Åsa – Page 79 – Forza Åsa

A wonderful Sunny Sunday!

Today has been a truly wonderful day! Blue sky and sunshine which a temperature just perfect for riding. The mission for today was pure pleasure and the aim was Avila. While there, I wanted to take a nice picture of my Ducati and the walls. It is a new idea I have – to snap pictures of my bike with classical backgrounds 🙂 And Avila is one of my favourite locations and the wall is easier to photograph than the aqueduct in Segovia.

I wasn’t bothered by the police this time, just a friendly Spaniard who wanted to chitchat, but it did scare me when I heard his voice behind me while snapping photos.

When returning, I choose road AV-503 which is possibly my overall favourite road around here. The view is absolutely breathtaking and no photos can ever capture the greatness of the landscape. But off course I tried.

So, if today’s ride was pure pleasure yesterday’s was a bit more duty filled. I had prepared to go and see four motorcycle shops in the centre. In between getting lost I managed to find two of them. At the first they didn’t actually have anything in the shop that I was interested in. I don’t know how that works since there was adds on the internet with bikes I wanted to see. But anyway, the sales agent was very nice and we talked about what I was interested in. Then he looked at my bike, put down the details and was going to contact me if he found something.

Next place was a totally different experience. The sales agent was not especially nice at all. He looked and sniffed all over my bike. I was wondering if he had a special gift or just a runny nose but I couldn’t really ask. After the inspection, he asked how much I wanted and looked on the computer for something secret and then gave me a shameful bid. And it wasn’t even permanent because someone else, who didn’t work today would have to do a more detailed check. After this he didn’t bring the conversation further regarding the bikes that interested me, there was both Kawasaki Versys and BMW’s in the shop. So, I thanked him and left, and I still haven’t figured out if he offered so little because Ducatis are not a brand they really want or because I’m female and/or a foreigner who speak poor Spanish.

So, I haven’t come very far in my practical attempts. But I have done a fair bit of reading on the internet and compared the detailed of the different bikes on my list. Theoretically, it all boils down to three bikes to consider further. The F 650 GS from BMW, the Kawasaki Versys 650 and the Suzuki V-strom 650. In this lot the Suzuki might be a bit clumsy. There have been modifications done lately, but I’m not going to buy the latest model. The Kawasaki will have to be year 2010 or 2011, since earlier models have complains about vibrations that were apparently taken care of. The negative side for the Versys is the top case and panniers, they are only available in plastic and no aluminium square cases that I so dearly want. For the BMW I have not found any year specific changes but I will look into that further. Unfortunately, I have not even sat on a Versy or a GS which I really need to do soon, and I hope to be able to ride them to. Well I was prepared for this to take time, and so it will.

A Sunday ride

Having the benefit of living in Spain with possibilities to ride all year round is something I am very pleased with indeed. That is why I’m mentioning it so often. Unfortunately, riding somewhere nice often means going up in the mountains, and there, of course, it is colder. Today, I took my Ducati up north to Puebla de la Sierra, a tiny but nice old mountain village. And it was cold.

The road there was taking me through some wild areas and the landscape, well it speaks for itself doesn’t it.

Far, far away I could see the four towers of Chamartin conecting me with civilisation. My camera is not good enough to capture them though.

A road like this makes 20 kilometers feel very long

Nature out here is raw and unforgiving. So is the road, I had to go very slow. Fortunately on the other side of the village the road was much better and the vievs splendid. If it hadn’t been for tha rain of course.

Being used to solo riding I was delighted when a friend suggested that we could meet in this village for lunch. When I ride on my own I tend not to stop for food. Those who have followed my blog know all about that of course. But today we had traditional Spanish Sunday lunch and it was awesome. Not as much the food as the company, and I was almost persuaded to buy an BMW. Well, I’ll come along to the shop and we will see what happens.

After lunch it was a cold and rainy return home. Yesterday my bike was newly washed and polished, today the Ducati is dirty again. Everything is temporary, fortunately also the rain.

Bikes and bikers in Sweden

While spending a week in Sweden I took advantage and visited some motorcycle stores. To be able to speak with the sales agents in my own language certainly has advantages and I had a nice time trying out some bikes.

The Yamaha Teneree is the tallest of the bikes I’m looking at but I sat nicely on it, great legroom!! And I reached the ground fine as well. If a mono-cylinder is an option I’m not sure, depending on who I speak with I get various answers. A test ride is the only way to find out. I still haven’t found a place who sells second hand Teneree in Madrid but I assume there is.

I think the Triumph Tiger is great! I riding position is great, the design, the colour, the extras. If I would chose with my heart this would be the bike.

But then again, thinking practically this model, only came last year and to find a second hand would be difficult and a bit pricey still.

I park on the street and buying a new bike under these circumstances is not an option. But since it is such an awesome looking bike it is still on the list.

Since the weather was decent I was actually offered to go for a test ride, even gear was provided. Unfortunately I was wearing the wrong pair of glasses and besides that I was feeling generally ill from an evil cold I brought with me from Spain. Annoying though since it would have been a good experience and traffic in Gothenburg isn’t half as bad as in Madrid.

When speaking to the sales agent I didn’t want to mention living in Spain since they might feel they were wasting their time with me. This put me in a tricky position when telling that I needed a bike for travelling across Europe as well as commuting to work in heavy traffic 🙂

Honda NC700XA, crazy name - neat bike — Honda NC700XA, crazy name – neat bike

This Honda was sure a temptation with a decent price and many nice features. When the sales agent started up the engine I felt like buying it right away, possibly only held back by the fact that I live more than 3000 kilometres from this shop. The engine is a parallel twin with a beautiful sound.

Fuel tank under the seat, good weight distribution

It was quite empty in the shop when we arrived but we manage to attract some elderly gentlemen and we circled around the bike to admire it’s tank, which is under the saddle and luggage department, which is in front where you would expect to find the tank. So sneaky and I love it! Unfortunately this is a brand new model. Apart from this Honda I also looked at the Crosstourer but didn’t quite like it, don’t know why really and the Transalp, witch I feel pretty indifferent to. It is difficult not to let the heart decide to much in these matters.

After this what was left to visit was the BMW. Unfortunately they were closing down their bike department so no luck there. The profit was to low on bikes was the reason. Another disappointment was that there was no Kawasaki Versys in store. But I was welcome back in a couple of weeks, I could even bring my Ducati for evaluation.

Well, apart form checking out bikes I checked out my favourite café. A decent amount of Swedish Ducatistas joined in for the weekly “espresso time” at Jungrens café.

The best place to be an wednesday evening in Gothenburg

And apart from the nice people, the sandwiches with west coast prawns are precious! So good that I went back the next day and had another one for lunch. Just couldn’t resist.

But all good things come to an end. Back in Spain I oversleep on Monday morning and when rushing out to uncover my bike I find that the right rear mirror is broken, again. Well the bike hadn’t been tipped over, it was just broken under the cover. I’m clueless to how it happened but the week started of like crap. In the end of the week I managed to make it to the Ducati garage and after parting from 63 Euros I can see again. Nice guys in the garage, they helped me put it on as well. My excuse is that I lack strength to do it, but the truth is that my Spanish home don’t contain a spanner, my tool box is still in Sweden.

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