2021 Roadtrip Retrospective

I went to my first roadtrip this summer, riding circa 2500 km in 11 days across France, mainly using secondary roads and using motorways only for some quick moves:

  1. Paris to Bourges via Melun, Nemours, Gien 235 km, 3 h 12 min
  2. Bourges to Chalon-sur-Saône via Nevers 245 km, 4 h 31 min
  3. Chalon-sur-Saône to Sallanches via Lons-le-Saunier, Oyonnax, Annemasse 248 km, 4 h 2 min
  4. Sallanches to Gap via Megève, Alberville, Grenoble and Route Napoléon 230 km, 3 h 48 min
  5. Gap to Marseille via Route Napoléon until Malijai then Manosque, Aix-en-Provence 199 km, 3 h 20 min
  6. Marseille to Béziers via Martigues, Arles and the Camargue regional natural park, Aigues-Mortes, Montpellier 272 km, 3 h 53 min
  7. Béziers to Toulouse via Haut-Languedoc regional natural park, Castres 193 km, 3 h 11 min
  8. Toulouse to Limoges via Montauban, Cahors, Brive-la-Gaillarde 300 km, 4 h 14 min
  9. Limoges to Bourges via La Souterraine, La Châtre, Châteauneuf-sur-Cher 194 km, 2 h 59 min
  10. Day off at Bourges
  11. Bourges to Paris via Romorantin-Lanthenay, Blois, Châteaudun, Étampes 317 km, 5 h 0 min
Roadtrip map

Riding gear

I also had my Nembo gloves which I tried under the rain, but they were just unusable in that moisty, hot weather of summer.

I initialy intended to ride with the Tempest pants and Held base on rainy days and only 01 jeans on hot and sunny days (which I did eventualy did the second day), but I felt unconfortable with sweat and a reduce protection on that ride.
Futhermore, I hurt my knee with blunt trauma the third day resulting in some stich, and keep thanking the Tempest pants protections it hasn’t been worse.
For extra protection, I then replaced the Held base with 01 jeans under the Tempest pants for the rest of the trip, whatever the heat. You will now find myself a greater advocate of protective riding gear.

Luggage

  • Decathlon Quechua Forclaz 60L backpack (a 10-year old model) with rain cover, for clean clothes, toileteries, laptop
  • Louis Roll Bag, 50L fixed with 2 Oxford Bungee Xtra straps, for dirty clothes, sleeping bag, tent, spare gloves, the drone, a small backpack (a 10-year old Decathlon Rockrider 5L water bag) and shoes for city walks
  • SW-Motech EVO Daypack, 5-9L, for small electronics and battery packs
  • Yamaha 39L Top Case, for one-piece rainsuit, tyre repair kit, some dirty clothes and a DSLR in a protective bag

Recording stuff

On the third day, under some heavy rain, I nearly lost the HERO 9 as the MotoRadds mount peeled of the helmet, the camera only retained by the mike cable zipped to the mount and the helmet. For the rest of the trip, I then used that GoPro on a chest mount or on the handlebar mount in place of the HERO 7.

I also endured several trouble with the GoPro and its media mod, resulting in many hours of unusable rushes. I believe the battery or SD card got a bit loose with the media mod cover as I couldn’t reproduce that trouble with the mod.

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