Fully paid up at last

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Here we are crossing the Pyrenees a few years ago...

   

Full story here: http://pub25.bravenet.com/forum/static/s...5&cmd=show

[Chris KC]

Here's the 'Austin Sevens Against the Poll Tax' expedition a year or two before that!

[Mark McKibbin]

If your pulley is moving in and out I would suspect the front cam bush is not located properly (there are mods to fix this) and the clattering is the mis-meshing of the cam gears. I had the same problem, once the bush was located properly (and I replaced the gears) thing were nice and quiet.

[PedigreeChummy]

Nice pics, gents.

That one of yours, Chris, looks like some borde crossing outside Beirut...

I'll send some of the car in her environs in the not-too-distant

[Chris KC]

It was taken at the top of Port d'Envalira on the way into Andorra, we mostly ascended in dense cloud then suddenly broke through into sunshine at the top. 30 years ago now, I imagine it has changed a bit.

I note that Val & I spent the first night of that trip on Dieppe docks in pouring rain 'sleeping' in the car beneath the tonneau cover! Happy days...

[Reckless Rat]

2407 metres above sea level?

That's nothing!

Top of the Col de la Bonnette, 2808 metres, September 2012. French Alps. Apparently you can't get any higher than that on tarmac anywhere in Europe (although I believe there's closed to the public track up some mountain in the Sierra Nevada somewhere in Spain that will get you just a bit higher, but it's cheating). A long, long climb from St Etienne de Tinée (Med side). Even more "interesting" is the descent to Jausiers...

[Bob Culver]

Wow. That is a mighty altitude. We have several main routes to about 1000 metres, some repeatedly but that is all. I found with the later head and SU if you can maintain revs 3rd is surprisingly able. Otherwise it is a tedious plod in 2nd.
With so many rugged mountains in Europe why do so many young Germans and French come all the way here to trek in ours? Are the paths too crowded in season? Or do they still have brigands? Or do we not charge enough?

[Chris KC]

Ah now if you'd said it was a contest Reckers! Yeah we did that with a blown head gasket back in '93... (yawn)

The stats on high passes seem to change all the time since GPS became available to the masses, but Col de la Bonette, Iseran and Stelvio are still I think the 3 highest proper roads in Europe and Val & I did the hat-trick in GO 6285.

[PedigreeChummy]

Does Val have the same happy memories, Chris?

It's probably not the same anymore, other than the peaks obviously.... there's a motorway runs most of the way up through Andorra nowadays, through a tunnel. Cuts out all the windy hairpins on the way up

[Reckless Rat]

Well done on doing all three. I did the Stelvio a few years ago but it's a nightmare with cyclists and bikers everywhere, particularly at weekends. I wasn't that impressed. The Grosslockner is much better.

The hike up Mont Ventoux from the Bédoin side is a challenging climb for an A7, as is Mont Aigoual, but the Dunfords (senior and junior) beat me to it on both, probably with a trailer attached, seven kids in the back and a front wheel missing.