Gerontious

I would LOVE that feature. especially if cake is involved. However its sadly lacking from the XT. woe woe and thrice woe. #woe

I don't have any security at all. no locks. no alarm. no tracker. nothing aside from the immobiliser the bike came with. what I rely on is secrecy. My bike.. which is a very high risk target. is kept out of sight at all times. only on view for the seconds it takes for me to wheel it through the side gate and close it then ride away. I never leave it out front on view. AND I always have an eye on my mirrors for the final approach to my house. I highly suspect I have been followed home twice since I bought this bike and both times rode past my house and kept going until I lost them and only then returned home. The vast majority of bikes stolen from the home have been targeted because the thieves knew exactly where it was. It was spotted by the wrong person or followed home. A new strategy is to place an apple airtag on the bike and then this is used to pinpoint the bike. This is usually placed under the seat. No security is proof against determined professional thieves. if they want it and. more importantly know where it is they will have it. Even if this includes breaking into your house first. Anything you use is only a deterrent to the casual opportunist. If they don't know where it is. then they cannot steal it. Obviously what you do depends on who the potential thief might be.. if its a bike that's on the shopping list for professionals. or if its viewed simply as a piece of short term entertainment for the casual opportunist. ride it and dump it brigade.

keep hold of the original. particularly if touring in Europe. especially Germany Austria and Switzerland are part of your future plans.

I don't use sound at all. I use my Garmin XT purely as a visual aid. it connects to my iPad. Phone and Mac by BT - I've never tried it with wifi. and though I tried myrouteapp. I didn't get on with it and went back to using Basecamp. and for sending routes to the unit at home, I use the cable and the app. (drive) when touring and I'm somewhere I never expected to be. my satnav is permanently muted.. I guess is my answer simplified. I have the XT.. this has now been superseded by the XT2.. so can be picked up at a significant discount. The XT2 is slightly larger and a tad more clever, but neither is enough for me to swap.

Decided on a whim to upgrade my phone so this weekend will be spent coming to terms with, and recovering from, this highly traumatic experience.

Ok, well this is one of our usual routes from the N4 to the Hotel. via the Northampton at La Roche and the Q8 at Dasburg pont. The final run into Neuerburg down Falkenuel the K189 is glorious. it will deliver you to the Guest-house on the street behind the Main hotel. if that's where you are staying. I guess Dani or Herbert will let you know about any other details pertaining to your arrival. Road to Pestalozzistraße 6.GPX

What day of the week are you crossing/arriving at Neuerburg?

I’ve considered that practically every year we’ve done this and sadly it’s just not practical and would mean a significant changes across the board. Plus a healthy dose of disciple. And I just can’t do that to people who are on holiday and already know exactly what to expect. Different when you only have to answer for yourself. Obviously.

I do that a lot. managed it twice in June. woe woe and thrice woe.got so lost that the return trip to the campsite turned out to be rather on the epic side. But, I'm lucky enough to have friends that laugh at my regular sock-ups. as the crow flies distances are not a good measure of riding distance in the Dolomites. lesson learnt.

Im not buying it for here. Though it may prove useful. I’m buying it for, err, there. Days of 38c plus gets a bit wearing. I do get about. I was glad I took my mesh jacket with me to the Eifel. It really needs updating though. And I need vented trousers to match. Kewl as the kiddies say. so. I’m poised to pounce. I fink I alreddy sed dat.

You can never have enough hats gloves and shoes (or boots) I’m poised. Poised I am. Eager to leap into action armed only with a credit card at the first whiff of a winter sale to buy that one thing they don’t usually sell much of in the bleak midwinter (as frosty winds make moan) fully vented jacket and troosers. Summer is only round the corner and I get this feeling in my waters that hot summers are the new normal. I shall be spending my nights researchering the options and full price ticket prices so I can get overexcited as and when I spot a bargin. and cook no morer.

A soaked cloth. I wonder how many I might need? Maybe I could do it one at a time and take a week to do it. Or use multiple cloths and cover the bikes front like a patchwork. Hard work. Though possibly quite decorative. Easier to let the rain do the soaking while I sat inside doing other rather less tedious things. (Drugs and porn plus a little light Mister Sheening) I like your solution but it don’t half sound like hard work. 1 cloth or 30+ or let the rain take the strain. It’s not really a tough decision. anyway it’s done now and took the time it takes to soap it up and rinse it down front to back and top to bottom. I even cleared the rear wheels. Thrilling. I was genuinely thrilled. (They came up lovely) I did cheat somewhat and popped the headlight lenses and hand guards into the sudsy bucket of death and leave them to soak. But they were particularly bad. I’m quite glad @Snod Blatter is no longer active as I’m sure his level of sarcasm at the very idea of cleaning off the mortal remains of multiple species of insect would have been a joy to behold. (Or not) maybe. The bike even got rinsed twice. Once by me then again by even more rain. Life is good.

Today I did that rare thing and left the bike uncovered in the rain and did it rain. Hour after hour followed by drizzle. Marvellous. It finally stopped for a time and with the bike dripping wet. I washed it. Remarkable how a good soaking makes removal of a weeks worth of dead insects dead and previously baked on, just wash away with almost no effort at all. it’s like it never happened.

We passed the Daytona (i assume you’re staying there) a few times as it’s en route to the Dasburg pont Q8. we usually use the motorway past Lille. Tournai. Mons and Charleroi. Then after a few miles of the 411 south onto the old N4 and turn off just after Marche. Heading for La Roche and the Northampton - from there any route to the Dasburg Pont is a good one. best services for food is at SPY. Always our lunch stop now. With about an hours dawdle before everything gets so much better. And once into Luxembourg - Glorious.

We don't tend to use the roads that run along the river side. this year only very briefly for about 6 miles split into two parts. the 49. was so glad to get away from it. especially Cochem which was far too busy for my taste. main tourist centre and all that. Always comes as a nasty surprise after the emptiness (by comparison) of the interior. Ideally I would just go to a point above the river and then immediately turn around. We only went to Piesport one day as, as one of the guys said "That view never gets old" and its a quieter crossing of the river and was perfect to pick up the route down to the Pfalz. We don't really go for the B roads (German B roads) except as a means to an end. Much preferring the L and especially the K roads. K roads ideally. the more the merrier. These are generally the very best. (for us, anyway)

If I were to be asked - what place would I recommend. it would be this viewing spot. Go here and you will understand exactly why we go to this region year after year. 40 miles from the Schloss and the route there (avoiding motorways( is pretty fantastic in its own right. but once you arrive.. prepare to have your mind blown. There is nothing even close to matching what you see here in the UK.

We have been going for 11 years now, only last year that I was forced to give it a miss, and there is never enough time. Never. and every time we go we find something entirely new. It never gets stale. Of course, we just go for the riding. not for the tourism side. though there have been many over the years who have taken a day off from my rides and done their own thing. And that's absolutely fine by me. What we do isn't for everyone. We just go to ride our bikes. long days. 200 miles or more on average. random stops for a breather. (in odd places - usually involving shade) I took so few photos this year - mostly because the place is so photogenic you could be stopping every 5 minutes!! And thats not really why we go. its all about the ride.

This was probably my favourite of the week. Another Dutch route, though this one starts and ends in Cochem, so same thing... you get to its end and start again. This one is mostly about the VulkanEifel. its clockwise and once again, I reversed it. it was really nice. 138 miles but you will need to navigate to join it. what we did was head north and join the B410.. and then followed that, fast - but very nice road to pick up the route at Gerolstein. There is a petrol station on the right as you enter the town. super convenient. Vulkaneifel.GPX

You might enjoy this 1. its name is 1000 Bochten. which translates as 1000 Bends. we managed a fair amount of it before time ran out. oddly most of the routes we use we seem to run out of time with. it begins and ends in Luxembourg. but passes just south of the Hotel along the B50. through Sinspelt. I chose to reverse it so we went anticlockwise. its mostly L and K roads. Its a Dutch designed route so has a LOT of what they don't have in the Netherlands. Hills and Bends. If you leave it untouched then it will appear quite short as it begins and ends in Northern Lux. so reach the end and navigate to the start and you are off again. but reversing it worked well. its 221 miles in length. so a full day. I'll add a few more over the next day or so. 1000 bochten Eifel.GPX

It was OK. 5 days of pretty intense riding. we made it down to the Pfalz = which is the German part of the Northern Vosges. and an area that I need to return to. soon. A shedload of tightly packed low mountains with a spaghetti of winding roads and very few people. a few small villages, but not much else. its almost all woodland so no farming to speak of. A proper bikers paradise and very popular. we saw more bikes there than anywhere aside from the area around the Nurburg ring. Not a region for views unless, you get off your bike and climb one of the hills to the usual observation tower. The other highlight for me was a full days spent in the Vulkan Eifel. so different and nothing to compare it with here in the UK. Eroded crater lakes and cone shaped mountains truly wonderful. All extinct now.. and very tranquil. but this place must have been close to hell at one time. As with every trip to this region, there's always something new. its never dull. never a place that you become tired of. obviously a major part of that is its size, the Eifel alone is about 3,000 square miles, and then there is also Luxembourg. and the Hunsruck south of the river Mosel. and the Oldenwald on the east side of the Rhine. we didn't go that far this time. just spent the week continuing to scratch the surface of this wonderful region. Of course it goes without saying we will be back there again next year. Our hotel didn't disappoint. it never has. so friendly. so cheap. the week spent there cost me £257.76 half board. Sunday night to Saturday morning, the food was great and there was far too much of it. far too much. Eating out is very affordable. the huge breakfast with the prospect of an even bigger evening meal meant that most days lunch was very 'light'. on the stomach and on the pocket. of course the bill also included a lot of beer. though I like to mix it up with spirits. The owner plying me with schnapps at every opportunity - challenge accepted!! Was funny watching the looks from the German locals in the hotel bar clapping approvingly as I knocked them back in one. Was forced tp smuggle back some local specialities. 2 bottles of Asbach brandy. €9.99 there. £30 here. and a litre of Hazelnut schnapps for €12. which I'm going to enjoy in the winter. much. Weather was of course perfect. hot, with frequent relief from the heat on the tree lined roads or deep forests. Blue sky days and warm nights. comfortable enough in the large airy rooms in the guesthouse block. I adore the place.

They behave exactly as I would expect a tyre at this price point would. No surprises. And I’m not surprised, as they are a real favourite amongst Africa Twin owners. I really can’t say I’ve found anything “shocking” about them. I’ve had Conti Trail attacks on the bike from almost new and these are about the same. But then the road and weather conditions here are perfect. One thing I have noticed is the my haven’t developed a flat spot after 400 miles of vigorous motorway riding. That’s by far the worst thing about the Conti. They are no good for motorway use. Only have to se the word and they get a flat spot.

So excited to be back at the hotel. Bonio forgot to employ his side stand. Some damage to left indicator housing and a snapped off tip of his clutch lever. It could have been worserer. It’s not a show stopper. Everything still works, and he took it with his usual good humour. Today off to Luxembourg.

A traditional morning faff - seat off (obviously) and to everyone’s surprise he now has a KTM - so might possibly break the habit of a lifetime and not break down. Time will tell. But… KTM. So all bets are off. today a 200 mile trundle round the Vulcan Eifel - which is kinda the central region midway between our base and the Rhine. Lots of circular lakes that are the remnants of ancient volcanoes. A beautiful blue sky day.

Heading for the Pfalz and these people with egg cup sized fuel tanks decided crisis was about to happen. Which left me with a perfect photo opportunity.

All here. Safe and sound.