Neil, a long time friend of Wemoto, and his pal Sam, decided to set off for a lovely motorcycle trip to Spain in the sunny summer of 2025. It was not uneventful - even entertaining - here's how it went for them...

My friend Sam got in touch recently to say that he wanted to ride his 76 Lemans to his place in Granada and wondered if I'd like to go with him. I haven't done a trip like that since the mid seventies, so, after a quick shakedown round the M25 on my recently built Guzzi, my sense of adventure was triggered and my mind was made up, I'd join my friend.

We decided to miss out most of France and hop on the ferry to Santander. The Wheels and Waves event  was on in Biarritz, so we decided we'd have a look at that while we were over there.

As we left Peckham my wife pointed out that my rucksack looked a bit wobbly bungeed onto the back seat and my fifteen quid panniers didn't look too great either, but off I set anyway. Two hours later Sam and I were backtracking up the A3 in search of my rucksack. We eventually found it split open, with my smalls scattered about the carriageway. Luckily I found most of the contents, including my toothbrush. The delay meant that we rolled onto the Brittany Ferry in perfect time to depart from Portsmouth to Santander.

The ferry crossing was fantastic, I had my own cabin, the food was great, it was like a sea safari. After two nights on the ferry we arrived in Santander on the Wednesday morning, feeling relaxed and refreshed.

By chance Wheels and Waves was opening that day and we were both keen to see what this "Bike Shed by the sea " event had to offer.
After had a lovely blast along the coast via Bilbao without incident, we pulled into Biarritz around lunchtime. It was very hot and humid and after blagging his way in on the pretence of getting a coffee, Sam reported that it was interesting but did not justify the €25 daily admission. It seemed to us like a real pose with many bikes trailered in, but as we were leaving we saw plenty of bikes arriving. Don't you just love the cool continental waves that riding on the right lends itself to?

We booked an air bnb just east of Pamplona and arrived there about 9pm

It was all going so well so far with nicely timed coffee breaks and both big Guzzis effortlessly eating the miles.

The storm broke in the night but it was clear and beautiful the next morning and we got a good start. My bike misfired ever so slightly after a couple of miles. It had got a real drenching in the night and I thought something electrical must have got wet. But it just got worse and worse. A big Guzzi running intermittently on one pot is so annoying and quite familiar to me. The same bike had killed a coil a few months earlier but new Joe Lucas India coils had solved that. This time the bike got worse and we soon pulled into a petrol station run by Javier Bardem in no Country for old men. (seemed appropriate)
He just looked scary but turned out to have a heart of gold and five new kittens.

We pulled the float bowls off looking for water, the dellortos don't have air filters just plastic bellmouths. There was a bit of water and Javier helped siphon some oil out of my sump with a syringe!

When Guzzis run on one, unburnt fuel tends to dilute the oil and I was getting a bit paranoid about that. Before leaving we noticed that my left hand plastic pannier had melted on the exhaust and melted the battery changer within.

I threw the pannier away and transferred the unmelted contents into the right one.

Off we set...the bike was no better at all, maybe even worse for our hour's effort!

The next 100kms or so didn't get better, I lost my security chain somehow, we got lost near a very small town called Portillo and diverted onto dirt tracks.

The roads were beautiful but I couldn't enjoy it at all,coaxing my Guzzi along with a progressively worse misfire.

Next thrilling installment to follow shortly...

Done any trips like this? Let us know at [email protected] or on Facebook.