Asturias, Spain and on to Porto.
Here comes the heat!
Crossing the Pyrenees into Spain from France was one of those moments in life one hopes not to forget. Of course, as I keep adding amazing rides over mountain passes and cliffs that threaten to fall into the ocean I wonder which ones will slip from my memory. If you know me then you already know I have a terrible memory. I suppose one of the reasons I’m writing these posts is as much for me as anyone else who may read them. A diary written after the fact with the hopes of remembering as much as possible. I can’t argue with myself so it must be true.
The heat started to show itself in Toulouse but not until I hit Spain did I become concerned about it. I always knew the time would come when my riding gear would conflict with the heat. It is really difficult to pack for extreme climate changes on one trip. Sure, I can pack for cold or for warm but both are tricky. Most people in North America, when riding adventure bikes tend to wear what I call a snowsuit. Of course, it’s not an actual snowsuit but it sure looks and feels like one. They are heavy and often made of Gortex or some other waterproof fabric. They have internal soft (D30 branded or similar) armor in the shoulders, elbows, and back. Depending on the brand and design they are designed with several venting options but when the temperature rises above about 80F or 27 C degrees no amount of venting is going to help much. Of course, when you add (as I do) an airbag vest with zero venting it all becomes a bit too much to take. There are great brands that make amazing jackets and pants but when the heat becomes too great as I just said, there is no amount of venting that will adequately cool you. Many brands have summer jackets/pants in addition to their other multi-season gear. I’ve been lucky to have partnered with brands like Klim and Aether I even have a Klim summer jacket at home but because of the limited amount of space on a bike to carry clothing, I had to make a choice not to bring it. I started with the Divide Motorcycle Jacket & Pants by Aether. It was a great choice for the first leg of the trip around Ireland, Scotland, England, and France.
However, as I began my ride through the stunning coastal towns on the way to A Coruña in Galicia via Asturias I knew I was going to have to drop some cash and buy a summer jacket and pants for the remainder of the trip. If not, I would surely die!
I connected with Jose Sendra of El Solitario thanks to Vincent Prat in Toulouse. Jose is a designer at El Solitario. I had been hearing about them for some time but didn’t know much. So when I arrived at the offices/studio it became very clear to me that this company was doing some very cool things. Sadly, David the founder was not in town but his wife Valeria Gomez-Libano who is the co-founder and head of design was. Both Valeria and Jose showed me around and told me more about this super cool company before agreeing to be in The Motorcycle Portraits.
They design clothing as well as custom-make some wild bikes. They fed me, looked after me, and even helped to ship my snowsuit back to Canada. I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality. I felt like I may have over-asked while I was there, maybe it was the heat getting to me. It was in A Coruña that I picked some summer gear that fundamentally changed my trip. I went with a brand called Spidi. I’d heard of them before but had never worn their gear.
The jacket I purchased was very well-vented. Designed so air could get into just about every part of the jacket. Of course, wearing the airbag vest limited the airflow to my chest and back but the arms were kept cool and the overall weight of the jacket made the heat a lot more tolerable. The Spidi pants I picked up were also really great, super light and comfortable. I took the D30 padding from my Aether pants and put them in the Spidi pants as the ones that it came with didn’t seem quite as good. The pants were so light that there was a part of me that worried they were not too safe but thankfully I never had to find out. They were a bit too long so I was on the lookout for a tailer to shorten and taper them a bit. Once I managed that in Athens they were perfect and I wear them every time it’s hot and I’m on the bike.
From A Coruña I started to make my way south towards Porto, Portugal. When I was first considering my route for this trip I knew I didn’t want to go too far south because of the heat. I decided that Porto was as far as I was willing to go. The roads towards Porto were amazing. I was now fully using the app Calimoto and it was finding some amazing roads. Calimoto is an app I was told about from Mark Wells of Royal Enfield back in the UK. He was speaking so enthusiastically about it that eventually I decided to download it and give it a try. It will find the roads that motorcyclists dream of. The Twistys or the mountain roads, the highways or the secondary roads. I honestly can’t recommend it more highly. It’s about $70.00 US a year and if you know all the roads in your area then maybe it’s not worth it but if you are out looking for an adventure then it’s well worth the money.
There were two people I wanted to photograph in Porto. One was Pedro Oliveira from Ton-Up Garage I was told about by Vincent Prat (the guy who kept delivering) and the other was Nuno Henriques aka HelloCousteau who I was well aware of and had been following for some time. Nuno is an incredible graphic designer who has become pretty well known for designing some stunning helmet graphics for Bell amongst others. By luck, an old friend Anthony Tamayo who I know from my days in LA was also in town with his wife and some friends. It was great to meet up with them and even spend a night at their BNB. It was the first time I got to see some old friends and just take it easy for a couple of days. Both Pedro and Nuno were great, Pedro allowed me to park my bike in the shop for a couple of days and took me to an amazing locals-only rotisserie chicken place YUMMZER. He tells an amazing story about a cancer diagnosis and how his connection to bikes may very well have saved his life, give it a listen. Nuno, was also super cool to meet and hang out with. His meteoric rise in the motorcycle graphic design world is pretty amazing. He is also a super funny guy. I really enjoyed my time with both of these guys and of course, seeing Anthony and his crew was great.
After a few days in Porto, it was time to start making my way toward Madrid where I would photograph Pepo Rosal of XTR Pepo
More on that next time.