Peter's Motorcycles & Travels
Senast uppdaterad 06 mars 2005
9 PM My brother comes to pick me up,
hurrying to Robert to pick him up, we get
apprx 1 km before my brother "discover"
that he's hungry -that's unusual..... Quick pit stop at MAX Hamburgers.
Straight ahead to Helsingborg, arriving 4.35 AM missed our pre booked ferry with 5 mins,
next departure in 25 mins
Doesn't really matter not directly high season.
Robert and my brother Matts falls instantly asleep, I feel slightly seasick so I stay
awake, 15 minutes later we arrive
in Helsingör.
Straight through Denmark to Rödby for our
next
ferry.
This ferry takes a little more time apprx. 40 minutes, so we go upstair to take a
nap.
Well, at last in Germany, we put the pedal to the metal towards Hamburg to pick up
Robert's bike, we hardly got on the Autobahn
before a police car pulls us over, they want to see our rental agreement and registration,
we have the rental agreement with the
comment that we are allowed to take it abroad so that's OK, but they forgot to give us the
registration papers, now we were in
trouble, they absolutely wanted to know what the weight is ... (?)
Matts and Robert Doesn't look too unhappy
about that !
We stood there for an eternity, calling to Sweden to hear if there's a plate or something
that says the weight.
They got in their car, discussing when their mobile phone rings, a second later they say
"alles gut" and throw our
passports at us and take off..... Must have been an exercise of some kind.
12.45 PM at last in Hamburg at Johns-Maackens were Roberts bike is located.
They were supposed to open at one a clock but no one arrives until 1.30 PM, it feels that
the time is running away, we have an
appointment with the seller of Matts bike in Zetel, it's a 250 km drive and we're not 100%
sure were it is and they hardly
speak one word English.
Robert's bike was in expected condition, a
1996 YZF600R with only
11500 km, we knew about a small crack in a fairing, the
Tyres, break pads, chain & sprocket kit are not completely worn out but almost, better
than expected anyway. A Laser exhaust was
fitted... - that's a bonus we didn't know about, now it was just to agree about the
price......
That Mr Maackens was a man that likes to "deal" had we already been informed of by Tobbe
Allroad MC
Robert could "deal" as well so he made a bargain.
A satisfied Robert with his YZF600R
The time is about 3.30 PM when we're done. Well, about time to get going against Zetel, a
250 km drive. should be fast .....
Problem was that Zetel was so small that we could hardly find it, we had to stop and ask
our way there, finally we got there
called the seller to come and guide us the last bit.
We were informed that my brothers bike had
been dropped so it was scratched, - the price was very good.
If it had been sold in Sweden "scratched" had meant "minor scratch" , better than
expected. A Honda SLR650,
15000 km.
Nice bike with Dominator (NX650) engine, a Bieffe top box (BIG) and this towns biggest
(& ugliest) windshield was
included as well.
It's getting late, 8.30 PM to be more
precise, we're supposed to be in Rotenburg around nine, and that's
135 km to drive.
We call (which means that we call our mother, and our mother calls the bloke, he doesn't
speak one word English) to tell
them that we're late and will arrive at ten, missed that one as well when we had to stop
to get something to eat.
11 PM at last in Rotenburg to pick up Matts friend Johan's Dominator, a 1997 with
7000 km on the gauge, we were a bit confused
how we would be able to buy it when he don't understand what we're saying, but he had
arranged with an interpreter so everything
went smooth.
WELL not again ....... we parked on a big
parking lot across the street of the interpreter which also happened to be the parking to
a
bakery, were the old witches tend to be looking out of the windows instead of baking buns,
thought we're doing "dirty deeds".
If there's something they have a lot of in Germany, it's cops, we show then our
"Fahrzeugbrief" & "kaufvertrag" and everything is cool ;)
The Dominator in place !
The time was now 12.30 AM, the plan was to sleep at a friend on a construction site in
Blankenese, Hamburg but concerning the time
of the day(night) we decided to sleep in the truck were we were, when the interpreter
heard that he immediately offered us a room in the
house, super nice Germans !!!
5.30 AM Waky Waky !!
Time to pick up the last bike, 9 AM in Cappel is the time to catch, 200 km south east of
Rotenburg. It's on the countryside so we
had the opportunity to see something more than just the Autobahn, incredibly beautiful
landscape, arrived on time for once.
André who was selling the bike seamed more interested in taking a coffee break than to
sell the bike, when we got inside we understood
why, he had set the breakfast table with coffee, juice, ham, cheese, salami and more YUMMY
! Thank's a lot Andre !!
We should have got used to it by now, that
the bikes are in very good condition, mine was a XTZ660 Ténéré 1993,
29000 km complete
with service book, normal condition according to André, yesterday i got the question, is
it new ?
Last bike on board.......finally time to go
home.
Now we have 1230 km ahead of us, drove through a small town that it was almost impossible
to get out of, so we took the time to buy
some German beer, 85% cheaper than in Sweden.
Not much more to do than drive .......
Robert doesn't mind.
Which leaves me and my bro' to do something
completely
else....
A few miles after we pass Örebro, rain mixed with snow starts to fall, a few minutes later
we're in a snowstorm, in any other case i would
have been surprised, but not when the motorcycle is involved, apparently the weather felt
we were coming, -
25cm should do it.... the last
10 miles approaching Ludvika we couldn't keep any higher speed than 50km/h without going
off the road, next time we'll try to get winter tires
(without studs)
7 AM we arrive at home, tired but satisfied.
Next trip will be in the autumn, thinking of an Africa Twin or a Transalp definitely
something that will work driving to England
with my wife visiting my sister.
Take a look at Allroad MC, there you have some
more trips documented and a lot of other stuff, only in Swedish.
Isn't it gravel i vaguely see under the snow ??? have to try ..........