Aprilia Mana GT

After discovering that the Benelli Tre-K was a dead end I had a think about what I want as a Deauville replacement. It has to fill both commuter and tourer roles; not be too heavy; be capable of carrying a full set of hard luggage; have under seat and/or cubby hole storage; be something just that little bit different.

Having looked briefly at the Aprilia Shiver GT at John Carr's I decided to check it out.  That lead me to the Aprilia Mana GT - suitably styled for both the commute and the tour it had the advantage of having a clutchless gearbox that also had multi-mode functionality and both paddle and foot change.  Guess what?  Aprilia have dropped it from their range.

So the search goes on...

Benelli UK

On the 5th October I celebrated 7 years of ownership of my Honda Deauville. Bought in 2005 it was a 2001 bike with just one previous owner and having had only 3,249 miles pass under it's wheels. In my ownership it has covered a further 43,000 plus miles - mostly trouble free. It's evolution over this period has been well documented on my web site.  It is a fact that I have never owned any motorbike for more than 3 years so although I am now considering replacing it, I am in no hurry.  And I am being very specific about my requirements.

It is a simple fact that motorcyclists are an emotive lot and most machines are bought with the heart and not the head.  But when you own a bike for as long as I've owned mine it becomes very difficult to not have high expectations of its replacement.  

As part of my selection process I spent some time looking at the Benelli Tre-K 899.  I followed through on a few adverts in BikeTrader, eBay and MCN Classifieds - they all led me to a group of companies that include KJM Superbikes, Wigan Superbikes, Preston Superbikes and Robinsons of Rochdale.  In the conversations I had it appears that they are tied into the UK Importer as they are all part of the same group of 10 - 12 companies.  Yet between them they had only 1 Tre-K 899 and nobody knew where it was or how I could get a test ride.

However, Using the Benelli UK web site I found that a local dealer, John Carr of Alfreton is a "Benelli dealer" so on Saturday I took a ride up there to talk to the nice young man in sales.  Turns out that they have a Tornado (super sport bike) in the window now reduced to £6,999 along with a couple of scooters which are all gathering dust.  There's no support from Benelli UK who won't release bikes on sale or return and they have yet to sell a Benelli machine.  So we talked about a used Aprilia Shiver GT they had in the showroom.

Over the weekend I managed to find the Benelli.com web site and it appears that the Tre-K has ceased production from some time in 2010 and was a run-out model in 2011.  Since being taken over by it's new Chinese owners it appears that they are more interested in setting up an Asian network under the Benelli name to re-badge and sell off cheaply made scooters and small capacity motorcycles.

So if anyone out there in UK land is thinking of purchasing a Benelli, be warned, you could find yourself with absolutely no manufacturer back-up.  Shame, I'd liked to have at least had a ride on a Tre-K 899.

British politics

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and, when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.  The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

And it’s always been that way! Won't change overnight and you'll just get a headache if you keep on banging it against that wall. The only way to change politics is from within, but once you get in you look back to find you got corrupted on the way in. The road to retirement for all politicians is littered with the bones of good intentions that rotted away on the way through and came to nothing.

Lake Como - 30-Sept

Another early start - it seems that this break has been full of early starts - but today it is because we have a plane to catch back to the UK.  Arrangements have been made for us to breakfast ahead of the normal 07:00 - 10:00 slot as our transfer is due to arrive, load and then depart at 07:15.  This is the slowest we have been driven since we arrived with the driver appearing very "timid".  Milan's Bergamo airport is not that busy so we saunter through the Duty Free shopping and I pick-up a litre bottle of whiskey.  Through to departure gate, a brief wait for boarding and we are homeward bound.  After a bumpy flight through turbulence across France we arrive at EMA just after 11:00, collect our hold baggage, board the shuttle bus, bid our farewells to Carole and Giuseppe and drive home.

Break over - time to get the laundry done and back to work tomorrow.  But what a super break it has been!   

Lake Como - 29-Sept

It's Saturday morning and we know that tomorrow we have another early start for our return to the UK, so today is lie-in day.  We get down to breakfast just after 9:00.  Outside it is grey and gently raining.  We'd thought about spending the day at the lido, just chilling out but with the sun not making an appearance we decide to get a bus down to Como.  It had been described as industrialised and not really worth a visit, but we want to see it for ourselves.  Bus tickets are purchased from a local shop just up the side road beside the hotel (service bus drivers apparently can't/won't take cash) and queue briefly.  Shortly after boarding the driver is cut up by a car lady driver and that turns this ride into a very memorable one.  That bus went faster along that route, which was narrow and winding, faster than I would have done it on a motorbike and as a consequence we arrive in Como 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  It wasn't dangerous driving but it was fast.

After a chat with some of the other hotel residents about the white knuckle ride we set off for a walk around Como to see what it has to offer.  Somebody had mentioned it was market day so finding the market became our first goal.  We found the fruit and veg market so Giuseppe asked a local lady if that was it and was told that the clothes market was 2 blocks away, so we headed in the directions given.  Easily found it was a street market with several hundred stalls, mainly clothes, shoes, bags and leather goods, nick-nacks, small electrical items and a few specialist things like herbal remedies.  It had started to rain / drizzle so the protection offered by the stalls' awnings was appreciated.  Sue had been suffering with shoulder pain and the damp air was making it worse so we headed out of the market to a pharmacy I'd spotted as we'd been walking around the market.  The pills recommended needed to be taken after food and as it was now nearly 13:00 and the rain was now heavier we dived into a Pizzeria.  What a find and how lucky were we?  Chilled beer and wine, a good selection of pizzas and pasta and friendly service - we were in no hurry and made the most of it after the anodyne fayre on offer at the hotel.  On leaving we stumbled across the boutique centre of Como and the girls were in 7th heaven.  Generally wending our way back in the general direction back towards the lakeside and bus terminus we came across a group of pretty girls and smart dressed men promoting the Tesler electric sports car, made in California it retails for 105,000 euros and apparently they have sold 30 in Italy so there must be some money about somewhere.

The return trip on the service bus was more sedate than the outbound trip, the bus being absolutely packed, every seat filled and all standing room utilised.  At the hotel we rested for an hour before taking dinner and then went for a stroll back down the road towards Como for about half/three quarters of a mile, finding a bar with music playing and sounding lively - just a shame we found it on our last night.
  

Lake Como - 28-Sept

Friday was an early start, down to breakfast at 07:00 and onto the coach at 07:45.  We were on the first of 3 coaches and glad it worked out that way as it turned out we had the best driver / tour guide combination, 2 old boys with years of experience and loads of personal insights.  As the day progressed and we compared notes with those on the other coaches it became obvious that our early start efforts had been rewarded.  The coach took us off up through Menaggio and continued on up along the lakeside and across the top, over the 2 rivers that feed into the lake from the top and up to Poschiavo where we left the coaches to get refreshments in a local cafe bar, then explore the town before boarding the Bernina Express for a slow and winding ride to meet up with the coaches again at Pontresina then driving to St Moritz.  

St Moritz... where do I start.  I remember seeing it on the TV as a kid, watching coverage of skiing and winter (snow) sports.  Films (like James Bond Goldfinger) with shots of this exotic place where the great and the good with never ending bank balances holidayed.  I never dreamt I'd ever get there, but here I am, walking up the main street past designer brand shops, boutiques and expensive looking buildings.  St Moritz of today is not the same as the one from that 1964 Bond film and is the worse for it.  Now it is a glamorous concrete jungle.  Gone are the chocolate box picture Swiss chalets, now relegated to the outskirts of the town, both up above on the higher ground and lower down, below, around the lake that in winter sees horses racing on the frozen lake surface.  But as I stood there taking photographs (snap shots really) that mattered little - I was in St Moritz, with Suzie, Carole and Giuseppe.  We walked into a swish cafe, through the restaurant and into their rather posh bathroom, complete with piped bird songs.  Then we took a road down to the western end of the town's lake, sitting on public benches to eat pack lunches we'd had the hotel make up for us.  Then a stroll back along the lakeside path back to the railway / bus station to the pick-up by the coaches for the drive back to our hotel at Cadenabbia.

The route back was different to the outbound route, no train but loads of hairpin bends - 18 in one section alone.  This route saw us travel through what I regard as much more typically Alpine Swiss countryside, all greenery, Swiss chalets and farms with livestock with the ever present mountains in the background cloaked in trees and topped with snow.  The crossing from Italy to Switzerland had been a non-event marked only by some rather chunky buildings but on the return journey it was even more of a non-event, and the coach swept down and back into Italy.  We picked up the lakeside road between the 2 rivers at the top of Lake Como and retrace our route with one variance, this time the coach took all the tunnels that bypass many of the local towns and villages that we had driven through on the way up the lake.

We get back to yet another indifferent buffet meal at the hotel and end the day with a walk up the road at the back of the hotel, to find very little of interest so we turned in for the day.
   

Lake Como - 27-Sept

Sue and I go down to breakfast for 08:30 as agreed with Carol the previous evening. Even after taking our time we are still finished and they haven't shown up so we go back to our room and ring them. They are still in bed having not had an alarm call that they'd booked the evening before. So they skip breakfast, we pay for the next day's excursion to St Moritz, collect our packed lunches and we get to the ticket office just up the road from the hotel as the ferry comes in, so we are still on the schedule agreed the night before.

Bellagio is lovely so we take a wander, wander some more, eat our pack on park benches next to the town's church before wandering some more. The alleyways are steep, narrow and cobbled. The town is very photogenic and just about everybody is friendly with the time to chat. We wend our way back to the ferry stop and get a boat to Varenna. This is like Menaggio yesterday and Bellagio earlier so we wander some more. The cameras are busy clucking away and we are constantly chatting, often with other tourists and locals (it helps that Giuseppe is Italian and that Carol is Italian fluent). 

We have a round of drinks at a cafe bar around 13:30 and the explore further up the alleys away from the immediate lakeside, and it is fabulous. Again we almost naturally end up at the ferry stop and bask in the sunshine but a breeze is starting to get up and the temperature is dropping (it is September after all) and we are in t-shirts and summer clothing with no jackets or warmer clothing. We decide to catch the ferry back via Belagio to the hotel. It has warmed up again and so we get some drinks and head up to the sun terrace on the roof where it is sheltered from the breeze, a really nice place to be.  

After dinner we are back onto the ferry to Bellagio seeking some night life local action.  We walk all around and the only activity is leaving the church and in the few bars on the lakeside near to the jetties where the ferries pull up.  They are so quiet, but we have a couple of drinks and then head back to the ferry and our hotel.
   

Lake Como - 26-Sept

Up at 03:45, leave the house at 04:15, we meet up with Carol & Giuseppe in Departures at EMA at 05:00, check in and proceed through to Departures for a breakfast before boarding our flight to Milan.  Suzie reads while us 3 sleep. 

Transfer is by a very comfortable minibus to the Hotel Grand Britannia Excelsior at Cadenabbia on the shores of Lake Como. We check in, have lunch, then go for a walk. We end up in Menaggio and wander round exploring. After an ice cream cornet in the square and cola/lager in the Hotel du Lac we dodge a shower and catch the shuttle "train" back to the hotel.  After a nap we go down for a drink in the bar followed by dinner.

Earlier we'd seen bags indicating a large number of departures but as we go down to and come out of dinner reception has a massive queue.  And the rain has blown in, hard and heavy. So we sit around chatting and drinking, take a walk to their lido and back (during a short lull in the rain) as there is nothing happening there.  But sitting in the bar down in the basement is just unbearably hot so we find a spot off reception with some vacant armchairs to relax in for a chat before tuning in for the night at the end of a long day in which we have flown, driven and walked miles.