Germany Part 2 – Great Roads, Great Biking, Great Mates

The second half of our holiday started with a drizzly to start to the morning so we just headed into the town to explore locally with the idea if it got worse we wouldn’t have far to get back or if it dried up we could go for a ride. In Triberg itself, are Triberg Falls which is one of the highest waterfalls in Germany with a descent of 163m and is a landmark in the Black Forest region. We decided to park at the top and walk down. Now, it was very pretty, I can’t deny that but the further we walked down I just kept thinking to myself we’ve got to walk back up to the top!

We eventually reached the bottom (yes the bottom! Oooh ‘eck the walk back up was going to take some doing) and got ourselves a well earned coffee and cake (I reasoned to myself that I definitely needed cake as I needed the energy boost to get back up the hill :-) ) 









We had a wonder round Triberg which is famous for it’s cuckoo clocks and then started the ascent back up the waterfall! OMG it was such a loooong way up. By the time we were half way up I had lost my love for how pretty it all was and by the time we got to the top I never wanted to see another waterfall again!!!

After recovering for a while and catching our breath, the drizzle had dried up so we hopped back on the bikes and headed off. We got to a ‘T’ junction and was not sure which way to go as we were not heading anywhere in particular so plumped for turning right. Good decision. 


Another fantastic winding road which lead down to Haslach which is a really picturesque village with many old historic buildings. Having wondered round the buildings and village for a while we found a restaurant and sat outside in the sun to have a late lunch. I love this biking lark.

The following morning was raining so we headed to a Rodelbahn toboggan run in Gutach to see if it was as good as it looked in the pics. If you’re a kid or a non motorbike person who isn’t used to getting their adrenaline kicks from riding a bike then it was good but for me, personally, I would have liked it to have been a lot longer and a lot faster but then I have always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Worth checking out though if you’re ever in the area.


The rain was getting heavier by lunchtime so we decided to head back to the apartment and walk (yes, I know!) into the town following a footpath down the mountain. We found a pub, had a long leisurely lunch (that walk had made us build up an appetite) and had a beer or two and watched some football that was on the TV. Very late afternoon we headed back stopping at the supermarket on the way for supplies. It was definitely a lot further going back, I am sure of it.

The following day the sun was shining so we were up, dressed and ready to head off by nine as we wanted to make up for lost riding time the day before. We decided to head for Meersburg which was some 115km away. We followed the B500 which we’d read before we came was ‘the road’ to check out if we were this way. It was good, don’t get me wrong, long fast sweeping bends, great road surface, not many cars etc. but I’ve got to say, some of the other roads we’d stumbled across earlier in the week were just as good, if not better. Still, it would have been rude not to have checked it out :-)

In Meersburg we found this pub which had a Harley Davidson engine as beer pumps and sat in a prominent position on the bar so you could see it up close. I thought it was really cool but then I like old engine or garage parts turned into something like that, for example, the coffee table in my lounge is a Rover V8 engine that I blew up racing many years ago and one of my lamps is an old blow torch.

On the way back we got back onto my now favourite road, the B33, and went into Elzach for an ice cream/coffee stop. I figured I needed to come here quite a few more times in order to give a full and informed review of the ice cream menu – I could see a change of career coming on, official ice cream tester – mmmmm, I could definitely handle that :-)

I couldn’t believe it, today was our last day before heading back to France. The week had flown by, I was not ready to go back home yet. The guys asked where I would like to go on the last day and I said I really wanted to ride up the B33 and eat lots of ice cream. So we did. I better point out here that this road is some 30/35km long and I think we went up and down it three times (with an ice cream stop or two in between) before heading back to the apartment the really, really long way round.

After packing and tidying up, we lit the fire pit and fired up the BBQ for our last evening. I was really going to miss this, such a relaxed chilled way to spend the evening after riding all day. Great mates, great roads, great holiday.

We set off early next morning and headed for Courtisols which was where our overnight stay was in France. The sat nav took us through Strasbourg. OMG how can five, reasonably intelligent, adults get so totally and utterly lost in one place. We ended up going through the middle of town three times. 

We pulled over, counted to ten, and had a look at the map (when I say we, I mean the guys did, I don’t have a sat nav, I just follow. I have complete and utter faith that at least one of them will get me to where I need to be – and they do).

We headed back out of the town, John was in front, followed by Stephen, me, Giles and Graham. Well, John went left on the motorway and Stephen went right (we later found out Stephen’s sat nav was telling him right onto the motorway). I’m like, what the heck!!! Which way do I go???? I went right, as did the other guys and we stopped at the next petrol station and waited for John to find us. He eventually did after several phone calls. We carried back on. I am never, ever going to Strasbourg again. That was too stressful!

We made it to Courtisols in one group and were definitely in need of a beer after that ride. Showers, chill and dinner.

We went for a walk around Cortisols to find somewhere for dinner. There was one place open, a pizzeria. Now hindsight is a wonderful thing. If you’re in a pizzeria, assume the pizzas are their speciality and go for pizza. We however, went for spaghetti bolognese. Bad choice. 

It was literally mince and onion on a bed of pasta. No sauce, no seasoning, no other veggies. Just mince and onion. As there was nowhere else to eat and we were hungry we ate it. Lesson learnt.

Another early start after a great breakfast heading towards the tunnel. We were making good time until Graham (up front) came off the motorway a junction too early and could we get back on? No. There were roadworks which meant we couldn’t get back on. In the end we ended up going on a detour eventually getting back onto the motorway. We made it to the tunnel but had just missed our train. We got on the next one though so it wasn’t too bad.

A fabulous holiday. I would never have said Germany was a holiday destination but it was a really interesting and scenic place to visit and the roads for biking were fantastic. Definitely on my ‘got to go back to’ list.

Until next time ………….

BK

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Germany Part 1 – Great Roads, Great Biking, Great Mates

Oooo it’s an early start – 4 o’clock! That literally is the middle of the night! I was awake before the alarm went off though, excited to be going away on the bike. There were five of us heading to Germany for 8 days including an overnight stay in France on the way down and again on the way back.

We met at a lay by just off the M25 at stupid o’clock in the morning and headed towards the tunnel. I know we started off on the M25 and, if I recall, we came off there at some point and joined another motorway, they pretty much all look the same. It’s not much fun riding on a motorway and we normally avoid them if we can but when you have miles to munch and a train to catch, needs must.

Having made good time, we stopped at a petrol station about five miles from the tunnel to fill our tanks up so we could get a few miles under our belts in France before having to stop and fill up. We also managed a quick coffee and headed for the tunnel. Having checked in and gone through passport control, we queued in readiness to get on the train.

Now for those of you who have gone on the tunnel before, for me anyway, it is always a touch and go moment actually riding onto the train as you have to ride at an angle onto the train and it is, I’m guessing, aluminium and therefore slippery. I am always fearful that I am going to make a complete ass of myself and come off the bike. Phew! This time I made it on okay and kept my dignity.

Once we got off the other side we headed towards Verdun which was where our overnight stop was. Now we normally have our fuel stops when the person with the smallest tank needs filling up. 

Stephen’s bike can go a maximum of 120 miles but to err on the side of caution he likes to fill up around 100 miles just in case there’s no petrol stations for a few miles. We find when touring that this works really well because after 100 miles your bottom is definitely in need of a pit stop. 

We’re not in any particular rush to get to where we’re going so a nice steady ride with plenty of coffee (and pee) stops is perfect.

We made good time and arrived at our hotel in Verdun about 4 ‘ish which allowed us time to shower and have a bit of R&R before heading off for a walk to find somewhere for dinner. Verdun is a lovely village, very picturesque. We stumbled across a lovely little restaurant with a seating area out the back in a lovely garden. Perfect.

My French, it would appear, definitely needs working on as I asked what was in the vegetarian lasagne (they didn’t have the meat version) and I thought I understood what the lady said. It would seem I did not. I should explain at this point that I cannot eat fish. Any type. Fish doesn’t like me. Well you can guess, the vegetarian lasagne arrived and it had salmon in it. Salmon! Who puts any type of fish in a vegetarian lasagne. Needless to say I could not eat it and ordered a pizza which seemed the safest option. John, on the other hand, was quite pleased as he ended up with two dinners!

After a hearty brekkie the following morning, we set off heading for Triberg in the Black Forest where we had rented an apartment for a week. Now the scenery in France is lovely (from what you can see of it whilst riding and concentrating on the road ahead) but when we crossed the Rhine into Germany, the scenery changed completely and was really beautiful. 

The style of the houses were different and most of them were impeccably kept – very neat outside and nicely painted and there were lots of little religious shrines along the roads which I couldn’t remember seeing any of in France.

After several pit stops and a very long lunch, we arrived in Triberg late afternoon and stopped at a supermarket for supplies and most importantly, dinner and beer for that evening. We followed the sat nav to our apartment which was, literally, half way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere. We followed a long winding road higher and higher, turned off onto a dirt track and arrived at our apartment. Wow! The views were stunning and it was so quiet and peaceful. We were greeted by the owner and shown to our apartment. R&R followed by showers followed by beer. Ahhh perfect.

After chilling for a while, we went outside and got the BBQ going, lit the fire pit and settled in for an evening of eating and a few beers. Perfect end to a long day of riding.

The following morning was relaxed with a leisurely breakfast and a chat about where and what we fancied doing that day and ideas of what we fancied doing over the few days that we were there. We don’t tend to plan too much beforehand as it very much depends on the weather but we check out on the internet before we go places to visit etc. so we have a general idea and options for both wet weather and riding weather. 

I know everyone has their own ideas of what they want to do on their holidays and how much riding they consider as ‘doable’ and luckily we are a like minded bunch and it works really well. When you find great mates that you can go on holiday with, it’s brilliant.

It is, at the end of the day, supposed to be a holiday and we don’t want to be covering hundreds of miles each day and getting back to the apartment knackered. We like to ride somewhere, have a walk around and a coffee, ride somewhere, have a walk around and lunch, ride somewhere, have a walk around coffee – you can see where I’m going with this. If there is anywhere specific one of us wants to go, then we go. For us as a group, it’s perfect.

We didn’t get out ‘til late morning the first day so we headed to Freiburg, which was only about 60km away to find somewhere for lunch. After lunch and a walk around we headed off for a ride, nowhere in particular, we came off the B294 and onto the B33 to see where we ended up. 

As it turned out the B33 was a brilliant road with lovely sweeping bends and a pretty much near perfect road surface which ended up in this little village called Elzach which had an amazing ice cream/coffee shop. I wondered if we would be able to come via this place every day. I had a feeling my leathers were going to be a lot tighter on me by the time I went home after this holiday!

We stopped at the supermarket on our way back for dinner and beer and set about the BBQ upon our return. Sitting round the fire pit late into the evening eating, drinking and chatting was fast becoming a favourite way to end the day for me.

The following day we headed to Lake Constance, some 120km away. Wow, what a beautiful place. We found a cafe overlooking the lake and watched the world go by for a while. A steam train pulled into the nearby station and a couple of the guys went off to have a look at it more closely. I, meanwhile, considered my view from the cafe perfectly adequate and ordered another coffee.

Back on the bikes, we followed the road around the lake and stopped at Hagnau am Bodensee where John decided he would go for a swim in the lake. He had come prepared with a towel and budgie smugglers! I was quite content with just removing my jacket and sitting on the bank watching. Certainly no wet feet (or anything else) for me.

In Part 2 next week follow the rest of the trip where we visited Triberg Falls, Rodelbahn toboggan run and found a Harley Davidson engine being used as
beer pump in a bar ……….

BK

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My MV and Me

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Z900. It is absolutely perfect for me and does everything I want it to and far more than I am capable of doing. I bought it new and in the two and a bit years I have owned it I have done some 13,000 miles on it so I have absolutely hammered the value but to me that is okay because I can’t see myself selling it anytime soon and I always come back from a ride with an enormous smile on my face so it is totally worth it.

So why then, I hear you ask, did I buy an MV! Well, basically I fell in love with it.

I was looking at the used bikes on eBay, as one regularly does, and I saw the MV advertised locally so I thought I’d pop along and have a little look, as you do. Now, basically in our house it works that I do the cooking and the other half does the car/bike maintenance, fair deal. Having been around cars and bikes a long time, I have picked up a few things over the years but I would not be able to look at or listen to the tone of the engine and know if anything was wrong as the other half can.

At this point the other half did not know I was intending to get another bike, so I mosied along by myself to have a look at this bike and I was telling myself to act like I knew what I was looking at and to play it cool.

That started to go downhill as soon as I saw it. It is just beautiful to look at and even now every time I look at it, I am sure I see something that I hadn’t noticed before. So there I am having a look around and I crouch down and have a look at the forks keeping up the pretence and then I asked the chap if he could start it up for me.

That was it, my plan went completely to pot. I could feel the smile on my face and I literally couldn’t stop smiling. I agreed a price with the chap and he very kindly said he would deliver it for me on his way home one night in the week as he was going to put a new battery on it and the fork seals were booked in to be done the following day, which I did know about prior to looking at the bike :-) :-) :-)

I went home and said to the other half that he needed to make room in the garage because there was another bike coming in the week!

Well fifty thousand questions ensued so I had to think quick and this is how I sold the idea to the other half (so don’t let on it’s all made up nonsense just because I fancied a second bike and I basically just fell in love with it and really, really wanted it!) So I said to the other half that as a way of keeping the mileage down on the Z and to try and keep hold of some of the value(!), I thought it would be great idea if I had a second bike and then I could just use the Z for touring and wet weather. He was starting to buy it …..

I was also asked about what condition the forks were in, the brakes, the this, the that and I basically just shrugged and said it was just beautiful and sounded awesome and that was the basis on which I bought it. Uh oh …. I could see my plan going downhill quick!

I had my fingers crossed that when it arrived the other half would love it too and it would be mechanically okay.

So the bike arrived and for the next few days it peed down with rain so the first chance I got, I took it for a ride. It was very different to ride from my Z. I liked it, absolutely loved the sound but

just liked it, it was okay. When you ride the Z you just get on it and ride it, it is very easy to ride and does everything you ask it too. The MV you really had to work at it and you knew you were riding it, if that makes sense.

It’s like the ‘65 Mustang I used to have, it used to be my daily drive (until I got into bikes) you’d get in, and to start it you’d have to pull out the choke (not too much but just enough) then you’d turn the key and let it churn over for a couple of churns and then you press the throttle (not too much but just enough) and if you’d got that absolutely right it would start. If you didn’t, that it was it, it wouldn’t start no matter what you did with it. It would conk out half way across a roundabout or on the outside lane of the bypass for no apparent reason and you would just have to wait until it was ready to start again. But I absolutely loved it and it was huge fun to drive.

To me, the MV reminded me of my Mustang, it likes things to be done in a certain way. There is a specific way to start it, it doesn’t have a fuel gauge so I have to reset the trip every time I fill up which is again a huge faff of a thing to do because you have to hold this button down, press that, do this and sing a Bob Dylan song (just kidding on the last part, although I do love a bit of Bob) and hope you’ve got the sequence right otherwise you’ve buggered it all up and lights start flashing! It doesn’t particularly like going round corners (nor do I but that’s another blog) On one ride we were on, it was a damp day and I kept losing the back end. I was beginning to lose some of my love for this bike.

The other half took the MV out and he was like me, yes it was a good bike but it was not right. The bike had to go in for an MOT so I had a couple new tyres put on at the same time as the ones on there were five (front) and six (rear) years old and had, in the other half’s opinion, gone hard as it hadn't been used for a few years and were also quite worn. We have Michelin Pilots on our bikes and I personally, am really happy with these tyres and I know tyre choice is very personal and when you find a type you like, you tend to stick with it.

The other half also fiddled (that’s the official layman’s term you understand) with the suspension, lowered the pegs and had done something with the fly screen. I don’t like to ask too many questions as I then have to endure a detailed explanation of what/how went on and to be perfectly honest, as long as the bike starts when I put my key in the ignition and turn it, I really don’t need to know the how’s and why’s of how it got to that point.

After the said fiddling, I took the MV out for a ride. Well, not only do I like it but I now absolutely love the MV. Changing the tyres and fiddling about has transformed the bike, it is completely different to ride from when I first got it and handles really well. It is an absolute joy to ride and I am getting the hang of resetting the trip and am beginning to love it’s little quirks.

The only thing now that needs sorting are the mirrors, they vibrate like crazy and you cannot see anything when you are going above 50 mph. It was suggested that I ride below 50 at all times to stop it from happening. I can tell you that this is not going to happen so I am just going to have to sort the mirrors!

Oh, there is one other small problem although it could turn into a bigger problem, and that is that the other half enjoys riding it so much that I fear I may be losing it to the other side of the garage …….

BK

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International Women's Day

Check out my article for International Women's Day 2020 for the The Pit Crew Online

The Pit Crew Online

Sunny Sunday Ride Out

Whoo hoo!!! Sunday morning and the sun was shining and there were barely any clouds in the sky. It was touch and go all week with the weather and the latest storm heading our way as to whether we were going to be able to get out for a ride at the weekend. 

It had been a whole month since we last got out on the bikes and I was suffering withdrawal symptons! Four of us met at the local petrol station and headed off towards Oxford. 

We headed to Wendover, through Great Kimble and out of Thame. The roads were dry and the recent rain we’d had, had washed the salt away, it was a little on the chilly side but it was soooo good to be out on the bikes.

The closer we got to Thame the more standing water there was in the fields and they were like mini lakes rather than fields. Made me realise that even though we’d had a lot of rain this past month, we have actually been quite lucky here and got off quite lightly compared to other parts of the country.

We arrived at H Cafe and there were a few bikes there, probably around 25 which is really good for the time of year. We had a little wonder round the bikes and there was a Suzuki 750 (I don’t know what the model is but I’m sure one of you will be able to tell me) and a Kawasaki ZXR750 both in really great liveries. Put it this way, they were so nice that I actually took a picture of them both.

There was also an old Ural 750 with a side car which looked to be in pristine condition, obviously a very well cared for machine. Alongside it was a rather old Moto Guzzi, again in lovely condition in, what I would call, an army green colour.

We went inside and had some brekkie and a rather large quantity of coffee whilst sitting watching and listening to bikes coming and going.

After brekkie we went back outside into the car park and just as we had stepped outside there was the arrival of a group of riders that had come from the Ace Cafe in London of maybe 40/45 bikes. The noise was brilliant and we were just standing there watching them all coming in and ooing and ahhing over the bikes.

Of course with the new arrivals we had to have a look round just so we could decide what bikes we would put in our imaginary man cave at the bottom of the garden although the way I’m going, I’m going to need an aircraft hangar to get all mine in (oh, and an awful lot of pennies……!)

Next door to H Café is Infinity Motorcyles so, as it would be rude not to, I left the guys looking at the bikes and popped in to have a little look around. I like to have look to see what new products are out or upgraded versions of what I have. Unfortunately they had lots of things in there that were tempting me! 

They had a good range of women's clothing in both leather and textile and a fairly good range of boots too. Even though I don't actually need new bike gear at the moment, there was a jacket that was tempting me ……

As the sun was still shining we decided we weren’t ready to go home so decided to go for a ride to find a cafe for coffee and cake. We headed back the way we came and stopped in Wendover at Whitewaters Deli Cafe. The cakes there are delicious and they went rather well with coffee.

When we got home the bikes were filthy and took a bit of cleaning and polishing (or so I understand), I just park up in the drive and next thing I know, my bike is all clean and shiny ready for next time :-)

A great day of riding – great roads, great mates, sun, coffee and cake – what more do you need!

BK

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2020 #WSBK Races 1 & 2 Philip Island Circuit, Australia 29 Feb / 1 Mar

Check out my write up on the World Superbikes racing at the Philip Island Circuit in Australia 29 Feb / 1 Mar. 

It was edge of the seat racing in both races with the leaders in a near photo finish between the top three in Race 1 and a nail biting dash to the chequered flag between the top two in Race 2.

This season is going to be an exciting one!

The Pit Crew Online 2020 #WSBK Philip Island Race 1 & 2