We arrived home yesterday teatime after another great UKBEG adventure. Being able to share most of it with Kev and Ronnie was an added bonus.
Our trip didn't have the best of starts on Sunday 1st, just 75 miles from home on the A1 the belt broke on the Ulysses. I suspect a stone or similar was the culprit because the belt was in very good condition before I set off. The breakage meant we had a 4 hour delay while the bike was recovered home by the RAC and then we had to swop bikes and luggage around etc. Luckily we had all day to play around with, the delay meant we arrived in Ashbourne, Kent in the evening rather than in the afternoon as originally planned. That's the first belt breakage I've had on a Buell in over 17 years and some 70,000 miles of ownership so I guess I can't grumble, we're just glad it broke before I'd got too far from home. Any road up, I ended using my Guzzi 1100 for the trip and on our way back down the A1 we waved at my broken belt laying forlornly at the side of the road
....
Although it was very busy at the main D-Day sites we're really pleased we decided to go to the last official commemoration which featured many of the surviving veterans. Being on two-wheels helped a lot with the traffic and the attitude of the French police was brilliant, they were very motorcycle friendly and you could park just about anywhere, including pavements, as long as you didn't cause an obstruction. For example, on Saturday 7th we visited Arromanches to see the air display over the bay and while access to the town was closed to normal traffic the police waved all riders through which had the effect of creating an unofficial motorcycle festival.
We did spot some Buells, one XB Lightning and three Firebolts, all French. There were lots of British, European and Scandinavian registered motorcycles around during the week and combined with the many WW2 military vehicles being used on the roads there was a great sense of camaraderie and of being part of something special. Two of the highlights of the trip were the Bayeux liberation parade on Sunday 8th and 'Feu d'artifice de Normandie Memoire' firework display held on the night of June 5th/6th. Together with Kev and Ronnie (and quite a few others) we watched our local display, which was one of twenty four simultaneous displays all along the invasion coast, stood on top of a German bunker at the Merville Battery. We could see at least another four displays to the west of were we where and they looked to be exactly the same. It was very moving and evocative of the sounds that would have been heard at the start of the invasion 70 years ago.
It wasn't all WW2 stuff, UKBEG's very own 'Italian & German Twin-Cylinder Shaft Drive Section' enjoyed one pure riding day exploring the beautiful Falaise region on some great roads.
I didn't think my first picture would be of the recovery van
at the side of the A1 but here's a few that capture the essence of our D-Day 70.....
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Chris & Jane Jessop
Founders of UKBEG April 1998
www.ukbuellgroup.co.uk
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then it will be a case of loading up tonight ready for an early start in the morning .
set of early Monday morning and got home about 5-30pm today after just over 1400 miles we've left CJ and Jane over there as they still have a couple more days left , bloody BMW GS seats are uncomfy though , I think both the X1 and the 1125 are comfier for long distance.
