All turned out well in the end .....

They arrived on a Monday in the rain, left on Saturday ..... in the rain, had two abysmal days riding in the rain and snow and finally on Friday their last day at Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours we hit the jackpot.

Lunch stop at Biescas - scorchio 

After a wet ride through France crossing into Spain at
Bielsa the sun came out, the roads dried up and we all
had some fun, big smiles all round :)

Suns out = waterproof off

Mark and Shad 'singing' or overtired?

To top off a good days ride, curry for dinner, washed down with a few beers and bottles of red wine.

Early start Saturday morning as the boys had to catch a ferry from Caen at 9pm which entailed a journey of 860km and although it was raining again when they left the forecast said good weather was to follow them all the way up through France.

Loaded for Caen

Ride out to Scaletrix track aborted .......

Yesterdays planned ride out for our weeks resident 8 sports bikes was to ride the 'Scaletrix track'.  Leaving Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours in heavy rain everyone was looking forward to some Spanish sun,  however on arrival in Spain we were greeted with snow ploughs and cars coming down from the mountains covered in snow.  A unanimous vote declared we didn't go any further!

Rain, rain and more rain ......

When is this weather going to improve!  Yesterday we had a group of 8 arrive all on sports bikes, this morning they have all dressed in their wet weather gear and heading in the direction of Spain, with Mr PMT showing them the way, hoping to find some dry roads in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Leaving Vielle-Adour

Waiting for Pete

All ready for the off!

Product review number one

Bought a new tyre last month for my Tiger, namely a "Full Bore" Adventure Sport Trail Master made in Korea, why? cause it was cheap :) !  Cost me 80€ from pneus online.

 "Full Bore" Adventure Sport Trail Master - looks impressive (don't you think?).

BUT alarmed at the wear rate!  I normally get 6000+ out of Tourances and only 1447 miles later I'm down to 4mm in the centre giving me a theoretical life of about 2500 miles, which is perhaps acceptable on a sports bike, but not on my Tiger.

Will probably get a lot more wear out of the edges because normally around the mountains they go before the centre so time will tell  .

New route via Intersport?

A quick trip to Intersport in Tarbes to buy Steve additional layers, where at one point we had 4 lovely young ladies helping to make the selection, this was our first stop on yesterdays ride out.  With temperatures still well below 'normal' for this time of year we set off for Col de Mente stopping off at St Bertrand de Comminges for a coffee.

Ade skillfully joined in to the tune that was playing in the cafe and enjoyed a round of applause from the other coffee drinkers.

The resident chien was well impressed.









We continued on our way to the top of the Col where we stopped for lunch, service was quick as we were the only customers present.

Temperature gradually dropped and at Col d'Aspin we were greeted with horizontal snow, Steve was pleased he had some extra layers!  Todays riders; Ade on his Triumph Explorer, John on a Triumph Tiger 800 and Steve (warm and toasty) on his BMW R1200GS Rallye

Col d'Aspin

Pyrenees Gorge ride out

Snow on the mountains, none on the roads today!  Great ride out again with H and Russ both on BMW GS1200 and today joined by local boy Will on his BMW 1200RT, todays destination was the Spanish gorge with breathtaking views, never fails to please :) 

Waiting for the green light at Bielsa Túnel

Monte Perdido National Park

Monte Perdido National Park

Monte Perdido National Park

Typical ride out....... NOT

Unexpected surprise on our way across the Pyrenees into Spain at Col du le Pierre St. Martin where we encountered snow covered roads!  Hayley (H) and Russ both on BMW GS1200's, Keith on a XT660 Tenere and Phil on his Tiger 955i all coped well with the conditions, even passing the car that stopped to fit his snow chains, bet the driver didnt expect to be fitting them in May ...... (perhaps we should start providing snow chains as part of our Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours).

The pictures say it all ..... We had all weather conditions; rain, sleet, cold, sunshine and even a little warmth, likewise with the road, ice, snow water and even dry!

'H' overtaking car

Made it

Hayley and Russ

Keith

Hayley

Sunshine