Just finished reading the book about Ewan McGregors and Charley Boorman's ride around the world called "Long Way Round".

It is good to read about biker experiences and to see that we do all experiment the same sort of very special moments in countries without all the consumerism existing in our so called "rich countries". It is funny that the less people have the more they are willing to share! During my North Pole skydive, during the time spent in Siberia, during the run in desert, in all those places I met extraordinary people who like for Ewan and Charley helped me think and get out of our over stressed world.

Among the sentences of their book I really liked are:

• Ewan: "But, above all, there's something about riding a bike - the concentration and the single-mindedness of it, and the desire to get it right, taking a corner fast without losing control, doing it beautifully, getting into a groove and winning the battle between your head telling you to do one thing, the bike wanting to do another and your body in between - that I miss like hell if I don't get to ride it every day."


• Ewan: "However, riding a bike is not just about going flat-out fast. It is also about taking your time, steadily eating up th emiles, cruising the highways, letting the raod take you wherever it's going and not worrying about the destination, just enjoying the journey."


• Ewan: "...we are all the same: we all love our kids, we all need somewhere to sleep and some food. We all want the same things; the world isn't that big a place. ...if the likes of President ...had spent some time finding out what was happening outside their own countries, they would recognise what all people of all nationalities and religions have in comon, instead of focusing on th edifferences, and maybe the world wouldn't be in such a mess."

I have to say that reading this book just gave me one more good reason to do my job: go on meeting people, learn about them and make new friends.

A long time ago when I still was an innocent motorcycle rider I had a discussion with an experienced biker and asked him “How comes you can see bikes for sale with a very low mileage? I mean how comes the guys ride a few thousand kilometers and then sell them not even after a year?”.

He explained that the major advantage with a motorcycle is that you can get rid of it when ever you want and especially as soon as you see one that seems more gorgeous, which is definitely not something you do with your wife/husband (well you shouldn’t ;). With your partner it is like in the restaurant: you get every day the “Menu” but you can still have a peek at the “Carte”, without tasting. On the contrary with motorcycles you are always tempted to taste and even get a big bite at the “carte” listed dishes.

What is more funny with motorcycle is to consider the discussions you can have with friends about your current bike and how strongly you will argue to demonstrate yours is the best ever and that you will never find any better one!

Each time you will get on it for a ride you will have that huge smile from one ear to the other and go for a great time, until you cross that lovely, gorgeous young one that will fry your brain!

You will start dreaming of her, browse the Internet to read about guys already in love with that bike, which is dangerous as none will tell you about the drawbacks, and don’t even expect the press to talk honestly about it as most of the journalists will complain that you can’t get the last 1/100 of a second out of it on the race track (it is well know that most bikers only ride on race tracks) or that sometimes it doesn’t feel light enough in the desert (another place most bikers enjoy every week-end, as we all know), or that pulling a wheely is not that easy (all bikers being stunters it makes sense). So here you are riding a bike you lov-ed while thinking about another one.

Then comes the horrible day everything changes: your first meeting with your new lover, the test ride! You and her alone on the road, testing every part, touching everything, smelling the novelty and being excited by that new feeling, that new handling!

Getting back on your old love, on the ride home you do start calculating and listing the points you will have to give your banker ton convince her/him to hand you over some more credit for the new love, as she is very demanding! At the same time you ride your old friend, enjoy her but it is no more the same.

That bike you loved so much, that motorcycle you would have fought about to demonstrate it is the best one, now starts to have some major issues: the handling just doesn’t seem correct, the seating position is that good, and that dash board is just a nightmare.

While she is asleep in the garage you watch alone in your bed porn magazines, well I mean the new beauty’s brochure, start to consider the colors you would like to see her dressed with, the accessories you will get her for her B’Day (if she ever reaches that long delay with you).

And finally the day of the divorce arrives, you hand over your old love to a new owner or, even worse, to a dealership where she will stand like an old whore expecting to get a new customer, in the middle of other poor bikes just like her. In a minute that pefect bike will get out of your mind just like that!

A new life starts, new adventures, until the circle cycles again!

Someone I know very well owns a fantastic customized Triumph Mecatwin Ascott. The story started with a nice Triumph Adventurer he decided to get changed in a blasting Café-Racer, for his personal pleasure (which is most of the time the case). It is his first bike and his joy and pride.

In the equation comes the fact he lives with his wife and kids in Paris, not the best place to enjoy motorcycle riding. So he decided to take the Ascott to the south of France where it would stay in a safe place until he comes on vacation.

For a couple of years the motorcycle stood there, nicely stored. He tried to start it a couple of times when he drove by, but the bike didn’t want to start as it needs a bit of work to get started again.

Recently we had a discussion with him and his wife which started by her asking “How much could we sell that motorcycle?”. Can you imagine asking this to a biker? First reaction was of course “Why does he want to sell it, in fact do you want to sell it?”, he doesn’t of course, how could you sell a bike which is unique? Which has been designed for you (even the paint colors were created for him)?

In fact it appears he would prefer keeping it even if someone else (us) rides it from time to time to keep it going and act as planned: ride twisty roads!

Then came a list of solutions proposed by her:

• We could by a scooter for me.
• The money could be used to buy me a used SUV for the house in the south.
• We need cash to pay for the house in the south.

As much the first two arguments did start an uproar from all of us, the last one makes a point. Now as a friend of us, biker too, passed by we asked him, what would he do. Before seeing the bike his reaction was “Oh I don’t want to get in trouble here, I have no suggestion”, which is a safe attitude. The problem is, that we showed him the bike, and the expected reaction arrived: “No way you cannot sell that beauty, it would be a shame!”.

So here we go! Saving his love from his Love authority! Now we look to find a solution to get the bike over to the French Riviera and ride it there…for those wondering: yes he suggested we use it on the Motorcycle Tours! Not sure we would do that though!

We can’t complain about our job, definitely not but sometimes it is great to just go for a ride alone, for a private, personal, egoistical ride. Just one day of to add some more hundreds of kilometers on the clock!

Today was my day of! My day to take my beloved R1200RT on the twisty Provence roads, just the bike, me and the curves!

Not too warm, not too cold, a nice smiley sun, all the people either at work on laying like fat steaks on the beach, the perfect day to enjoy motorcycle riding!

It was one of those rides without any goal, just an idea of where I would like to go, what places I wanted to see, what type of scenery I was in mood for. The type of ride you keep the helmet visor open most of the time to enjoy the great variety of smells expelled by the trees, the warmed grass and bushes. The type of ride the music of the engine enhances, and you can feel the bike is happy too!

Sometimes another biker who took the same decision waves at you and funny enough the only RT’s I drove by where red ones too! Excellent!
A nice ride with a delicious mix of pine forests and little villages, followed by dry plateaus (right in the middle of a military tank shooting range), and then the Verdon canyon with its impressive cliffs. It is always the same blast to see how great the roads are inland far away from the main roads destroyed by trucks and tons of cars. It seems that those small twisty roads have been designed just for us bikers, and what a pleasure to see the “Dangerous curves ahead for 20km” sign!

A little break on the way home for some food and some quiet time reading a good book (“The Long way round” from McGregor and Boorman, a really good biker and travel book I recommend for your evenings on the beach, swimming pool or little French village square when you attend a Motorcycle tour). At the end of the ride the clock just got 250 more kms, not even noticing the time fly!

A perfect biker’s day!

We all know that politicians (any party, side etc…no politics here just a dry analysis) are most of the time exposing us to their falsehood. It is part of the job description: you have to be able to tell stuff 180 degrees away from what you said the week before, just to CYA.
But that subconscious skill a politician gets at birth is also well represented in another sample of people: US, the motorcycle riders!
We also know, as bikers, that we do have a twisted view of events:

• when you are riding on a highway (German one) with 160 km/h you will automatically tell your friends that you were in fact slowly cruising at 230 km/h (by the way this speed will climb each time you tell the story).
• In case your friends notice that you have slowed down (you just noticed you are short on gas) you will complain to them that as a group you never take time enjoying the scenery and that now is time to do so.
• The day you are tired (or just can’t follow the “testosterone high” rhythm your fellow bikers enjoy) and are way slower than the rest of the group, always waiting for you, you will start explaining that there are villages and that you do strictly stick to the authorized speed, which of course takes your average speed down.
• In the same situation you can also start to explain that you got lost and had to drive like an Agostini, Doohan or Rossi to catch up with them.
• If your passenger lets you know that it seems you got lost and are no more on the road you decided for in the morning you will, of course, explain that you have decided to go another way which is way more scenic that the original one.
• Your friends notice that your curve skills aren’t what they should be will automatically end with you explaining that you have changed the suspension settings (due to a recent track day…you never attended, or if, nearly died of fear in the fast curve) and haven’t set them back to slow road-cruising settings.
• The sweat on your forehead is always a result of your extreme concentration due to a development of extreme curving skills and never, never a consequence of a very bad, bad, bad situation (“This is it! This is i! This is the end!”).
• Some will remove the little molding spikes on the very outside part of the tire just to prove that the can lean over like no one else.
• Etc, etc, etc…

This list of examples is a very short one and could go on for ages (feel free to comment with yours); it somehow shows that we aren’t that far from politicians, but with one major difference: it is funny (well with a mot of humor and from very far away, lets say Mars, politicians are funny too) and gives us a lot of nice stories to tell in the evening while enjoying a good rest during a motorcycle tour.

En cette belle saison de plus en plus de monde passe son permis de conduire moto. Il est alors fréquent de passer devant des parkings et autres zones ou une multitude de motos tournent sans relâche autour de quelques plots afin d’apprendre à maîtriser la conduite de notre véhicule/passion préféré. Quelle surprise que de voir la plupart des élèves au permis de conduire moto pratiquer sans la moindre protection, si l’on fait abstraction du casque.

Je suppose que pour ceux pratiquant sous des latitudes plus au nord et froides le problème se pose moins car la météo force à porter quelque vêtements chauds et épais ; bien que le chaussures légères font alors aussi bien l’affaire. Par contre sous notre soleil du sud il est effarant de voir les élèves pratiquer le plateau en petites baskets « style », short et tee-shirt. Certes travailler sur la plateau implique de supporter une forte chaleur : celle du moteur, celle de la piste chauffée par le soleil et celle directe de celui-ci. Mais est-ce bien raisonnable ?

Vu les vitesses atteintes les chutes ne sont certes pas bien violentes mais la peau possède la même résistance qu’à haute vitesse, la malléole reste toujours aussi exposée, les os de la main et la peau d’icelle tout aussi fragile.

C’est pourtant lors de l’enseignement que l’on mémorise le mieux les consignes de sécurité (fait abstraction des leçons un peu plus rudes comme la chute par exemple), et peut être serait-il de bon ton de demander à chaque élève de se présenter entièrement équipé avant une leçon ? De plus cela permettrait d’intégrer plus facilement le fait que l’équipement coûte cher et doit faire partie intégrante du budget d’achat de sa première machine !

After a series of notes about hand waving at fellow bikers and following an souvenir of an old HSBC ad about what signs and body attitudes can be misinterpreted in various countries, it seemed interesting to get a short note about motorcycle hand signs; this especially as we do have an international customer and friends base with the motorcycle tours we do manage.

The most usual sign will be what can be called the “big wave sign” where the whole hand is used. This sign will be used especially when you are a new motorcycle rider (as you are all excited to be now part of a big friendly group) or when the position on the bike allows for ample gestures, or when the speed allows it (at high speed this sign either helps you to turn or is a new stretching method for those looking to get the arm twisted towards their back). But depending where you ride you may have some surprises: in Greece for example, the palms thrust or "Double Moutza" gesture, with the arms extended horizontally and thrust outward toward another person, is an insult with which to say, "Go to hell twice", they go as far as waving good-bye inwardly toward themselves like a beauty pageant queen.

Now you could go for the V sign. You know as we are a big community, a strong group etc… we win most of the battles to protect our rights and so on. The problem is that such a hand sign can have very different meanings especially if you turn your hand! In the Uk it means “up your bum”! This mistake was made by Churchill and Thatcher as well, before they were told to not show the back of the hand. So make sure you show the palm.

Over the time and very often when you ride a super sports bike the waving gets “cheep” and you only lift one finger because you are lazy or just can’t get the hand away from the very low handles. In that case often no one sees the sing. It happens though that you can lift the hand and just show the forefinger. In Brunei this could be a rude sign especially when used for pointing (some do make that sign towards the tire or ground).

If you know other significations let us know.

Just a thought that appeared while I was explaining how a motorcycle license student should do to watch the proper trajectory during the low speed slalom.

While I was explaining what, from my point of view and souvenirs, should be done I was wondering if I would be able to do that low sped slalom nowadays with my favourite bike (R1200RT). Well I am not that sure that I would manage to get through without a problem!

And you? Did any one try it?

Just une petite pensée qui me vient en essayant d'expliquer ou poser le regard lorsque l'on pratique le slalom lent en vue de la préparation au permis moto.

Pendant que j'expliquais ce qui à mon sens et d'après mes souvenirs doit être fait je me suis demandé si je serais capable, avec ma moto préférée (R1200RT), de faire le slalom de l'examen du permis moto. Eh ben pas si sûr que celà!

Et vous? Quelqu'un l'a essayé?

Most of the bikes you can get for a Unicorn Adventures Motorcycle Tour are 1200 cc engines, inside some pretty big frames. Not everyone may enjoy them and especially not people who prefer a light and low bike. The F650GS is the answer to your needs!

The "back to the roots" bike! One cylinder, two wheels, a saddle and fun, loads of fun! This is definitely a motorcycle you ride with a big smile on all the time (get a full face helmet to avoid eating to many flies and other nasty insects).

Compared to the rest of the BMW motorcycles you will find on our tours this is the one who worked the hardest on the Weight Watchers diet: 192 Kg (more than 100 Kg less than the K1200LT), which means there is no need for a huge engine: 650 cc and 50 Hp based on a Rotax ® mono cylinder engine. This doesn't mean you are going to stay way behind the rest of the group! No way! That little engine is full of fun and will push hard on your back to get you to the next curve. Surprisingly that little motorcycle jumps from one curve to the next one with a lot of goodwill! And does it with a lovely sound through its two exhaust pipes (sort of a designer thing!). Keep in mind though that this is a lone piston only engine and that with the wrong gear at very low speed it will make sure you are aware it doesn't like it!

Among the surprises you will notice that there is no cap on the tank, as that one is under the saddle for a lower CG, and for those not really used with the usual BMW blinker switches, the F650GS offers the Japanese standard "one switch, two blinker" solution. The handling is easy, an you feel on this bike as if you had always ridden it. Now for long distance rides you will appreciate to have a support truck as you aren't here on an oversized K1200LT or R1200RT with all the cases to store your belongings, and that some guide motorcycle carries some spare gas as there is no gas gauge for the 17L tank.

To answer the title questions: does size matter? The F650GS will prove that to have fun you can be smaller and slimmer and get a lot of smile on your biker's face.

For your next Unicorn Adventures Ltd tour ask for a F650GS!

The sun is back, the warm weather pushes us to ride more every day but it also helps to get some stupid people out of their caves to light fires in southern Europe, on the places we like to ride our bikes for our own pleasure or when taking a motorcycle tour out on the road.

As a biker enjoying to ride safely around the hills and twisty curves, along gorgeous forests and landscapes and as well as a plane pilot I just wanted to say Thank You ! to all the firefighters as well as PELICAN (name given to the firefighting planes in France) pilots and teams for their hard work to keep us safe!

Le soleil est de retour ; la chaleur nous pousse à sortir nos motos pour des virées mais hélas ils aident aussi à réveiller des gens stupides et les font sortir de leurs grottes, dans le sud de l’Europe, pour allumer des incendies dans les endroits que nous aimons fréquenter pour notre propre plaisir ou lorsque nous emmenons un groupe sur un voyage à moto.

En tant que motard qui aime à rouler sur les petits routes virolleuses des arrières pays, le long de belles forêts et maquis mais aussi en tant que pilote avion je voulais juste dire MERCI à tous les pompiers ainsi qu’aux équipages de PELICANS (nom donné aux bombardiers d’eau) pour leur travail et pour nous protéger.