Day 1
As you can see from the above map, the route for the journey took me through some 14 countries plus Kosovo, which to some is a country and to others is not. The below shot is the bike all packed up and ready to go at the back of the apartment in Rotterdam. Off course this the eastern part of the route was unplanned, only the rough direction and a need to be in Istanbul on a given day were fixed. An I had some help from Zsolt Katona in Budapest in regards to road quality and what was feasible in terms of distance, once I crossed into Romania.
In terms of luggage, I loaded up the bike with two soft side bags, my trusty red biking bag and about 20kg of spare bits n pieces for the bike and tools on the back, which didn’t help fuel consumption. I certainly overdid it on the tools I have to say and would probably have used about half the fuel I did had I been smarter on that front. However better to have the stuff than not on this big run, especially given the solo nature of it.
Left Rotterdam just after Lunch on Sept 27th and headed south on the A13 towards Breda. Stopped after about 15km at a service station to check that everything was still secure. Just after Eindhoven I realised that the new “Euro” exhaust was rubbing and melting the right side of the rear tire, and wearing into it fast. Shards of rubber gathering on the swing arm. This is totally not good. Looks like with me and luggage the bike is riding lower than usual and when I go over a bump it bottoms out where the exhaust is scraping the tire. I ended up puling off at Koblenz and taking the forcing the exhaust into a new position and holding it away from the tire with some wire. But still not happy with it. Checked it at regular intervals further on and seems to have fixed the problem for now.
Pulled off at 1.30am about 10km shy of Regensburg with 738km down, which is a fair ride for a half day and an evening. Lack of speed limits makes autobahn riding in the dark rather hair-raising. Managed to get lost at Ludwigshaven as well. €50 for the night including breakfast was just what the doctor ordered – as well as a nice warm bed to ward off the increasing chill. Had my usual end of the riding day beer (a can of Bitburger) before turning in for the night.
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