BACKROADS • APRIL 2022
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A Pyrenees Prance Text and Photos by: Stephen Davis The seed was planted on a prior trip to Spain while driving a four-wheel rental admiring the engineering of the Spanish roadways. They portended exciting riding and glorious scenery on two wheels. After getting a medical report that came with the likelihood of a reduced life expectancy, there was new emphasis to complete an adventure on some of the best roads on the Iberian Peninsula. The Pyrenees Mountains beckoned. The booking with IMTBike for a custom, ten-day, self-guided tour from Barcelona to San Sebastian and back was made in July 2019 for September 2021. Little did I know a pandemic would intervene. Fortunately, by the time of the scheduled trip, I was vaccinated, in decent health, and had obtained travel clearance from the United States, Spain, American Airlines, my doctors, and my spouse. How did enjoying motorcycling get so complicated? During the process, I yearned for the days when, as a teen, on the spur of the moment, I could kick start my 1972 Suzuki TS250 and go riding in the mud!
Getting Started in Barcelona The tour included a first night stay in central Barcelona at the Abba Sants Hotel, where I was to meet my IMT contact “Nacho” at 6 pm in the lobby. He came with a friendly attitude, a detailed tour handbook, and maps. Most of the info in the tour book was previously provided via email, so I had purchased my own maps on Amazon and marked the ten-day course
with a highlighter and notes. Nacho gave me the same maps with his own highlighting, plus a map of the zigzags in and out of France not covered by the other maps (more on that later). After a beer and some war stories, Nacho and I walked two blocks to the IMT shop in Barcelona where we went over the rental bike, a 2021 1250GS, equipped with all the bells and whistles, including “shift assist” (quickshifter), multiple riding modes, a
programmable nav unit, and BMW side and top cases. It even had cruise control and a heated seat. It was a hopped-up, water-cooled, high-tech version of my 2001 1150GS oil head. Since I wasn’t planning to hit much dirt on this trek, I requested tires suited to spirited riding on asphalt. I was pleased to see that IMT kindly obliged by outfitting the GS with brand new ContiTrailAttack 3s.
