Update from Luc, the flying Frenchman

[troy]

For those of you who don't know, Luc is one of our good riding friends who was attending K-State living in Manhattan. He and his wife are currently living in France where Luc is from. They eventually plan to return to the States.

Luc is using his Smugmug account to keep us updated. Check it out!
http://gagnaou.smugmug.com/gallery/2428141#127299932
Tip: Use the Slideshow feature and turn on the captions by checking the box at the top. I also recommend you set the duration to something like 10 seconds or more so you have time to read the captions and enjoy the photos.

He says even though they will only be there for a few months, he is thinking about getting a bike. He says the riding there is fantastic. The photos look beautiful. I love all the old stone work.

[safiri]

Auvergne, France

http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/temp/G ... cemark.kmz

"If you have Google Earth installed, you can double-click on the attached Placemark file and it will fly you to a location. If not, you will need to install Google Earth first (available at http://earth.google.com).

Google Earth streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic detail. This is not like any map you have ever seen. This is a 3D model of the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more. You can zoom from space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place, city to city, even country to country.

Get Google Earth. Put the world in perspective.

earth.google.com"

[safiri]

He and his wife are currently living in France where Luc is from. They eventually plan to return to the States.

He says even though they will only be there for a few months,

A few months? I did a bunch of work to build my patio and I don't plan on leaving for quite a few years. Luc and Kira have done lots of work in the few days pictured on "thier house". Holy cow.

Seeing how close they are to the mountains, I would find a bike to ride as well. The foothills in which they live look wonderful.

[speedjunkie]

Troy,

Thanks for the link. Looks like he's got his work cut out! Great pics tho. Love the stone buildings!


Mike

[gagnaou]

Thanks Troy for creating this thread!

As you have seen in the link that Troy pointed out, we have been pretty busy working on the house, but I really want to enjoy some of the riding around here. The area is probably not as steep as Colorado, but it is somewhat montainous with a lot of trees and pretty rough jeep trail or single trail.

My cousin, my old riding buddy told me last monday that they had a ride scheduled for this sunday and that I needed to find myself a motorcycle. I did some looking around and here is what I found, an 03 WRz which if I understand right is a YZ to which they have chnaged the 5th gear to a longer one. Some of you might know Peterhansel and that is the kind of bikes he used to race when he was not busy winning the Dakar.

Here is the bike, pretty nice looking, I hope I can resell it pretty quickly when I come back to the US.



Here are the bikes of a few of the guys I rode with a 350DR and a 125 EXC.



So we went and joined a few other riders. Well, needless to say that it was probably not the best idea to get used of a new bike.
Here are the trails I was dealing with:



As usual, it looks much flatter than it was and it was wet and I had a freking motocross bike to follow some people that ride around every weekend. Well the opening of the valves got me quite a few times by surprise and I either passed people on the rear wheel or climb walls much faster than anticipated. Anyway after a few huffing and pushing I got a little bit more used to the bike and the terrain. And had a great time!

Here are a few pictures I took sorry I did not take more, it took quite a bit for me to keep up.





Here is the result of my fall:



I also managed to bust the light fixture in the process:



We only ended up going about 60 Km when I hit reserve, but it took us almost 4 hours to do that.


I will keep posting as I go on more rides!

If you guys want to come and visit, please come on over and we'll make sure that we find something for you to ride!

[troy]

HOLY COW! Based on the damage to your helmet, I would expect you to have very little face left. You are either still in shock or you really are fine. BE CAREFUL, man!

YOU had trouble keeping up?! Who were you riding with? Professional racers?!

That looks like some VERY good riding! It also looks like the kind of terrain where that WRZ would be a better fit than your big LC4.

It relieves me to see that you still have a DR350 to ride with! I just don't see how anybody could enjoy riding without at least one DR350 along.

As much as I'd LOVE to visit and ride with you over there, I have to be honest and say that I do not see it happening any time soon.

As you create smugmug photo albums of your rides, etc, please post a link to the album here. You don't have to give a lot of detail if time is short, but just give us a link to know something new is available if you remember.

[safiri]

YOU had trouble keeping up?! Who were you riding with? Professional racers?!

It relieves me to see that you still have a DR350 to ride with!

Actually, he just wasn't riding with us!

Yeah, I saw the DR350 and got a good chuckle.

Of course Luc's nice new, used bike is now worth fewer francs / euros ... Dang, what a way to indoctrinate a new bike.

[gagnaou]

HOLY COW! Based on the damage to your helmet, I would expect you to have very little face left. You are either still in shock or you really are fine. BE CAREFUL, man!

Do not worry Troy, the damages look much worse than it really was, I was just going down hill and barely bleep the throttle when the rear end decided to pass me according to the people that were following me.

As far as the guys riding with me, they are no professionnal just go out every weekend and know the terrain and their bikes. I want to believe that I would do much better today after a little bit more experience on the bikes.

I sure do wish that I had taken more pictures that would make you guys die of envy. Like steep single track in the woods where you have to deal with slippery rocks and roots even slippier. Or going up a small river in the water dealing with wet rocks and mud to get off the bed...

IMHO really a nice place to ride.

By the way, google the following coordinates, they are the one of the little house and you can look around on google earth to see how much fun we are having riding bikes!

N 45°09.007'
E003°34.348'

[gagnaou]

Hi Guys went on a little ride last weekend!

It was a lot of fun, but I got a flat after 3 hours and I had nothing to fix the flat so I had to return home. Interesting feeling to ride with a flat front on goat trails....





More pictures at:

http://gagnaou.smugmug.com/gallery/2486 ... 314#P-1-15

some pictures were taken when I went hiking with Kira just to give you an idea of some of the terrain.

[safiri]

Hi Guys went on a little ride last weekend!

It was a lot of fun, but I got a flat after 3 hours and I had nothing to fix the flat so I had to return home. Interesting feeling to ride with a flat front on goat trails....

Hmmm, of all the people to not carry stuff to fix a flat ... and and


The region where you live and ride and hike is beautiful. Makes me wish I was there for a few weeks of riding.

[gagnaou]

Hi Guys went on a little ride last weekend!

It was a lot of fun, but I got a flat after 3 hours and I had nothing to fix the flat so I had to return home. Interesting feeling to ride with a flat front on goat trails....

Hmmm, of all the people to not carry stuff to fix a flat ... and and

Yeah I know .... I thought that I have had my share of flats for a wfile, but I guess not >

[troy]

Thanks for sharing, Luc. I echo what Mike said---BEAUTIFUL country you are in.

I also love the building in the town--the old stone and wood. Here in the US, if we see a "really old" barn, it may be 150 years old. There, it may be hundreds of years old---and still being used.

So Luc, buy 20 small, easy-to-maintain dualsports, figure out the insurance headaches, and start a dualsport tour company so we can come over and rent a bike and see the country. Put together a few routes that include hard-core trails, castle tours, country Bed & Breakfast lodging, etc. Oh.....and then I still would not be able to afford the money or time to come visit. Doh!

[safiri]

Thanks for sharing, Luc. I echo what Mike said---BEAUTIFUL country you are in.

I also love the building in the town--the old stone and wood. Here in the US, if we see a "really old" barn, it may be 150 years old. There, it may be hundreds of years old---and still being used.

So Luc, buy 20 small, easy-to-maintain dualsports, figure out the insurance headaches, and start a dualsport tour company so we can come over and rent a bike and see the country. Put together a few routes that include hard-core trails, castle tours, country Bed & Breakfast lodging, etc. Oh.....and then I still would not be able to afford the money or time to come visit. Doh!

Great idea.

Troy, you don't need to afford it. Luc will pay as you will be the trail-side gopher ... go for this, go for that, fix Luc's flat, ...

[gagnaou]

More pictures are on my smugmug mentioned earlier. Here is where and when they have been taken.
I have not been writing in a while, but I still have been riding every weekend.
Two weeks ago, when I got up sunday morning, it was only 26 degrees, which means that not very many people showed up for our sunday ride, you know all those fair weather fans...

Just Gerard and I, here is Gerard adjusting his clutch lever



We went to the Desges river Valley and on our way there passed above Langeac and shot a couple of pictures of the air balloons that were taking off (they had a meet there).




Then we finally got to the Desges Valley after a few steep hills where in one of them we had to do some extensive pulling and pushing



Note the nice trail on the left side of the pictures:





Got back home at noon after a very nice morning and wonderfull landscape scenery.

Now this last weekend, two days ago, the weather was absolutely fabulous and we had a blast riding. This is so cool that here Enduro bikes are street legal without having to add turn signals and mirrors (that would be damaged when we go through the vegetation as we do). This allowed us to go all the way to Monistrol d'allier after taking a few kms of paved roads on the overall trip.
We started 4, Francois, Fabrice and Gerard leading. After a few miles Fabrice saddly had to retunr home, his rear break was giving him troubles.

Here is Francois:








Here is Monistrol d'Allier




A castle on the road as we were passing by:



Another one in the wood:





Here is the last one, there are more at:

http://www.gagnaou.smugmug.com/gallery/ ... #136796287



thanks to Troy I should be able to post a google view of where we went as soon as I get to it!

[troy]

Guys, apparently this forum system barfs on URLs that contain a "#" in them. So, just go to Luc's Smugmug page for this album by clicking

THIS LINK

[gagnaou]

[quote="troy"]Guys, apparently this forum system barfs on URLs that contain a "#" in them. So, just go to Luc's Smugmug page for this album by clicking

THIS LINK[/quote

Darn!! I did not know why it did not show in the preview, so # are the reasons...
Not sure how I can change my smugmug account to not have it...

One day I may be able to figure it out. In the mean time, you should really go and check out the pictures and take a plae ticket to come so that I can show you all those places on 2 wheels

[gagnaou]

I finally fixed the link to my pictures...

Don't ask that was a stupid mistake. Anyway, today my Dad wa off work so we went for a quick ride.

Here he is:



He really likes his 125 TY, this is a 78 model

We also found some mud



mre pictures at: http://www.gagnaou.smugmug.com/gallery/ ... #143432746

[gagnaou]

Costa Rica anybody?

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412158

We should really all start saving our pennys and organize something down there, let's talk about fun!!!

Luc

[Hayden]

Great report Luc. When did you do this?

Did I miss how you got the KTM. Did you rent it or buy it down there?

Looks like you all had a great time. Would love to go down there and ride myself some time.


Hayden

[troy]

Costa Rica anybody?

The short-lived TV show hosted by motocross legend Ricky Johnson called "Epic Ride" had a Costa Rica episode where Yamaha provided the 8 riders with WR450's. They had episodes in Baja, etc, but that Costa Rica riding was amazing. In one day they rode beaches, jungle, mountains, river crossings, and even a private motocross track carved out of the jungle. They said that Costa Rica was off-road friendly and the country remains open to riding most everywhere. Shhhh!