And then reality hits you hard in the face. When you thought everything was under control, an invisible enemy you thought you were save from, proves you you are just another rider on the road. The day before yesterday I was enjoying the road, enjoying the ride in good company, and didn’t want to stop for other reason than to refuel. And that was my mistake, because althought I didn’t feel it, temperatures were close to 40*C most of the day. But I wasn’t conscious until we got to our destination. Then, all the heat of the day stroke me. I was dehydrated and starting to have symptoms of a heat stroke (dizziness, high body temperature, I even puked…), and that is no joke, my friends.

Fortunately it wasn’t serious and I’m fine now, after two days, but it could have been something way more dangerous, that could’ve been avoided had I done what intelligent people do: stop often and drink. As simple as that.

I’m serious with that. The last hours have been horrible. I’ve felt like shit. Powerless, sick, and exhausted. I promise you is a feeling you don’t want to experience yourself. Trust me. So, my dear friends, learn from my stupidity, and don’t repeat my mistake. Stop often and drink. Don’t wait to be thirsty, that will be too late. Don’t think that this is something that only happens to newbies, because is not. It can happen to you too. Be smart. Let me be the only stupid on the road.

Take care out there.

See you on the road!!

And doing more miles is an easy task. There is always a secondary road that take you to your destination…. but taking the long way. And our bikes tend to have a good “nose” for those detours, so we’re quite often having an extra dose of extra miles. No complains so far.

Our tour has a great combination of roads, so we can have some time to ride fast (it may sound weird, because 110kms/h is our fastest register so far, but we call that fast…), and spend some time on solitary roads too, enjoying the magnificent views at really slow speeds. Besides that, since we are following Cid Campeador’s footsteps, we are constantly passing by casttles, old monastirs and walled cities in different state (from total ruins to perfectly conserved ones) so we have plenty of excuses to stop, take pictures, and imagine the battles fougth there centuries ago…

The weather is also respecting us, and today we’ve had a sunny day, with no clouds at sight. It is forecasted to stay like that for the rest of week. We hope the weather man has done his homework right, since we had enough rain on the first day…

Today we are sleeping at Daroca, and tomorrow we plan to get to Albarracin, and sleep at El Rincon De La Talega, a small house I’m really looking forward to visit, since I’ve heard lots of nice things about it (and about Santi, his owner).

We have another five or six hours on the saddle tomorrow, but before that, we’ll have a “Pacharan” on the rocks, to sleep better… )

Take care out there.

See you on the road !!

The first day was an intense one. Not because it was a long day (indeed it wasn’t), but because we had 4 different storms on our way to our destination. Actually, on the first 75 kms, we had to stop three times and look for shelter, since it was raining so hard we could hardly see the road ahead.

Anyhow, we kept going, full rain gear on, and in the end we reached our destination: Vivar del Cid, the starting point of the Camino del Cid, that will take us to Valencia in a week. Once there, we founded the “Legua 0″, and the owner of the “mesón” – now retired – joined us as soon as he heard the sound of our Harleys and our laughs, and even brought with him a replica of “Tizona”, Cid’s sword. We had a beer with him and his wife, to try to compensate the litters of water we’ve been forced to drink while under the rain, and then go to find a place to sleep. We did, at a nice guest house just a few meters from there, and that put a nice ending to our first day on the road.

Today the weather was totally different. Sunny and fresh in the morning, sunny and warm in the afternoon, but not to the point of being too warm. So, we’ve had a fantastic day on the road, even tough we’ve found some road works on our way that made the ride a little uncomfortable and dusty some times.

We are now at Atienza. A small town surveilled by a big casttle, that can’t deny it was the landscape for some epic battles back in the days. The weather forecast for tomorrow is also good, so we’re pretty sure we’ll have fun. Even if the forecast is unaccurate, we’ll have fun, because life’s good when you are on the road, with friends, on your Harleys. We’ll keep the motor rollin’…. and that will keep our smiles growing…

Take care out there.

See you on the road!!

Only one day left to hit the road again !! This time we’re going to follow the Cid Campeador’s footsteps, and will be riding from Burgos to Valencia. It’s going to be a 2.000kms ride, mainly on secondary roads full of spanish history.

Here is the route plan we’ll be following along

I’ll try to update the blog everyday with news and pictures.

Looping forward to feel the air in my face again….

See you on the road !!

Lately – and by lately I mean the last 6 months or more… – I’ve been working way too much, not on Spain On Twins, but on my other company, and hitting the road way too little. This situation is affecting my nerves, my sense of humour, my creativity, my motivation… my everything. I need a brake, and I need it now, and on this break, I need to go for a ride.

So, I’ll stop thinking about it, and start acting. I’ve decided that I’m taking the first week of July off, and I’ll be hitting the road again. I need to feel the black line of tarmac flowing beneath me. I need to feel the air in my face, the music of the pipes in my ears and my heart pumping with the twist of the throttle. I’ll follow the “Camino del Cid” (Cid’s Way), which is the way the El Cid Campeador, the Spanish medieval hero par excellance,  followed when he was thrown out of the kingdom. Basically I’ll cross Spain North-South, from Burgos to Murcia.

I have prepared nothing. I haven’t checked for hotels. I haven’t prepared the route, or divided the whole trip into journeys. Truth is I have no time for that. But I’m sure I’ll have fun. I’ll travel with a map, a guide, a tank full of gas, and some cash for beer. Fair enough to reset my mind and recharge batteries. And I need precisely that.

I’ve told my plans to a couple of friends, and they’ll be joining me. And who knows, maybe some more friends joins the crew and take the same road we’ll take. That would be great !

It’s a pitty that I can’t find the time to invest in this project. I started it a couple years ago because I know Harleys are my passion, and to make a living on them would be a dream come true. But it takes time and money to turn a project like this into a profitable company. And, fortunately I have to admit, my other project – I make my living as a Marketing Consultant on Social Media – is going well, and leaves no time for preparing the best routes for Harleys at Spain. But I prefer to take things positively and not think  on what I’m not doing, but on what I’ll be doing soon. And that’s firing up my Harley and hitting the road with some friends. With a vague idea of the destination, and a lot of time to enjoy the ride. I love that !!

See you on the road !!

To get back to Spain I took a ferry at Rome, that in 20 hours took me to Barcelona, just 350 kms from home. I was lucky that I was not going to be on my own on it, because Ulrich and Kristen, a German couple I really enjoy being with, was also on the same boat. Actually, it was a real luck to have them on board, because thanks to them I could sleep on a real bed (their cabin had an extra bed), instead of on the seat I had reserved. We also met Tex and Anibal, two Spanish rat-bikers also on their way back home after a nice ride around Europe, so the night got a little longer than expected, sharing stories of our respective tours.

We got to Barcelona late in the afternoon, at 18:50, and I hit the road again, this time on the highway, to get home as fast as I could. Everything was going fine, the bike running smooth, and the temperature was much nicer than the steaming temperatures we had in Italy, but Spain has a surprise welcome party organized for me, and at just 100 kms from home suddenly the rain started to fall in massive quantities, lightnings iluminating the road and thunders being the only music I could hear. Quick stop at the first gas station, let the storm pass for 10 mins, rain gear on, and on the road again. I’m stronger than the rain !!

Finally, close to 23:00 I arrived home after 6.103 kms of pure joy. The EPR is officially over for me. Untill 2012. I’ll be there again. Wherever it is.

Today is Saturday. Only 5 days later, and I already miss my partners in crime. I’m feeling the EPR down, missing all the good moments we had on the open road, the great countries we visited, and the fun we had. At least I can see the pictures and smile again remembering our adventures.

Take care out there my friends

See you on the road !!

Anyhow, we’ve had fun on the road, as we always do. Today three of us felt a little more adventurous, and decide to ride on our own, not in the groups. We wanted to have the chance to ride in Italy at our own pace, stopping whenever we felt like doing it, and we also wanted to navigate our route on the GPS and the road-book. The run from Florence to Sienna is really beautiful, nice curves, mostly nice pavement, and amazing landscape. Once we got to Sienna, we parked our bikes and went to visit the city. It’s really amazing. I went there 20 years ago, but I promise that I didn’t remember Sienna that beautiful.

We had lunch there, and hit the road again afterwards. From Sienna, most of the groups took the highway, to be early at the hotel, but we wanted to do the original plan, so we went again on our own onto secondary roads. The countryside and the roads  were really nice, although the land changed, and there were no more vineyards, but mainly cereal fields. The heat was the main problem, because riding at 40º or more, the risk of dehydration is really high, so I ended up putting a bottle of water into my vest, so I could take sips of water every now and then.

So, it’s been a hot day, a little more tiring than a normal day, but riding our Harley-Davidson in a country like Italy, among friends, is always a good day on the road.

Tomorrow we’ll do the final stage of this II European Posse Ride, from Perugia to Rome, and we’ll stay at Rome for the weekend, so it’ll sure going to be a fun.

I’ll keep you posted on our adventures.

Take care out there, my friend.

See you on the road !!

The local chapters have organized for us a special tour around the area of Chianti, a beautiful and scenic route. Some people stayed on the hotel, but most of us went for a ride. The problem is that is so hot now in here, that is almost unbearable. The thermometers are around 40ºC, and that’s way more than what you would consider reasonable.

So myself and a small group of riders decided to quit the tour at the lunch stop, and headed back to the hotel, because we were hearing the call of the pool…

In an hour or so, when the sun is a little lower, we’ll go for a walk into the city, and hopefully have some pasta or some pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow we’ll start our way down Italy, direction Rome, our final destination.

Take care out there, my friends.

See you on the road !!

Let’s start from the beginning. Yesterday was an early rise, because we were doing what we call here a Monster Ride. A long, long day on the road. So the alarm sounded at 05:45, got everything ready, had a shower, put the luggage on the truck, had breakfast, and back on the bike, ready to leave at 07:00.

We left Bolzano in one big group and soon started to climb to first highlight of the journey: “Passo Rolle”, at 1.984 mts. An amazing starter. It’s a beautiful road that climbs to the top of the mountains, so you are riding among pines and big trees, smelling the wood, and feeling the morning breeze. Really nice. On top of the mountain is a ski resort, a cafeteria and a hotel. So we had a real italian coffee on top of the mountain, overlooking the valley. An amazing experience, believe me. After the coffee break, we split the big group in the usual three groups, and off we went. What a difference 5 cms can make (and I’m talking about my bike !!). The FatBoy feels completely different with the new suspension. Is much higher, and now I can go way faster in the turns, with no fear of any part of the bike touching the ground. So we went down the mountain pass on the other side, enjoying turn after turn, and kept going direction Bassana del Grappa and San Giorgio in Bosco,where we stopped for lunch. Pasta, obviously.

After lunch we had a boring stage of 100 kms on the motorway, but it was well worth it because that way we had have time to enjoy a road that is now directly on my top 25 roads. I’m sure that the person who draw the road between Bologna and Firenze is a biker who lives nearby, and decided to create his own playground. Is either this or he is Valentino Rossi’s grandfather. It’s the P65, and is a road that you have to ride before you die. It takes you into Tuscany, a really nice area, and the road goes zigzaging all the way to Firenze. Nice smooth curves that you can normally take without touching the brakes, just playing with the gears and moving your bike one side to the other in a joyful dance….What a road !! And you get 100 kms of that dance…

But even the best things have to finish eventually, so we went into Firenze. Have you ever imagined how could be driving at hell? Don’t have to. Just come to an italian city and you’ll experience it. Damn !! Cars and “motorinos” everywhere, going on every direction with no aparent order. It took us a while to get to the hotel (we missed one turn of the route on the GPS, and that forced us to go downtown…hell in earth !!). By the time we got to the hotel it was almost 19:00….and a bus was coming to the hotel to pick us up at 19:30 to take us to Firenze’s HD dealer, because they have organized us a party. Tough life a biker’s life….

So, we had a quick shower, and off we went again !! Italians might not be the best drivers of the world, but they do know how to party !! The Chianti Chapter, and the Firenze Chapter were there for us. The dealer was open, so people can buy T-shirts (something handy after 3 weeks on the road…), and they had a big BBQ going on. Tons of food, and even more liquids….. We had a never ending supply of wine and beer, and a bit later they started with shoots of rum and peach….man, that thing can kill anyone !! And they were drinking it as if there were no tomorrow….Obviously that deadly combination (chapters, food, alcohol, Harleys…) led to the typical burnouts, pipes breaking the silence of the night and all that standard late night stunts you can think of. It was a crazy party, and we had REAL fun !!!!!

Fortunatly, the day after was a day off, so people can rest and recovered from the excesses…

Take care out there, my friends

See you on the road !!

I took a diferente route, taking bigger roads, and entering the highway for the last 40 kms, the same route that the luggage’s truck were doing today. The total of the day has been 150 kms, and even though the suspension is broken and now feels like a hardtail, it’s been a nice and safe ride. So when I arrived to Bolzano, I went directly to the dealer and showed him the bike. “No problem” – he said – “this can be fixed today“. Magic words !! So I left the bike there, and went to the hotel to wait, because there were nothing else I could do but hope for the best.

A few hours after, I went back to the dealer….and the bike was fixed !! They replace the links, that were broken, and now my bike can hit the road again. I’m sooooo happy !! The broken links were aftermarket, designed to lower the rear suspension, and the ones that I have now are – obviously – OEM, so now my bike is higher. I have to get used to the new riding position, but I think that it’ll be a safer ride now, since it’s more difficult to drag the pipes now even if I lean the bike further than I usually do. The only drawback is that now the saddlegabs sit on the pipe, so I may get things my clothes “a l’ast”….

Take care out there, my friends

See you on the road !!