Europe 'Mini Grand Tour' - 2 weeks, Trail riding, Trip there

[G]

Before we start, a couple of warnings:
A) I waffle. A lot. If you don't like that, run now! Go to your safe place and ask someone stronger to close the browser window.
B) The ending is a bit disappointing, prepare yourself.
C) I've been lazy with pictures, the links just go to the Album, you'll have to click on the pic you want in more detail. If for any reason you want a higher resolution copy of any pic, give me a shout.

A brief overview of what I had planned.
Wanted to do some trails in Spain, especially the Pyrenees, which are known to be very good with lots of opportunity and friendly natives, the few that you find.
I could have got the ferry over to Spain and back, but that'd not have worked so well with holiday times from work. By going over at Holland and back through France I can get more holiday on the bike (16 days in total; three weekends and my last ten days holiday from work) and only lose a day or two trail riding in Spain.
I end up slightly diverting the route to be Holland(Coffeeshops) > Germany(Nurburgring) > Switzerland(Chocolate) >(Alps pass fun)> Italy(Food in general) > France (because it's between the other places and Spain > Spain > France (because I get another day in Spain taking the ferry from France).
Want to try and get some nice local food in each area - especially Italy, as I'm a fan of Italian food generally.

[G]

Day 0 - Preperation, West Reading to Harwich via East Reading

Preparation
The first day of my trip continues from the previous day seamlessly - still running around trying to work out what still needs to be done to the bike and trying to work out what I can afford to take and can’t afford not to take.
I’ve got all the seriously-noisy stuff done before 11, so as not to annoy the neighbours too much. Thursday evening’s work included ‘remodelling’ my tent rack with an angle grinder and welding a few extra bits on, tidying up the electrics I’d been trying to put into a ‘project box’ by ripping them out and wrapping in gaffa tape and
At one in the morning I think ‘I could have this finished by two’; by four I do actually only have about half an hour of packing left, with me eventually turning the lights off at five, with a list of things to do in the morning still. My understanding boss is happy for me to come in late and work late - as I don’t have to be at the ferry until a quarter to eleven in the evening, there’s no urgency. However I’d prefer not to ride home, only to ride back the opposite way on the same route, taking probably an hour all in.

I’m woken at around nine and decide to get up - perhaps a mistake as I’m not very productive after four hours sleep. I manage to sort everything on my list apart from a tripod quick release plate, which also alluded me the previous night.

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Testing the camera on the way to work - the waterproof cover isn't quite right, as you can see - I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it!

I head to work in full gear with the bike ready to go, or so I hope. On the motorway there’s an odd wobble, which modulates every three seconds or so – a moderate wobble develops at the front over three seconds if not held tight, then goes back to calm three seconds later, repeating in another three seconds.
I really hope it’s the wheels out of balance, as I can hopefully get the local tyre bloke to get these sorted in Lunch time. This had been ‘on the list’ anyway.
When I call, he’s not so sure he will have time, but when I turn up one person has just been finished with no one else ‘in the queue’. It turns out the Tubliss system has put the wheels almost 200g out of balance! That’s even more than a normal rimlock with a tube – odd as the rimlock on the tubliss system is made out of a light allow with a rubber block and the rest I’d have thought it would be a consistent weight around the rim.
Thankfully, with the wheels now back in balance the bike is now nicely stable at speed. At under 10mph or so, however, it still feels rather wobbly. I suspect all the weight on the bike isn’t helping – the headlight is also pointing very high. I had had ‘set up pre-load’ on my list of things to do, but apparently this needs to be done careful with the right tools as it’s easy to damage the threads otherwise.
My front-preload adjusters also arrive, but I don’t have time in the busy lunch time to fit them.
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I test the bike’s poise – with no fuel in the front tank it’s definitely a bit light at the front!

As I’m in late, I end up finally leaving the office a little before eight, when it’s already got dark. I do make a trip to the local petrol station at around seven to fill up, so I can have a straight-run to Harwich if needed.


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As I may not have time to get some food on the way, I grab something for me too – the starters and dessert at least!

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Everything arranged ready to go, at work.


On the way

I had been hoping to get to the local Halfords, which closes at eight, but they will no doubt be already closing up. The journey is fairly uneventful. The M4 is fine going in to London, though traffic is still a bit heavy coming out as it’s a Friday evening. A find a few opportunities to filter with my excessively-wide bike still concerning me, but mostly the traffic is flowing well enough that I’m happy to take a more relaxed than normal attitude with a not very stringent time scale. I’m trusting to the new GPS for the first time, but the route’s pretty easy and well signposted near the end anyway.
On the smaller local roads as I near Harwich; I gun it away from a roundabout with moderate enthusiasm as I tend to with any vehicle. I’m surprised to see a car’s headlights pretty much keeping up with me on acceleration terms from a little way back. Having a moderately fast car but not flash looking car (E36 M3) I occasionally amuse myself by easily matching someone that thinks they’re fast in acceleration.
Eventually turns out the car behind was a Civic Type R – a little embarrassing for me, but I suspect they’re foot was flat to the floor having driven one, which I wasn’t quite taking the KTM to the redline.

I ask if there’s any local garages when I get to the ferry port as I want to use the hour and a half I’ve got to fill up on fuel and get some cheaper-than-the-ferry food. Fuel will mean I can get going straight away and I suspect it’s going to be cheaper in the UK with the current exchange rate – apparently nothing near will be open – they tell me that Harwich is quite a small town, which I hadn’t realised, so I’d have to go some way to find one.

I show my details and ride through to be put into a short queue – the only bike unsurprisingly.
I hear someone saying that they were told we’ll be waiting a little over an hour.
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So I have a play taking a few pics while I wait.
And something a bit artier:
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I can only find one glove as I quickly shove my stuff in to my panniers and into the spare tyres. I make a point of riding away a little then looking back – nothing on the floor so everything must be on the bike somewhere.

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Parked up, secured and actually have a little enthusiasm!
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Exploring the ferry, walking around in white motocross boots with no other bike gear gets me some odd looks.
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I thought they made ideal ‘deck shoes’!
I did have a set of trainers with me at work with my gym stuff, but ideally I’d like some lighter-weight footwear that can be squashed down a bit better, so decided to just keep an eye out on my travels – I reckon it’s over five years since I last bought a pair of trainers so can probably justify getting some more!
Up until this point the trip had mostly involved me being stressed – with a lot of running around and knowing I wouldn’t get everything I wanted to done in the time I had.


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My back rack is very poorly welded (haven't done any for over a year, never was that good, rods had probably gone off and various other excuses)... wonder if they'll mind if I borrow their's quickly?

Eventually decide I do want the main course I missed earlier, so go for a baked potato, which is surprisingly good for over-priced transport-food – lots of cheese!
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Eating alfresco

While I’m eating I make a few texts and try to setup international roaming on my phone. It seems that opposite to Virgin when I did it years ago, for Orange you have to set this up for contracts, but not for pay as you go phones. When I manage to navigate the maze of an automated system an answering message tells me they are only open until ten and so I will have to call the next morning. But, of course, by that time I will be in Holland and would need international roaming enabled to call. Doh. They suggest I can do it online, but I need various other details which I don’t have for that I find out.

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Goodbye England!

Heading back to the cabin I go for what I expect to be my last shower for a while.
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My home for the night.
And the bathroom.
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While I can survive without them, I do enjoy a good shower. I liked that this one had a ‘safety switch’ you had to press to get it properly hot. Unfortunately I failed the challenge of getting it right to the stop after that.
I did manage to set the smoke alarm off when I then opened the door it turned out – a portly crew member knocked on my door and asked whether I had been smoking or had the door open while showering. As I was still fairly wet and dressed only in a towel, I’m not sure it was worth the question.

I’m going to try and talk about a company and product I’ve used in the trip, each day.

Ride in Bike tyres
Today’s company spotlight is ride in bike tyres, who did my wheel balancing earlier.
Just quickly, Mark, who runs it is a genuine bloke and one that I don’t hesitate to recommend to anyone. Always willing to do what he can to help and a ‘real’ bike with real experience.
I’ve known people come from a long way away to use his services. Based in Reading.
Details can be found here, the contact details are correct, despite the site being out of date: https://www.rideinbiketyres.co.uk/

Oxford Muffs
First had these on my ZX9 commuter bike. You need hand guards of some sort if you’re going to use them above 50mph or so, at which point if you don’t they’ll start pressing on your brake and clutch levers.
I made a DIY guard for the brake on the zx9 and fastened one side on the clutch side – on the KTM it was just a case of a cable tie around the guard to hold it on.
I think these along with the heated grips, made a big difference to comfortable riding in the cold. With heated grips alone, I find the outside of my fingers can still get significantly cold, while the inside may be overheating. At points I was riding at a steady 90mph for some distance in pretty cold ambient temperatures with just a motocross glove and silk liner and my hand still wasn’t cold.
Not an amazing product, but with a bit of bodging does what is needed. I suspect there are better versions out there, however.
I’ll discuss and explain the lights on them another day.

Fact for the day:
Maximum speed of trip, according to GPS: 170kph.

[wizzzard]

Cracking read so far G, looking forward to the rest
____________________
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
Zeitgeist / Addendum / Moving forward

[Luke_Retrofly]

Posting to keep track of thread
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[Charlie]

Aye, great read! Looking forward to the next installments.
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Jenks]

good read! cant wait!

take care pal!
____________________
1978 MZ TS 250 1 Supa 5
1992 yamaha fzr1000 exup
1998 aprilia af1 sintesi

[.....]

C'mon G, I can see this being a very long, drawn out write-up as G takes his time

[G]

It will be rather drawn out I'm afraid, does take a while to write it up as I haven't got as much done as I was intending to while out there (ie hardly anything). Jenks - as you may now work out, am back now, just doing the write up.
Afraid it's going to be one a day for the moment, though may speed up towards the end. Sadly I've got a fairly good memory for this sort of thing - and I'm still leaving loads out.
Got day one's written up, now need to sort out the pictures etc.

[Chris4564]

Nice write up - looking forward to future installments!
____________________
Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional

[G]

Day 1 - Hook van Holland to the Nurburgring, via Rotterdam and Amsterdam

To Rotterdam
I haven’t slept amazingly well – every few seconds, a bit like my bike initially the previous day, the wall the beds are on vibrates lightly. Maybe they need to balance their props, or something?
In the morning, I try ascending to the upper bunk, but that’s no better and I get little more sleep after seven UK time.

When we’re called down to our vehicles, after some panicked searching I come to the conclusion that I definitely don’t have my other ‘warm’ glove. Later in the trip I realise I must have dropped it between the bit where they check your passport/ticket and the queue, making my furtive checks behind me when I left the queue useless.
Donning a motocross glove on my right hand I punch ‘Nurburgring’ in to the GPS and head off. Stop at the petrol station I come to, where I check tyre pressures. An ongoing thing I noticed through the continent is that they tend to have much quieter air compressors than the industrial-sounding UK ones.
While I’m waiting, I see someone in a pretty muddy and seriously-raised what looks like a hatchback of some kind go past, giving me a thumbs up. Forgot to ask what it is but he looped back and stopped to ask a chat - was asking where I was going, having seen the dirt tyres on the back – he has a Husaberg, so we talk bikes a bit.
The ride to Rotterdam is typical Dutch non-motorway roads, with lots of watery stuff to the side of the raised road.

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Riding across about the only famous landmark in Rotterdam.


It’s a while since I’ve been to Rotterdam, so I ride around, vaguely following the GPS to a central area. I’m looking for a coffee shop or two, as well as a hardware store and a photographic shop.
I had meant to find the location of some coffee shops before hand, but hadn’t had the time – another thing left undone in the ‘lower priority’ area of my list.

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Getting bored I stop for an appropriately ‘continental’ breakfast.

After riding some more, I head to the centre of the city. I do actually find the one coffee shop I remember from, I realise, ten years ago – weed can’t be quite as bad for your memory as they say! Unfortunately, it seems to have shut down in that time.

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Wandering around some more I have a liquid brunch on the way. Ok, it’s not authentic Dutch I’m now told, but it’ll do – They are apparantly a Swedish company, it seems.

Eventually, I tire of walking past all the boutique shops and decide it’ll be quicker just to head to Amsterdam where coffee shops are hard not to find and there will no doubt be an appropriate photographic and hardware stores.
It seems that Rotterdam is quite Akin to Reading in regards it’s town centre – it’s filled with trendy boutique shops that don’t really interest me. If you know where they are, there are no doubt decent shops further out, but you have to have good local knowledge. While, despite being more touristy; like with London, Amsterdam has plenty of small ‘useful’ shops nestled away between the touristy stuff.


To Amsterdam
On the way to Amsterdam they seem to have completely closed a motorway and I’m having trouble working out which way to go.

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Motorway CLOSED!

I’ve always been impressed how the Dutch manage to avoid the trap of buying the latest knock-off mountain bike with the lightest weight that will get you down a hill in the quickest time (ok, there may be something there, with their lack of hills!) and instead go for appropriate ‘town’ bikes made to last a long time instead.

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Note the kids!

Heading off a slip-road I’m amused by a sign to Ikea – maybe I should finally get around to visiting one, as I’ve oft’ been told by a friend that I could spend hours wandering around their many rows of wonder-inspiring goods. I find that I’m actually following the signs, maybe this will be my chance!

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Then I realise that ‘Ikea’ must mean ‘Diversion’ in Dutch, oh well... another time.

Parking up near the station, a kindly mad passing points out one of silk gloves is being blown away. I later find that I have indeed only ‘saved’ one, leaving me a single ‘warm’ glove and a combination of a motocross glove and silk glove for the other hand.

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Parked up


I manage to find what I need in Amsterdam – some weed from ‘Barneys’, which a friend is always recommending, as well as coffee shop 36, a previous favourite of mine.

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Typical Amsterdam street – Barney’s wasn’t ‘all that’, by the way.

At the hardware shop, after some diagrams it transpired the rather English sounding ‘jubilee clip’ would be called a ‘snake ring’ or similar in Holland. From by the counter I also grab some strong over-sized cable ties and a couple of retractable cable things (usually for holding keys and the like on your belt) which I plan to use with the camera. So far I’ve just been keeping the camera in the hydration-pack rucksack I’ve got strapped to my front-tank, but I’d like a way to easily take pictures and replace it.
At a small independent camera shop I got a thread-converter for my quick-release tripod head that had arrived on Friday too.

Thanks to my ‘pac safe’, I was able to fairly securely leave my bike suite and helmet attached to the bike.
Wandering around, I see the sobre and less than sobre nudging their mates and pointing at my footwear. In London, where it’s quite common for couriers to use similar boots, though maybe not a dirty white, I wouldn’t expect so much attention. However people definitely seem to be confused and amused by my choice footwear, especially with no other explanation in the form of a motorbike helmet or similar.
I wander around some more. I do manage to find somewhere selling cheap trainers, but none in I’m ok with in my size left.
One thing I hadn’t noticed in my various trips to Amsterdam ten plus years ago was the cheese shops and market stalls. These are truly glorious places, with many kinds of nice authentic looking cheese, many have free tasters too! Unfortunately the queues are generally universally pretty long, so don’t indulge myself.

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Still not having eaten properly, I do stop at a market stall for what seems to be a banana fritter; not sure if this is a Dutch speciality or not.

On To Germany
I end up leaving Amsterdam at around five I think, with a decent few hours riding to get to the Nurburgring. Once I’m out of Amsterdam, it’s a case of motorways and major Roads.
Getting hungry at around eight or so, I follow a sign with a ‘food’ symbol, which promptly leads me to no further signs and no further food.
A quick check of the GPS shows a small town a little further down the road. A use the GPS ‘points of interest’ feature to find food places. I decide to stop off at a supermarket to get some supplies – bread meat and cheese for breakfast and some juice as well as coke to drink. I’m not actually entirely sure if I’m still in Holland or have passed into Germany at this point – but decide I have just got into Germany.
I take a few slices of cheese and ham to sustain me in my search for proper food – good cheese, so another couple!
After some riding around rather posh looking restaurants (I’d prefer to avoid long service times) I settle on a ‘’steak café’, or something to that affect, which gives me a very palatable burger and chips.

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Mmmm!

Heading to a petrol station, the first two on the GPS are closed and I manage my first driving on the left incident, returning down the side road one is on. I eventually find an open petrol station and fuel up.
With two tanks that need to be fueled separately, it takes longer than normal; doubly so because I have to hinge up the tyres and tent on the back to get at the rear tank. Why KTM chose there, as opposed to the more sensible BMW’s choice on the side of the bike for their G650, I don’t know.

Getting close to the Nurburgring I’m keeping an eye out for an appropriate secluded area to stick my bike. About five miles away I see a path heading off into some forest. Trying to get a bit further away from the road, I end up in a field with an odd ‘observation tower’ style thing in the middle.
Despite the weight on the back making the bike feel very wobbly at low speed, I’m glad I’m on a relatively light bike with some tread on the tyres.
Heading back through the woods I quickly end up back at the road. I cross straight over it to a path the other side, but this path does specifies no vehicles, so I head back along towards the Nurburging.
Nothing obvious show it’s self before I get there, so I head back again, turning into the bit I had previously comes out of. Oops, seems there is a no-motorvehicles sign here too, guess the one at the other end got covered up or something.

As it’s getting quite late, I head up there anywhere, riding around the edge of the field until I find a little clearing. There’s a lot of moonlight, so I can clearly see another could of these ‘observation towers’, slightly concerned I chuck my tent down anyway.

Company of the Day:
Alpkit
Alpkit provided my self-inflating mat, as well as a dry-bag I used for my sleeping bag and a bivvy bag I never used.
Their kit has always seemed to be good quality, without the price of top-named brands. Their Fat Airic is pretty good value and very good on for comfort, though pack-size as you’d expect isn’t amazing.
Ordering from them, they were happy to honestly talk me through the options and said I could send back the bivvy bag if it wasn’t the size I needed.
www.alpkit.com

Product of the Day:
Flash Mach II Blackout Tent

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Camped Up

Ok, as a 80cm disc, this isn’t an ideal tent to use from a bike. Weight isn’t particularly light and it’s now been discontinued, however a few Millets stores do still have them.
I’d estimate I’ve probably spent around a year of my life living out of a tent – be it music festivals, motorsport events or camping holidays when young. Reckon I can put a total of at least a month from this model of tent.
So, why so good? Well the pop-up design is definitely nice when you’ve been riding all day, but it’s the way the ‘black out’ actually works. No, it you couldn’t develop your photos in there, but it’s certainly darker than most tents; for someone like myself that has double ‘real’ black out blinds in his room to ensure a good night’s sleep, this really makes a difference.
The second trick it manages is actually to stay cooler than other tents – surprising for an all-black tents, but the vents seem to work even in still air and it doesn’t suffer from the greenhouse-effect that many lighter coloured tents do.
This design does have two poles you have to slot in to the top, but it doesn’t take long and isn’t essential, though it will pool water in the rain without them.

I was going to try and get a video of how quickly you could go from stopping the bike to in your tent with this setup, but never got around to it – needless to say, it was pretty quick!

What I would really like to see if Kyman make a version of it’s Ranger with this sort of fabric. That way I wouldn’t need to make silly-heavy brackets out of mild steel that mess up the handling of the bike just to carry my tent!

Oh and just to further annoy the 'serious' campers, I never used a tent peg the whole trip, nor a guy rope and had no problems.

Fact of the Day:
Number of food items spork deployed for use with: 4

[colin1]

Good read.

If you find time to use google maps, to log your route, I'd like that.

I'm particularly interested in the trails you are going to do in spain, as its vaguely possible I might do some trail riding in Spain one day.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[G]

Unfortunately I lost the GPS track from the first couple of days, but have it saved for the rest. Will get these up in a useful manner at some point.
A few of the routes I did were from the wikiloc site (think that's it), though you do need to read the comments and judge what kind of route it is, how legitimate etc.
I also got some other routes from the people at adventure-spec, but unfortunately wasn't able to do them in the end (next time .)

[Pernig]

This is great reading. Enjoying very much so far.

Could you tell me a bit more about your preparation of the bike. Specifically, you mentioned a couple of times about having two tanks. I'm guessing it is either a KTM option or something that's on the bike as standard (not familiar with the bike). Are both the tanks plumbed into the fuel system?
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H100 Breaking for spares

[Spurs19]

wow this has been a great read. can't wait to see some more.

Surely you smoked some weed by this point though? lol.

[G]

The tank at the front (opaque white one) is after-market. I'll try and do a post on the bike prep, but there's a hell of a lot that I've done, so it'll take some time too! I was preparing for this trip pretty solidly for maybe six weeks before. A lot of evenings and weekends spent in the garage etc, though a bit too much procrastination mixed in.

No weed smoked that night, it's actually a bit of a sad story with how much weed DID get smoked, but you'll have to wait for that .

[TheDonUK]

Nice write up so far G.

I quite like the idea of starting a trip in amsterdam going out fully stocked. I may give that a go myself in the future
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[G]

Getting the ferry over on the Friday night works nicely too I found. Get maximum holiday for your time off work (if you're a 9-5er anyway).

[Danny]

So far so good ; reading this in instalments makes me feel like I'm watching a TV show.
Which makes me wonder, where can I download a torrent with all the instalments so I can read it all at once?

[G]

Barely having time to get this written up a day at a time as it is!
On that basis, what with my current illness and busy-ness, may not be able to make tomorrow evening, but should have caught up a bit by the weekend .

As far as 'TV' goes, I was actually intending to try and get a bullet camera set up. I did work out a half decent position to mount it on the front-tank, but then had to get the tank swapped out, so getting it sorted got shoved down the list.
I was going to try and get it setup while I was out there and did pack it, but again doing other things pertinent to actually 'living' the holiday rather than recording it came first.

Disappointing as there's some bits that it would have made an excellent record of - but then, also, we all know that everything looks a lot slower and more boring on camera, so perhaps it's for the best it's just my memory that is the only record of events .

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Good reading.

Do you realise there's a free campsite across the road from the Nurburgring?

(although Mike crashed in it and Claud put his bike in a ditch, so not the luckiest campsite going)

[G]

I didn't, useful to know. Though, to be honest, I prefer the seclusion of sleeping in a forest without people showing off their new race pipes to their mates at 6:30am, or their kids running around screaming, etc.

I did also note that while there seemed to be no camping signs, there was masses of woods around the track/car park areas, and I doubt anyone would notice were you to stick a tent up in there unless there was an event on.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Isn't much different to the field you found tbh, didn't even have a tap or sign! We only realised it was a camping field in day-light the next morning. Woke up to some side cars screaming down the main straight, so loud I thought we'd pitched up track side.

[G]

Day 2 – Nurburgring on to Bern and beyond

Nurburgring
I again don’t sleep well. It had seemed like a pretty flat, though sloped bit of ground. The reality was that where I had put the tent down, once snuggled up in my sleeping bag turned out to have a lump big enough that I ended up cuddling, to avoid a seriously arched back!
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Camp for the night.


One thing I hadn’t mentioned in the previous night’s post was the cold. It was very cold. With the relatively little wind protection on this bike, you get a lot of wind blast, especially to the arms.
I had my heated grips on full, which seemed to help – I hypothesised that it was maybe warming the blood in my hands up, which then returned up my arms and warmed them up a little.
It wasn’t unbearable, but was certainly starting to bite. However I was defintitely glad when I came of the Autobahn and my skywards pointing headlight meant I had to adapt a slower pace.
Not so bad on my torso and my legs were fine. Maybe the chunky tank was deflecting enough wind around them. My thermometer shows a minimum of 6 degrees, but had been 8 when I was riding I and eight again in the morning.
To combat these issues I go for a few more layers. Silk thermal ‘base layer’, then t-shirt, then long-sleeved t-shirt, then ‘Norwegian shirt’, then a fleece of some kind. This seemed to do the trick well enough.

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I make myself a typical ‘continental’ breakfast of my sliced ham and cheese purchased the night before.

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These were the towers I had seen the day before. Still not sure what they were, though if it was to look out for wild-camping British bikers, they weren’t doing a very good job, so all was well for me. There was a bin full of dried sweetcorn near where I had camped too, I was wondering if they were for spotting birds, or in fact for birds of some kind to live in.

After a few bits of tinkering, I get packed and head to the Nurburgring. Head down a bit that says ‘paddock’, ride a fair bit further, come to a big car park. Well, not much here at all.
So I ride around some more. And some more. I do hope that I had managed to lose the GPS log for this bit of the journey, because the length of time I spend riding around looking for the actual ‘entrance’ to the Nurburgring is rather embarrassing.
I did see a bike trackday going on at the GP circuit, but not what I was looking for.

Eventually I see some more likely cars passing and decide to just follow them; hoping that they are heading to the circuit, not away from it. As we come up to a mini roundabout there’s a big queue of cars, many of which look like likely candidates.
I’ve been uhmming and ahhing about whether to take the bike on the track. I’m a bit concerned about the handling of the bike as it is and my lack of circuit knowledge – I’ve twice forgotten how the corners go at Silverstone GP and run off; that’s got a lot less corners and you get some warm up laps too.

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It seems I have my reprieve – couldn’t go on if I wanted!

So I snap a few more cars going off to have some fun (click on pics to see more, nothing exciting really) and generally wander around hoping there’ll be some more impressive vehicular eye-candle to oggle. I’m generally left disappointed; a few GTRs, some obvious ‘ring cars’, a few kit cars, the obvious slightly more expensive Porsches and a 360/430 of some kind. Apparently there was an Ultima around, but he wasn’t taking it on the ring.
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I decide to try spectating at some more exciting points and use the GPS to follow the ring on ‘normal’ roads.
On returning to the main entrance, my ‘excuse’ is removed, as the track is opened to bikes, but with it still being damp and not feeling that confident in the bike, I wimp out.
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I should have maybe gone out behind this, then hopefully I’d have had a good chance of not being smashed into by a Porsche on the limits.

However, I decide to see if I can get some ‘ring experience anyway and try and find someone that will take me in the passenger seat. I’m looking for British cars heading towards or just coming off the circuit – so I’m not asking loads of random people and won’t face so many language issues. I offer to buy the ticket, which isn’t cheap, so hopefully a good incentive.
Mostly I’m aiming at kit cars; one that I’d seen going pretty fast earlier has been having his suspension setup, so didn’t want to spoil his testing; I’m sure he wasn’t suggesting I was fat, or anything, oh no! Eventually I find someone coming in with his girl friend in the passenger seat that says he’s not going out for a bit, but will happily take me out one of his tickets later. Wandering around in a bright a yellow one piece suit I’m fairly distinctive, so he agrees to have a look out for me and I’ll continue looking.
Eventually I find someone (sorry, at the time of writing I’ve now forgotten your name) who is happy to take me out if I’m providing the ticket, but does warn me that he’s done two laps and doesn’t know the circuit. As I’ve got to get heading towards Switzerland, I accept and we head out.
While he didn’t know the corners, once he got decent visibility of the corner they were still taken at a pretty decent lick!

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More pictures in the album, again.

Autobahns
I head out to the Autobahns. On plenty of them the ‘130’ limit where my GPS shows the limit of whatever road you’re on disappears, to mean a ‘real’ unlimited, I presume. I top out at 167kph a couple of times – a bit down on my previous record, when I had a pillion and the luggage, but also my questionable fairings, which say 108mph on the GPS. Gearing was quite up-geared with that, however.
At one point I’m doing pretty similar speeds to a loaded up Africa Twin. I pull in to some services to get some fuel for the bike and me.
There is some confusion when ordering the food – after working out what each sausage type is, it turns out my understanding was correct, yes she was asking me if I wanted my sausage put through the ‘sausage cutting up into smaller pieces’ machine.

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Taking a picture of myself taking a picture.

I think a country must really love their sausages for there to presumably be a company that has spent some considerable time designing and producing a machine that cuts up your sausages for you automatically!
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The pastry at the side was with the sweet-pastries, but as I expected was savoury... And a bit disappointing, frankly.

The Africa Twin Rider (sorry, I’ve forgotton your name too) has parked up outside and asks me where I’m headed; he’s headed to the black forest for a week’s riding holiday.
We head off seperately and I’m back to the Autobahn. Germany seems to suffer from traffic jams just as bas the UK it, seems.

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Visibility impaired.


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I think there was a bike event on somewhere around here as there was a lot of bikes heading back. I followed this group including a couple of big GSs for a while.

Stopping at rest-area to have some lunch, I notice this man with his van and his wife.

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He seems to be going through the big bins; what for, I’m not so sure?

I have nothing against ‘dumpster diving’, a trip the local city dump often sees me returning with more than I took, however I’d have thought that the bins by such an area would provide pretty meagre pickings.
As ever with such places on the continent, the fence wire at the edge is obviously the ‘toilet’ from the smell and discarded toilet paper.

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Luckily I’ve got a strong stomach, so enjoy my snack regardless!

I wasn’t sure how far I was going to get this night, but I seem to be making good progress despite all the traffic jams.

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This sunset turned out to be quite pretty, but further photos were interrupted with trees unfortunately.


Switzerland
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As it’s just getting dark I reach Switzerland.

I suspect I may have been supposed to pay some sort of fee for using the motorways here, but just drive through in the bit that, I guess, means you have already paid. Not sure if that was the case, but I never got stopped and never paid anything, so it all ended well.

I’m continuing to make good progress towards Martigny, but decide to try and find some where to camp and get some food before it gets too late.
I’d like to do some work on the bike the next day, so think I’ll go for a campsite where it might be a bit easier. My GPS can’t search for campsites by default, so a search for ‘camp’ shows me a reasonable list.
I choose the one nearest the next motorway exit.

Hmmm, well, I’ve only actually got two weeks, so this isn’t entirely useful, ya’know!
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It reads ‘Opens Again 29 April 2010’

Have a look in the GPS and there’s nothing near, so wild camping it is, then.
Still want to get some nice food, so again rely on the GPS. Ok, the place I ended up seemed to be more an American-styled place...

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But I order some food that’s hopefully moderately local.

I want to get some petrol before I head outwards. The first two places I come to are closed, though confusingly their lights are still on. My GPS finally directs me to one that’s open, though looks like he’s going to be shutting up soon. After standing with the pump not even releasing a dribble for a couple of minutes, I go inside to ask what’s going on. Language issues pop again, but he manages to explain that it’s an automatic system.
Ah, that explains it and explains the other places being open. But... Where do I put the card? I spend a few minutes prodding the pump, trying to find a likely recess or flap that might conceal the required components, but nothing.
So, I have to return inside, where he’s almost got it closed up to ask again.
Turns out that they have a separate console in the middle; you enter your details here and choose the pump you are paying for. Only having seen systems where you pay at the actual pump, I didn’t think to think at the extra growth between them. Oh well, another person convinced of the stupidity of English speakers!
I had been planning to get some supplies while I was there, specifically some water to brush my teeth and some sort of chocolaty snack... I was in Switzerland after all. But, by the time I had finished my fueling ritual the ‘station shop was locked up and the worker long gone.

I have a ride-around, but nothing seems to be open, so decide just to head out.

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Then I see, this!

I was also impressed by the way it sold king-size rizla; I did need some but had limited change, so didn’t get any at this point. The machine would accept euros, but preferred Swiss Franks. I had forgotten that Switzerland was one of those few uncivilised countries left in Europe where the Euro wasn’t used; well, except that it seemed that most places would take them at least.

Heading out into the country side, there seems to be relatively limited forested bits and the access to them was often closed off with electric fences that contained cows between them.

Eventually I settle on a track into a forest that has had some recent logging activity.
Turning the engine off I’m immediately hit by the not entirely pleasant medley of a heard of cows, all with bells.
I decide where I’ve stopped will do, though choosing a campsite off a minor road I’d hoped for a bit more peace and quiet. I can hear an occasional dog barking – a local farm, presumably and, yes, it seems another set of ‘ding, bing, dang, ding’s coming closer. Great, so I’ve got two separate herds of cows, all with bells.

I watch a bit of a film on the netbook, while munching on my swiss chocolates, but all the time I’m having to wonder who’s idea it was to put bells on cows? I wonder if desecrating their grave is a popular sport, for surely the must rank as one of the most annoying things to have to endure in the world?
Maybe, I wonder, it’s some sort of defence mechanism to stop foreigners stealing their gold and chocolate?

Thankfully, it seems the cows do actually rest at a similar time I do, as it quietens down around the time I’m getting to sleep.


Company of the Day:
They do make some of the best dirt bikes available with the least compromises. Unfortunately that is least. For instance the KTM690 engine is directly removed from the supermoto for the enduro version; it could really do with a bit more mid-range grunt and the biggest irk is that it definitely would benefit from a wider ratio gearbox.
Both the dealer a bought the bike from and my local dealer I have had issues with. I had to wait a long time to give the initial dealer my money, at which point they still tried to ‘sell’ the bike to me – just let me give you these thousands of pounds and take my bike, surely it’s not that hard! There was a couple of bits not doing quite right on the bike.
My local dealer I have found to be rude at times, inflexible and at times I question their work. I got the bike back from the last service with them with the FI light still flashing and the speedo displayed ended up becoming unusable not better.
Before I bought the bike KTM were the worst for trying to ‘sell’ to me, even when I knew more than they did about the bike in question. Oddly the BMW dealer, with attached BMW car dealer, was actually the most honest, useful and humble.
On their bikes there are many nice touches justifying the premium you pay for them. For instance the majority of bolts will also take a torx driver as well a normal socket, so you can quickly undo them.
While the brake bracket on my bike is different, I can still swap wheels, with a spacer or two, from the KTM200 I own and the Husaberg I used to own. I can also swap the front wheel from my CCM to the KTMs.
While I haven’t been that impressed, there are definitely positives and if you’re looking for a bike to use off-road KTM undoubtedly offer a capable model that should be in the short-list.

Product of the Day
Dell Mini-9 Netbook.
When the eee was first getting it’s pre-release hype some years ago my immediate thought was ‘that would make an ideal adventure-riding style computer’. It seems I was right.
I borrowed this from a friend and am glad I took it over using my mobile phone which I was considering using; with a full keyboard, a 800*480 screen, wifi internet and the ability to play films it has the capability to do everything I need from a computer on the road. However, the keyboard is very small, you can’t connect other USB devices to it and a few other limitations.

I wired the Dell up so it would charge from the bike while riding. It will give a good three hours watching films from an external hard disk, longer at low brightness with nothing but a PDF reader open to read an ebook.
With it’s 9” screen, the Dell is a bit more compact that some and I think weight comes in at around a kilogram.
With inefficient browsers and webpages of modern times it will slow down a bit if you open a few complex pages, but then so does my work Macbook Pro with 4gb of Ram.

The keyboard is a little tight and would find myself missing keys, but you do get used to it quite quickly and can then type at a reasonable rate.

My biggest criticism is the shiny screen. Sure it gives you better contrast when viewed at night, or whatever, but when you’re trying to use in the middle of a sunny Mediterranean day it’s absolutely terrible.

I will definitely be making sure I have one of these or a similar netbook for my next trip. Not only for the few times I bothered to write this blog as I went along, but also for using the internet (a lot of unsecured wireless networks out there), looking at pictures, reading ebooks and watching films as a late-night wind-down. None of it’s essential and in some cases a ‘real’ book would be useful, but I got through four full length novels in total, which would have certainly been more hassle to carry.

Fact of the Day:
Number of countries travelled in: 8.

[Luke_Retrofly]

I belive those towers are used for hunting deer, so I was told when I lived in Germany
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[G]

Was that for sport, or were they considered pests?