Sunday 13th May 2012

May 182012
 

Today we dedicated our ride out in memory of Michele Mcintosh who passed away a year ago.

Don, Ken,  Carl, Kees and Siggi with Bella as pillion met up at Orba petrol station at 10.00am. After a check of tyre pressures and a brief discussion on the change to the suggested route we set off.

Ken lead us towards the Jalon Valley and then onto the N332 heading south towards Altea. Within a short while we realised today was going to be warm, we continued on the coast road in the flow of the traffic until we reached Altea where we turned right. Heading towards La Nucia, Polop and the mountains we negotiated a few very slow cars and then met the junction with the CV70. Turning right onto it we continued for 5 minutes until we found a roadside café where we had our first drink of the day.

At this point we started to realise how many bikes were on the road, the most we had seen for a long while- mainly groups of sports bikes or Harleys. We started off again, continuing on the large sweeping uphill bends towards Guadalest. We turned left at Guadalest. Siggi and Bella turned right and continued on there way back down towards Callosa.

Traveling on we admired the view on the right towards Serella Castle (1361m) and on the left towards Aitana (1557m).Very soon we were descending towards Benasau while keeping watch on the very quick sports bikes coming towards us on the bends .Ken turned off towards Gorga on the CV710 and then to Kees dislike onto the narrow road onto Facheca. Here we stopped at the Piscina bar for half an hour.

We then descended on our popular route down to Castell de Castells and then on towards Benigembla where Kees couldn’t hold the Ducati back. We split up at both Benigembla and Orba and made our own way home.

Thanks to Don and Carl for todays drinks.

The ride finished in 30 degrees and covered 120km.

During the morning Don expressed his thanks to those of us who knew both he and Michele and also those outside the group for their support over a difficult time.

We would also like to express our best wishes and speedy recovering to Aad who at this time is in hospital.

Michele

Aad

Sunday 29th April 2012

May 012012
 

Four bikes started today rideout. Ken on his Suzuki VX800, Carl with Rosie and Don with Patrica both on the VT750 Honda Shadows and a welcome return of Pete the scoot, now known as Pete the pan, (I think that it should be Peter Pan ed) due to the arrival of his newly acquired Honda 1100 Pan European. We  met as planned at the Orba Petrol station at 10.30am..Having had a chat about todays route and a photo shoot with the help of the staff from the petrol station we were ready to go.

Ken lead us out of the Orba Valley on the CV715.  Turning right through Murla and Benigembla we continued on the quicker uphill bends to Castell de Castels.  We were lucky today as yesterday and the forecast for today was not good. Recently it had been very windy and we had rain overnight. All was calm this morning and the roads had dried.  We continued on the CV720 out of Castell de Castels heading west and uphill through Famorca and Facheca until we reached Benimassot where we stopped. This is one of more recently found coffee stops, a good place to warm up after a cool start to the ride. Half an hours break and we were back on the road.

We doubled back to join the CV713 to Tollos and onto Beniara. This is a good road but narrow so it was good to have a couple of cars pull over to let us pass. Around this area and altitude there are many Cherry trees that producing fruit at this time.  Meeting the junction of the CV712 we turned right and shortly after turned left left onto the small road that takes us over to Beniali in the Val de Gallinera. We stopped at the mirador and looked at the fantastic views down into the valley where we were about to descend into…Back on the bikes we continued on the steep winding road ,while watching out for the loose gravel, until we reached the junction with the CV712. Turning right towards Pego we continued to descend until we reached the turning to Forna and the castle car park which was to be our next coffee stop.

By this time several dark clouds were rolling in across the hills so after another half hours break it was time for us to head towards Pego where we split to make our own way home.

Many thanks for Don and Pete for the coffees today on a very enjoyable trip of 90km.

2012-april-29th-bopa-bikers-015-800

 

 

 

Sunday 8th April 2012

Apr 102012
 

Aad with Meike, Don, Carl and June, met up at the Orba Petrol Station at the rearranged time of a 10am.

We started climbing out of the Orba valley on the CV715 , turning left on CV750 to Alcalali and through the grape vines of the Jalon Valley until we met the N332 at Benissa. Being Easter weekend the main roads were quite busy so we kept in the flow of the traffic down the bends to Calpe and continued on towards Altea. Following the coast road gave us a great view of the sea and the mountains which we would turn up into after our first coffee break. Coffee was at the main square of old Altea which we stayed at for half an hour before we negotiated the cobble streets again to get back onto the N332.

On the outskirts of Benidorm we turned towards Finestrat. We faced the Puig Campana which stands at 1406m, which stood out against a very clear blue sky..We Continued on the uphill bends on the CV758 and then joined the CV770 to Sella. From there we climbed up to over 1000m and had the the summit of Aitana in our view on the right.  At this point we felt a lot cooler than our coffee break at sea level.  This was a very popular road as we had passed many sports bikes and cyclists travelling the opposite direction down to the coast.

We started our descent on the CV781 towards Penaguila and then onto the junction with the CV70. The road has been recently tarmaced but was very uncomfortable and we were all glad to get onto the CV770 to Gorga. Our normal coffee stop was still closed so we continued on the CV754 to Facheca where the piscina bar always welcome us.

We were on the bikes again within ten minutes and joined the CV720 for the steady run down to Castel de Castells. The road from there to Benigembla is always a good ride after the tight mountain roads. We passed through Murla where the tables and chairs were out ready for Easter Celebrations and then continued back to our starting point in Orba.

A ride of 145km , on a glorious day.

 

Sunday 1st April 2012 (April Fools Day)

Apr 012012
 

Seven of us with five bikes met up as planned at Co-op Pego petrol station at 10.30am. This week there was Aad & Mieke, Phil & Marie, Ken, Don and Colin on this nice bright sunny day.

We set off from the petrol station up through the poligono and onto the CV715 in the direction of Oliva. Once into Oliva it wasn’t too busy with traffic, which is most unusual, but there were loads of people around in costume and a lot of them had large palm leaves for the Palm Sunday celebrations. We continued along the N332 north and in Bellreguard we had to stop to allow a band to cross the main road on their way to their Palm Sunday celebrations. We continued on the N332 to Gandia before turning off onto the CV 60 through Real de Gandia and onto the CV 60 motorway. It seems as though Valencia Comunitat has got a job lot of yellow paint as all the barriers on the bridges over roads below or over streams and rivers are now painted a vial shade of yellow instead of the usual blue. We then had a blast along to the Xativa exit where we turned off onto the CV 610 through Benicolet and into Lluxent. You could tell that spring and the warmer weather is finally here as our visors were covered in dead bugs and at one stage there was a 30cm long lizard just sunning itself in the middle of the road. We stopped in Lluxent for coffee.  The traffic speed through Lluxent has obviously been a bit too fast and so deep grooves have been cut into the road surface on approach to the village these certainly rattled the fillings.

After coffee we continued along the CV 610 through Quatretonda, where all the palm trees along the roadside were dead due to the palm weevils, and then onto the CV 575 to Llocnou d’En Fenollet where we turned onto the CV 600 heading for Barxeta. This stretch of road is a nice one to ride with a mixture of bends and straights with a few hairpins thrown in for good measure. The views down the valley to Tavernes and the sea beyond were fantastic as it was such a clear day. We dropped down into Simat de la Valldigna and then onto the CV 675 up the mountain through all the hairpin bends heading for Barx. In Barx there was a motor cross event going on with lots of cars and quite a few bikes parked. For such a nice warm day it was surprising that there weren’t more bikes around. Once out of Barx the CV675 is being resurfaced and straightened in places and so it wasn’t the best of rides. We re-joined the N332 and headed south to Gandia and on into Oliva where we stopped for a cold one.

After our drinks we continued through all the usual Oliva traffic and turned right onto the CV 715 back towards Pego and home. A great ride in the sun of 120km’s and this week Colin didn’t make any mistakes with the route and there were no incidents. It must have been because Ian wasn’t with us ;) . Hopefully the weather forecast for Easter weekend is wrong and we will be able to get out once again. Thanks to Aad for this weeks photos.

 

Today's route

Colin had the battery fully charged this week on his video camera but also he had a new bike mount that was much too flexible and so this weeks video is wobbly to say the least. YouTube  has removed some of the shaking but it still isn’t that great. A low resolution version is below. I hope that it doesn’t make you feel too sick, this is just a 16 minute unedited excerpt. Next week back to the old mount with a charged battery so ‘third time lucky’ maybe.

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