Bungleaio

Don't worry about it. If you don't pass then the wait won't be long

That goes over the top

Had a helite tethered ever since I first saw one at motorcycle live about 5 years ago. The guy did a demo on me and I was convinced, bought one there and then. The only times I’ve ridden without it has been when I’ve done test rides as it’s a tethered one. I know they are expensive but my theory is if things go wrong and you’re flying through the air then you couldn’t spend money fast enough to prevent an injury so paying now is worth it, to me at least.

Fixed that for you

love it. Its probably best to get the puncture repaired properly or with the sticky string things.

Saturday's ride was fairly uninspiring, I got out of Lille early and got to Calais as quickly as possible. I was offered an earlier train but managed to get on an even earlier one than that. A rare spot in the car park at the tunnel, I should imagine it's a replica but it would be awesome if it was a genuine one. There was 3 bikes on the train I caught, even though it was only about 11:30 it was already getting hot, as we all know they keep you until right at the end to get on, so we all cooked for a bit. At least the train was air-conditioned, they provided some water for us too which was nice. Once in England I got some fuel from Ashford and headed home. Last year I just did it in one hit but due to the heat I stopped at South Mims to take on water. I got home had about an hour to unload the bike have a shower and head off to the wedding. All in over the 10 days I covered 1760 miles. Another fantastic trip, great to meet up with the other lads again and I can't wait to do it again.

Friday for me was the start of the return journey. The other guys would do it all in one hit on Saturday but I needed to go to a wedding reception on Saturday night so I broke the journey so I could get an earlier crossing back to England. Some minor repairs were required to Bonios tyre as he'd got a nail it so I watched that being done before heading off. My plan was to take an interesting route to my hotel in Lille, I started that way and ended up in a random Belgian town so I called in a supermarket to get some lunch. I ended up with some sushi and a beer By this point the temperature was up to about 33 degrees so I changed the satnav to get me to the hotel via the quickest route. Several hours of hot motorway later I arrived in Lille. I'd read that this can be a bit of a sketchy place so I'd booked a hotel with secure parking. After a quick shower I headed out into Lille for a mooch about. It's not a bad place to stop off, I wouldn't be rushing there for a weekend trip I did manage to get a beer and a steak though I accidentally arrived in France for the start of the Rugby World cup so I headed back to the hotel to watch the opening game.

Thursday for me I felt back to normal. I could have gone out with the rest of the lads but they did Luxembourg on Tuesday and with this being my last day before I start my homeward journey I didn't want to miss out on some proper riding in Luxembourg. I plotted a route on calimoto and set off on my own. I quite fancy doing some camping around here and this campsite caught my eye https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8695132,6.2676132,3a,75y,347.55h,85.86t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sLIV7MWSI3q0_OW9bn0iGcQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DLIV7MWSI3q0_OW9bn0iGcQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D258.54672%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu First proper stop was at Beaufort Castle. I didn't go in, it was a photo stop only. My next stop was a couple of hours later on a random hairpin, there were some picnic benches. It was another roasting day so I cheated for lunch and went for an air conditioned lunch, It was pricey though! €2.65 for 0.4 liters of water the robbing gits! double Chilli cheese burger was good though. I headed back to the hotel getting back around 4:30 having covered a reasonable 150 miles. The main course that evening was a huge meatball with an egg on the top. It's simple food at the hotel but it all tastes so good. Sadly @smallfrowne couldn't join us as it was his turn to have a night kneeling to the porcelain gods.

After a very rough night on Tuesday I was up on Wednesday morning and feeling a lot better but tired. I joined the guys for breakfast at 8 but I waved them off and went back to bed to get some more sleep. 3 Hours of extra sleep later I was feeling a lot better and I was also feeling a bit peckish so I decided to go out on the bike for a couple of gentle miles. I ended up just inside Luxembourg so called into a supermarket to get some apples and sushi for lunch. Not wanting to eat in the car park I put a pin in Google Maps that looked like it was on top of a big hill and headed off there. The road I was on went from impeccable tarmac to rough tarmac, to gravel to mud. I could have turned around but I put the tiger into offroad mode and it went up it no problem at all The top of the hill lead to another tarmac road and some massive hay bales which provided some shade but the view was good, not as good as Piesport but nothing ever is. I headed back from there to the hotel having covered less than 50 miles but considering how I was feeling in the night I was amazed that I'd been on the bike at all. Dinner that night was an incredible meal of goulash along with a complimentary shot of the strongest Schnapps I've ever had.

Onto Tuesday, this was to be a shorter day as schnitzel was on the menu for the evening at the hotel and schnitzel night is the highlight of the week. We set off on more glorious roads but Gerontious' skills of finding a coffee stop failed him, well we found it but it was shut. Even going to the castle next door didn't result in refreshments There was a photo opportunity though This stop did have one bit of excitement which involved a treasure hunt for a lost key. It didn't take long to find though. On for some more riding around and Gerontious' skills were back in action and he found us an excellent stop for lunch. We all had different things, mine being some really nice goulash served in a jam jar. On for more riding with one eye on the clock so that we didn't miss schnitzel night but there were still a good few miles yet to cover. We rode through Cochem which is a fantastic looking place but full of people and bikes. 5 UK registered bikes seemed to attract the attention of the German rozzers and they followed us for a couple of miles or so, Gerontious and Smallfrowe had already shot off into the distance but some exemplary riding from Snod, Bonio and myself resulted in the rozzers getting bored and going off to find someone else to follow. Our return journey was going well until a diversion thwarted the plan so we had to find an alternative route. We attempted to find some shade as the heat had been relentless all day. Sadly we got split up on this leg and rather than being all together we ended up being into three. We did end up on the motorway though so as we were in germany the full berries were given. Sadly when I got to 116mph a lorry pulled out for an overtake so I had to slow down and I didn't have enough space to pick up speed before the next junction, a shame as I was looking forward to seeing if the 125mph limt on the tiger is a real thing. I lead Bonio back until he knew where he was and then he overtook me and disappeared into the distance, he's a bit more enthusiastic than I am so I was more than happy for him to go past. The only thing that did annoy me was that as I took a couple of minutes extra to go back I missed out on the spectacle of him jumping off his bike and dropping it on the floor We were a bit late getting back so a quick change and it was in for Schnitzel. Sadly for me, I could only manage one and I had to retire to my room so that I could have a night kneeling to the porcelain gods with occasional bouts of the brown rain. I put it down to the really hot weather and over-exerting myself but Smallfrowne had the same thing 2 days later so there must have been something going round.

Monday started with a huge breakfast of bread, meat, cheese, boiled eggs and yogurt. We all set off for a big day out as the hotel restaurant wasn't open in the evening so there was no rush to be back. @Gerontious is a dab hand at plotting a good route so he lead and we all followed him along some fantastic roads. I don't know how he finds them but we stopped for lunch after about 4 hours of riding in a great little spot with a host that had a very strong resemblance to Einstein. Bearing in mind we are in the middle of very rural Germany the guys daughter lives in Norwich, it's a small world at times. We all had a fantastic alchohol free beer and most of us had Flammkuchen to eat which was also fantastic. It was about 4pm now and we were almost at the halfway point so there was plenty more riding to do. On the return leg we stopped at the top of the hill in Piesport, I'd riddent he road down a couple of times but never up, both are equally as good. A few more miles later it was dark and we were back at the hotel. We covered an impressive 270 miles in almost 7 hours. It was abotu 9pm by this point so we headed to the supermarket to get some food. Whilst outside 5 uk bikes in the carpark was generating a bit of attention, @bonio was having a chat with a German guy that rode a KTM but the main event was another guy who was amazed to see Snod's TRX. "Nice nice nice" He even called his mate to tell him about the TRX which Snod had to have a chat with, there was a huge language barrier but a shared love of the TRX brought them together. The night was concluded with a couple of Beers on the hotel balcony. A long day but one of the best I've had on a bike.

I've been slacking on writing up what I got up to so before I forget I'll get it done Sunday for me was a short ride from Belgium into Germany, I had loads of time and not very far to go so there was plenty of faffing about. I headed out with no real route planned and only a final desination in mind. Being in belgium I found that I wasn't far from Spa so I headed towards the race track. I'd messed up though as I hadn't thought about food for Sunday lunch and pretty much everywhere is shut on the continent on a Sunday but right next to the race track was a garage that did sandwiches so I grabbed something from there along with a massively overpriced bottle of water. I didn't go into the main entrance to the track but I followed the road around the edge and found a little layby with a turnstile in the fence. There were people on the other side of the fence so I tried the turnstile and it seemed to rotate both ways so I went though it and got trackside There was a random track day on the go which was great to see but I was a bit nervous that I was on the wrong side of the fence and my bike and all my stuff was on the other side of it, I went back and watched for a while next to the bike. It must be a well known spot as there was quite few people turning up to watch from there I continued on my way aimlessly ridinging around on random roads. I was soon in Germany, the line where the awful belgian roads end and the glorious german roads start was very obvious. I arrived at the hotel first so got checked in and unpacked. for the first time that I'd seen the town was having a bit of a fair so I had an ice cream, currywurst, and beer. A couple of hours later the rest of the guys arrived so we all went to the Saray grill for a Kebab (and a beer) . This was closed last year so it was great to have one again.

New fuel exhaust fitted this evening. Sounds a bit better than the standard one.

I'm the 1st one back. It's been an incredible week, I'll fill in with more details once I've got myself sorted out. I split the return journey over two days as I've got a wedding reception to go to this evening which has been a stroke of luck with the heat. I'm not envious of the others doing the whole trip in one.

I've had a random day of riding around and I'm now in Belgium. I've come down mostly via Germany but then I cut back across the bottom right of Holland to get into Belgium. We all know that German roads are super smooth and Belgium ones are rough but I managed to find some hilly roads in Holland. It's Saturday so all the Dutch cyclists had flocked there. I also had to get a ferry in Holland to get across a river. Last year I really struggled to get lunch but I manged to get a really nice sandwich from a supermarket today. I've been past a lot of German farms growing plants in pots, theres thousands of them, pots not farms. Anyway there's literally no barrier between them and the road. If they were like this at home I can imagine a lot of people just helping themselves to the plants. I've also been to an American memorial today, to say it was immaculate would be an understatement. I think this will be the last memorial for this trip. Weather wise it was a scorcher today after the cloud had burnt away, I'm glad I've brought my mesh jacket with me.

Lots of maintenance going on. I hope you aren't getting tempted to do any @smallfrowne. I've been riding around the Netherlands today which is largely boring from a riding stand point but it's interesting (for me at least) to see the different type of houses/towns/villages. I've also ridden through a huge wind farm. I've also called into the war cemetery next to Arnhem. These are alway sobering places but I like to go to pay my respects. Next door was a normal cemetery so I had a wander around there too. I find it interesting to see how different nations have cemeterys, the Dutch seem to have a nod to psalms on their headstones, not something I've seen before but it's a nice touch. 62, 139 stuck out. Anyway on a lighter note this house made me laugh Can you imagine the grief you would from get from your Mrs if you had a 5meter high inflatable in the front garden with a sash around it with her name and whore written on it. Let alone all the other stuff I have had a slight technical malfunction today as the usb cable powering my phone (which I'm using as a sat nav) decided it doesn't want to work which left me with a phone with less than 10% power. I managed to pick up a new cable from a supermarket along with a pot of some sort of crab meat mixture that made an incredible sandwich. There was enough filling for two cobs but I'd only bought one. I don't think the Dutch eat sandwiches in supermarket car parks as I got some funny looks. Fuel isn't cheap here. It was €2.059 a litre for standard e10 95 Ron. I was down to my last 50km range so I just bit the bullet and filled up with just over 25 litres. Now back in the pub that sells it's own beer so it's quite well priced, the lady recognised me from yesterday so just assumed I wanted a tab and never asked for any money. The roads may be crap but I do quite like Arnhem. Here's some photos in various orientations

I really like the ferry option, its great to travel when asleep but I enjoy cruising so it suits me. If it was dover to calias then I'd chose the tunnel every time though. Weather today has been spot on and I'm currently sat on a sunny terrace of a self serve pub, they have 100 beers to chose from. There was some threatening clouds but I told them to do one and they did. Today's ride has been a random meandering 180km of sometimes straight but often sweepy bends on dykes. I'm still getting used to the new tiger, it had done less than 600 miles up until last weekend but I prefer it to the GS.

The bike is strapped down but I don't really know what I'm doing so fingers crossed its still stood up in the morning. Time for a couple of beers.

Regular raking and weed killer is the only way, we've tried special sand etc and it just grows back sadly.

It begins, @Stu can you do the honours with my photos again please or would you like me to hold off posting until I'm home?

Ha Im sure you'll at least say hello Rather than booze I will be on the hunt for mayonnaise. I found some particularly nice stuff from Luxembourg last year so I will be nipping into a supermarket one day. I'll be getting some from the Netherlands and Belgium before we meet up and I'll get some from France on the way home.

Sunday is ages away. I cross tomorrow night!

Make sure you service the seat lock. It gets a lot more use than the manufacturer ever intended and I'd hate to see it fail.

I put 100 miles on the clock, it's the first time I've actually been out for a ride for weeks.

Euros collected and I've got the panniers down from the loft. I might have to start thinking about doing some packing soon.