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Dear
all, Welcome to the fifth edition of the Unicorn Adventures Newsletter! Enjoy your reading! If you need more information about a topic drop us a line : contact@unicornadventures.com Have fun,
drive safely! Unicorn
Adventures Ltd Team |
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1. Events
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4.Cultural drops
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2. Unicorn Adventures Ltd tour tips
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5. The Ladies news |
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3. Bike test
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6. The techie tricks and tips |
| 2007 provisional dates |
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Unicorn Adventures Ltd at the International BMW Biker Meeting
From July 7th to July 9th the 6th International BMW Biker Meeting took place in Garmisch Partenkirschen (German Alps). For the first time Unicorn Adventures Ltd was present as an exhibitor.
We enjoyed many positive contacts as well as a great time sharing motorcycle riding events (like the Chris Pfeiffer stunt shows, BMW exhibition - check our blog www.unicornadventures.org to read about the R1200R world premiere - 1.000 BMW bikes corsos, music etc…).
During the meeting Unicorn Adventures Ltd had a raffle organised to win a GPA Storm Helmet and the winner is Werner Müller from Germany.
Considering the very wet weather on the Friday as well as some times on Saturday the BMW Biker Meeting once more demonstrated that BMW bikers don't care about the weather as there must have been at least 25.000 to 30.000 bikers present over the three days! See you next year over there!
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A new tour: Wines Tour de France
And then we decided to go the Unicorn Adventures Ltd way: why go small when you can offer the most interesting tour for wine fans? Lets get through ALL the French wine yards! In 15 days, 4.600km! From the French Riviera, through: Provence, Rhône, Beaujolais, Bourgogne, Savoie, Jura, Alsace, Champagne, Loire, Cognac, Bordeaux, Cahors, Corbières and Languedoc. This tour is a unique opportunity to experience France's long history of wine. We will also ride through historical places like the Loire valley castles, Verdun and many more. We'll be riding during the day, taking plenty of time to view the sights and experience the wonderful regional cuisine. We will taste wines in the evenings. This tour is limited to twelve motorcycles. A new representative Unicorn Adventures Ltd is glad to let you know that as of June 2006 Mark McKinnon will be our new representative in the USA helping our North American team growth! You can contact him on usa_info@unicornadventures.com. By phone : +1 866 477 3911.
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What is included in the tour price?
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Not included in the price For all
customers: any item or activity not listed above.
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Why
should one travel with a Motorcycle Tour Operator? Many people will definitely have no need to travel with a motorcycle tour operator and can perfectly manage all their vacation by themselves and even like it. On the other side you may not have the time to read maps weeks prior to departure, scan the web to find the hotels, wonder which road to drive on, check forums, friends and so on to get the best places to go, sceneries to see or even places to visit. Not even talking about getting your bike all over the world for a week vacation far from home, or even carrying your gear when renting a bike.
A motorcycle tour operator will take
care of those items, will define the route to take, some like Unicorn
Adventures Ltd will provide the guide, the motorcycle, the gear, the
support truck, select the hotels, the places to see and so on and
so forth. In summary a motorcycle tour operator will take care of
everything for you! The cost will include, at Unicorn Adventures Ltd,
nearly everything even peace of mind. The only work you will have
is to enjoy your time, make new friends and discover great places.
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| Speed touring : the K1200GT
K1200GT (c) BMW |
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Like on the K1200S or K1200R the clutch or gear box is very present on the right side and is, really annoying from time to time as you have to squeeze your boot underneath it, not mentioning the cost for fixing that part in case of crash on the right side. But most will be ok with it.
Contact! The four cylinder 1157 cm3 engine purrs like a big cat. But like on the K1200S it sounds as if the revs are too high at idle even though they are set to 1.000 rpm. A little twist of the handle gets the beast to roar like a wild cat! Exciting! The suspension gets adjusted to "Normal" thanks to the ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment) and here we go!
First feeling: that thing feels very light (in fact more than 280 kg with all fluids on board)! Second feeling: each time she enters a turn she wants to fall! In fact it takes you a couple of curves to get used to that feeling, and to admire how perfectly glued to your trajectory the bike stays! Like on a train track! That Duolever ® is amazing! You have to be careful as you get very quickly excited by it and on wet conditions …you may be surprised ;)
On the highway it is very quickly obvious that the windshield is less efficient that the R1200RT one (at least for someone tall) and the fairing doesn't protect as well. For such a machine definitely dedicated to long runs it is surprisingly inefficient compared to the RT. On the feeling side and thanks to the engine noise you always get the idea you are faster than what you really are driving, which will help save your driving license, but the speed limits will most of the time be blown if no attention is paid! |
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Accelerations are quick and efficient and the engine sounds as it will never stop revving up!
Good point: the mirrors are high and in the field of sight, not like on the RT on which you need to look down to know what comes from behind (in case you let people over take you). Some may say those are too high…if you try to slip through traffic and SUVs, trucks, busses! But this is a very French way to drive, and thus may not happen elsewhere.
The same side cases like the RT ones are standard with the bike and allow for a nice amount of luggage.
While riding and thanks to the ESA you can adjust the suspension to:
Which helps you adjust the bike to the setting best for the riding style and the road. Really a great tool!
In summary and after that short
ride this is definitely a great tourer made for long distances on
German highways, with or without a passenger. |
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La
Spezia: nest of the first seaplanes
The start of the 20th century saw quite a few success related to getting human beings up in the air, place where our specie definitely not belongs too, but where we feel (for some of us) so well. After the successful first flight of the Wright brothers in their 1903 Wright Flyer on Dec 17th a new era opened and all possible ideas were tested. Among those came the one of taking of and landing on water (which by the way stood as the best solution until major airports were built by the secong half of the 19th century). The first seaplane, created and flown by Henri Fabre, made its first successful flight in Martigues (France), on the Mediterranean coast. A bit later in La Spezia, where our Northern Italy tour overnights, Mario Calderara conducted his own seaplane experiments.
"In 1905, Mario Calderara wrote to the Wright brothers in Dayton Ohio, after hearing about their successful attempts at flying (a documented record of their flights was known only after 1905). He asked them about technical details and was pleasantly surprised when he received a satisfactory answer from Wilbur and Orville, as well as from F.C. Bishop, president of Aeroclub of the United States. "
"After having received information from the Wright brothers, Mario Calderara requested permission from the Italian Navy to carry out some gliding experiments on water, towed by a motor boat. Permission was granted in 1906, and in the spring of 1907 he started his first gliding experiments, in the gulf of La Spezia, with a "flying machine" inspired from the Wright biplane. At first he placed the glider on floaters, and held it with ropes which would gradually release the glider allowing a controlled lift."
After various attempts in Brescia "Calderara applied to the Admiralty for permission to build in La Spezia a new type of airplane in which could take off and land on water. Seaplanes did not exist at the time, except for the French seaplane designed by Fabre, which had many drawbacks." |
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The Languedocienne
method, whose jousters represents a quarter of the jousting population
in France, is practiced in eight cities of the Hérault region (Béziers,
Agde, Marseillan, Mèze, Balaruc, Frontignan, Sète, Palavas,), of which
a good part is crossed by our tour The Mediterranean Coast,
and in a city of the Gard (Le Grau-du-Roi). Since 1743 the main event
takes place toward August 25th at the time of the Saint-Louis' tournaments
in Sète. The heavy boats propelled by eight to ten rowers cross themselves
on the right. In addition to the rowers, two musicians (drum and oboe)
and the " timonier patron": the helmsman, load the boat. The jousters
get up on a platform being located three meters above the water: the
tintaine. On the low part of the tintaine, await the jousters playing
next. Contrary to other jousts the jouster holds a half spread leg
position and cannot open them more, besides he carries a heavy shield
(pavois) and a 2m80 spear; it is a joust based on pure strength. The
winner is the one who remains standing on the tintaine. |
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(C) www.joutes.com
The Provencal method, practiced in Nice and in Arles follows the same rules but is practiced on motorized boats and the pavois is smaller.
The Lyon and the Givordine methods are essentially practiced in the Rhône valley from Digoin to Avignon but also in the Paris region and on the strands of the Lot and the Loire. In this method the spear can go from 4.6m to 6m (according to the category), this length being justified by the fact that the jouster is on a platform, the tabagnon, situated at the rear of the boat. The spear being hold by both hands the pavois is strapped to the neck and the shoulder. The positions on the tabagnon also defers from the methods practiced in the south of France. The difference between the lyonnaise and the givordine method essentially holds in the side of crossing of the boats. The lyonnais cross themselves on the left while the givordins cross on the right.
The Alsatian method applies to the Joust called "strasbourgeoise" practiced in the Northeast of France, but also in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria. No shield nor protective gear for the jouster, but the spear is fitted with a leather tampon. The victorious jouster has to turn two times his spear over his head in order to show to the jury that he is physically unscathed after the assault. The boats are propelled by six rowers.
The Parisian method is practiced on the Seine and the Loire on motorized boats, without shield but the jousters' chest is protected.
Although
the above described methods represent the most important they are
not the only ones and during your motorcycles tours with Unicorn Adventures
Ltd you may discover others like the Cognaçaiseses, those from Accolay,
or Mervilles and the different Breton jousts |
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But you'll think at once that it is a male focused offer. Absolutely not! Wine is a women business as Isabelle Forêt demonstrates it. Already in the eighties, this wine grower great-granddaughter and expert in oenology, while writing a booklet on the best-known French wines, noticed that most famous Châteaux (Châteaux Margaux, Haut Brion, Pichon Longueville…), the whole world dreaming about, belonged to women who stayed in the shade. To pay homage to them Isabelle Forêt published her first wine guide for women, "Elles et Bacchus" ("Hers and Bacchus"), in 1985. This first guide allowed numerous women to affirm frankly their passion for wine. At the beginning of year 2000, she put online her magazine focused on wine for the women (Winewomanworld), allowing us thus to discover the role of the women in a world that seems so masculine.
These women choose to be wine growers by inheritance or widowhood, but most often by choice and passion. Women were always present in the vineyards but nobody never spoke about them. If one considers their role today, everything changed. Indeed, all professions of wine are practiced by women. The profession of cellar master, last masculine bastion, ended up falling to the hands of the women. Women represent currently close to the half of the oenologists. Same for wine drinking: women have no more complexes about the idea to have a glass of wine to relax, even when living alone. Today, 78% of wines consumed by the households are purchased by women, the most often in the supermarket distribution. Which wines do they prefer? The very aromatic, flattering wines, wines of immediate pleasure, that have velvety and silken tannins in mouth and a beautiful fruity persistence; because they have a nose more developed that the men.
Gentlemen, if you have some questions…! |
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We had already presented a solution to get a windshield or fairing cleaned from all those corpses without trouble. But here comes the ultimate Bio version! If your bike is splattered with mosquitoes, flies, bees etc… and if you have time to get it cleaned, just park close to a place packed with ants (there are many all over the south of Europe), or close to one of their tracks. Leave your bike there for the night, DON'T remove the ants! At first it looks scary, but after a whole night there won't be any more ant on it and …SURPRISE… your bike will be clean, at least everything that could be removed will have been! (here we mean insect bodies! If wheels, saddles, chain etc.. have been removed don't blame the ants someone else helped them clean your bike).
You made a bio act: fed ants, didn't
pollute the planet…and didn't even waste your personal energy cleaning
the bike! |
