At the start of 2020, I had all sorts of ideas for bike trips and possible tours but we all know how that went.  Sitting at home in Spain with little to do apart from thinking about what could have been, got the better of me at times and I, along with many others, just wanted to get out and ride.  As lockdown started to ease and we were allowed to get back to some sense of normality work took over from thoughts of bike riding and everything was put on the back burned for possibly the whole year.

However due to an unfortunate family issue, I had to return to the UK for a short trip, luckily the quarantine situation in the UK was removed for EU citizens and plans could be made.

After months of hot sunny weather, today was supposed to be filled with rain and thunderstorms, although I only found this out once I'd posted a ride for our Facebook Page users.  Fingers were crossed and weather reports checked until late on Saturday the ride was called off as most of us would rather not get wet if we don't have to.  Waking up this morning to beautiful blue skies, with an odd cloud was something of a surprise after the forecast, but the weather can change here.

There have been many pictures of beaches appearing in the media showing them empty in Spain and busy ones in the UK.  I thought it would be nice to go and have a look at these "empty beaches" as they are always full when I am there.  It also gave me a great excuse for a ride.

The traction control system is an acronym for TCS. It is a system that controls the traction of the driving wheels of a vehicle. Such systems have been part of the automotive industry for several years. However, in motorcycles, they are in continuous development, even though they have recently made their way to various motorcycles.

During the winter of 1999 - 2000 I sold my Honda Fireblade and was on the lookout for something new, something better than the Honda.  Many would say this was an impossible task as the Fireblade was/is such a great bike, however, I found it quite boring.  Don't get me wrong it was a superb motorcycle, doing everything I asked of it in a typical efficient manner you would expect from a sports bike from the big H, however, I found it a bit bland, a bit too easy.

In April of 2014 my lovely wife bought me an old but very low mileage BMW F650.  The bike was bought mainly to take on some touring duties around Spain and maybe further afield.  Coming in completely standard form, with no luggage some additional purchases would be necessary.