Tyre change?
 

Hi Susan and Grant.

Lars and I will be riding from Copenhagen to the HUMM event, so we changed to street tyres. Will there be any workshop fascilities available on the camp for tyre change? If not, I hope there will be som experienced travellers willing to supervise a tyre change. :mchappy:

See you all soon.

Henriette

No problem - there will be tire changing available, or you can do it yourself with a few pointers! :)

HUMM / Gendarmes warning...
 

Riding back from the HUMM last year, I got screwed by the Gendarmes on the last peage on the A26 as you close in on Calais (just before J3 - Saint Omer).

I got flashed by a forward facing camera on the A26 heading north from Paris, and the Gendarmes were waiting for me at the Saint Omer peage (before I paid!). Now as motorbikes don't have a front number plate, there was absolutely no evidence that the camera photo was me, and I never saw it. Unless of course they were making it up. I tried arguing the case but they cops weren't having it. So they relieved me of 90 euros, confiscating my passport whilst I went off to get it. Was a struggle to get a receipt and the Gendarme refused to show me his ID. Theiving barstewards.

OK it was a fair copy - I was speeding - but not excessively as was keeping below the max rated speed of TKC80's - <100mph. But was really got me was that they felt able to fine me without evidence.

So if you are going to speed - here's a plan to avoid my plight. Come off the A26 at J4 (Inghem) and head to St Omer. Rejoin at J3 which is just downstream of the peage. Head for Calais and hopefully avoid getting screwed. Check it out on google maps.

Enjoy !

Mike.

Sounds like a con to me. I've been stopped a few times by mobile radars and they always show you the reading on the radar gun. Also, I doubt that they can get the photo off the speed camera live. You probably think now that you should have denied that you were speeding and insisted on seeing the evidence (with the benefit of that great thing - hindsight)

Apparently some statistics were published for, I think, 2008 where there were 2 million speeding bikes flashed by speed cameras. Of these 1.5 million were forward facing cameras and 400,000 were rear facing but the no. plate was illegible. In the end only 80,000 resulted in fines.

This is where it starts to get interesting. I did insist on seeing the evidence, but to no avail; my request was followed by garlic and onion fuelled laughter from a man in overly tight blue pants with a "screw les anglais" look in his eyes. Am pretty sure it was a con; but will never know. However, it was late on Sun, I was tired after a night out in Paris and starting a new job the next day. On balance, the "cheaper" option was to just pay and get home. I just wish I'd had the time to fight it ! Sometimes its best to just let these things go. However, next time I am riding I will come off the autoroute and go around that Peage for sure ! This year its motorhome & trailer, so no chance of speeding.

If you are on the campsite I'll give you a hand. I have levers etc. Can't guarantee I will have the right spanner to take the wheels off though.

There will be 2 of us, both with bmw Xchallenge. Mine has the grey lowered seat and tools stored on the front of the bashplate.

Iain

Transport Back to the UK
 

hey all,

at late notice my team-mate has had to pull out. no problem for the HUMM itself as i think i have a team to join, and no problem getting down there as i had always planned to ride on my own via a 30th birthday party in guernsey.

however.... my team-mate was going to hire a trailor and drive down, and i was going to dump my bike on his trailor for the trip back to the uk... without a trailor my only option is to ride my bike back but that is really going to interfere with my planned week in the sun on the costa brava after the HUMM...

sooooo does anyone have space in a van or on a trailor for a mild mannered Super Tenere and a couple of metal panniers?? i'd be more than willing to pay her way.

:biggrin3:

Hi Ian, Thanks for your offer, which I see now!!!! :thumbup1: Lars, Ashley and Long John helped me out, so I was in good hands. But thanks anyways.
Henriette

France is not the UK. There is no requirement for speed traps to be big white vans staffed by people in dayglo jackets, or for them to show you any evidence.

You won't have been stopped because of the fixed camera photo, you'll have been caught by a manned speed trap a few miles back up the road from where they stopped you. You won't have seen this speed trap, it will be hidden. The first you will know is when you reach the second group of police and they pull you over.

They won't show you a reading on a radar gun, because they don't have the radar gun. They've just been radio'ed your details and the speed you were doing.

Again, France is not the UK, you've just got to accept that it's their country, their rules, and that speeding back towards a ferry port is really asking for trouble.

On a more positive note, got back to the UK on Sunday after another great HUMM followed by a week or so touring back up through France - Tenere loaded up to the max neatly sidestepped any temptation to speed anyway :D

HUMM 2010 Crash Antics...
 

HUMM2010 Antics - Check this YouTube vid out

- I was riding my mates 1200GSA up a steep rocky climb - too fast - hit a large tree root and got pinged off to the side.
- Binned it and managed to face plant a tree and invert the bike and get one of the pots over the bank and embedded in the soft ground.
- Took 7 people to lift the bike back onto the track.
- Damn those 12's are heavy.
- No damage to me or the bike.
- Funny thing is that it's my mates bike. He bottled the climb and we swapped bikes so he could go on my 650XC.

Thanks to all those that helped levitate the GS and to DaveH for filming. All quite convenient being in the middle or nowhere, stuck, and a few minutes later 9 HUMMers turn up. What's also quite funny is the Tim from Loco Motos also turned up with his Disco and trailer en-route to pick someone else up.

Enjoy!

Mike.

nice one mike... in a similar vein, there are a few pic's and text here of our humm, right up to the point where i tried to get my team-mates s10 up a hill and holed the engine casing...

Super Tenere Owners Forum • View topic - HUMM 2010

Tim was on his way to our bike when they passed by the fallen GSA on day 2... all good fun eh?? :biggrin3:

Chris

More footage
 

Hi all

I'd also like to contribute to the pics and footage. These three were taken near CP 226 in the south.

YouTube - HUMM 2010 - Charles from "Team Lost":oops2:


YouTube - HUMM 2010 - Lars from "Team Lost"
YouTube - HUMM 2010 - "The Irish" - Stephen & Arthur


- and last but not least
YouTube - 20100728 3 doh

More will follow as soon as I find time to edit the rest of the material.

Cheers

Great stuff guys, keep it coming! :funmeteryes:

Perhaps this kind of dated attitude wasn't helpful when you were caught speeding. It's a bit rosbif Jeremy Clarkson; and being English doesn't give immunity.

There is at the moment in France a big crackdown on those who speed, because of the huge number of road deaths, I think 8000 last year. Nobody likes being done for speeding.

You're right to avoid the autoroutes in future - much more pleasant! But watch out on the lesser roads for mobile, hidden, rear facing speed cameras there too. I have found the French cops much more open to reason than their UK counterparts, and got off with a few things.

There are often speed traps on the autoroute from/to Calais, because lots of mostly English motorists and motorcyclists go well over the limit there. It's an attitude thing.

Better luck next time.

So what is the attitude of the French registered vehicles that come hurtling past me way in excess of the speed limit (160-200kph at a guess)

French Gendarmes are like most other European police forces - some are reasonable and some are power crazed twats.