Eifel Mountains 2018

[Snod Blatter]

Guess I'll start with the pictures then.. Sorry these are all a bit bike-focused but I had the TRX forum in mind, I'm going to blow their minds by just riding it on the road a bit instead of sitting in an armchair talking about racing and tuning as if it's some kind of thoroughbred. Anyway!

TRX in full touring mode, waiting to get on the train:

TRX back in race mode (except the 'Nav I suppose) ready for glorious sweepers:

Nurgleywurgley..

Some German machine, not quite sure what. I should've taken a close up photo of the logo on it and let you all bicker amongst yourselves what it might be while suggesting it's all somehow a scam..

One bike parked up at the bike cafe surrounded by 8 foot wide German cars:

Beaufort castle (tradition):

A slightly wet day which led us to Verdun. The suction mount for my 'Nav had been seriously impressive all week until it saw a smattering of rain, when the whole lot promptly fell off and kept falling off. A surprisingly stressful morning, but the 'Nav only hit the deck once (bugger!).

Wee wee time at all times. No bush is safe.

The view of the Mosel at the viewing point near Piesport. I heard something coming from miles away, it eventually turned out to be a Buell which was kind of interesting.

Time for bratwurst and chips, at least it didn't come with any bread!

The viewing point at Cochem - I'm sure someone else will have better pictures of the actual view! Bikes razz up and down it all the time, flouting the 50kmh limit with gay abandon. A lot of them on UK plates, which felt very cliche - I'm always reminded of getting to the top of the Grossglockner in Austria, thousands of miles from home on a proper adventure, only to find all the bikes parked up there were on UK plates. Talk about a well trodden path..

Arriving at the tunnel, something's not right - delays are imminent.

Waiting with the Road Captains on their hawgs..

Only 3 of us made it on to the earlier/less delayed train, the others had to wait a bit longer. But they could've easily fitted, all a bit stupid.

Faffing, it's already a stupid time so what's a little more faff!

Finally get home and..

10/10 would faff again

[Bungleaio]

I will do a proper update in a couple of days as I feel a bit broken after a long day yesterday, I could have made it shorter by not being in the pub until 2ish the night before but where's the fun in that.

In summary though it was a top week with top lads on top roads.

[bonio]

Tunnelling under the sea

 

A break in Belgium. Fortunately we can't read French.

 

Bendzzzz

 

More bendzzz

 

Hairpinzzz

 

This picture has no explanation

 

Luxembourg

 

A tradition

 

Fancy pub. Fancy bikes.

 

A relaxing moment

 

And another

 

Group photos

[bonio]

This is "Matt's Road", near Cochem. Worth going all that way for this road alone.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Love it. What great pics. I don’t suffer the green eye but somehow right now I am.

[Stu]

This is "Matt's Road", near Cochem. Worth going all that way for this road alone.

MattsRoad.png

 

I agree

I have ridden this road a few times it's one of many great roads in that area

[Gerontious]

Love it. What great pics. I don’t suffer the green eye but somehow right now I am.

 

Its fantastic.. "sublime" doesn't even come close. The entire area that we have at our disposal (excluding Luxembourg) is about 3,000 square miles, north and south of the River Mosel. Low Mountains, deep cut valleys. wide open plateau. Old volcanos.. many of which have eroded down to almost perfectly circular lakes. Tiny little villages.. and only a very few moderately sized towns and one small city. And most importantly (for us) its to all intents and purposes empty.. traffic is few and far between. Over the 5 days we saw 2 police cars and that was an extraordinarily high number compared to previous years. Not once were we stuck in traffic. No filtering skills required. The roads are 80% perfect.. the other 20% about equal to the second best roads here. So, many are velvet smooth and perfectly laid out for fast riding. Stopping places are common and normally come complete with a picnic area and a great view. Another biker who doesn't wave.. is an exception. Cars generally slow down and indicate 'right' as a signal for you to pass. Nobody.. not any restaurant or cafe or anything like that, raises even the slightest eyebrow when a load of bikers turn up and sit down. If all you want is a coffee.. or a beer, (they do truly fantastic alcohol free wheat beer) that is never a problem.. in fact nothing is a problem or too much trouble. Some signal "Biker Welcome" but many do not and they make you welcome anyway. More than happy to provide food.. even if the restaurant is to all intents and purposes closed, getting ready for a private party. As one place was. They still fed us.

There is only one negative at this time of year.. and that is the relatively large number of road closures. The summer season is over and the locals make good use of this gap of good weather and light traffic to upgrade roads. and they don't simply resurface. They relay them from scratch.. completely removing the old road surface down to the base rock and laying the new tarmac on a new base layer. They do it properly. So a road will be closed and there will be a diversion.. sometimes a really quite long one, but more often than not this diversion is worth the ride and in fact a fair few of them have been noted for the next time as they were even better than the intended route.

There is a reason we go back to this area. year after year. its the best riding within an easy days ride of Calais. I have talked about the Eifel. but.. Luxembourg (away from the city) is even better, far better.. on another level. So good in fact that one day we arrived at the border with Belgium on a very minor back road. And the transition was stark. from great tarmac to a river of gravel... loose chippings. so awful that after a group rant about Belgian "roads from hell" we turned around and went back into a bikers paradise.

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Urrrgh to the burden of responsibilities that prevent the fun we should be having!

It looks amazing. To quote my rather annoying “blaze a trial” friend who has a knack of using sayings that make you bristle it looks “amazeballs”

The tarmac alone sells it.

I hope you’re all very tired and very satisfied.

[Stu]

Having been across a few times I agree with everything [mention]Gerontious[/mention] is saying

Everywhere is so welcoming its unreal! Nothing is ever a problem and the roads a scenery are awesome

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Come on guys share stuff, you’ve been gone a while.

[Six30]

Not jealous

Luxembourg and Germany love it out there , great roads.

[Bungleaio]

Come on guys share stuff, you’ve been gone a while.

 

After a 17 hour trip home with 441 miles showing on the clock for that trip alone I'm tired but I will put a massive update together this week. I'm amazed that Snod and bonito have managed to get theirs up already.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I look forward to it.

Snooze time right now then.

[smallfrowne]

Well it seems I missed out on the best stuff, basically missed Tuesday, half of Wednesdays and all of Fridays activities.. But still had a good laugh. I did have a brand new bike for a couple of days in the middle there to try out as well. After leaving the nc30 in the middle of an industrial estate at the Honda dealers I eventually found myself back on holiday

But the real fun didn't start until Friday afternoon when the unmarked FedEx van turned up with some friction plates and a special tool.. The wrong tool. I now had the clutch but not the tool to fix it, needed a castellated socket to remove this..

Note the futile attempt at removing it using a screwdriver bit in a holder with 1/4" extension as makeshift punch and the wrong tool from the package as a hammer.

I took some measurements with Snod's calipers he'd left for me and skipped away to the local hardware shop in an attempt to make the required tool. I tried to explain with pictures and gesticulations but ended up coming out with a standard socket of correct size but an unwillingness to make use of a grinder to make the part. Next stop: The Pub.

"Hallo, do you have a grinder?"

Confusion looked back at me. Eventually though the problem was explained and a few phone calls made. A bloke I'd met before turned up, before his night shift at Gilles Tooling (who some might know of as being manufacturers of rearsets and other bike bits). We discussed measurements and he'd called around and the part would be ready to pick up at 11pm that night. However Klaus turned up, a mechanic 9 days off retirement at the local airport. In no time we'd collected a hammer and a bunch of chisels, and a few whacks later it was off. In the time it took me to replace the plates he'd been back home to grind the burrs away and it was whacked back on to 85Nm. Cover back on and all just about in time to join the others for fish supper.

 

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Aah a boozy delight of a fix.

Love the way the right person appears.

[Six30]

Come on guys share stuff, you’ve been gone a while.

 

I'm amazed that Snod and bonito have managed to get theirs up already.

 

[Gerontious]

I should add that those last two photos in no way represent a fish supper.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

If fish was consumed at some point there was a fish supper.

[bonio]

I have a hazy recollection that the photos represent the "supper" part of fish supper.

[bonio]

After a 17 hour trip home with 441 miles showing on the clock for that trip alone I'm tired but I will put a massive update together this week. I'm amazed that Snod and bonito have managed to get theirs up already.

 

That's a good ride

I clocked up 411 miles, all done on 3 or 4 hours sleep.

My stats for the whole week are

Total miles: 1900

Weight gained: 4lbs

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Good on you man.

[Gerontious]

Im sure I must have lost at least 20% liver function due to excessive alcohol.

and gained an inch due to excessive consumption of bread and froop. definitely need to find a retailer of froop. my mornings will never be the same again without it.

2048 miles door to door.

A great week.. only marred by the Channel Tunnel deciding to have an in-tunnel breakdown on our return day.. very fortunately we were not on that train. just suffered the consequences.

But.. this group of guys are great. pragmatic and stoical.

We discovered more new roads than you can shake an 8 foot wide tractor at. explored the Hunsruck, south of the Mosel. used our rainy day to escape into France and I took the opportunity to see with my own eyes the Douaumont Ossuary. One of the saddest places on earth. But an amazing structure nonetheless. One of the guys went inside.. I couldn't bear it. On the ride back.. more sad moments as we passed through villages that no longer exist... except as a collection of craters and the usual entering and leaving signs you would see at any village in France. These were dead though.. wiped off the face of the map.

Last day was great though.. we finally did Matts road. Last time it was closed.. so this time it was perfect with new tarmac for almost its entire length.

I had a great week and oddly enough the chicken strips on my old tractor seem to have vanished for some reason I fail to understand.

And Bungle was an absolute trooper.. though he got rather more than he bargained for I reckon. maybe... perhaps. He did a lot of grinning though.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Gerontious

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Pragmatic and stoical, does life get any better?!

[geofferz]

Somehow I missed this thread. Looks amazing - I'm very jealous. Deffo going touring next year.

[Bungleaio]

And Bungle was an absolute trooper.. though he got rather more than he bargained for I reckon. maybe... perhaps. He did a lot of grinning though.

 

The whole experience blew me away. There was hours and hours of grinning.

I have commenced sorting my photos, I took over 200 but have got it down to about 80 odd which tell the story of the week. I just need to edit them and get them edited and add some narration.