Well, we did it, almost 1200 miles in 3 days, and what a weekend it was
All bikes performed faultlessly, with no hiccups for the whole 1200 miles, even though we had 110 miles stints at upwards of 110mph, only casualty was my knees after about 300 miles, man did they start to hurt.
Highlights I guess were, the E42 from Verviers to the ring, glorious sunshine, awesome sweeping roads, across the German border onto the A1 and our bit of unrestricted Autobahn, cue 155mph "race" all with panniers and luggage attached, what a blast
The Nurburgring in itself is a place you just can't describe with words, the atmosphere is electric, the track itself is a mixure of euphoric riding and shit-your-pants danger, one of our group nearly got sideswiped by a Honda Intergra, Henry took an excursion over the grass at Adenua Forst, Tom very, VERY nearly hit the armco at ex-muhle, I thankfully had no scares, its WELL worth learning the layout on a computer game LOL.
I had 7 laps in all, first lap was a VERY humbling experiance, think you are a good rider?, do your first lap on the Nurburgring and think again, we did our first lap on Saturday evening, then headed off to get some food and be ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning, I got up early, it was pissing it down, I headed out to the track while the rest were still in bed (lazy buggers) and managed to get a lap in before the heavens opened again, 11 mins 17, which I thought was ok considering how slippy it was.
The rest of the fellas arrived, so we went out again, now, you think the ring is scary on a bike in the dry?, try it in TORRENTIAL rain when a ratty old Ferrari 308 has emptied its sump of oil all over Tiergarten, not fun, rest of the lap was spent slip sliding around, lots of arse out moments, but thankfully not spills.
By now is was raining quite badly, so we headed off to the GP circuit and the Nurburging museam which was a pretty good way to kill a few wet hours.
By the afternoon the sun had come out and had dried to track off, so out we went for the rest of the afternoon to get more laps in, once you are over the intial shock and awe of the track, you start to get into the flow of it, and believe me, it is probably one of the most awesome experiances you can have on a bike.
Sunday night, and we went into Adenau to a chinese resturant, which was very nice, had a right laugh.
Monday morning came, and it was pissing it down again, this stayed with us till well into Belguim, highlight was wringing my soaked wet socks out in a Belgien service station toilet, what fun
It was then dry from there to England, where it bucketed it down all the way home, a lot of it spent at 90mph, had to filter through 8 miles of traffic jam on the M20 which was nice..........
All in all an AWESOME weekend, really, REALLY enjoyed it, anyone thinking about doing it? DO IT, it is WELL worth it, already thinking about the next trip
Some observations.
In nearly 800 miles of european roads we didn't see ONE speed camera
Again, hardly any traffic police
Perfect roads, and good drivers
Germany is a lovely place, so clean and friendly
Good points of the trip
155mph on the Autobahn
6 dry laps of the ring, and beating 10 min lap time
1 wet lap, which was certainly a challenge
my hotel
spending the weekend with 4 other great guys
Bad points
None really, but the weather could have been a bit more favourable on the return journey.
All bikes performed faultlessly, with no hiccups for the whole 1200 miles, even though we had 110 miles stints at upwards of 110mph, only casualty was my knees after about 300 miles, man did they start to hurt.
Highlights I guess were, the E42 from Verviers to the ring, glorious sunshine, awesome sweeping roads, across the German border onto the A1 and our bit of unrestricted Autobahn, cue 155mph "race" all with panniers and luggage attached, what a blast
The Nurburgring in itself is a place you just can't describe with words, the atmosphere is electric, the track itself is a mixure of euphoric riding and shit-your-pants danger, one of our group nearly got sideswiped by a Honda Intergra, Henry took an excursion over the grass at Adenua Forst, Tom very, VERY nearly hit the armco at ex-muhle, I thankfully had no scares, its WELL worth learning the layout on a computer game LOL.
I had 7 laps in all, first lap was a VERY humbling experiance, think you are a good rider?, do your first lap on the Nurburgring and think again, we did our first lap on Saturday evening, then headed off to get some food and be ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning, I got up early, it was pissing it down, I headed out to the track while the rest were still in bed (lazy buggers) and managed to get a lap in before the heavens opened again, 11 mins 17, which I thought was ok considering how slippy it was.
The rest of the fellas arrived, so we went out again, now, you think the ring is scary on a bike in the dry?, try it in TORRENTIAL rain when a ratty old Ferrari 308 has emptied its sump of oil all over Tiergarten, not fun, rest of the lap was spent slip sliding around, lots of arse out moments, but thankfully not spills.
By now is was raining quite badly, so we headed off to the GP circuit and the Nurburging museam which was a pretty good way to kill a few wet hours.
By the afternoon the sun had come out and had dried to track off, so out we went for the rest of the afternoon to get more laps in, once you are over the intial shock and awe of the track, you start to get into the flow of it, and believe me, it is probably one of the most awesome experiances you can have on a bike.
Sunday night, and we went into Adenau to a chinese resturant, which was very nice, had a right laugh.
Monday morning came, and it was pissing it down again, this stayed with us till well into Belguim, highlight was wringing my soaked wet socks out in a Belgien service station toilet, what fun
It was then dry from there to England, where it bucketed it down all the way home, a lot of it spent at 90mph, had to filter through 8 miles of traffic jam on the M20 which was nice..........
All in all an AWESOME weekend, really, REALLY enjoyed it, anyone thinking about doing it? DO IT, it is WELL worth it, already thinking about the next trip
Some observations.
In nearly 800 miles of european roads we didn't see ONE speed camera
Again, hardly any traffic police
Perfect roads, and good drivers
Germany is a lovely place, so clean and friendly
Good points of the trip
155mph on the Autobahn
6 dry laps of the ring, and beating 10 min lap time
1 wet lap, which was certainly a challenge
my hotel
spending the weekend with 4 other great guys
Bad points
None really, but the weather could have been a bit more favourable on the return journey.
msl: )
. There was a race on the track that day that my brother and I watched. Actually we wanted to stay a little bit longer to do some laps after the race but went early.
