Guinea Pig's European Vacation

The PB Mag Forum Guinea Pig survived his first big trip, yay! Read the whole story here; http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=460 , I'll condense it a bit here, get to the important Guinea Pig shots ;-)

So we started out on Friday the 19th of September, bags packed, Guinea Pig in his own personal pocket in my luggage and headed from Nottingham down to Dover to stay the night in a dodgy B&B before boarding the ferry the next morning.




We landed in Dunkerque, got really lost trying to follow GPS through closed towns and roadworks and eventually started our trip proper through Belgium and down into Germany. The MV Augusta travelling with us decided to dump most of it's coolant, so we stopped somewhere in a big forest and the boys found some guys working on a car that helped them with the stuff they needed to fix it. We also met the cutest little puppy there, it was roughly the same size as PB Guinea Pig...I'll update if I can grab a pic of him off one of the others.




We eventually all made it to Sliders Guest House for a slap up BBQ dinner, a cuddle with Daisy the huge dog and a nice, hot shower. We dumped our luggage off so we could have a ride round the Eifel region and the Nurburgring, so Guinea Pig had to move to under the seat on the 848! At least it's warm under there.



The roads were stunning, the most perfect biking roads we've ever had the pleasure of riding on. After getting dizzy round so many hairpin bends, we stopped for a breather. Guinea Pig came out to have a sit on the MV, but our mate Stumpy, with a GSXR1000 made him road kill, poor little fella.



From there it was down to a beautiful old town called Cochem, then back up to the Nurburgring, where we rode the most dangerous ride ever! Cars and bikes on a one way road, all trying to go quickly together is not the best plan ever, especially when you're the fargile biker that doesn't know where the hell they're going, whilst trying to avoid massive Porsches drifting round the corners! Guinea Pig checked out the safety instructions and met a couple of stars, Bren (broken and on a crutch, but still at the 'Ring!) and Sabine.






From there we rode back to Sliders, packed the luggage back on the bikes and rode to Spa Francorchamps for the trackday the following day. It was a bit cold and misty, only a couple of us knew the track previous to this trip and we were all very aware of being on our road bikes, on road tyres, so take it steady and enjoy was order of the day. Apart from with Paul on the MV, who decided that big lean, fast speeds and an unknown track would be the ideal place to try and set a new lap record! It didn't end well...




Luckily Guinea Pig was on hand to advise and it was soon patched up enough to ride again. We had a garage next door to Ducati Brussels, so the furry little chap sneaked a quick sit on a Desmosedici, cheeky devil!




That was the last big event. From there we headed back through the rain on the motorway, on the ferry and trudged home up the busy English roads with the rude, dangerous and impatient drivers that we'd escaped by being in Europe for a few days. One last stop for a snack and some fuel on the filthy bikes, then slog it out on the M1 home.



I think the final vote for where PB Mag Forum Guinea Pig goes next fell to Kar and the Ducati 1100 Monster launch, so I'll send him a message and poor Guinea Pig's going to have to travel in the hands of Royal Mail to his next keeper! Check back for the next, much better written, adventure! :-D

In the beginning...

Welcome to the blog!

Where to start...I guess that Autumn's creeping in here in the UK now and thoughts turn to staving off the boredom of another wet winter and what better way to entertain ourselves than sending an unsuspecting, stuffed Guinea Pig off on his travels, between the members of the Performance Bikes forum! Check out the first post here; http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=90

Why the PB forum, well, we (me and my bloke, who posts as Couch Commando) started posting there a couple of years ago and have since met and made friends with quite a few of the reprobates, so it seemed only right that we entrusted the care of the precious Guinea Pig with our pals.


How this thing is going to work. It seems I can let multiple people post on the blog, so whoever the keeper of the 'Pig is at the time will be able to keep us updated with whatever they've been doing, add pictures and stories etc, so it's going to be a big old mish mash of stuff, which should keep it interesting!

I can put a poll up beside these posts, so if we get as many options for where he goes next as we have been doing, then people can vote to make sure he's going where the masses want him. The only deal is that the keeper takes care of him and is willing to post him either back to me, or on to wherever he is wanted next, which could be just about anywhere.

The First Journey

Tomorrow, we're going to the Nurburgring then on to Spa Francorchamps for a trackday with a group of mates and the PB RTW Guinea Pig will make his first voyage of discovery! He's going to be travelling mostly on my Ducati 848, but there's a few KTMs and an MV to have a go on too, so I'll make sure he gets to experience them all.

That takes us to the end of September and we've started a poll on the forums as to where he goes next. It's currently between a trip to Ben Nevis or the chance to go on the launch of the new Ducati 1100 Monster. I want to be a stuffed Guinea Pig all of a sudden! There are loads of other offers coming in, from holidays in the sun to a trip to the legendary Ace Cafe, so he'll not be short of things to see. Check back soon and I hope you enjoy whatever this turns out to be :)