For our 2009 bike trip my brother Steve and I were heading for Germany in May. The aim was to visit the Harz Mountains and the Nurburgring area.
It wouldn’t be a bike trip for us without visiting some former battlefields so as we were going to be in the area we thought we’d visit the three most famous Dambuster’s Dams – the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe. We were also going to stop off along the way to visit the old Army Quarters where we used to live in the late 1970’s. Our Dad died in January so this was a bit of a side trip down memory lane.
Despite looking around at different bikes recently, I’m still riding my Honda Varadero. With a painful coccyx I fitted a cut down seat and an Airhawk to try and make the trip more comfortable.
The bike also has a MRA Vario screen and I’m using a Zumo 550 for navigation.
So waving good bye to Mrs Twotter, Miss Twotter & young Master Twotter I headed off for my brother’s house near Newbury.
I quickly realised that my Airhawk was good for about 50 miles before the coccyx pain started. Standing on the pegs helps but I was going to need the pain killers on this trip as we had some long riding days ahead of us!
After a very pleasant evening with Steve and his lovely girlfriend, Jo, I awoke to a beautiful Sunday morning with sunshine and blue skies. On previous trips Steve has ridden his Kawasaki Z1000 but now he’s got the taste for biking in Europe he and Jo wanted a bike they could both tour on. He managed to find this FJR1300 on eBay and got a really good deal.
Setting off for the Channel Tunnel we hit the motorway and apart from a Police car dawdling along at 60mph slowing things for a short while we made good time to Folkestone. After a coffee we rode round to board our train.
Being late on a Sunday morning the train was not very busy, though the bikes were loaded last as usual. We shared a carriage with a couple who were on the train and going to Europe on their bikes for the first time. They were a really great couple, he was on a ZZR-1400 and she was on a ZR-7, and were heading towards Reims and then on to the MotoGP.
Arriving in France we headed round to the petrol station and filled up before kitting up, plugging into the Zumo and hitting the motorway. Today we had already ridden 126 miles from Steve’s house to the Tunnel. Now we had another 250 miles to go to reach Cologne on the E40 motorway, which isn’t the most exciting road I’ve ever ridden but needs must. The Varadero has a reputation for being a thirsty bike and back home I normally do about 180 miles before needing 20 litres at the petrol station. But even with the higher riding speeds and being fully loaded I was doing 130 miles and only needing half a tank of petrol. That pushes the touring range to a good 250 miles so I wasn’t that far away from what Steve was getting from his FJR.
After a long and hot day I was feeling knackered so was very happy to ride over a hill and see Cologne spread out before me. We were booked into an Ibis hotel at West Frecken and despite my best efforts at ignoring my Zumo we arrived just after 5pm. After booking in, it was time for a much needed shower, then beer (Bitburger lager), a nice steak and then a few more beers.
Sitting in the evening sunshine we got chatting to a couple of British bikers who were riding a Kawasaki ZX-6R and a Ducati 748. They’d done 550 miles today and were stopping to fill up every 100 miles. Lovely bikes but just looking at them gave me back ache. Anyway it was time to go to bed and perform some champion snoring!
It wouldn’t be a bike trip for us without visiting some former battlefields so as we were going to be in the area we thought we’d visit the three most famous Dambuster’s Dams – the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe. We were also going to stop off along the way to visit the old Army Quarters where we used to live in the late 1970’s. Our Dad died in January so this was a bit of a side trip down memory lane.
Despite looking around at different bikes recently, I’m still riding my Honda Varadero. With a painful coccyx I fitted a cut down seat and an Airhawk to try and make the trip more comfortable.
The bike also has a MRA Vario screen and I’m using a Zumo 550 for navigation.
So waving good bye to Mrs Twotter, Miss Twotter & young Master Twotter I headed off for my brother’s house near Newbury.
I quickly realised that my Airhawk was good for about 50 miles before the coccyx pain started. Standing on the pegs helps but I was going to need the pain killers on this trip as we had some long riding days ahead of us!
After a very pleasant evening with Steve and his lovely girlfriend, Jo, I awoke to a beautiful Sunday morning with sunshine and blue skies. On previous trips Steve has ridden his Kawasaki Z1000 but now he’s got the taste for biking in Europe he and Jo wanted a bike they could both tour on. He managed to find this FJR1300 on eBay and got a really good deal.
Setting off for the Channel Tunnel we hit the motorway and apart from a Police car dawdling along at 60mph slowing things for a short while we made good time to Folkestone. After a coffee we rode round to board our train.
Being late on a Sunday morning the train was not very busy, though the bikes were loaded last as usual. We shared a carriage with a couple who were on the train and going to Europe on their bikes for the first time. They were a really great couple, he was on a ZZR-1400 and she was on a ZR-7, and were heading towards Reims and then on to the MotoGP.
Arriving in France we headed round to the petrol station and filled up before kitting up, plugging into the Zumo and hitting the motorway. Today we had already ridden 126 miles from Steve’s house to the Tunnel. Now we had another 250 miles to go to reach Cologne on the E40 motorway, which isn’t the most exciting road I’ve ever ridden but needs must. The Varadero has a reputation for being a thirsty bike and back home I normally do about 180 miles before needing 20 litres at the petrol station. But even with the higher riding speeds and being fully loaded I was doing 130 miles and only needing half a tank of petrol. That pushes the touring range to a good 250 miles so I wasn’t that far away from what Steve was getting from his FJR.
After a long and hot day I was feeling knackered so was very happy to ride over a hill and see Cologne spread out before me. We were booked into an Ibis hotel at West Frecken and despite my best efforts at ignoring my Zumo we arrived just after 5pm. After booking in, it was time for a much needed shower, then beer (Bitburger lager), a nice steak and then a few more beers.
Sitting in the evening sunshine we got chatting to a couple of British bikers who were riding a Kawasaki ZX-6R and a Ducati 748. They’d done 550 miles today and were stopping to fill up every 100 miles. Lovely bikes but just looking at them gave me back ache. Anyway it was time to go to bed and perform some champion snoring!