The Duellists trip. The Forza 350 takes its first tour

The Duellists trip. The Forza 350 takes its first tour

Finding myself with a week spare I thought let’s try the Forza 350 out on a short tour. But where to?
I’ve always loved the film The Duellists by Ridley Scott, it was one of the reasons that I got into fencing many years ago (that and my moustache makes me look like D’Artagnan!). And so I decided to head down to Sarlat La Caneda which was where they filmed some of the initial scenes.
Brittany ferries had a good deal on for a quick return to France so I booked 2 quick returns for £50 each (4 crossings, but not needing to use 2 of them) which was quite a bit cheaper than buying two singles…. How strange!
Anyway I loaded up the Forza 350 with enough gear for a week and headed down to Plymouth for an overnight crossing to Caen. I was stuck between two groups of adventure bike riders mainly on GSs who didn’t seem to want to chat to the guy on the scooter. Oh well.
A pretty good sleep and we arrived in Caen at 07:30 and then just a few hours ride down to Saumur. It’s a nice little town with an attractive castle overlooking the river, which I visited the day after. The following day was a longer ride of about 200 miles down to Sarlat, it was drizzly for most of the day but arrived in the dry which is always nice not having to turn up dripping at someone’s apartment.
I’d booked 3 nights there and took the first day to just look around the medieval town centre. Such a wonderful little town and you can really get lost in the little streets finding those wow moments around every turn. I can see why Ridley Scott used it for some of the first duel scenes.
The following day I headed about 6 miles out to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle Castle, where I parked the scooter in the free car park by the bridge then walked up to the castle. This has to be one of my favourites, the views were spectacular and the castle had the right mix of props, videos and old weapons. I could imagine myself running along the battlements, sword waving in my hand (not a euphemism).
After heading back to the bridge I followed a path across the fields to La Roque-Gageac where I had found they filmed the final scene of the duellists where Harvey Keitel stands overlooking the then flooded Dordogne valley contemplating his existence, and did my very best to recreate them myself.
Retraced my steps to the scooter and then headed back to Sarlat.
At this point I thought about whether the Forza 350 makes a good tourer? And of course the short answer is yes, it really does.
As you know I’ve been riding the PCX125 for a few years on some long trips and I was concerned that going up in size would lose that enjoyable fun you get with a lightweight bike. Despite the 350 being about 50kg heavier it still maintains an average of 84mpg giving a decent range out of its 11.7 litre tank. I was regularly able to fill up at 200 miles which was good as it’s one of my pet hates when touring, stopping riding whilst letting all the traffic you’ve overtaken go past.
Under the seat is 40 litres of space, which means you can get a tonne of stuff under there. I bought a 52 litre topbox so all my gear is locked away and it’s still just the standard width of the bike as no side cases making tight filtering much easier.
The Forza also has an electric screen which on the highest setting gives great wind and weather protection, dropping it down when in-city riding for the airflow and visibility. Combine that with the smooth engine and comfort and the miles slip by easily.
From Sarlat I headed back, stopping at Cholet with a 247 mile day on a mix of roads. The 350 does very well on motorways but above 80mph starts to feel a bit twitchy and the mpg drops off quite a bit. Not much opportunity for those types of speeds anyway.
The penultimate day saw a gentle 140 mile ride up to St Malo and then the ferry the last day and a quick ride home from Portsmouth in the dark where I got to test out the very good lights.
It only worked out a bit over 1000 miles but very comfortable it was too.
I’m still planning a longer trip probably to Romania in May and I’m confident the Forza 350 will handle it well.