also, i believe it is a beautiful place, with beautiful people, not to mention the food and the great surf (specially during september and february).

there are changes since last entry on the same trip last year. the most obvious one would be the new section of the AP-1 express way that goes from vitoria to eibar, and if you are on a schedule and need to get to san sebastian, it will save you anything from 20 to 45 minutes for just under 6€. it can be a little tricky though to get on the right path. once the first section of the AP-1 is over around miranda de ebro, make sure you follow directions to vitoria/san sebastian on the E-5 (which you´ll see in a little green rectangle in the big blue road signs indicating the different directions). after you drive past vitoria (do not go into the city if you dont need/want to visit vitoria) pay attention to the indications to get on to the AP-1 to san sebastian.

the tricky part

again, when i got to my final destination i did the same route to san sebastian through igueldo as i did last year. there are changes on this road to since they built a new access to the A-8 from the N-634 around orio. you will see a big roundabout past orio on the way to san sebastian, with all the necessary indications. make sure you follow the directions towards igueldo.

thanks eugenia for taking the pic :)
you will see this building at the roundabout on the way to san sebastian from orio on the N-634 take a left here

earlier this summer, i met austin and sara. they are traveling around the world and ended in san sebastian almost by chance. after an unfortunate series of events which brought them from rome to santander and then san sebastian. it all ended up being not unfortunate at all and gave me and my younguest brother the chance to meet two of the most amazing persons ive come across ever. sara is a great photographer and austin is a great surfer and a talented video artist. they were nice enough to make an incredible video of me and my ride on a road that has a special meaning to me since i was a kid.



thanks so much guys :)

we spent the morning on the road, took some time in san sebastian to do things that needed to be done and spent the afternoon in zarautz at the san miguel pro surf world championship.



i had not been to this event in years. it used to happen early in september and used to be sponsored by o.p. instead. then they stopped organising it and now its back. it brought back great memories from the past, and i have to recommend zarautz during this time of the year, there are a lot less people and the weather is usually great. not too hot but still being able to swim in the ocean.

last time i wrote about guetaria i dont think i mentioned my favourite restaurant. if you like fish, you cant leave town without having dinner at "astillero", a familly owned restaurant with the friendliest service and of course, the best food. it will set you back between 30 to 50€ per person, but it is worth every cent. if you are lucky you might get one of the tables overlooking the port of getaria, which is small but absolutely beautiful.

there is another great place for lunch in the san prudencio hostel. a small hostel sorrounded by vineyards and from which you can see the hills falling into the sea. this one is a cheaper option and a great place if you visit the little village of azkizu.


i must insist, this is a great weekend trip from madrid, and i cant wait to do it again, maybe before the cold arrives. i really want to ride arround jaizkibel to fuenterrabia and see the bidasoa river (separates spain from france) from the top of the hill. so ill leave that on my "to do" list for now.