I'm a passionate biker from Sweden. I love to travel, preferably on my motorcycle.
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I spent easter in Barcelona and during the weekend I made some observations that make me put the city on my list of possible cities to move to.
The streets are filled with scooters and there are lots of bikes too. According to my private observation the Ducati Monster is the most frequent bike to see and hear. The Ducati Barcelona chapter must sell very well.
One of my evenings in Barcelona was spent in the Cat Bar, which is an awesome vegan bar with rich wine, yummy food and really nice music. On top of that I found a Monster parked in the bar, not on display or anything like that but just parked in a corner.
duCATi
This bar just seemed to have everything I needed, I even got myself a new haircut. Who would have thought?!?
I’m getting a new haircut by a danish hairdresser in a vegan bar in Barcelona. Ace!
This weekend I was happy to stumble over the information of a great motorcycle venue in Madrid. It wasn’t that they had bothered to advertise much, I found out by accident during my long and sometimes tedious search for bikes and stores to buy them in. I’m thinking so much of the different bikes and the pros and cons that sometimes my head feels like a spinning top. It is also an emotional and rational battle where my heart and brain rarely agree. Last night, for example, I had a panicky moment when I felt that it would not be possible to part from my beloved Ducati and I went online to see or rather make sure that a touring seat would not solve my problems.
Anyway, I was very happy when I dragged my fiance with me to visit Madrid Motos and feel, smell and eye all the goodies. To his advantage I have to say that he is happy to be dragged along and I think he had a good time.
Getting in to the spirit
In this context I’d like to refer to a comment from one of my colleagues. We were in a bar after work on Friday and he had asked me about how my bike-changing plans were coming along. I had answered from my heart and given a bit too much information, I realised afterwards. His next question was to my fiance, and it was phrased something like: “How does it feel to live with someone who has an interest that is not just an interest but takes up 95% of her life?” My fiance answered: “interesting”.
An intrerest we do share is the Moto GP and Formula 1 and it was a nice bonus to see the sweet GP rider Bautista signing autografs for queuing fans. I’m always surprised that these guys are so small. He could probably not reach the ground on a Triumph Tiger 🙂
Alvaro Bautista smiling and signing autografs
I don’t quite know how it happened but somehow the Triumph was back on my list a couple of weeks ago. I know it is really out of my league but still it looks so good! We even tried it two-up – I wish I had a picture – I’m sure we looked awesome 🙂
Checking ground stability
Today it feels like I have made some real progress in the search. After dreading that writing e-mails wasn’t really the way to approach business in Spain, I got some positive feedback from a business place in Seseña. It is on the other side of the city but also close to those nice roads I rode last weekend so I decided to ride over to talk and take the twists back home. It was a very nice and productive chat and it seems like we can do business. I will get more information of possibilities when it comes to secondhand bikes after the Easter. Apparently this is a dead week for business. When making calculations in the shop it even seems possible for me to get a brand new Versys equipped with luggage and heated grips – if I’m only willling to pay a tad bit more than I intended… Hmmm, there was a lot to think about riding home, and the view was amazing.
We have had fantastic weather lately and it has been a very dry year. Perfect for riding but the ground needed some water to bind the dust. During windy days the the sand swirled around like in a sandstorm. So I was up for rain, but any other day then this Wednesday. With a forecast for heavy rain and possibility snow it was highly unfortunate that I just had to ride to work to make the logistics work. With an doctors appointment in the morning and physiotherapist in the evening and work in between I just had to ride to make ends meet. It’s under these circumstances that people think that I’m hard core, or possibly just an idiot.
Fortunately the nice weather came back and during the weekend I’ve done some really nice riding. I checked out the water reservoir at El Atazar to confirm my belief that the water level is really low.
The lack of rain and snow is clearly visible
On the road I saw a shepherd leading his flock of sheep across the road. So exotic, reminds me of New Zealand, the only other country I seen this happen and my favourite country for riding.
The shepherd gave me tumbs up for my patience
I did some riding in, a for me new area, today and discovered a new favourite road. M-204 between Alcalá de Henares and Chinchón. I wasn’t even supposed to be there to begin with but I took the wrong turn somewhere and just loved it. I think I will wait a bit longer with buying an GPS, crappy map reading skills has advantages, especially on lazy Sunday rides.
