Gerontious

Today I have booked my hols for next year. get it done early so I can't be refused due to numbers. 2 weeks in June and a week in September. For September Ive booked 30 - 8th For June.. the countdown has begun and it doesn't sound so bad as next September. 259 days. tick-tock. Just need to sort out a new purple passport. with a nice Harp on the front. begorrah.

This is one (of many reasons) why I don't own a disc lock. Many years ago a friend of mine had the bright idea of using an ordinary padlock. a rather expensive (at the time) Chubb. rather than use it on the disc. he used it on the rear sprocket. a disaster waiting to happen and obviously it did. He needed a new rear sprocket and complete swing arm.

I don't believe that at all. its certainly not what the welsh government are saying. but, we'll see. if its true then the truth will out. There is a map. but, I don't have the time or inclination to pore over it aside from Gwynedd, but only because thats where my family live. Hardly affected. its mostly down south. or at least thats where its most concentrated, but thats where most of the population live. https://datamap.gov.wales/maps/roads-affected-by-changes-to-the-speed-limit-on-re/

Its no different to where I live. or where I go to every September in Germany. 20mph limits are normal. and of zero concern to me. This is relevant to cities, towns and some villages (probably) If you are going to Wales to visit a city then you will be riding at 20mph. but once you leave that city...

No... not interested. They are standard on the latest bikes and are causing all kinds of problems, mostly with the lithium battery, They make connecting an optimiser full time a MUST. So, if you get one that is going to be connected to the bikes battery and there are going to be periods where the bike is not going to be used AND your bike has a lithium battery as standard then its almost a requirement that the bike be connected to an optimiser. If any of these circumstances do not apply then that might be less of an issue. Though it might still be in your best interests to have one handy 'just in case'. Im mostly not interested because it seems to me that professional thieves - who are most likely to target my bike are well aware of these things and will have countermeasures ready to roll. I'll continue my usual strategy. no security. aside from 'secrecy'. Fitting a tracker might make me 'feel better' - but it doesn't seem to stop bikes from vanishing without trace. And Im seeing such reports all the time. The 1100 Africa Twin is a very desirable bike for professionals.

Working until Tuesday morning. I’ve next sat/sun off. But after that I’m going over to permanent weekends. Thurs-Sunday. Which is exactly what I’ve been asking for since last September. Took a while but it’s finally about to happen. Marvellous.

@bonio I’m not sure why your phone is telling you that lunch was at Neunkirchen - possibly the district - German naming conventions are a tad confusing. Anyway, we stopped at a Landhaus in the little village of Wallenborn - next to the geyser. One of those happy accidents. The route didn’t go into that village but it sounded familiar and might have an eatery. It was familiar due to the geyser (which I’ve always wanted to see) and hunger pangs were beginning and so… a brief exploration and voila a restaurant with motorbikes outside. It even had a dedicated spot for bikes. (Which we used) - we didn’t catch the geyser erupting but this is what it would have looked like if we had. Not hugely impressive. But it is what it is. There is a really impressive one over near the Rhine. One day….

Now you are embarrassing me. Truth is the heat addled my brain and we missed a turning. no problem I thought, carry on and then navigate back onto it. Only the sat nav was telling me to do a U turn. and obviously we NEVER do U turns so I ignored it.. and somehow we ended up going in a circle. I suddenly had this strange sense of de ja vue. How on earth can we go in such a perfect circle when the roads round these parts are numbered in the 1000s? Its a mystery. The landscape was fabulous though. Nobody will notice I said to myself.. nobody will notice. drat. despite all that is was a great day. A great week in fact. Snoddy volunteered on the way back that he really enjoyed it. well of course he did. at the end of the day he was the only person who actually dressed for the conditions. vented race suit. I was 'half dressed' for it.. vented jacket but not my troosers. never mind eh. He was also overjoyed to discover that the Schloss had a new beer on tap. at €2 a pop. depressed only by the fact that this wasn't actually discovered until the thursday night. my mileage door to door was 2200 miles. which perfectly demonstrates just how epic the week was. we pack more into the week than a lot of people manage in a year. nobody died. nobody broke down. nobody had a strop. The illnesses were due to heat stroke I believe, Bonio managed to get lost a few times but then was found again. without any attendant drama. His bike went over. his bike got a puncture. no big deal. though the going over was a blow and he beat himself up a bit over it. but only a bit. its one of those things you do once and a lesson is learnt. At least the bike wasn't damaged to the point it will carry scars. good as new at some point. we saw almost no police. no speed cameras. no flashes. no congestion (except around Cochem) we rediscovered the beauty of the VulkanEifel. And some really quite amazing roads that are on the doorstep of the little village we stay in. I got to ride through at least 2 Volcanoes. one is considered active by some. Dormant by others. but is definitely alive. and marvelled just how huge it is. The last eruption is estimated to have been 250 times the Mt St Helens. it didn't erupt. it exploded. The lake is 1.2 miles across.. the caldera is a lot larger than that. Riding down into it was awesome for a sad git like me who is interested in this type of thing. We didn't get any photos.. but I like this one. The daily forecast for snow was spot on. obviously.. because all it took was one look at the blue sky each morning to know that snow was coming. just like winter. Looks like Im going away again in June.. so talk of the Eifel 2024 can wait until after that.

No problem. To my mind the most common problem you can have on tour is a puncture. And fixing it yourself is quite simple and so much better than being forced to wait for some random assistance vehicle to turn up. I was reading only the other day of someone in France having to wait for 6 hours. cooking at the side of the road and obviously no shade anywhere near. Why put your self through that? Much better to either limp 'home' or do it there and then. It wasn't all plain sailing though. was it. Firstly things never seem to go smoothly when you have an audience. And secondly the plugs had kinda dried out. (lesson learnt) As they need to be compressed and forced through a much smaller tube they must be covered in lubricant - silicone oil being the best. And as they had sat in the bag for quite some time, this had sorta rubbed off. So, it took a couple of attempts. But, unlike other methods if it goes wrong first time no mess or further damage is caused so you can just have another go without any issues. It took 2 attempts. I have a little bottle of silicone oil that I will carry with the plugs in future. in fact, its already in the bag.

Confusing signs and barriers. Though the barrier was the worst. In my book a barrier across the road means the road is closed. But them germans being really quite cunning have a different perspective and it took some time to work out. The area with the lights and these by now infamous barriers was really badly hit by the epic floods in 2021 and the repairs and rebuilding is still ongoing. Seems likely to me that they held off until the holiday season was over before starting up again and obviously as this was our time to be there - we got caught up in it. But that part of the Eastern Eifel is very nice.. been over there more than a few times now. And it never fails to delight. I might give the Ahrtal road a miss though next time and stay south of there. A view from Happier times.

I do all that before I leave. Only difference is that due to reading - admittedly a few, reports of routes stored in the devices memory being corrupted. I store all my routes on a micro SD card in the unit. I use a 32GB card. This way protects me from any issues as I can simply reload the routes. I only use the app in those rare instances where, usually due to changing weather, I end up somewhere I didn’t expect to be. And if I come across someone else’s gpx that looks interesting I might download it and give it a try. Though often it’s more rewarding to just look at google maps and create a route ‘on the fly’ using the unit itself. Just create a destination and then shape the route to take in roads and so on that look interesting. I’m not a huge fan of using other peoples routes as their road choices don’t always coincide with my own preferences. There are exceptions, obviously. Basecamp, which I use at home can see both the units own memory and the SD card I have installed. And that’s where my own routes reside until required. Safe and protected from any mishap.

Nice as Cochem is, policy going forward will be to avoid the place. It always comes as a pretty horrible shock when you move from a landscape that is essentially empty of traffic plus Polizei and tourists to an area that’s rammed with all three. Especially when it’s hot and the breeze at speed is the only relief. And it was hot. Mid 30s every day with the only relief being a stop in the shade or riding into and through thick woodland. I think this was the hottest it’s ever been on these trips, odd to think of past years when we had to layer up due to the chill in the air. Bono’s bike going over was the only mishap of the week and could have been a lot worse. An expensive mistake but these things happen and despite the damage nothing horrendously expensive on the bike was harmed and everything important worked.

Support will go on for years and years. I’ve had Garmin Zumo devices for quite a long time and just prior to giving my old 660 to @Snod Blatter a device which came out in 2009, there was a firmware update. Long term support isn’t a worry with Garmin. These things go on and on and on. Back in 2018 it ran out of internal storage for map updates and after an email back and forth with their support centre in Southampton I returned it to them and they sorted it out. Not expensive either. They even replaced the battery which to that point hadn’t given me any problems. Though to be fair I never relied on it.

for some reason this photo refuses to load. Never mind eh. Here’s 3 photos I took. The view from the road above Piesport has no comparison here in the UK. Nor does the road down the bank winding its way through the vineyards to the river and the little town over the bridge. photos don’t do it justice nor can they convey the shock this view is to be system when you first see it. Suddenly emerging on the right as you leave the woodland behind in the final few 100 yards before this opens up to view. First time I saw it, it came as an almost physical shock to the sense. I had a massive feeling of vertigo and a genuine wobble on the bike. It’s just incredible and totally unexpected.

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.