However, I was staying with Louis, and he picked me up from the airport, and then handed me the keys to his spare bike (an early Hinkley Tiger) for the week.
What the pictures don't show is the tarmac terrorism that we indulged in before the rally. There are some pretty special roads in the Algarve, and we had a great deal of fun on them. A proper sports bike would have been faster than either the Tiger or Louis's Hardley, but fun isn't measured in MPH.
I'm thinking I'm going to do it again next year, but I fancy riding down again...
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Reserved Bike Parking at the Faro 'Jumbo' Hypermarket... For the Faro Rally, they close half the car park and make it 'bike only'. |
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Mein genial host (in the mesh jacket with the yellow sleeves) Louis, standing behind the Tiger... |
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More early arrivals take advantage of the reserved parking at Jumbos... As you can see, this supermarket bike-park was heaving, and this was three days before the rally proper! |
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Louis's Tiger, parked on the rally campsite... This was my ride for the week, and very nice it was! Behind it is the cheapo tent I picked up at Jumbos. |
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My 'Jumbo special' £12 4 man tent. Far better for the climate than anything you could buy in the UK (the silver solar-reflective finish and the big mesh vents are a lifesaver in this climate), and cheaper than the excess baggage fee to bring a rally tent from the UK! |
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Louis's Hardley Ableson VRSCD thing Apart from the stupid ergonomics, this thing is like a proper motorcycle, just more expensive. Harley riders hate it! |
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The Faro rally campsite Tents, tents & more tents... |
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The Faro rally campsite In-tents, in fact... |
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The Faro Rally - the main drag In this shot, we've parked under a tree to the side of the main drag in and out of the campsite to get close to the arena, and this is Louis sorting his shit out. |
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The run through Faro - the halfway point! The giant slow-moving parade of bikes and other weird stuff grinds to a temporary halt for speeches and free beer from the sponsor... |
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The run through Faro - the halfway point! Free Sagres! |
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The run through Faro - the halfway point! And then people started setting off for a second lap... |
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khaylock- Ken Haylock
- Homepage of a Head-banger
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You rode with someone on a Harley?
What's a Faro rally?
For more details, see http://www.motoclubefaro.pt - The Moto Club of Faro - who organise the bash.
The Harley belongs to my mate Louis, who moved out there a couple of years ago - at the time he had just bought the thing. The Tiger is his usual day to day bike, he also has a Triumph Daytona 1200 lurking in the garage waiting for some fettling, and behind that is his pride and joy from his youth, his old classic tuned-to-the-nuts Triumph Bonneville, which he parked in his garage at home in the UK one day about twenty years ago intending to change a valve guide oil seal and then start using it again, but took a test ride on a VFR750 at his local bikeshop out of curiosity the next day. Suffice it to say, he never rode the Bonneville again, and it is sitting in the back of the garage waiting to become Louis's retirement project...
Anyway, the Harley is his mid-life crisis bike. He wanted a Night Rod Special, but we convinced him that he would kill himself on that in short order, what with the lack of ground clearance, so he bought himself this thing as a compromise between the Night Rod Special he wanted, and the Street Rod we suggested he buy if he really insisted on having a Harley. Even he knew that he didn't want one of the big chrome boat-anchors with the ditch-pump engines, but this is one of the V-Rod family, with the Porsche-designed engine, a gearbox that works properly and brakes that actually stop the bike.
Actually, we all told him he needed a Triumph Speed Triple instead, but he reckoned he'd be tempted to ride it the way it was meant to be ridden, and he was mithering on about killing himself on the... exciting... Portuguese roads...
If it wasn't for the whole 'Take me, take me I'm yours' feet-forward riding position, the VRSCD thing would actually be perfectly nice to ride. It certainly goes, stops etc better than any Harley I've ever ridden, and doesn't vibrate your fillings out either! But it's not two and a half times as nice as a Triumph Street Triple or twice as nice as a Triumph Sprint ST, to pick a couple of random examples that cost rather less.
Louis entertains himself these days taking photographs - very good photographs I think - so here is one of his arty shots featuring the bike and a model of his acquaintance...
Emma rides again
by acampm1
© All rights reserved
His Flickr account is a nice place to browse if you like striking pictures, by the way...
Ship one of your bikes over on a slow boat, fly in and meet it in Spain or France or wherever, ride to the Faro rally, taking in as much of 'the good stuff' as you can, then fly back, leaving your bike to get shipped back the cheap/slow way.
Hey, do you get any shipping discounts from work? 'I'd like to ship this large irregular parcel to France please' :-).
I would love to afford to own a Harley Trike one day.
I HAVE LIVED NEAR FARO AND IN THE ALGARVE,for nearly 20 years and seen the yearly Ralley grow incredibly it takes a lot of organising, which falls to the famous Faro Moto Clube, they work very hard and have successfully gone from strength to strength.
Does anyone know any Christian Motor Cycle Groups in Portugal, can you give details please ? from HarleyQueen (a 61year old Biker Babe)