France - Touratech 1st Travel Event - The Ride

There were a few choices of rides and Touratech had set up multiple laptops to download the GPS route for those so equipped. I was given a black/white Touratech rallye with a 250mm USD suspension and an OEM rear swingarm. We got rolling around 10:15 am and had a blast exploring roads as varied as farmer's fields to mountain roads. Touratech's French sales office/agent is located near Orange so they scouted the routes which were lots of fun.


Photo - Touratech demo fleet, <click to enlarge>


Touratech had all of their demo bikes on hand to show how different accessories went together.
It was an impressive display of their products and enabled people to test things for themselves.
I got to ride a few of the Rallye bikes to see how they've improved them over the course of the development.

Photo - Patrick and Jean, <click to enlarge>

Patrick and Jean (on Rallye bike) were on the day's ride which made it fun for me.
Unfortunately I don't have photos of two other people that I met, Johannen Aubertin, Mathias Rheim, and Erik Vegt
who were fun to meet and ride with as well. I tried to visit them (Johannen and Mathias) on a subsequent trip to Germany but couldn't
do so on the first time because of schedules and the second time because of my broken leg. Oh well, next time guys.

I was particularly impressed with Johannen who made the long trip on a smaller displacement bike (Yahama I think).
He's very resourceful having rescued this bike from an underwater grave (it was at the bottom of a pond for some time), then
taking the time to rip it all apart and rebuild it from scratch. Do you think he knows his ride inside and out, you betcha!

Erik is a neat inventor of custom motorcycle stuff for adventure travel. I actually had talked to him after finding his
web site a while back so it was nice to actually meet him in person. He's got a new system combining the best of soft and
hard luggage plus a few other trick up his sleeve. You can see his web site at www.evamotor.nl tell him I say a big hello!
Unfortunately his bike, a Cagiva Elephant sprung a oil line leak that couldn't be fixed mid day so his riding was over.

Photo - Viewing stop, <click to enlarge>

We followed Jo from Touratech who had the only copy of the route and GPS coordinates.
The line of riders were spaced out and my group of friends hung to the back so we could mess around more
with rear brake slides and the like. This first stop was at the top of a point over which you could look down on Orange and Avignon.
I think that everybody is gathered around Erik's bike wondering what we can do it fix it.

Photo - Rest stop, <click to enlarge>

About half way through the ride we stopped for some refreshments (but not lunch). That's Jose our sole Spaniard (walking from left)
who rode up on his boxer. He was planning to come to the States and Canada (which he did) and I was supposed to
ride with him (which I would have if I didn't break my leg). ¡Hola! Jose. Hope to ride with you soon amigo.

You can see Patrick's Touratech Rallye in the center. Yes, I did copy his color scheme, and yes, I did ask him if he didn't mind.
It was hard to choose which paint scheme looked best. In the end the "Husquvarna" colors I liked the most. Jean is on his boxer on the right.

Photo - Lost!, <click to enlarge>

One would think with the sophistication of the GPS and roadbook that we wouldn't get lost but we did.
As Jo made a mistake and got us lost (hey, no big deal). This cut our riding day short by a few hours and we apparently
missed some good sections of twisties and off-road but even so we had fun making our own way through
farmer's side roads and across fields. The riding in this area was fun, fairly open as long as you respected
people's property lines and tread lightly, which we do anyways. That's Jean acting as interpreter coming back from the car.

Photo -The new friends, <click to enlarge>

By the end of the day we were fast friends having kicked up some dirt and taken turns giving roost to each other.
Left to right are Jean Moxhet, Patrick Lambin, Jose Maria Garcia, and me, David H. Park. I'd ride with these guys anytime.


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