Laverda for Health

At 19:45 the Laverda for Health team crossed the Rhine and slipped into Germany-another long day 347kms giving a total 1025kms. Gido did not disappoint us and today he ran out of petrol (the 56 Turismo is not as frugal as my .58 model-perhaps it is the later ME carb) and then follwed this up with four broken spokes in his back wheel-lucky the support van had one in stock! The ride itself was the best so far-we used slightly bigger roads and spent a lot of the time at 60+kph (I even saw 85kph on the Turismo!) the two Turismos’ took it in turn to slipstream the Sports and slip past each other-grown men acting like kids on mopeds…In all the excitement we ended up 50kms in the wrong direction-that’s two hours more torture for our arses! We also conquered our first ‘pass’ the Col de Donon.

By the time we reached the top, all the engines were pretty hot with mist escaping out of the breathers! Still tomorrow we push on to Tom Eateman’s in Simmerberg- the roads will now be higher and the temperature seems to be getting hotter…

All set for an early and Gido’s bike wont start. After poking this and that and pushing the bike around the car park Dean offers up a modern coil and hey presto! By this time the rain had passed over and we set off with our target being Verdun. We rolled into Verdun at 21.45 with all bar my Turismo on fumes (it may be slow but it just sips juice) Due to the vagaries of my Garmin satnav we didn’t get lost but covered a whopping 406kms (must change those settings).

After the initial hiccup all the bikes ran well, I had to suffer the indignity of Dean passing me on his Sport and then charging up into top! Yes the difference on the road is quite something. The two Sport riders have now padded out their saddles with a sheep skin -arse ache isn’t as bad as you expect.

Tomorrow is a big day again and we will probably start to get into some hilly stuff. I do need to give the Turismo a little look tomorrow as I’m sure it has gone a little ‘off song’.

Tomorrow is another big day.

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What a fabulous day the first day turned out to be. The send off at Westminster Bridge was great with a selection of Laverda’s in convoy. It was really great to see friends and family and I would like to think Massimo would have approved! We ‘roared’ out of London along the A2 with a escort of Clem on the ‘Old Girl’ and Keith on his Jota. Tony, John, Karl and Phil stayed with us but peeled off at the M25. Gido had problems with his condenser and broke down after 67kms and then again a little later. The condenser was replaced at Calais and we pushed on to Ballieul. By the time we arrived it was 22.00, grey and damp-so the lights do work! A 280km day and we came through.

The bikes performed well and travelled at about 55kph-the Turismo’s do struggle in the hills so once we get to Germany it will be pretty testing! 

Nick