Everywhere Virtually

My friend Simon is keen to get into motorcycling. That said he has 3 large tasks before him. Firstly he needs permission from his wife (or I say get it anyway as it’s easier to ask for forgiveness), then he needs a bike license. This is somewhat complicated by the fact he lives in Germany. Lastly he needs a bike.

In the meantime he gets to sit on my bikes when I visit

It was a beautiful day and I decided to ride in Jeans and T-shirt. I know all the ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) crowd will go on and on about this but I believe sometimes it is good to be aware of the dangers. Not having all the gear makes you more cautious and a cool rider is one that is concentrating as opposed to one that is hot, sweating and perhaps has restricted visibility due to wearing a full face helmet.

I mentioned previously that I didn’t load all the maps on for expediency. I didn’t realise how close I was cutting it cartographically

Riding between Dusseldorf and Linz is a long slog. In order to fend off fatigue and boredom I have regular stops and treats along the way. To find Chunky Monkey on this trip was a particularly rare and welcome find

I took a wrong turn at one point which mean’t I had to do a bit of cross country. This gave some welcome relief from the blazing sunshine. The cooling effect of the forests was wonderful. I’m not much of an environmentalist but I have to say I really do like trees. They really do have a tempering effect certainly on the immediate environment. With the detour over I was soon back on the autobhan and to my surprise… gridlock

Filtering or lane splitting is illegal in Germany but in situations like this such rules are not enforceable and so I made my way gingerly between the trucks and cars. This jam was about 10km long and towards the front portion of the queue people were standing around, getting out of cars and truck drivers would open their doors without any warning so I kept my eyes peeled and took it slow.

I noticed this Hungarian truck had a double puncture!

It got dark around Regensberg and by then I’d had enough. It had cooled down considerably and despite the warm clothing I just wanted to use the instant teleport button to get me to Linz. I got to Linz just after midnight. The CB500 had done its job valiantly and while not my first steed of choice I was surprised that it covered the distance without fuss.