A serendipitous stroke of luck for both you and Red! How very fortunate!.. Did you seat belt him in with a cable tie the rest of the trip?

Red was staying firmly fixed for now.
Carried on towards the Alps and watched the temperature rise, at 36c I was stopping every 1/2 hour or so, french services are great, most have lots of space with good tree cover so you make for the shade, and drink plenty of water.
When it rose to 40c I met a couple from the Rhonda on a Varerdero, he was thinking of giving up and going home as she was unable to cope on the back, they were both wearing black waterproof bike gear.
I just carried on untill I got to the alps and a series of tunnels and saw the temperature start to fall to 35c.


Eventually arrived at Chamonix.


And soon found my Hotel

Hotel was like a giant swiss chalet, rooms sparce but clean and cool, no food though.

View from lounge


But after a shower, a 10 minute walk to the Kitch Inn.

A warm salad, a few beers and walk back to the room

Fantastic scenery.

Early to bed, them woke at midnight with severe cramps in my legs, obviously didnt drink enough water during the day.
took an hour to clear.
Awoke to another clear day, went for the 6 euro breakfast, and set off at 8.00am for the Mont Blanc Tunnel

One of the additions to the bike was a Givi Airflow screen.
Due to my bad back I had not ridden the bike since fitting it.
1st of all it made the bike too tall to get out of its home, unless slid down to the lowest position, then I pulled it up to a sort of mid way position and set off into the Welsh drizzle, quickly realising I could not see very well at all, so adjusted it down a bit.
when I got to the A55 I realised just how good they are, it transformed the bike, no buffeting, clearly hearing the radio at cruising speed, later on across France in 40c visor up 130kph still hearing the music (gave up on french radio, brought my own tunes)
Later in Italy Lyn experienced no buffeting either, she had complained of this back in the UK without me saying anything.
Only downside is it makes the engine sound noisier.

Morning Ben, Lyn & Red,

looks like some fabulous roads to have a play, with the bike.

I've ridden in hot temps and was really glad I could remove the inner layers of my BMW Rally suit, as the air flow allowed me to continue to ride only leaving me the problem of where to store the layers! A couple of straps soon had them secured onto the tops of the luggage.

Regards

40C (104F) is really, really hot. I've read studies that say when the temp gets above 34C (93F) the wind isn't cooling you anymore, it's heating you. At those time of temps, it's hard to drink enough water, something like 1 liter/hr is necessary.

Do you have something like a cambelbak hydration system? I fill mine up with ice water and have found it helps a lot. It's kind of annoying having to stop and pee so often, but I guess that's better than the alternative.

http://www.ironbutt.com/ibmagazine/IronButt_1002_62-66_Hot.pdf


Still sounds like a pretty good trip so far, even with the heat.

40C is really, really hot, no matter what you're doing. Living in the Phoenix Metro area all my years, enduring one blistering summer after another with temps of 105 to 115F day after day standard fare, left me with no desire to be outside, much less riding my bike!

When the opportunity to park my 5th wheel on the mountain in Heber/Overgaard at 6500 ft, where summer temps average 75F, mountain trails abound and winter snows are generally light, I jumped on that in a heartbeat and never looked back! Trust me, it's no fun living where you have to stay indoors most of the summer and crank the AC up to high just to survive.

Ben's experience riding in 40C heat heading for the Alps reminded me of what I left behind in 2013 and don't miss in the least! ..Love his photo journal and comments on his trip! What a fun getaway, exhausting as it was judging by the photo of him and Red wiped out once they were home!

I arrived at the Mont Blanc tunnel having to Queue for about half an hour, temperature was already 20c.

The queue was caused by them letting you go through with a good 2-300 metres between each vehicle. This is due to a devastating fire in the tunnel a few years ago that left 38 people dead.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_Tunnel
Strange thing was that as soon as I entered the tunnel the temperature rose to 30c, I thought it would be cooler inside.






As I left the temperature on the Italian side was 24c.
During the morning the temperature then rose up to 38c, Italian services are not a patch on french or Uk ones, too small, not enough parking and no shade, this is about the best I could find for shade, just a parking area with no facilities.

I think I timed it wrong at Genova as the traffic got really heavy and eventually came to stop start.
Italian scooters were lane splitting which seemed really dangerous as the cars were not moving to allow them through and with the width of the V-strom I stayed in line as the temperature rose some more.
The music in my helmet stopped, I checked my iphone which had overheated and stopped working.
With no wind the temperature rose to 50c! then stopped reading just saying Hi temp!
Bike engine temp fine, just the fan coming on, this must have been adding to the temperature.
when we finally got moving again the temp dropped to 38c which then seemed cool, I was dripping with sweat and I could feel my boots squelching.
I did try to fit a bottle holder from a pushbike before I set off, but gave up, I think I will try again before the net trip.
I do have a camelback but it always tastes plasticky.

I forgot the charger cable for the Garmin Virb camera, so no more pics until I arrived later that day at Coreglia Antiminelli.
When I left the valley floor and heade up innto the Tuscan hills the temperature became more bearable, it takes 25 minutes to reach the cottage on really fantastic roads, with loads of hairpins, several going down to 1st gear, the final section being on a dirt road.
As I arrived Elliot welcomed me with a cup of tea and a swim in the pool.
Half an hour later Janet arrived in her little Panda4x4 with Lyn fresh from her adventures on easyjet and the Italian bus and train system.
We had been texting each other (when my phone had cooled down and decided to work again), it was like a top gear episode, I'm at the airport, I'm at the tunnel etc.
Lyn was only later than me because she shopped.
Charged the Virb and here is the 1st video of the grounds of the cottage we had for 2 weeks

https://vimeo.com/137043484

Having trouble uploading the longer bike riding sequences, but they are on their way

Here is the 1st video of the ride down
https://youtu.be/TrRw4ubVtps