a short tour tale

I intended to check the route of the River Tagus...It rises about 150kms east of Madrid and empties into the Atlantic at Lisbon after about 800 kms, passing Toledo, running as the Spanish Portuguese border, then about 100kms from Lisbon, just down the road from where I live, then opening out into a huge estuary flatlands and wildlife reserve for the last 60 kms.
I had an idea to canoe the entire length, and needed to see the dams and reservoirs and lie of the land en route.
I've only had the Trophy six weeks and intended to test myself on various issues...including whether I was still that interested in touring and was I up to it. I'd sold a 1200 Sportster , definitely not a tourer with about a 100kms tank range, and bought the Triumph pretty much for this trip.
So last week off we go. First leg, a gentle cross country ride to Marvao and Castelo de Vide, spectacular castle fortress towns on the border, and on to Merida in Spain. Amazing Roman Ruins and a cheap hotel, excellent bars and restaurants too.
Next day I set off for Toledo, a bit of fast motorway work and a lot of fast empty A roads, swoopy, curvy, empty, great visibility and excellent road surface. This is it I'm thinking, I'm in heaven. Bike's running fine, a bit thirsty, but having to stop every every 200kms is fine, leg stretch, check out the local café in the old village centres. The last 40 kms into Toledo having a dual with a Range Rover, silly speeds and friendly waves. Left him standing on the straighter bits but I'm still not totally confident in the Trophy, and he'd catch up on the curvier bits.
Toledo's great. compact amazing location on the river. good hotel, day off sightseeing with a couple of rides out to nearby sites.
Meet up with my sis who's doing a central Spain tour, all the big places, Granada Seville Cordoba Toledo Madrid. She's staying in the top rate Parador, with a first class restaurant, venison, boar, great wine. Taxi back to my gaff.
The next leg's going to be up country to the source of the Tagus in the mountains over towards Valencia. I am reckoning on all day on windy mountain B roads, maybe 250kms.
I am starting to have some doubts about the bike. I'd had a couple of nervy oh-oh moments at walking pace on tight steep cobbled streets in the towns and villages and it is a big heavy lump.
About 10 kms from my next stop, I come from a fast highway stretch, up a slip road to a roundabout. The last thirty metres are deadly speed bumps like rows of staggered inch high cobbles . Tightening curve, slew of loose gravel, down we go at about 20kph . Bastard.
Usual damage , the winker's stuffed, scrapes down the side and the hard luggage, and apart from the gear lever end snapped off, we're both ok.
Problem is, Spain still goes for a kip between 1pm and five and I'm miles from anywhere. I can't even move the bike, let alone lift it. About ten minutes and some blokes come by, and three of us get the bike up and I'm starting to hurt a bit. More seriously pissed off than anything.
Everything's working fine, and I head into the town to sort myself out. There's a couple of bike shops but they aren't open til 5 and so I decide to head back the 150kms to Toledo and bail out of the Source of the Tagus experiment.
Arrive in Toledo see a bike shop I'd spotted a couple of days earlier and the guy sees the situation, hasn't got a workshop but gets on the phone , then gives me directions to a mate with a workshop a few blocks away. When I arrive they are waiting for me, take the bike in, drill a hole in the stub of the gear lever and put in a bolt, fix up the indicator with gaffer tape, give me a beer and then absolutely refuse to take a cent, not even for the beer that one of them had got from a minimarket over the road. I'm starting to feel a bit better, find a room, have a few more beers and a mega strength Ibuprofen, shower the grit out of a couple of gravel rashes, have a couple more beers and sleep like a baby.
Uneventful trip home of about 600 kms in about five hours, staying on the motorways all the way, and only stopping for gas and a quick detour into Trujillo, absolutely beautiful and well worth a visit another time.
Total trip about 1800kms,
Impressions...The bike just eats kms at high speed and feels great and stable and relaxed even passing big TiRs in gusty conditions. Belting along at 140 with one arm resting on the tank.
But touring isn't hammering everywhere on motorways.
I think its going to have to go if only because its mad to have a bike I can't lift up. I've had a couple of big twins including a '64 Panhead for 22 years, the Sportster, a K100.. The K, which had the worst designed side stand of all time ..Don't know how often I'd pull up, put out the side stand, start to lean the bike over, the side stand slips and shoots back on its spring and down we'd go. Bit of a grunt but I always got it back up on my own. We shall see, as the alternative is
a mid size 'adventure' tourer or even a something like a big traily and a rucksack.
Watch this space for the next instalment, if this didn't bore you. UJB
I'm not easy with it round towns or any road surface other than perfect.