Spain On Twins » Trips

New site is almost ready

SOT — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:50:40 +0000

This is a short video I’ve recorded today, during a stop I made on the road. Finally we have no rain, and could ride again. I hope you like it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1l9dujmds0

If you can’t see the video, click here to watch it.

See you on the road !!

Have a look !!

SOT — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:29:58 +0000

I received some comments, via S.O.T.’s facebook and S.O.T.’s twitter, on the last post and on the video it shows, asking me to show a little more of the area where I recorded the video. And as I usually do as you tell me, here it is another video !! But it has an extra bonus. Instead of just showing the area, what I’m showing is some kilometers of one of the roads that we’ll be riding on the Twists & Twins tour, to be held in June 2010. It was recorded on a greyish and rainy day, but it looks gorgeous anyway. I hope you like it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoPdikFoH7M

And you know, if you are interested in riding the area on your Harley, in June we’ll be crossing Spain from Coast to Coast riding the Pyrenees. On 2010 we’ll be riding from San Sebastian to Barcelona. Lots of twists, lots of great mountain passes and superb roads like the one shown on the video. Add to this great hotels, nice food, cold beer and a group of Harley lovers and you have a picture of Spain On Twins‘ tours. And as we get to Barcelona, Harley-Davidson Spain will be opening the 2nd edition of the Barcelona Harley Days, so plenty of fun, music and great opportunities for a special weekend if you feel like it.

Hope to see you around here in June.

See you on the road !!

PS.- If you are reading this post in a Page that doesn’t show embebed videos, click here to watch it. Enjoy it !!

Is it about time for a new bike ??

SOT — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:43:58 +0000

I still don’t have the answer, but the truth is that I’m thinking about it more than ever. Doing more than 20.000 k (12.500 miles) last year on my ‘97 FatBoy has been a mixture of pleasure and pain. Several break downs, a growing pain on my back, tons of mosquitoes and other flying objects on my face as well as countless hours of fun and joy on the road are driving my mind into paying growing attention to baggers. Lately I reckon that I tend to look with more loving eyes to Street Glides and Ultra Classics. Both have pros, both have cons. But my main barrier is that I don’t want to sell my present bike. I’d love to keep it, so as to further customize it without having to keep the long distance tours in mind. Taken that into account, an Ultra Classic seem to be the perfect fit. A bike where my girlfriend can travel in comfort, and with plenty of room for everything a woman seem to NEED to take with her even for the shortest ride. And that’s a lot of things. On the other side, the Street Glide look to me more like “my style”, but I feel is less adequate for duo riding, and I’d love to travel with my girlfriend more often.

Obviously, money is another barrier for making this come true. I just hope that lots of you come to Spain next year and do any of the tours I am preparing at Spain On Twins, so that, besides earning a little of the money I need for the buy, I also have the perfect excuse to tell my girlfriend when she discovers that I’ve signed yet another loan at the bank. “Honey, this is not for me. This is for us. This is for the business….”

While this moment comes, you can watch a nice commercial presentation of the 2010 models done by the MoCo. Nice new models. I’d probably buy them all if I could…

Ride Safe.

See you on the road !

Good news for our Pyrenees tour in 2010

SOT — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:51:45 +0000

The other day I read on twitter something that made me really happy. Harley-Davidson Spain has finally managed to close a deal with Barcelona’s authorities to celebrate again the Barcelona Harley Days. It will be on June (18-20) next year. I attended the 1st Barcelona Harley Days on 2008 and it was a great experience, with more than 15.000 Harleys, and more than 300.000 visitors….

To have the Barcelona Harley Days confirmed is good news for us, because I’ll move our tour calendar so as to make dates match, and have the opportunity to enjoy such a great meeting after a week of nice riding around our Spanish Pyrenees on your Harley. So now you know, the Twists & Twins tour will again take place on June 2010, starting at San Sebastian, and arriving at Barcelona on time for the Barcelona Harley Days.

In case you want to taste a bit what the Barcelona Harley Days were two years ago, you can watch this video.

Stay tuned, soon I will be announcing the new website for our Harley Tours in Spain, together with the dates and prices for the 2010 tours.

See you on the road !

Racing Sunday

SOT — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:39:42 +0000

Last Sunday we had a great excuse for a Sunday Ride. Close to our hometown (Zaragoza), there is a new racing circuit, and the World Series by Renault were to be held there. That was enough reason (together with a Sunny day, with more than 23ºC and no wind….) for a group of Harley Riders to join for a fine day on the races. We met at 9:30 at the usual meeting point, had a coffee, refilled our tanks, and off we went. 16 bikes in perfect formation hitting the road again. There were all kind of bikes, from Sporters to Ultras, Dynas, Fat Boys, V-Rods.. but we all adaptad to the usual 110 km/h pace and started to enjoy the ride. 80 kms after we left, the group felt the need for another coffee, so we all stopped again for it. There were no reason to ride fast, so we just enjoyed the moment and continue the interrupted conversations. 15 mins later we fired up the engines again and the group hit the road once again. More than 20 kms before arriving to the circuit, we could see the traffic jam, so we switched to single formation, and kept overtaking the cages. We received quite a few looks, some of them of admiration, but also some of envy, since this 2o kms took some of them almost 1 hour. We parked our bikes together at parking B, fixed a little problem on one of the bikes, and once solved, headed for the entrance, already feeling the excitement of the sounds from the engines and the crowds. The circuit is simply spectacular. A first class circuit designed by XXX with the help of Pedro Martinez de la Rosa. Simply amazing. A circuit that will put the region back in the racing map, once the urban circuit is definetively closed. It deserves a Moto GP or F1 race. For Sure.

We spent all mornign there, enjoying leg after leg. The group splitted, since some of them needed to be back home in time for lunch (remember, that’s 14:30 or 15:00 in Spain !!), but some of us stayed there untill everything finished. Then we hurried to the exit of the circuit before the massive traffic jam formed again, and looked for a place to have a nice (and late, even for Spain’s standards…) lunch. We enjoyed the nice food and the better company so much that we stayed at the restaurant longer than we’d have liked, because the night catch us up (last Sunday was the day when the hour was changed, so it got darker earlier…), but it was well worth.

I really enjoyed the day, and we’ll sure get together again soon for another Sunday Ride. I just wish weeks had more Sundays…

See you on the road !!

Unexpected stop

SOT — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:33:34 +0000

Today I’m spending the night somewhere I only expected to stop at for a cold drink. But the unexpected sometimes happens, and you have to react accordingly.

The unexpected thing that has happened today is that my rear brake has decided to go on holidays. And the people at the HD Dealer are only available during the morning. So I’m staying today at Cadiz, a nice city that’s roughly halfway through the day’s planned route.

The day started late today, as it was supposed to be a short riding day, and I wanted to spend some time at Sevilla. So I wasn’t on the road until noon. The day starts on a big road, riding along crop fields (agriculture plays an important role in Andalucia’s economy), until we turn left and take a service road (with some roadworks underway, to improve its quality), that will take us from village to village, until we take another turn, and head for the sea, where the idea is to take a small break and have a cold drink. Probably by the lighthouse in a village where one of the most famous “copla” singers of Spain was born. From there the idea was to ride to Cadiz, stop again there for a quick lunch depending on the time we get there, and then head inland again, towards where was supposed to be the end of a beautiful day, a marvelous village called Arcos de la Frontera, located atop a sandstone ridge, from which the peak of San Cristobal and the Guadalete Valley can be seen, inhibited since the Stone Age.

But the unexpected sometimes happens. And it happened today. As I told you before, my rear brake decided to stop working, and heading to the mountains only with my front brake is not a good idea. Fortunately, there’s a HD Dealer at Cadiz, and the route passes by its door. So I stopped. It was closed, so I had lunch and came back afterwards. I had to stop longer since they open at 6:00 pm. To my surprise, the mechanics don’t work in the evenings, so the people working there in the afternoon couldn’t help me solve the problem (My guess is that it’s either the pump, a bubble in the circuit, or the break pads), but offered to put my bike first on tomorrow’s list and helped me find a hotel (they even got me a discount !!) close to the dealer. Really friendly and helpful. They even checked if they had spares for my Performance Machine calipers, just in case is the pads what has to be replaced. And they have. So here I am. Enjoying the unexpected stop, because all in all….it’s not a bad place to have a free evening, don’t you think?

So, tomorrow is going to be a long day. First thing in the morning, I’ll go by the dealer to check what’s the problem with the brakes (the bike is sleeping there, so it’s safe and ready to be serviced as soon as the mechanics get there). Hopefully it’ll be a fast (and inexpensive….) repair, so I can be on the road soon, to catch up with the plan, and do not only what was left of today’s, but also tomorrow’s planned route, and to enjoy a great day of riding along the so-called “Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos”, an amazing route (a twisty one indeed) that will take us in October to more than 10 beautiful small villages in the Cadiz’s sierra (the name comes from the white color they use to paint the houses, to avoid the high temperatures they have in summer).

So, with your permission, I’ll enjoy the rest of the afternoon and have a good sleep, because I’ll need to be fully charged for tomorrow…

See you soon….on the road !

Let your engines rollin’

SOT — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:48:20 +0000

I have arrived to Madrid, where I will start tomorrow a new tour that will take me around Spain. The idea is to do the try-out not only for the History & Twins, but also for the Sun & Twins’ tour.

Since I’ve received several mails from people suggesting to reduce the lenght of the trips, I’m following their suggestions and I’ve prepared a shortest version of the tours. A consequence of that is that the tours will also be cheaper !! So check the blog to receive updates.

Get ready for rock’n'roll !!

See you on the road.

Day 6 – Visiting our neighbours

SOT — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:55:01 +0000

Today we have had a present. A really good present, in the form of a sunny day. Not really sunny the spanish way, but sort of. And we’ve enjoyed a lot riding the beautiful roads on our way to Andorra, where we are sleeping today.

Besides that, we’ve changed our route, following a suggestion of my friends from Benasque, and we’ve ridden some lonely roads of nice tarmac, and amazing views of the mountains and with some great small villages. And I’m happy of having followed Jose Antonio and Peter’s advise. Thanks bros !!

Javier is really enjoying the roads, and feeling more and more comfortable on the curves – longs, fasts, slows, hairpins…all sorts – and is asking for more. This confirms me that the daily mileage and the road and hotel selection is right, as well as the time we spend everyday on the road. Good for me !!

Besides that, today Paco joined us at La Seu D’Urgel, so the Try-out team is now complete and we can continue our test rides….after we finish celebrating Javier’s birthday !! Congrats Javier, hopefully next year we can also celebrate it with another tour on our bikes.

Tomorrow I’ll test my newly bought gadget, a digital recorder, to avoid having the same problem I had yesterday with my notes, in case it rains again.

Tomorrow we’ll head again to Spain. I’ll keep you updated.

See you on the road

Day 1 – The try-out has started….and what a start !!

SOT — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:58:32 +0000

The start of the Twist & Twins tour

This is the hotel were the group will gather together upon arrival, to start the Twist & Twins tour, the Parador of Santillana del Mar. 35 kms from Santander, and perfect for us.

From there, the group will ride together to enjoy a great tour. 10 days from the Cantabric Sea to the Mediterranean Sea on Harley. From Santander to Barcelona, visiting Bilbao, San Sebastian and other cities along the way.

The roads are great. A nice combination of small local roads with medium “National” roads with nice tarmac to relax from the twisties.

We will not ride long hours. The kilometers of the day could be ridden in 4 hours (or less depending on your skills and speed..), but it will take us 5 or 6 hours, because we will stop as much as the group wants to.

The idea is to get to Bilbao – where the first day finishes – not later than 5 p.m., so that anyone can relax their one way, either walking around bilbao (the hotel is very well located, at walking distance from the Guggenheim), or just relax at a terrace with a big beer waiting for dinner time.

Only one final recomendation. Don’t forget your sun’s cream !!

I’ll keep you posted on the try-out.

See you on the road !!

The try-out has started !!

SOT — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:26:49 +0000

I have just arrived to Santander, after a small technical stop at the HD dealer of Bilbao, who couldn’t fix my bike, and a short visit to the dealer of Santander, who will try tomorrow to fix it. It is not a big thing, but is something I’d rather have fixed before starting the tour itself. Its the chain. As I changed the back tire for a 230, I only have room for a chain….and chains suck !! Specially the one that I have, that is not a really good one (I don’t have clearance for a good one…), and it tends to elongate and cause problems.

I tried to fix it myself, but the difference between the point of maximum tension and the point of minimum tension is excesive and causes problems, specially as temperature increases….and this is Spain, my friends…. So, hopefully, tomorrow I’ll have a new chain in place, and I’ll head to the start of the tour: Santillana de Mar, a “living museum” of a medieval village.

View of the streets of Santillana del Mar, exit point of the Twists & Twins tour.

I’ll be test riding the whole tour, as well as proof-riding the road-book, and visiting every hotel along the way, so that everything is checked so that the minimum problems arise, and that every client of Spain On Twins gets the best possible service and information.

Before I go to sleep, just a quick word to publicly thank the people at the HD Dealer @ Bilbao. A great bunch of guys willing to help and do anything they can to fix my problem. Also a big thank you to the guy at HD Santander. They were closed, but as he could see me through his office’s window talking to the people on the street, he came downstairs, opened the shop, went out to the street and came by me to ask if he could help me anyway. Then he took me inside, and booked me a place for tomorrow morning with one of the mechanics, to be sure that I receive proper attention.

That’s the kind of service I expect at a Harley-Davidson dealer. A good mix between profesionality and biker’s brotherhood. Simply great. I just hope every dealer were like them…

I’ll keep you posted along the way.

Stay tuned.

See you on the road !!