Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Probably best to avoid motorways in a new car.

Robcol .... bowling down the M74 at 60 mph in my 4.2 ton Iveco camper towing a very large race car trailer .... only to come across two mountain bikes and the rack they were strapped to sat in the middle of my lane .... fortunately traffic wasn't too heavy and a snakey swerve into the next lane avoided contact .... quarter of a mile further and there was a car on the hard shoulder and two panicy looking lycra lads belting back up the road.

Still think motorways are safe though.

K

Some years back a pal told me of coming across two ladies trying to change a flat tyre in the outside lane of a motorway....Motorways were quieter then but..!!!!

I have read circa 4 years ago of a then brand new Range Rover suffering an electrical shut down in the outside lane which also locked the handbrake on, even the police attending could not move it...Apparently there was a method of releasing it manually, located out of the way under the armrest, whether that still might be the case I know not... Such possibilities cause my naturally Luddite tendencies to twitch somewhat...

Luddite .... we have it easy .... crossing Bulgaria on a motorcycle way back when it was deep behind the Iron Curtain the road was awful in way European roads never are ..... suddenly this changed to a three lane motorway out of nowhere (we later worked out the motorway stretched just as far as you could see either way from a plane landing at the main airport! ) ...... bowling along the outside lane we were met with a gravel truck sat in it .... it had been levered up with logs from the roadside woods and the back axle was out on the road stripped ..... the driver and his mates were sat round on logs with a campfire in the road making tea .... obviously been there for days and would remain until someone brought back the repaired diff ...not a care in the world.


K

Drove through Bulgaria two years ago from Romania on our way to Greece, got to say the roads were pretty poor still in alot of places, glad we were in her car and not the Plus 8.

Interesting story K, whoever determined that travel broadens the mind, might have enjoyed similar experiences... (-: I have travelled on some rough roads in my old +8 in times past..

https://www.tm-img.com/images/2020/05/29/Rough-road-to-Coin.md.jpg

https://www.tm-img.com/images/2020/05/29/That-IS-the-road-surface.md.jpg

Luddjte .... that looks like fun ..... forty-ish years ago Bulgaria was a disturbing place to drive across ..... not a good feel ... you could get a 32 hour transit visa .... I remember we didn't use that route returning from Istanbul (coming back via Greece wasn't without issues .... they were having one of their periodic times of tension and I remember us riding across a very long exposed bridge with Turkish guns pointed at our backs and Greek ones at our front ) ..... but I'm talking about potholes you rode down one side and rode up the other

K

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my old travel pics K, from a dull memory they were taken circa 2003 those trips were ever thought of as an adventure.

Unfortunately ever extending self build works took up far too much time and resources which curtailed such activities. Greece would have been next on the list though from that which you typed perhaps it might have been too tough for us, though the old +8 would perhaps have managed better than might we on such a trip... Unfortunately in the time between then and now my sense of adventure has diluted considerably...The best I managed was a drive in my good lady`s 4x4 down the the last LeMans Classic, which was too much of an adventure given all the m/way road works in England to create "smart" m/ways...!!!

Just like our mountain roads up here in the Rockies, the 2 mile road to my house is a little rougher and significantly steeper. When living and working in Poland many years ago at weekends I would leave the city and drive into the wilds exploring, trying to avoid the main Military road checks meant taking the back roads, well roads by name only. Up near the Belarus border driving through a wooded area the track suddenly opened up into a wide very straight black topped road way. Quickly I realised it was a runway and hidden in the trees were Russian Mig fighters in their shelters. I managed to get about 100 yds down the runway before the military guards swarmed out and I was detained (not arrested as they told me), it took over 3 hours of explaining and having the film in my camera taken before I was escorted back to Bialystock and then allowed to drive back to Warsaw where I had to report to the Police and British Embassy; the Ambassador was not too pleased.

Britmog, that seems FAR too adventurous for the likes of me back then, let alone now..!!!!

Agree K, statistically safer roads but if there is a problem you are travelling at higher speeds. I no longer travel behind cars with suitcases on roof racks and view roof boxes or bike racks with suspicion too.