Gambalunga
A Fine day or Two Out
The ramblings of a grumpy old man, a baby Breva and sat nav
by John Roach.
First
I feel I must start with my Guzzi credentials, I've had 'em for nigh on
twenty years S3, Convert, G5s, Spadas with and without sidecars, 850 GT,
V50 etc. but never a new one.
When I first saw the 750 Breva at the Birmingham Bike Show it sort of winked at me. Light and pretty with a minimum of pointless bits, just the ticket for an ageing hooligan slowly coming to his senses. But having lost out heavily over two new superbikes, both sold at a huge loss (BMW 1100 GS because it was so unreliable and a Ducati ST2 that was only nice to ride above 80) I was not about to bend my flexible friend again until I was sure. Two years, an early 1100 Cali and a 750 Strada were to pass before I took the plunge. This seems, touch wood, to be a good move, as I do not seem to have had any of the problems reported by early owners. Only a loose clutch adjuster that fell out during the National Rally to bother me so far. Anyroad for various reasons our (shared with the management) little Breva has only managed 5,000 miles.
A very stressful July moving workshops and a free weekend gave me the chance to redress the balance a little. Management was off somewhere and so was the wife of a VFR owning mate; smashing where do we go? Well I am too close to losing my licence for a 12 mph ride in an increasingly overcrowded, badly policed and camera mad UK to risk doing any kind of mileage. So Europe it was! The plan hatched the Wednesday before we went was to take the overnight ferry to the Hook, ride to Germany and Luxembourg, enjoy the mountains and then meander across France and back via Dunkirk to Dover.
A quick word on ferries, at £125 the Stena Harwich-Hook seems a bit on the dear side but on the overnight freight/passenger run an evening meal, cabin and breakfast are all included. The only extra was the wine. This means that at 7.30am when you roll off the boat the ride begins; all in all a very pleasant crossing. Coming back with Norfolk Line was clean and smooth, the ferry is nice, the shop is even worse than a normal ferry shop but at £23 who cares, take a book. I decided to take my sat nav system off the car, it is a 3 year old PDA based one called Samantha (copyright 'Sorry I haven't a clue') so It had to be stuffed into the tank bag top where the soothing female voice was reduced to an inaudible mumble and the screen almost impossible to see in sunlight but worth it all the same. I fed in some points along the way and set Sam to travel the shortest route rather than the normal quickest. This made for some interesting riding!
Read the full article in Gambalunga February/March 2007.
