Hi from Spain!

[XTreme]

Some of you may remember me from the early days of VD as BlackJet......and from 2004 as XTreme when I had MaximumBikes.

That got killed off some years ago (like many other forums) due to the predominance of Facebook. Though I did start an Adv/DualSport/Enduro forum last year just after this place was launched. It's an uphill battle due to FB, but we can't let them wipe us all out.

As for me, I've been in Spain since 2005. Never set foot back in Britain since then and never will. I'm now an OAP, but still working in web development.....and I'm never going to stop. I don't want to as I'd get bored, and the UK Pension is shit anyway.

I currently ride a G650GS, and in recent years most of my riding has been searching out abandoned villages, railway stations, tunnels, mines, factories etc. It's a sort of hybrid of Motorcycling, Dark Tourism, and Urbex......which I have christened Dark Motorcycling!

Here's an example.....the abandoned village of Retamalejo in the Murcia province!



Catch you guys soon!

[Yorick]

Welcome from the southern bit of Spain

[weeksy]

Great first post.... welcome in and i hope you enjoy this place.

[XTreme]

Welcome from the southern bit of Spain

It's been a bit brutal for the last month where we are Yorick!

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[XTreme]

Great first post.... welcome in and i hope you enjoy this place.

Many thanks weeksy! You still involved with racing now?

[Horse]

Hello! What's the story behind the village?

[weeksy]

Great first post.... welcome in and i hope you enjoy this place.

Many thanks weeksy! You still involved with racing now?

NAh mate, plenty of trackdays but i stopped racing when it hurt my wallet/pride/body too much

[Yorick]

Welcome from the southern bit of Spain

It's been a bit brutal for the last month where we are Yorick!

sde.jpg

Bollox to that

[XTreme]

Hello! What's the story behind the village?

There's over 2000 of them here......most abandoned 40+ years ago due to economic migration into the cities.

I've only done one so far that falls into the other category......forced removal! This is Los Goldines in the Jaen province where the residents were evicted by the State during the Franco era. Then the buildings were demolished so they couldn't return.

This was due to the creation of the Cazorla-Segura National Hunting Reserve in 1960, as it required a change in the usage of large tracts of land, land that contained a number of villages and whose residents were evicted. Los Goldines is one such village, and like the others all that remains today are the ruins of some of the expropriated houses.

What happened to the villagers? Apparently they were then taken to live in Santiago de la Espada which is 25kms away. Were they financially compensated? It doesn't seem like it, because it appears some of the affected families are still trying to pursue legal action to try and recover what used to be the land and dwellings of their grandparents.

[Trinity765]

Hello and welcome. I like a bit of urban exploration so will enjoy your videos later

[XTreme]

Hello and welcome. I like a bit of urban exploration so will enjoy your videos later

You'll like this one then......abandoned railway loader and nearby factory in Almeria.

This is the creepiest one I've done so far! It provoked a lot of response on FaceButt with people warning me that I'm likely to get myself brutally murdered by crazy psychopaths that could be lurking.

[Scotsrich]

Hello and welcome. I like a bit of urban exploration so will enjoy your videos later

You'll like this one then......abandoned railway loader and nearby factory in Almeria.

This is the creepiest one I've done so far! It provoked a lot of response on FaceButt with people warning me that I'm likely to get myself brutally murdered by crazy psychopaths that could be lurking.

Yet you still sign up to rtl

[XTreme]

Hello and welcome. I like a bit of urban exploration so will enjoy your videos later

You'll like this one then......abandoned railway loader and nearby factory in Almeria.

This is the creepiest one I've done so far! It provoked a lot of response on FaceButt with people warning me that I'm likely to get myself brutally murdered by crazy psychopaths that could be lurking.

Yet you still sign up to rtl

Nobody else will take me!

[Skub]

Great vids. I love the feeling of isolation. Could be part of the set for Breaking Bad!

Welcome along man.

[XTreme]

Great vids. I love the feeling of isolation. Could be part of the set for Breaking Bad!

Welcome along man.

Cheers skub!

[Bigyin]

Cracking places to go and ride....... once we are allowed out to play again

welcome in with all the other refugees

[rodbargee]

Xtreme MAx bikes was very niche but always a laugh nice to see you surface Were sposed to be going to Spain Late May I bet we have to cancel again(third time) Sotoseranno. some great roads round there.

[XTreme]

Xtreme MAx bikes was very niche but always a laugh nice to see you surface Were sposed to be going to Spain Late May I bet we have to cancel again(third time) Sotoseranno. some great roads round there.

Cheers Rod!

I think this year is going to be a repeat of last year.....so I wouldn't get your hopes up for May!

We're now back to a perimetral lockdown here.....can't leave the town boundaries. And most of Spain is in the same position.

[weeksy]

Xtreme MAx bikes was very niche but always a laugh nice to see you surface Were sposed to be going to Spain Late May I bet we have to cancel again(third time) Sotoseranno. some great roads round there.

Cheers Rod!

I think this year is going to be a repeat of last year.....so I wouldn't get your hopes up for May!

We're now back to a perimetral lockdown here.....can't leave the town boundaries. And most of Spain is in the same position.

This is a slightly selfish post, but you may have seen we're all due to fly to Portugal in the end of May for a trackday at Portimao, 15+ of us from the forum, so if you could keep us posted on your side of the water in the coming weeks/months that would be really useful mate please.

[XTreme]

Xtreme MAx bikes was very niche but always a laugh nice to see you surface Were sposed to be going to Spain Late May I bet we have to cancel again(third time) Sotoseranno. some great roads round there.

Cheers Rod!

I think this year is going to be a repeat of last year.....so I wouldn't get your hopes up for May!

We're now back to a perimetral lockdown here.....can't leave the town boundaries. And most of Spain is in the same position.

This is a slightly selfish post, but you may have seen we're all due to fly to Portugal in the end of May for a trackday at Portimao, 15+ of us from the forum, so if you could keep us posted on your side of the water in the coming weeks/months that would be really useful mate please.

Obviously Portugal may well be in a different position to Spain in May......at the moment it's not doing too good with controlling Covid.

But a mate of mine, who I speak to every day on another forum, is Portuguese. He lives near Lisbon.

So I can keep you up to speed on developments through him.

Can you give me the link to the thread about the trackday and I can give you updates there?