Post by X Plane on Jun 28, 2017 14:59:14 GMT
Here's my (LONG full) writeup of my 2500 mile tour 2016 holiday on the mighty MT-10 (i should break it down into sections but what da hell, stop reading note position and come back to it later, lol).
So with bike bought 2nd of June 2016 and after a month of ownership now it was time to go on tour holiday with the Mt-10.
I already had done 2500 miles on the bike. So here is what mods and preparations I did for the trip. I go in to detail of trip routes and day by day blow by blow accounts of me adventure.
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Route: boat from Belfast, N.Ireland to Cairnryan, Scotland. I then rode off to towards Garsdale-Head, Yorkshire, England for my 1st nights accommodation. I rode via the Galloway Hills (excellent awesome twisty county hill roads) to get towards England. The Mt excelled in the hills. Next morning it was on to Hull via York to friends place near Hull. Then there for a few days of further bike prep, beers and mods and purchase of a tent, a sleeping bag and a roll mat and Preordered tankbag arrived to hold (my cellular sim) iPad as it has the GPS chip in it it therefore became my SatNav via adding Copilot App and Europe maps. Then after 3 days at Hull testing SatNav etc and fitting bits it was onto the Hull boat to Rotterdam. Next morning was offboat and ride onto to Arnhem, then onto Amsterdam campsite on first day camping on the Continent for 2 nights there. Of course I went to Amsterdam. Then next day headed north over a 20 mile long dyke bridge to Harlingen and into a good campsite there. Now my trip destination was Bike aweasome Harz mountains in Northern Germany. So next day I headed south east into Germany to Bremen to a campsite there. Woke up there opened tent to see a German guy lying beneath my bike to see how my chain oiler was piped on, lol. Nice guy. Then Headed off, after getting new tent pole, (let us park that story for the moment) towards a campsite miles above Bad Lauterberg. Avoided Hanover on way to Harz mountains. From Bad Lauterberg, and the weird but amazing campsite stay there, next day onto Bad Grund via awesome roads to and out of the magical town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Splendid place spent fours days ridding around there with many of the superb Harz Mountains roads. A a1 Class bike Navarna region. Even visited Nordhausen to see the WWII V1, V2 rocket production concentration camp there: Mittelbau-Dora. After that mindset changer tour I heading back to Bad Grund campsite and steak dinner in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, realising how lucky I am. I Visited a University there the next day. The Harz Mountains has it all in terms of variety of road types and good scenery, food and things to go to and do. Return route to Uk was west to back to Rotterdam then Hull for few more days there and then a few days in north England, Kelider Forest, and Scotalnd.
I Meet many great helpful people and some real world mega characters. Bloody brilliant and the bike did 42 mpg average and I love it more. But boy was I glad to see end of camping in a tent.
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The riding, every type!
Life with the The Yam on the road, omg, tour, scratch and do it all day every day without a fault. Cruise control mega, big screen with extender good job, tank range not bad spot on, handling fantastic loaded and unloaded. What an engine. What a trip. Magic, life is class, iPad with Copilot SatNav app made it all so doable so much easier and convenient. Broke a tent pole, Googled camping shops, copied address into CoPilot and off I went, got new longer pole, borrowed a hacksaw, via Germany and Dutch guys, in the next campsite and all sorted it all out, totally brilliant. I love it.
Main Bike modes and prep: Tuturo Chain Oiler, Yamaha rear rack and top box, fitted my previous MT-09 soft Panniers bags, Yamaha Sports screen with a Puig screen extender and put a new rear S21 tyre on. Gear, Dainese Air tech jacket, with waterproof over coat and trousers in top box. Speakers in helmet for music and SatNav use. Car charger for the iPad and usual torch, trunks, socks and clothes, lol.
Averaged about 150 miles a day of non motorway where possible. Suspension settings softened more on the front and about standard on rear. Chain oiler fantastic.
I would not have done this trip on the MT09, which I loved, the 09s camchain tensioner would have began rattling again for sure. The Bigger much better mt10 and the Longer legs of the MT10 cover the ground so well, then it will scratch when there in those fabulous biking roads in the Harz mountains, yeah yeah yep class. Have I said Class. Class time, mega bike, super, but a bit knackering.
Preparations: of course the main preparation was buying the MT-10 bike itself in June.
Small aside, I completed my decision to buy the big 10 when my 09s cam chain started rattling for the 4th (yes that is fourth) time in 18 months, another tale for another time. So as I'd not got the needed confidence in 09 to take it and its rattling camchain on a big trip, ��, (a trip that was so over due that people knew if I don't go on holiday that somebody is gonna get sacked, or oh that someone may have been me, lol). So with the 09 on its 3rd cam chain tensioner and the cam chain rattling again it was the final clincher in deciding to buying the new MT dash 10 for the trip etc.
I had kept and neatly fitted the MT-09s side bags on to the 10, a new rear rack and 39l top-box were fitted, as was the magic Tutoro auto chain oiler and I down loaded CoPilot App and the Europe maps for my iPad as my cellular iPad was soon to become my SatNav system. My pre programmed destination was the Harz Mountains, Germany.
I'd already put some pre trip 2500 miles on the 10 pre trip and I'd put a new lovely S21 tyre onto the rear (Tip, watch and gather up the spacers that will fall out of the wheel if you pull the sprocket carrier off, take all the spacer tubes etc and the needle roller bearing inner spacer with you as tyre guy will need them for putting the wheel onto their wheel balancing machine) and all was tickity boo now and real "good to go", go, go holiday on the Yam, yeah ��
Day 1, August 7th, Headed off for midday boat to Scotland not fully Euro prepped yet but I was only heading to England via Scotland to stay at a friends place first before doing the leap off over in to the foreign speaking lands of The Netherlands and Germany, Europe.
I boarded the ferry (it's not my boat) to Scotland from Belfast like a man reborn. Topbox was preloaded with amble roadside cereal snack bars and drinks, panniers had socks in one and unmentionable stuff in the other one. No tent as yet as I was for staying at a Yorkshire B&B and then at a mates house near the warmer drier Hull. So now on the boat, helmet off and left in topbox and trusty iPad with me it was time to message out to say that that's me I am off, on holiday finally, as I had to wait on new Passport for the Europe leg to come. As the boat moved off i made a list of what I still need to get and it was feet up vacation time. I'd ordered that a tank bag that morning and used my friends house in England address, so I told him to expect delivery of it, as my cellular iPad was going to be my in this new tank bag as my SatNav system for riding in Europe.
Day 1 off ferry early afternoon and rode A75 south taking New Galloway Hills, Queensway, Route at Newton Stewart. Weather great. What a demanding but rewarding road when kept in check. I've ridden it before on a VFR 800 VTec and my MT-09. However, the 10s extra stomp and me thinking I kind of know the road had me laughing in my helmet and then a few times had me oh oh oh let's hardened up the back shock's rebound damping back up to standard before horsing on to much moments. The luggage was not too heavy but the bridges humps etc were lets say entertaining and front tyre wear was not being overly taxed so I was loving the ride. So I thinks let's not get too carried away and not go into the scenery on day one of trip, lol. But I really had a opening ball ride with the stomp of the big 10. Well then I was out of the hills and approaching the Lake District, where it can and did rain. Kirk-stone pass is good. Then night ride on to Garsdale Head for my nights pub accommodation. Gales blowing made that nights riding over tho old 'Coal Road', ummm, ahhh, mnnn, ahh, lets say I am glad that I rode Enduros as the washed out gravel and potholes and off cambers etc were tricky in the dark and wet, but I loved the challenge, but time was getting late near 11 pm. Sideways rain made locking the bike up in the dark car park tricky. I got in and rearranged the whole bedroom / on-suite bathroom into some kind of mega personal drying out chamber. Next day 100% dry as a bone and now the in-middle-of-nowhere-ness was not as bad as the initial impression that I had got from arriving in middle of the previous dark nights big storm.
Day 2. Plan was rode about 150 miles or 7 scenic hours or so to my friend's house near Hull. Having learnt to stop, eat, toilet stop and take pictures now I just did all of those things at various different times in the day, lol. After very good Yorkdales Hawes breakfast and riding via Kettlewell and to (the very impressive) Bolton Abbey. I then headed to but bypassed York, as had been in York last year, I arrive in at me mates place near Hull mid afternoon just 15 minutes after my new Tankbag had arrived there, yeah, awesome. So of course we fitted the tankbag and of course had to try out the iPad charger and the SatNav CoPilot App etc. After tucking the tank bags front magnets in as they were not being used as I used the bags front straps threw slots in plastic shrouds at e front of petrol tank all was good, I thought, until we tested out the iPads compass out in and out of the bag and in the bag it went haywire gaga. The folded in magnetics were then removed from their pockets as when folded into the bag they affected the compass in the iPad. The SatNav uses the compass to speed up and quicken assist navigation. All seems ok so it was time to go buy a tent and sleeping bag etc.
Day 3. This involved nursing a still hangover, but as it was a no biking morning so it was grand. And the multitude of the home made pizzas (from the still warm wood fired pizza oven in my mates back garden) still required some more digestion time. So it was try the tent erection in garden time. Oh oh and some more home made produce eating and map down loading and not forgetting suspension readjustment fiddles. Then it was test the iPad SatNav CoPliot set up. Omg, headphones, bad idea, the helmet pushed them into ears which was big girl painful stuff, really they were soo painful as to be unusable. So off to Maplins shop for some helmet speaks. Wow, now we where (or the iPad was) whistling great guns all good with the helmet speakers fitted and all was A1, in 500 yards, good, lol. Yeah it all worked well and was now tested real well too. Now all I had to do was to buy European RAC breakdown cover and then book a boat over to EuroPort, Rotterdam.
Day 4, kind of lost - due to garden party, wiring extra power socket and alcohol, lol.
Day 5, I'll become / getting briefer. Got over-night (�� �� Zzzzs) boat to Rotterdam.
Day 6, rode to Aherham 'A Bridge too far' fame, then to a water edged campsite near Amsterdam.
The Yam was superb and the iPad SatNav also worked brilliantly. Although, I am not sure if its accent or pronunciation of the street names was 100%, good enough tho.
Day 7 lunched in Amsterdam with ex work colleagues.
Day 8, foggy - me not the weather, I kid, but this was only going to be around a 150 mile day not a mammoth all day on the sweet running 10. I knew I'd need an easy day after ex work colleagues caught up with me or was it I caught up with them. Anyhow, an easy days ride was great. Rode that 20 or so mile long dyke bridge A7 up northward to a nice campsite at Harlingen.
Day 9, weather 100% as clear as bell and great temperature, me was good too and good to Munch miles heading south east down into Breman, Germany. Upon unpacking tent I found I had a broken fibreglass bendy tent pole, bummer, but (or butt) wait those tents come with a prepared outer metal tube sleeve to go over and support the breakage for this common break point at joints. Yeah, all good. Germans loved the MT, ONE lay down under it to check out the oiler and check that the bike had 4 cylinders, lol. Goodman tho.
Ok, ok, the bike, bloody bloody marvellously brilliant bike... More later.
Day 10 off to camping shop to get new pole before heading for to campsite above Bad Lauterburg. Got new pole. Rode kind of ok stuff to Bad Lauterburg where the good roads and mountains start. Spooky but fantastic campsite up in slightly remote forest beside a big lake / reservoir that mists up in the morning.
Day 11. Omg, best roads, roads to biking nirvana. And into Harz and onto nice little Bad Grund where the roads are superb for MT. And yes I rode like I'd stolen it down one of the best roads I've ever ride, see below. And the Yam eat it up,
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Part 2 of ?? MT Vacation Holiday Ride Report: N.Ireland to Harz Mountains, Germany
... Day 11 (Recap: "Day 11. Omg, best roads, roads to biking nirvana...."). So now into the very good roads in upper Harz and onto nice little Bad Grund where the roads are superb.
There is a variety of different road types here for all kinds of bikes and roads just made for the MT-10 or maybe the mighty 10 was made for there or hell what.... Great MT riding, touring, STD and or A mode singing on. Rear S21 showing its better feel than original S20, especially as it never flinched even with over 9000 rpm 10 power pushing it on it side, mega.
Some extra (or extraterrestrial) info background on Bad Grund. I went to Bad Grund because of a Hotel with English biking owners that run guided ride outs round the Harz region. They still run ride outs there but now it is now owned and run by Austrian biking couple, who are English speaking. So I'd been emailing the hotel on route via Holland to get a room and the replies kept saying to phone; which a) I did not really wanting to do, and b) as I had a tent I was not really bothered about staying there. Although, I did want to see the Hotel and place just in case I could use it later and may be bring friends along to it next year. So a pop in was on the cards...
So, I arrive in Bad Grund and the MT and I with CoPilot's help locate the Hotel, it's definitely the right hotel for sure as it's called 'Biker Hotel', lol, and there is bike stuff everywhere. It's mid afternoon and I tell the MT to wait outside for me and I go in. I open up the 2nd inner squeaky creaky entrance door into a deserted looking reception bar room, but I see a guy behind a far off desk doing some paperwork. So I approach the desk and I ask this dude can I stay here and the answer in typical efficient English is 'No, Hotel space full'.... I say 'Ok, not a problem, where can I camp tho?' He points up to the heavens and says 'up, up, up, up, up... nice people'. Mnnn, the last bit had me pondering... Anyhow So, Off I goes up, up, up (up the back road of the mountain) and omg then there's a great big TeePee WigWan tent thingy at the entrance, so I guess I am at the campsite. I ride down a very noisy gravel path to a cabin and a 70 to 80 year old guy appears through the trees, who I kid you not, looks like he's the great great not so great grandson of Count Dracula himself. He stops beside me, looks at me and does not speak a single word, so I say, pardon, no speak German - do you speak English. He slowly raises up a hand showing me a tiny small air gap between his thumb and his forefinger, which I take to mean as a little, omg this is something else, I say and guester a tent, two nights. He bends a forefinger and signalling and beckons me to follow him, I do so, he leads me round the cabin and shows me a mega beautiful field over looking the forest and valley below. I thumbs up at him and he then says 'mother make paperwork'. I am thinking are my tent pegs metal or wooden ones just incase I need a wooden stake quick. Omg, omg now, now remember he appeared to be about 80 years old, even with his long jet black (dyed) hair, so what age is mother. He then plucks out a cell mobile phone out of his hat and phones up his mammy as we heading back over to the MT. He then stands with me till mother arrives. Omg, then he starts to telling her, in Transalvainian I think - definitely not in German, that I want 2 nights one tent and that he has showed me the wonder field etc. To which she completely dismisses him with a deep growl grunt and beckons to me to follow her round the other side of the cabin, towards the same field no doubt. The guy looks like he is going to show his vangs and bite her in the neck or me, I again think metal or wooden tent pegs and think do I have any garlic, but I gesture to him with hand patting down that it's ok it's ok and he began to pretend to strangle choke her, behind her back tho, lol. I mime 'she da Boss' and he runs a flat blade like hand across his throat, omg. It was an amazingly friendly fantastic wonderful place to camp. I cannot over stress how good they were. The owners, once passed the initial kind of scary looks stuff, were all absolutely totally fantastic. I stayed for four nights in all. On night it rained and they skilfully and subtlety waited on me emerging from my tent in the morning to see if I was dry, I thumbs up that all was good. If I'd have been soaked or wet they would have had me into a caravan for sure, magic wonderful folk 'nice people', now I know why the hotel dude said 'nice people'. So I put my tent up and then I went back down, down, down to the biking Hotel, to say thanks, and, for more info on nearest fuel, bank cash machines and lunch snack place etc etc. More on the Hotel man reactions maybe later.
Then I was back up up up and out that best road ever, now with no panniers, as they were in the tent, and me in a I'm actually here mode and in a far more sporty riding mood mode, the MT was wheeling out of some of the bends, thank goodness for its steering damper, and its great handling. Wow, the Road into Claushal-Zellerfeld is mega mega top notch. Bends drawn by an engineers compass and up down hills and round the forest like a selectric race track. And the town (now make a loud whistle noise) is totally marvellous, loved it, love it. Then some great dinning and back to Bad Grund without garlic, yep back along that awesome biking dream road, again, this time in Tc1 and A mode the MT was on fire brilliant the sides on the Tyres were gripping and balling up on that ride, wow, wow, great fun, its biking holiday magic. Zzz sleep like a baby in my tent and no puncture Mark's in my neck the next morning was a bonus.
Day 12 headed for some near by ski resorts and the highest point in Northern Germany and Rosstrauppe mountain walk. Roads to all were fantastic with a few all year round stuffed witches here and there watching over ya.
I'd researched some more things to see and do and saw that the NordHaussen concentration camp 'Dora' was not far away and as this was where the Nazis had V1 and V2 rockets built in miles of underground mine tunnels that had been sealed up for over fifty years after WWII, I just had to visit that. And as guided Tours into the recently opened tunnels were on I decided that is where I'd be heading in the morning. So I rode back via good roads up passed the highest point in N.Germany thinking wow this is class biking vacation spot and I love the Bad Grund campsite.
Day 13 up at first and I mean first light visible through tent fabric and I rode off to the V1 V2 rocket site Dora at NordHaussen for the 11 am guided tour into the mountain tunnels. Wow, wow, wow.... wow. I will say not too much at this point. Phew., tho. The ride after Dora was omg how lucky we are how god dam luckily by and from the efforts of our ancestors how lucky we are and owe them so much. Best not waste the almost totally lost freedoms that were fought so hard for and gotten back for us, I thought, Ride on lucky lucky me.
Day 14 it was all wonderful but the WWII history still stuck with me but the amazing biking roads had me winding the Yam up and on and on and omg what a bike in what a place.
... Day 14 realisation day as I needed to begin thoughts on heading back home to the U.K. soon or i'll be facing displeasurable actions from my employer, lol.
And with messages and thoughts of everyone at home beginning to filter though and factor in I knew that the turn-round-point would have to be done in the next day or so. So with a last chance salon type of approach I knew I'd wanna push on on the good mountain roads one more time. I had a ball so far and wanted to reach turn-round-point at the peak of discovering the handling abilities of the Yam.
So parking up the WWII horror scenes seen previously to one side and with the ever trusty MT awaiting on me, sitting there in the campsite willing as ever to take me wherever we desired at whatever rate we could muster up and deem suitable. I decide that one more real final spirited ride along the mega biking road outta Bad Grund to visit Clausthal-Zellerfeld University would be on the cards and would be the order of the morning. Then afterwards I'd be having to think about covering biggish mileage back towards the UK.
What chance encounter was about to unfold later on in the day was a big moment to well remember.
So I fired up the MT and the grumble emitting around the quite campsite as I and the bike get switched into a Mode A and as we're confident we go for and into TC 1 as the setup for the mega road ahead that by now I know all of it's best bits of. He ha. The combination of up hill bends cresting over the top of hills and then continuing to run down into the dips with equally impressive bends in the bottom of them the road a bit like a roller coaster ride if ridden (let's say) really briskly.
So off I go thinking I've got to ride this road right or at least as best as I can. Off I go trying to be fast and smooth to get the tyres heated up and the Yam is communicating away to me saying that I can go and try even harder. So I obey the Yam and lets say within a few miles the rear tyre was power sliding a bit in the 2nd gear roll ons out around and in the tighter U bends. Of course I could have ridden the same bends in 3rd, 4th or even 5th gear on the big 10 and I would have still had fun. However, as we all learn everyday today I was learning that the mighty 10 can wheelie out of corners all morning long and that the steering damper will save ya when the wheel comes back down in the entrance of the next turns.
The steering damper is priceless, I guess that's why there is a check light on the dash to test its operation every switch on. I reckon that the 10 would be a real twitchy hairy beast without the steering damper it's worth its weight in gold. He-ha may have been the noises emitting from me on that run...
Wow, what a bike the 10 is.
So still in one piece I arrived at the University campus and it was good. Their Mechanical Engineering department has got a 1906 steam engine and a 1926 Diesel engine sitting outside their dept building I guess to show the evolution made in-between that particular 20 year span. So I parked up the 2016 Yam right up beside them and I thought what are the big differences in 90 years evolution of internal combustion engines and apart from, better tolerances, advanced materials and lightness it is the massive development of and in electronics, computing, firmware and engine management etc I think that has advanced performance so much.
So anyhow, I head back into the town for some lunch and what almost did not unfold was a fantastic part of this trip.
So Bear with me.
I had just finished lunch outside at a cafe sitting next to the bike (nice) and I am getting ready to head off and just as I am pulling my helmet on and a German lady walking by speaks (in German of course) over at me. I think is she complaining that my bike is on the footpath and I almost continued to pull down my helmet on down and and start the bike up to ride off. However, I look over at her and look her straight in the eye and I think no let's communicate and lets just see what is what here. So I stop pulling my helmet down and I say 'pardon sorry I don't speak German, do you speak English' to which she worriedly looked over to her husband and said to me and to him in English 'let's just leave it this will make this too hard too difficult. At this point I am seeing a teenager that her husband is pushing in a wheel chair and just as they are all about to continue on their way; I speak looking her in the eye and beckoning to her, 'no, no, no, no stop your English is fine and so much better than my German look we can work this out just tell, just tell me tell me what, what is it?' I said removing my helmet completely and gesturing towards them to come over come on; I have now guessed that this is a positive bike related thing and to all do with the young guy in the wheel chair. So basically they were asking me 'can we put him up onto sit on top of your motorbike?', to which I immediately say yes. I step of the bike and click the bike into 1st gear as I move back, I lifted my iPad and I said 'ok, you guys go for it, it's all his'.
Omg, the little guy had metal type braces on each lower leg and he had a slight speech impediment.
They lifted him out of his wheelchair up onto the Yam and he begins to smile and beam like a brand new lighthouse with such delight. I kick and clicked the Yam up into neutral and I stick the key in to the ignition and I show him and her how to start up the bike, they encourage him in German and we get him to start up the cross-plane (or should I say X Plane) motor up.
Boys a boy I am not sure who got the most outta this experience but it really was a very special moment to get him to rev and I mean Rev the Yam up.
At this point I look at his delight and slight fear of the Yam and I think I am the luckiest guy in the world as I've got this bike on this holiday in this place and this lad is as happy as me just to sit on my bike.
I appreciate my luck and I think that the guy will never be able to ride or experience the magic of riding as even if robotic legs were developed for him they and authorities will never allow him to have a license to ride with his slight mental impairments etc. Wow, I took a few pics and they lift him back off the Yam back back into his wheel chair. They get him to thank me and they tell me about a good road up to the highest point in northern Germany. And I think so far that this is the absolute best moment of my whole brilliant trip and boy oh boy the normally duller part of planning your ride back home now suddenly seemed to have became one of how lucky my life is moments and how I am now going to now enjoy every millimetre and second due to this.
The ride back to pack up my tent was well out of A Mode style and it was still absolutely great.
Turn round and 'head Home part'
This may also evolve into form part of my 6500 mile review of owning the MT-10 for over 5 months now.
DAY 14 continued. So where was I.... Chausthal-Zellerfeld, I think I was heading back to tent after the German disabled teenage was on my bike reving her up. So my spin back was not the ride as hard as could spin that I done the day before. Even tho it was back down the super curved awesome bends of the magic road towards Bad Grund. I decided 2 or 3 clicks back from my best efforts, I.e about 60 to 70 % or under 9000 rpm, was the order of the day. So a flowing ride as opposed to the hard acceleration the then hard on the brakes runs of the previous day. I knew the holiday was at turn round point and especially after WWII sights and the disabled German kid I knew I had to and would enjoy even 2 miles an hour as it stuck with me that that kid will never ride a bike and here was me trying to figure could an S21 hold on powering round the long hairpin bend in 2nd gear or third gear. So even fourth gear was going be fine on this ride. And besides the 1000cc not as gear dependant as a 600 cc sports bike. Third was actually the best drive round the corner but 2nd had the MT lifting its front wheel on exit and had me thinking can I get away with this and boy oh boy that was on point I thought a Quickshifter would be having me still holding on put up a gear to prolong the wheelie, nuts I know, but we are talking -10 here. Anyhow, the flowing ride was still brisk as my brain began to think right get into tent with iPad and look at possible routes back towards Rotterdam for the mornings ride off.
DAY 15 bummer it had rained over night, dislike packing away a wet tent, so took a while to dry out tent pack up and head west out of Harz Mountains with a satisfaction that I'd not wrecked anything or been locked up during the previous use of Harz Mountains as test track to see what the 10 was in biking Heaven roads. So I was back into Tour mode i.e. all luggage back on and eat some miles while keeping license. I must admit there was a mobile tripod mounted speed camera flashed at me in Holland but i was going easy enough I thought and it was on my way out of a town and I think the guy was after folk not slowing on way into town as opposed to speeding up slightly on way out off town. So I'd had my ball and was Mode and mind set changing to enjoy the homeward journey too. So with a campsite near the Dutch Netherlands border in mind off I went. Let's just say Harz Region was great and the westerly more industrial Germany was a different ball game. However, some descent roads before the more mundane big city guff to come was grand.
I'll have to look back over other photos to remind me of the averageness of the campsite compared to friendly Count Dracula's grandsons place of the previous non puncture wounded nights in awesome Bad Grund. I think the term back to porridge oats will cover it or stick in my or your throats, lol, to make the Stark comparison. However, a functional site in was with OK better facilities but just a corporate dullness to it and no personnel connection like the Bad Grund site.
The Yam was flawless still charging the essential iPad CoPilot Sat Nav and still grunting away and going on great and handling well loaded or unloaded.
DAY 16 Was sod it I can make it to Amsterdam again and surprise a few folk there. So that was the beginning of Day 16 and I'll finish the ride home report later. I'll tell ya about a a great guy on the way home, whom I am still amazed at. That's for later folks... cheers.
Day 15 (recap / continuing on)… So I was back on the / da (da, for da German speakers) road on da / the mighty Mt-10 running super sweet on route back via Amsterdam again; albeit by a totally different more mundane yucky type route. I call these parts of touring trips as the 'goings there' or 'returning's home' bits, i.e. they are like 'living on the road' sections. You fuel up your bike and yourself and head off and make progress in a certain roughly planned direction. Most Variations and any wrong turns are always good as long as they are still in your general right direction. When these get you there or return you back parts of a trip are on the European continent then they are (and especially if you are traveling on your own) far more challenging and therefore I believe far more rewarding to due to the language barriers and foreign, cultural and brilliant experiences etc. Oh and the riding on the wrong side of the road thing and going anticlockwise round roundabouts is initially fairly weird but then that quickly becomes second or third gear and or second nature.
So I was now heading for Osnabruck; all I can say is that the campsite was grand but the industrial nature of the whole place was a reality check contrast after the holiday vacation location holiday feel of the Harz Mountains. Even the petrol gas stations felt more inner city if you know what I mean. I did not want to wonder too far away from the might 10 for too long as it was attracting some serious attention. I could see it from the restaurant so all was ok. It would probably have be grand but it was a feeling of let’s not be there after dark. So off to the campsite and tent up again. I could now erect this tent drunk and or blindfolded, not that I tried that, lol, but 15 tent pegs and x amount of minutes later and hey presto its up again and I am thinking proper dinner back in town.
A check of the bike and all is good, tyres still legal, chain ok and oiler working perfect and engine oil grand and fuel cap hinge not worn out yet, lol. The Yam was being sublime I was glad of the big screen, cruise control and that iPad Sat Nav CoPilot app with the helmet speakers. I just needed a Kong foo app just in case the locals were as aggressive as they looked; lucky (for them, lol) that was not the case. Back to tent, ear plugs in and perfected sleeping bag insertion for Zzzzzs…
Day 16 sees me leave Osnabruck heading towards Amsterdam and back over across the virtually invisible German Dutch border, though you can see the old road and a disused border hut, into the Netherlands now going back towards the Amsterdam campsite that I had stayed at on outward leg. So this was me now in the last legs of the continental part of my trip. With just average biking grey type miles to truck thru there is not too much to say here on this bit of da journey apart from the temperatures were on the up and up and up.
On the ride in to the campsite on the outskirts of Amsterdam I noticed that the water levels in the roadside dykes was well up and was spilling over the roads in places. And on entering the campsite the owner remembers me and tells me to pitch anywhere I can find that is not flooded as for the past 4 days it had been real heavy rain and floods but now it was sun sun sun and warm warm warm, I, yes I, me, I me is real lucky. It was dog keel over warm.
So tent up on dry patch, wash da socks time then would off into town to meet ex work colleagues friends for eats and to pass thru weed filled café atmospheres again with some internet time to get a boat booked for the next evening sailing from Rotterdam to Hull U.K.
Day 17 now after 17 days from Belfast and 11 days and nights tented on the continent it sure was time for bye bye becoming too warm continent and truck on time for the Rotterdam to Hull boat. However, as I’d never been in The Hague (the home of the U.N.’s International Court of Justice) I plotted my route to go into and go thru The Hague a boy what a surprize The Hague was. I wasn’t sure if I was riding into New York (not that I’ve been to da big Apple) or Sydney (which I have been too) sky scrapers (well small ones) and a real busy business like feel with a holiday weather touristy old parts feel to it too with a modern city feel it was an real eye opener. No time to stop though but one could still get the positive vibes or maybe that was just still me on and in vacation mode. The rustic charms of Austrian - Romanian (or Count Transylvanian) run campsite in da Harz Mountains seemed to be far more than one billion miles or light years away now; boys a boys (and girls) I did like that initially weird but super nice people campsite at Bad Grund; where garlic and wooden stakes were not needed after all, lol. So onwards and onwards it was and thru the now well over 30 degrees soring Celsius heat wave. The big yam’s fans were kicking in lots in the slow moving city traffic but it was worth it to see The Hague close up. I stopped and thru off my jacket off into the top box it was that warm and me needs drinkie poos liquid, I thought, nout / nothing to do with Amsterdam beers though.
Now heading out of The Hague it was that ride for a boat feeling that I love and I mean love. When I ride a bike to and up onto a boat I become a different person as I’m a) either going on holiday, bye bye work or b) have completed one of my trips or a leg of a trip anyhow I love riding to get a boat. The best I can describe it as is as a sense of freedom and or accomplishment. Anyhow, the lure of proper bed in a cabin on the boats was another added attraction as 11 days of tent up tent down was enough but a cracker adventure. The CoPilot sat nav had its only wobbler but it was due to road works and I had the sense to ignore its ramblings until it worked out all was good heading for the boat on a beautiful evening’s weather on a MT-10; was is top drawer stuff. I made it to the boat it good time, so up on, bike tied up, beers and into amazing bed, all intact, for big Zzzz zzzz zzzz zzz.
Day 18 Up early for super fill-your-boots breakfast on da boat. Nom, nom.
Arrive into Hull Port at around 7 am and head of for a whole massive 8 mile long ride to my real good friend’s house outside Hull for coffee and to wash the bike and stay there. Amazing what is not to like, still on holiday and safely back on mainland England with Scotland and another boat to N.Ireland still to come. All within the next few days; which I’ll write up later as I’m not done yet as Kielder Forest run and some more fast riding and even more colder camping still to document, lol. What I am keeping is the amazing wee man who deemed that the MT-10 must be one of the best road bikes around, this was due to his vast experiences with many and I mean many many R1’s and many miles but it was all his accidents and that fact that he lived is what was amazing….
I have thought that my (forum post number 1000 by me) should be about (yeah, yep eventually) the final (Part 6) of my 2016 whopper holiday trip ride N.Ireland to Harz Mountains Germany.
Day 18 recap. So.... so. He ha. I'd arrived back early morning in to the U.K. at Hull on the overnight boat from EuroPort Rotterdam.
And boy was I glad of that real bed on the boat instead of the tent and sleeping bag.
So after arrival and clearing passport control, with a ton of bikes heading off to the classic TT, I rode the tiny tiny wee six miles to gate crash into my real good friend's house outside Hull on a glorious morning. Feelings were that the big Mt and I had accomplished a great trip to zigzagging and whizzing thru biking heaven roads in the Harz Mountains together all on our own-eee-o and all still in one piece, felt good and I was glad to get away from the getting much too warm heat warnings regions of Holland and the Continent, were the Yams fans kicked in a lot if in towns / cities. Trips are were you really bond and get to know your bike for real. so these 6 miles outta Hull seemed effortless and very quick and the 10 was flying in the cooler mid 20 degrees Celsius air temperatures. My mate place was going to be my first proper chance to clean the bike and check it over for the next few days. However, I was already planning which way to ride home via England or England / Scotland and which boat to get home to Belfast, Northern Ireland but not for a few days yet though as I've learnt to enjoy the return leg as much as the out leg of a trip.
So arriving at what I will call my mates pit stop, launch pad, hop-off point place he has already got the bike washing kit out and the coffee on, top man. I could not have done this trip as well without his help, his place, his skills he built my pannier bag support bar, his quite encouragement and his total generosity. So I thought I better buy lunch, lol, and help him change the diff oil in his car, lol. So with that done and the Yam washing done and it revealed that the back wheel was still blue below the thousands of miles of chain oil but none on the tyre i.e. the Tutoro chain oiler was fantastic, it was time to garage the bike and get beers and light the wood fired pizza oven lite. It's at this point that I realise that the iPad SatNav CoPilot App was now not needed anymore as I know I'd get back to Belfast without it, but I kind of liked it and the music playing on the iPad too, it was brilliant as was the tank bag for it. But now it was a day or so off the bike, beers and homemade pizzas. But would I ride the Lake District or Keilder Forest home was still a decision I was mulling for when I would departure.
Day 19 begins with getting the 10 all shiny again we found out that the now not so UKs biggest secret Cold War unground bunker was close by to Hull and that it was now open to the public. So that was visited and it was interesting. The secret bunker now has a full blown public road sign to it, so not so secret now, lol. The Yam repacked and beers appeared out again.
Day 20 So by now I had decided to ride North to Bellingham campsite near Kielder Forest going up north via Pickering in the North Yorkshire Moors and up thru Castleton and Tee Side, Durham etc.
The year before on my MT-09 I'd rode down this way passed Kielder Water down from the north so now I could ride Kielder up from the south into Scotland on the deceivingly quicker 10. And then my next days plan was I then could head to ride west across to Dumfries and on to Crocketford and the over the cracker Queens Highway to Newton Stewart and onto Cairnryan for a boat to Belfast.
Well I hinted before that I'd keep a few tales of folk I met to where they happened in the trip. So... Well after the days ride up and on arriving into the handy campsite just outside Bellingham; I noticed a gent and his dog listening (yes the dog cocked his ears too) to the MT-10s burble engine note as I rode in and they came over to me. Boy this guy was the most gentle most mild mannered friendly gentleman that you can imagine. He asks, "is that a 3 cylinder engine"? No I say it's the 09 that has a 3 cylinder engine and this is a 1000cc engine devired from the 4 cylinder R1 engine. He nods and puts a magic thumb up at me and he tells me that he has had every single R1 from they came out right up to 2008 and that he reckons the 10 will a modern 4 cylinder Yam engine would therefore be an ultimate road bike, then comes the bombshells. He processed to calmly tell me about his trips and that he crashed badly over in Northern Ireland and that he was left for dead at the roadside by otherrides and he was read the last rights but somehow he lived. Omg, this guy was for real, and I guessed him to be one of those quite gentle folk that totally change into a full on competitive all out racer nutter when they get aboard a motorbike. Umm, umm I am saying nothing. He explained he been read the last rights once before too, lol. Omg, and that at one point he was refused insurance for sportsbikes. In one accident he had wrote off a car on an R1 and he didn't have scratch on him, omg. He said the 10 sounded like a twin to him so I told him about crossplane engine technology. He said I'd made his day. He has an Aprilia Shiver now but you could see the glint in his eye at the Yam. He amazed me as he was for real as fellow people in the campsite said he was Jacklyn and Hyde on and off a motorbike. So it was tent up time, dinner in town and thank goodness the last night in a 3 seasons sleeping bag, arms out on the continent but arms tucked in and a tee shirt on in England.
Day 21 a Heavy morning due meant a bit of tent drying in the sun shine before packing it up for the last time and riding off up into the Keilder Water Ride north. As the norm the 10 made short work of getting up England and into Scotland. Why is it that after many miles and near the end of trips that you nearly bin it, lol. On over and Dumfries sees me turn off the A75 at Crocketford to go over the Grampian Hills and across the great Queens Highway road. Well just in to the Queens Highways good bits there is a righthanded that I fired up into let's say going tad too quick and luggage or not the braking had me running deep in towards the gravely edge of the road but tripping and turning the bike in hard on the brakes just got be round thanks to tho Yams good handling, phew, he ha all was good and the rest of the road was fast and I know the next few tight spots fairly well by now. Wheel up over crests and the front going light and the steering damper keeping all good this was class and a great way to end off a great 3 week trip from Belfast to Harz Mountains. The Scottish Queens Highway is more bumpy far less will surfaced that Harz roads but just as if not more rewarding to ride fast in fact more challenging and the Yam was best thing I have ever ride over it. The front tyre bite in to rail round into those fast slightly down hill corners was brilliant and boy oh boy I knew that front tyres sides were wearing right there and then and I was leaving some rubber down there on that road. He ha.
So I back off and back onto the A75 to make it to nice and easy into Stranraer, to book 19:00 hrs boat from Cairnryan to Belfast, get dinner and reflect on I am a lucky dude. To the boat and after sleeping across seats for the sailing with 600 very loud fairly intoxicated football fans I was recovered for the ride to my house. Upon arriving home there was fireworks on the way (obviously for me home coming, nah) for end of some circus festive and this seemed a fitting end to my summer trip on the mighty -10 for me.
That was me home...
Cheers happy motorcycling.
So with bike bought 2nd of June 2016 and after a month of ownership now it was time to go on tour holiday with the Mt-10.
I already had done 2500 miles on the bike. So here is what mods and preparations I did for the trip. I go in to detail of trip routes and day by day blow by blow accounts of me adventure.
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Route: boat from Belfast, N.Ireland to Cairnryan, Scotland. I then rode off to towards Garsdale-Head, Yorkshire, England for my 1st nights accommodation. I rode via the Galloway Hills (excellent awesome twisty county hill roads) to get towards England. The Mt excelled in the hills. Next morning it was on to Hull via York to friends place near Hull. Then there for a few days of further bike prep, beers and mods and purchase of a tent, a sleeping bag and a roll mat and Preordered tankbag arrived to hold (my cellular sim) iPad as it has the GPS chip in it it therefore became my SatNav via adding Copilot App and Europe maps. Then after 3 days at Hull testing SatNav etc and fitting bits it was onto the Hull boat to Rotterdam. Next morning was offboat and ride onto to Arnhem, then onto Amsterdam campsite on first day camping on the Continent for 2 nights there. Of course I went to Amsterdam. Then next day headed north over a 20 mile long dyke bridge to Harlingen and into a good campsite there. Now my trip destination was Bike aweasome Harz mountains in Northern Germany. So next day I headed south east into Germany to Bremen to a campsite there. Woke up there opened tent to see a German guy lying beneath my bike to see how my chain oiler was piped on, lol. Nice guy. Then Headed off, after getting new tent pole, (let us park that story for the moment) towards a campsite miles above Bad Lauterberg. Avoided Hanover on way to Harz mountains. From Bad Lauterberg, and the weird but amazing campsite stay there, next day onto Bad Grund via awesome roads to and out of the magical town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Splendid place spent fours days ridding around there with many of the superb Harz Mountains roads. A a1 Class bike Navarna region. Even visited Nordhausen to see the WWII V1, V2 rocket production concentration camp there: Mittelbau-Dora. After that mindset changer tour I heading back to Bad Grund campsite and steak dinner in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, realising how lucky I am. I Visited a University there the next day. The Harz Mountains has it all in terms of variety of road types and good scenery, food and things to go to and do. Return route to Uk was west to back to Rotterdam then Hull for few more days there and then a few days in north England, Kelider Forest, and Scotalnd.
I Meet many great helpful people and some real world mega characters. Bloody brilliant and the bike did 42 mpg average and I love it more. But boy was I glad to see end of camping in a tent.
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The riding, every type!
Life with the The Yam on the road, omg, tour, scratch and do it all day every day without a fault. Cruise control mega, big screen with extender good job, tank range not bad spot on, handling fantastic loaded and unloaded. What an engine. What a trip. Magic, life is class, iPad with Copilot SatNav app made it all so doable so much easier and convenient. Broke a tent pole, Googled camping shops, copied address into CoPilot and off I went, got new longer pole, borrowed a hacksaw, via Germany and Dutch guys, in the next campsite and all sorted it all out, totally brilliant. I love it.
Main Bike modes and prep: Tuturo Chain Oiler, Yamaha rear rack and top box, fitted my previous MT-09 soft Panniers bags, Yamaha Sports screen with a Puig screen extender and put a new rear S21 tyre on. Gear, Dainese Air tech jacket, with waterproof over coat and trousers in top box. Speakers in helmet for music and SatNav use. Car charger for the iPad and usual torch, trunks, socks and clothes, lol.
Averaged about 150 miles a day of non motorway where possible. Suspension settings softened more on the front and about standard on rear. Chain oiler fantastic.
I would not have done this trip on the MT09, which I loved, the 09s camchain tensioner would have began rattling again for sure. The Bigger much better mt10 and the Longer legs of the MT10 cover the ground so well, then it will scratch when there in those fabulous biking roads in the Harz mountains, yeah yeah yep class. Have I said Class. Class time, mega bike, super, but a bit knackering.
Preparations: of course the main preparation was buying the MT-10 bike itself in June.
Small aside, I completed my decision to buy the big 10 when my 09s cam chain started rattling for the 4th (yes that is fourth) time in 18 months, another tale for another time. So as I'd not got the needed confidence in 09 to take it and its rattling camchain on a big trip, ��, (a trip that was so over due that people knew if I don't go on holiday that somebody is gonna get sacked, or oh that someone may have been me, lol). So with the 09 on its 3rd cam chain tensioner and the cam chain rattling again it was the final clincher in deciding to buying the new MT dash 10 for the trip etc.
I had kept and neatly fitted the MT-09s side bags on to the 10, a new rear rack and 39l top-box were fitted, as was the magic Tutoro auto chain oiler and I down loaded CoPilot App and the Europe maps for my iPad as my cellular iPad was soon to become my SatNav system. My pre programmed destination was the Harz Mountains, Germany.
I'd already put some pre trip 2500 miles on the 10 pre trip and I'd put a new lovely S21 tyre onto the rear (Tip, watch and gather up the spacers that will fall out of the wheel if you pull the sprocket carrier off, take all the spacer tubes etc and the needle roller bearing inner spacer with you as tyre guy will need them for putting the wheel onto their wheel balancing machine) and all was tickity boo now and real "good to go", go, go holiday on the Yam, yeah ��
Day 1, August 7th, Headed off for midday boat to Scotland not fully Euro prepped yet but I was only heading to England via Scotland to stay at a friends place first before doing the leap off over in to the foreign speaking lands of The Netherlands and Germany, Europe.
I boarded the ferry (it's not my boat) to Scotland from Belfast like a man reborn. Topbox was preloaded with amble roadside cereal snack bars and drinks, panniers had socks in one and unmentionable stuff in the other one. No tent as yet as I was for staying at a Yorkshire B&B and then at a mates house near the warmer drier Hull. So now on the boat, helmet off and left in topbox and trusty iPad with me it was time to message out to say that that's me I am off, on holiday finally, as I had to wait on new Passport for the Europe leg to come. As the boat moved off i made a list of what I still need to get and it was feet up vacation time. I'd ordered that a tank bag that morning and used my friends house in England address, so I told him to expect delivery of it, as my cellular iPad was going to be my in this new tank bag as my SatNav system for riding in Europe.
Day 1 off ferry early afternoon and rode A75 south taking New Galloway Hills, Queensway, Route at Newton Stewart. Weather great. What a demanding but rewarding road when kept in check. I've ridden it before on a VFR 800 VTec and my MT-09. However, the 10s extra stomp and me thinking I kind of know the road had me laughing in my helmet and then a few times had me oh oh oh let's hardened up the back shock's rebound damping back up to standard before horsing on to much moments. The luggage was not too heavy but the bridges humps etc were lets say entertaining and front tyre wear was not being overly taxed so I was loving the ride. So I thinks let's not get too carried away and not go into the scenery on day one of trip, lol. But I really had a opening ball ride with the stomp of the big 10. Well then I was out of the hills and approaching the Lake District, where it can and did rain. Kirk-stone pass is good. Then night ride on to Garsdale Head for my nights pub accommodation. Gales blowing made that nights riding over tho old 'Coal Road', ummm, ahhh, mnnn, ahh, lets say I am glad that I rode Enduros as the washed out gravel and potholes and off cambers etc were tricky in the dark and wet, but I loved the challenge, but time was getting late near 11 pm. Sideways rain made locking the bike up in the dark car park tricky. I got in and rearranged the whole bedroom / on-suite bathroom into some kind of mega personal drying out chamber. Next day 100% dry as a bone and now the in-middle-of-nowhere-ness was not as bad as the initial impression that I had got from arriving in middle of the previous dark nights big storm.
Day 2. Plan was rode about 150 miles or 7 scenic hours or so to my friend's house near Hull. Having learnt to stop, eat, toilet stop and take pictures now I just did all of those things at various different times in the day, lol. After very good Yorkdales Hawes breakfast and riding via Kettlewell and to (the very impressive) Bolton Abbey. I then headed to but bypassed York, as had been in York last year, I arrive in at me mates place near Hull mid afternoon just 15 minutes after my new Tankbag had arrived there, yeah, awesome. So of course we fitted the tankbag and of course had to try out the iPad charger and the SatNav CoPilot App etc. After tucking the tank bags front magnets in as they were not being used as I used the bags front straps threw slots in plastic shrouds at e front of petrol tank all was good, I thought, until we tested out the iPads compass out in and out of the bag and in the bag it went haywire gaga. The folded in magnetics were then removed from their pockets as when folded into the bag they affected the compass in the iPad. The SatNav uses the compass to speed up and quicken assist navigation. All seems ok so it was time to go buy a tent and sleeping bag etc.
Day 3. This involved nursing a still hangover, but as it was a no biking morning so it was grand. And the multitude of the home made pizzas (from the still warm wood fired pizza oven in my mates back garden) still required some more digestion time. So it was try the tent erection in garden time. Oh oh and some more home made produce eating and map down loading and not forgetting suspension readjustment fiddles. Then it was test the iPad SatNav CoPliot set up. Omg, headphones, bad idea, the helmet pushed them into ears which was big girl painful stuff, really they were soo painful as to be unusable. So off to Maplins shop for some helmet speaks. Wow, now we where (or the iPad was) whistling great guns all good with the helmet speakers fitted and all was A1, in 500 yards, good, lol. Yeah it all worked well and was now tested real well too. Now all I had to do was to buy European RAC breakdown cover and then book a boat over to EuroPort, Rotterdam.
Day 4, kind of lost - due to garden party, wiring extra power socket and alcohol, lol.
Day 5, I'll become / getting briefer. Got over-night (�� �� Zzzzs) boat to Rotterdam.
Day 6, rode to Aherham 'A Bridge too far' fame, then to a water edged campsite near Amsterdam.
The Yam was superb and the iPad SatNav also worked brilliantly. Although, I am not sure if its accent or pronunciation of the street names was 100%, good enough tho.
Day 7 lunched in Amsterdam with ex work colleagues.
Day 8, foggy - me not the weather, I kid, but this was only going to be around a 150 mile day not a mammoth all day on the sweet running 10. I knew I'd need an easy day after ex work colleagues caught up with me or was it I caught up with them. Anyhow, an easy days ride was great. Rode that 20 or so mile long dyke bridge A7 up northward to a nice campsite at Harlingen.
Day 9, weather 100% as clear as bell and great temperature, me was good too and good to Munch miles heading south east down into Breman, Germany. Upon unpacking tent I found I had a broken fibreglass bendy tent pole, bummer, but (or butt) wait those tents come with a prepared outer metal tube sleeve to go over and support the breakage for this common break point at joints. Yeah, all good. Germans loved the MT, ONE lay down under it to check out the oiler and check that the bike had 4 cylinders, lol. Goodman tho.
Ok, ok, the bike, bloody bloody marvellously brilliant bike... More later.
Day 10 off to camping shop to get new pole before heading for to campsite above Bad Lauterburg. Got new pole. Rode kind of ok stuff to Bad Lauterburg where the good roads and mountains start. Spooky but fantastic campsite up in slightly remote forest beside a big lake / reservoir that mists up in the morning.
Day 11. Omg, best roads, roads to biking nirvana. And into Harz and onto nice little Bad Grund where the roads are superb for MT. And yes I rode like I'd stolen it down one of the best roads I've ever ride, see below. And the Yam eat it up,
s1339.photobucket.com/user/Itsallouthere/media/image_zpsraiki7ew.jpeg.html?sort=3&o=17
Part 2 of ?? MT Vacation Holiday Ride Report: N.Ireland to Harz Mountains, Germany
... Day 11 (Recap: "Day 11. Omg, best roads, roads to biking nirvana...."). So now into the very good roads in upper Harz and onto nice little Bad Grund where the roads are superb.
There is a variety of different road types here for all kinds of bikes and roads just made for the MT-10 or maybe the mighty 10 was made for there or hell what.... Great MT riding, touring, STD and or A mode singing on. Rear S21 showing its better feel than original S20, especially as it never flinched even with over 9000 rpm 10 power pushing it on it side, mega.
Some extra (or extraterrestrial) info background on Bad Grund. I went to Bad Grund because of a Hotel with English biking owners that run guided ride outs round the Harz region. They still run ride outs there but now it is now owned and run by Austrian biking couple, who are English speaking. So I'd been emailing the hotel on route via Holland to get a room and the replies kept saying to phone; which a) I did not really wanting to do, and b) as I had a tent I was not really bothered about staying there. Although, I did want to see the Hotel and place just in case I could use it later and may be bring friends along to it next year. So a pop in was on the cards...
So, I arrive in Bad Grund and the MT and I with CoPilot's help locate the Hotel, it's definitely the right hotel for sure as it's called 'Biker Hotel', lol, and there is bike stuff everywhere. It's mid afternoon and I tell the MT to wait outside for me and I go in. I open up the 2nd inner squeaky creaky entrance door into a deserted looking reception bar room, but I see a guy behind a far off desk doing some paperwork. So I approach the desk and I ask this dude can I stay here and the answer in typical efficient English is 'No, Hotel space full'.... I say 'Ok, not a problem, where can I camp tho?' He points up to the heavens and says 'up, up, up, up, up... nice people'. Mnnn, the last bit had me pondering... Anyhow So, Off I goes up, up, up (up the back road of the mountain) and omg then there's a great big TeePee WigWan tent thingy at the entrance, so I guess I am at the campsite. I ride down a very noisy gravel path to a cabin and a 70 to 80 year old guy appears through the trees, who I kid you not, looks like he's the great great not so great grandson of Count Dracula himself. He stops beside me, looks at me and does not speak a single word, so I say, pardon, no speak German - do you speak English. He slowly raises up a hand showing me a tiny small air gap between his thumb and his forefinger, which I take to mean as a little, omg this is something else, I say and guester a tent, two nights. He bends a forefinger and signalling and beckons me to follow him, I do so, he leads me round the cabin and shows me a mega beautiful field over looking the forest and valley below. I thumbs up at him and he then says 'mother make paperwork'. I am thinking are my tent pegs metal or wooden ones just incase I need a wooden stake quick. Omg, omg now, now remember he appeared to be about 80 years old, even with his long jet black (dyed) hair, so what age is mother. He then plucks out a cell mobile phone out of his hat and phones up his mammy as we heading back over to the MT. He then stands with me till mother arrives. Omg, then he starts to telling her, in Transalvainian I think - definitely not in German, that I want 2 nights one tent and that he has showed me the wonder field etc. To which she completely dismisses him with a deep growl grunt and beckons to me to follow her round the other side of the cabin, towards the same field no doubt. The guy looks like he is going to show his vangs and bite her in the neck or me, I again think metal or wooden tent pegs and think do I have any garlic, but I gesture to him with hand patting down that it's ok it's ok and he began to pretend to strangle choke her, behind her back tho, lol. I mime 'she da Boss' and he runs a flat blade like hand across his throat, omg. It was an amazingly friendly fantastic wonderful place to camp. I cannot over stress how good they were. The owners, once passed the initial kind of scary looks stuff, were all absolutely totally fantastic. I stayed for four nights in all. On night it rained and they skilfully and subtlety waited on me emerging from my tent in the morning to see if I was dry, I thumbs up that all was good. If I'd have been soaked or wet they would have had me into a caravan for sure, magic wonderful folk 'nice people', now I know why the hotel dude said 'nice people'. So I put my tent up and then I went back down, down, down to the biking Hotel, to say thanks, and, for more info on nearest fuel, bank cash machines and lunch snack place etc etc. More on the Hotel man reactions maybe later.
Then I was back up up up and out that best road ever, now with no panniers, as they were in the tent, and me in a I'm actually here mode and in a far more sporty riding mood mode, the MT was wheeling out of some of the bends, thank goodness for its steering damper, and its great handling. Wow, the Road into Claushal-Zellerfeld is mega mega top notch. Bends drawn by an engineers compass and up down hills and round the forest like a selectric race track. And the town (now make a loud whistle noise) is totally marvellous, loved it, love it. Then some great dinning and back to Bad Grund without garlic, yep back along that awesome biking dream road, again, this time in Tc1 and A mode the MT was on fire brilliant the sides on the Tyres were gripping and balling up on that ride, wow, wow, great fun, its biking holiday magic. Zzz sleep like a baby in my tent and no puncture Mark's in my neck the next morning was a bonus.
Day 12 headed for some near by ski resorts and the highest point in Northern Germany and Rosstrauppe mountain walk. Roads to all were fantastic with a few all year round stuffed witches here and there watching over ya.
I'd researched some more things to see and do and saw that the NordHaussen concentration camp 'Dora' was not far away and as this was where the Nazis had V1 and V2 rockets built in miles of underground mine tunnels that had been sealed up for over fifty years after WWII, I just had to visit that. And as guided Tours into the recently opened tunnels were on I decided that is where I'd be heading in the morning. So I rode back via good roads up passed the highest point in N.Germany thinking wow this is class biking vacation spot and I love the Bad Grund campsite.
Day 13 up at first and I mean first light visible through tent fabric and I rode off to the V1 V2 rocket site Dora at NordHaussen for the 11 am guided tour into the mountain tunnels. Wow, wow, wow.... wow. I will say not too much at this point. Phew., tho. The ride after Dora was omg how lucky we are how god dam luckily by and from the efforts of our ancestors how lucky we are and owe them so much. Best not waste the almost totally lost freedoms that were fought so hard for and gotten back for us, I thought, Ride on lucky lucky me.
Day 14 it was all wonderful but the WWII history still stuck with me but the amazing biking roads had me winding the Yam up and on and on and omg what a bike in what a place.
... Day 14 realisation day as I needed to begin thoughts on heading back home to the U.K. soon or i'll be facing displeasurable actions from my employer, lol.
And with messages and thoughts of everyone at home beginning to filter though and factor in I knew that the turn-round-point would have to be done in the next day or so. So with a last chance salon type of approach I knew I'd wanna push on on the good mountain roads one more time. I had a ball so far and wanted to reach turn-round-point at the peak of discovering the handling abilities of the Yam.
So parking up the WWII horror scenes seen previously to one side and with the ever trusty MT awaiting on me, sitting there in the campsite willing as ever to take me wherever we desired at whatever rate we could muster up and deem suitable. I decide that one more real final spirited ride along the mega biking road outta Bad Grund to visit Clausthal-Zellerfeld University would be on the cards and would be the order of the morning. Then afterwards I'd be having to think about covering biggish mileage back towards the UK.
What chance encounter was about to unfold later on in the day was a big moment to well remember.
So I fired up the MT and the grumble emitting around the quite campsite as I and the bike get switched into a Mode A and as we're confident we go for and into TC 1 as the setup for the mega road ahead that by now I know all of it's best bits of. He ha. The combination of up hill bends cresting over the top of hills and then continuing to run down into the dips with equally impressive bends in the bottom of them the road a bit like a roller coaster ride if ridden (let's say) really briskly.
So off I go thinking I've got to ride this road right or at least as best as I can. Off I go trying to be fast and smooth to get the tyres heated up and the Yam is communicating away to me saying that I can go and try even harder. So I obey the Yam and lets say within a few miles the rear tyre was power sliding a bit in the 2nd gear roll ons out around and in the tighter U bends. Of course I could have ridden the same bends in 3rd, 4th or even 5th gear on the big 10 and I would have still had fun. However, as we all learn everyday today I was learning that the mighty 10 can wheelie out of corners all morning long and that the steering damper will save ya when the wheel comes back down in the entrance of the next turns.
The steering damper is priceless, I guess that's why there is a check light on the dash to test its operation every switch on. I reckon that the 10 would be a real twitchy hairy beast without the steering damper it's worth its weight in gold. He-ha may have been the noises emitting from me on that run...
Wow, what a bike the 10 is.
So still in one piece I arrived at the University campus and it was good. Their Mechanical Engineering department has got a 1906 steam engine and a 1926 Diesel engine sitting outside their dept building I guess to show the evolution made in-between that particular 20 year span. So I parked up the 2016 Yam right up beside them and I thought what are the big differences in 90 years evolution of internal combustion engines and apart from, better tolerances, advanced materials and lightness it is the massive development of and in electronics, computing, firmware and engine management etc I think that has advanced performance so much.
So anyhow, I head back into the town for some lunch and what almost did not unfold was a fantastic part of this trip.
So Bear with me.
I had just finished lunch outside at a cafe sitting next to the bike (nice) and I am getting ready to head off and just as I am pulling my helmet on and a German lady walking by speaks (in German of course) over at me. I think is she complaining that my bike is on the footpath and I almost continued to pull down my helmet on down and and start the bike up to ride off. However, I look over at her and look her straight in the eye and I think no let's communicate and lets just see what is what here. So I stop pulling my helmet down and I say 'pardon sorry I don't speak German, do you speak English' to which she worriedly looked over to her husband and said to me and to him in English 'let's just leave it this will make this too hard too difficult. At this point I am seeing a teenager that her husband is pushing in a wheel chair and just as they are all about to continue on their way; I speak looking her in the eye and beckoning to her, 'no, no, no, no stop your English is fine and so much better than my German look we can work this out just tell, just tell me tell me what, what is it?' I said removing my helmet completely and gesturing towards them to come over come on; I have now guessed that this is a positive bike related thing and to all do with the young guy in the wheel chair. So basically they were asking me 'can we put him up onto sit on top of your motorbike?', to which I immediately say yes. I step of the bike and click the bike into 1st gear as I move back, I lifted my iPad and I said 'ok, you guys go for it, it's all his'.
Omg, the little guy had metal type braces on each lower leg and he had a slight speech impediment.
They lifted him out of his wheelchair up onto the Yam and he begins to smile and beam like a brand new lighthouse with such delight. I kick and clicked the Yam up into neutral and I stick the key in to the ignition and I show him and her how to start up the bike, they encourage him in German and we get him to start up the cross-plane (or should I say X Plane) motor up.
Boys a boy I am not sure who got the most outta this experience but it really was a very special moment to get him to rev and I mean Rev the Yam up.
At this point I look at his delight and slight fear of the Yam and I think I am the luckiest guy in the world as I've got this bike on this holiday in this place and this lad is as happy as me just to sit on my bike.
I appreciate my luck and I think that the guy will never be able to ride or experience the magic of riding as even if robotic legs were developed for him they and authorities will never allow him to have a license to ride with his slight mental impairments etc. Wow, I took a few pics and they lift him back off the Yam back back into his wheel chair. They get him to thank me and they tell me about a good road up to the highest point in northern Germany. And I think so far that this is the absolute best moment of my whole brilliant trip and boy oh boy the normally duller part of planning your ride back home now suddenly seemed to have became one of how lucky my life is moments and how I am now going to now enjoy every millimetre and second due to this.
The ride back to pack up my tent was well out of A Mode style and it was still absolutely great.
Turn round and 'head Home part'
This may also evolve into form part of my 6500 mile review of owning the MT-10 for over 5 months now.
DAY 14 continued. So where was I.... Chausthal-Zellerfeld, I think I was heading back to tent after the German disabled teenage was on my bike reving her up. So my spin back was not the ride as hard as could spin that I done the day before. Even tho it was back down the super curved awesome bends of the magic road towards Bad Grund. I decided 2 or 3 clicks back from my best efforts, I.e about 60 to 70 % or under 9000 rpm, was the order of the day. So a flowing ride as opposed to the hard acceleration the then hard on the brakes runs of the previous day. I knew the holiday was at turn round point and especially after WWII sights and the disabled German kid I knew I had to and would enjoy even 2 miles an hour as it stuck with me that that kid will never ride a bike and here was me trying to figure could an S21 hold on powering round the long hairpin bend in 2nd gear or third gear. So even fourth gear was going be fine on this ride. And besides the 1000cc not as gear dependant as a 600 cc sports bike. Third was actually the best drive round the corner but 2nd had the MT lifting its front wheel on exit and had me thinking can I get away with this and boy oh boy that was on point I thought a Quickshifter would be having me still holding on put up a gear to prolong the wheelie, nuts I know, but we are talking -10 here. Anyhow, the flowing ride was still brisk as my brain began to think right get into tent with iPad and look at possible routes back towards Rotterdam for the mornings ride off.
DAY 15 bummer it had rained over night, dislike packing away a wet tent, so took a while to dry out tent pack up and head west out of Harz Mountains with a satisfaction that I'd not wrecked anything or been locked up during the previous use of Harz Mountains as test track to see what the 10 was in biking Heaven roads. So I was back into Tour mode i.e. all luggage back on and eat some miles while keeping license. I must admit there was a mobile tripod mounted speed camera flashed at me in Holland but i was going easy enough I thought and it was on my way out of a town and I think the guy was after folk not slowing on way into town as opposed to speeding up slightly on way out off town. So I'd had my ball and was Mode and mind set changing to enjoy the homeward journey too. So with a campsite near the Dutch Netherlands border in mind off I went. Let's just say Harz Region was great and the westerly more industrial Germany was a different ball game. However, some descent roads before the more mundane big city guff to come was grand.
I'll have to look back over other photos to remind me of the averageness of the campsite compared to friendly Count Dracula's grandsons place of the previous non puncture wounded nights in awesome Bad Grund. I think the term back to porridge oats will cover it or stick in my or your throats, lol, to make the Stark comparison. However, a functional site in was with OK better facilities but just a corporate dullness to it and no personnel connection like the Bad Grund site.
The Yam was flawless still charging the essential iPad CoPilot Sat Nav and still grunting away and going on great and handling well loaded or unloaded.
DAY 16 Was sod it I can make it to Amsterdam again and surprise a few folk there. So that was the beginning of Day 16 and I'll finish the ride home report later. I'll tell ya about a a great guy on the way home, whom I am still amazed at. That's for later folks... cheers.
Day 15 (recap / continuing on)… So I was back on the / da (da, for da German speakers) road on da / the mighty Mt-10 running super sweet on route back via Amsterdam again; albeit by a totally different more mundane yucky type route. I call these parts of touring trips as the 'goings there' or 'returning's home' bits, i.e. they are like 'living on the road' sections. You fuel up your bike and yourself and head off and make progress in a certain roughly planned direction. Most Variations and any wrong turns are always good as long as they are still in your general right direction. When these get you there or return you back parts of a trip are on the European continent then they are (and especially if you are traveling on your own) far more challenging and therefore I believe far more rewarding to due to the language barriers and foreign, cultural and brilliant experiences etc. Oh and the riding on the wrong side of the road thing and going anticlockwise round roundabouts is initially fairly weird but then that quickly becomes second or third gear and or second nature.
So I was now heading for Osnabruck; all I can say is that the campsite was grand but the industrial nature of the whole place was a reality check contrast after the holiday vacation location holiday feel of the Harz Mountains. Even the petrol gas stations felt more inner city if you know what I mean. I did not want to wonder too far away from the might 10 for too long as it was attracting some serious attention. I could see it from the restaurant so all was ok. It would probably have be grand but it was a feeling of let’s not be there after dark. So off to the campsite and tent up again. I could now erect this tent drunk and or blindfolded, not that I tried that, lol, but 15 tent pegs and x amount of minutes later and hey presto its up again and I am thinking proper dinner back in town.
A check of the bike and all is good, tyres still legal, chain ok and oiler working perfect and engine oil grand and fuel cap hinge not worn out yet, lol. The Yam was being sublime I was glad of the big screen, cruise control and that iPad Sat Nav CoPilot app with the helmet speakers. I just needed a Kong foo app just in case the locals were as aggressive as they looked; lucky (for them, lol) that was not the case. Back to tent, ear plugs in and perfected sleeping bag insertion for Zzzzzs…
Day 16 sees me leave Osnabruck heading towards Amsterdam and back over across the virtually invisible German Dutch border, though you can see the old road and a disused border hut, into the Netherlands now going back towards the Amsterdam campsite that I had stayed at on outward leg. So this was me now in the last legs of the continental part of my trip. With just average biking grey type miles to truck thru there is not too much to say here on this bit of da journey apart from the temperatures were on the up and up and up.
On the ride in to the campsite on the outskirts of Amsterdam I noticed that the water levels in the roadside dykes was well up and was spilling over the roads in places. And on entering the campsite the owner remembers me and tells me to pitch anywhere I can find that is not flooded as for the past 4 days it had been real heavy rain and floods but now it was sun sun sun and warm warm warm, I, yes I, me, I me is real lucky. It was dog keel over warm.
So tent up on dry patch, wash da socks time then would off into town to meet ex work colleagues friends for eats and to pass thru weed filled café atmospheres again with some internet time to get a boat booked for the next evening sailing from Rotterdam to Hull U.K.
Day 17 now after 17 days from Belfast and 11 days and nights tented on the continent it sure was time for bye bye becoming too warm continent and truck on time for the Rotterdam to Hull boat. However, as I’d never been in The Hague (the home of the U.N.’s International Court of Justice) I plotted my route to go into and go thru The Hague a boy what a surprize The Hague was. I wasn’t sure if I was riding into New York (not that I’ve been to da big Apple) or Sydney (which I have been too) sky scrapers (well small ones) and a real busy business like feel with a holiday weather touristy old parts feel to it too with a modern city feel it was an real eye opener. No time to stop though but one could still get the positive vibes or maybe that was just still me on and in vacation mode. The rustic charms of Austrian - Romanian (or Count Transylvanian) run campsite in da Harz Mountains seemed to be far more than one billion miles or light years away now; boys a boys (and girls) I did like that initially weird but super nice people campsite at Bad Grund; where garlic and wooden stakes were not needed after all, lol. So onwards and onwards it was and thru the now well over 30 degrees soring Celsius heat wave. The big yam’s fans were kicking in lots in the slow moving city traffic but it was worth it to see The Hague close up. I stopped and thru off my jacket off into the top box it was that warm and me needs drinkie poos liquid, I thought, nout / nothing to do with Amsterdam beers though.
Now heading out of The Hague it was that ride for a boat feeling that I love and I mean love. When I ride a bike to and up onto a boat I become a different person as I’m a) either going on holiday, bye bye work or b) have completed one of my trips or a leg of a trip anyhow I love riding to get a boat. The best I can describe it as is as a sense of freedom and or accomplishment. Anyhow, the lure of proper bed in a cabin on the boats was another added attraction as 11 days of tent up tent down was enough but a cracker adventure. The CoPilot sat nav had its only wobbler but it was due to road works and I had the sense to ignore its ramblings until it worked out all was good heading for the boat on a beautiful evening’s weather on a MT-10; was is top drawer stuff. I made it to the boat it good time, so up on, bike tied up, beers and into amazing bed, all intact, for big Zzzz zzzz zzzz zzz.
Day 18 Up early for super fill-your-boots breakfast on da boat. Nom, nom.
Arrive into Hull Port at around 7 am and head of for a whole massive 8 mile long ride to my real good friend’s house outside Hull for coffee and to wash the bike and stay there. Amazing what is not to like, still on holiday and safely back on mainland England with Scotland and another boat to N.Ireland still to come. All within the next few days; which I’ll write up later as I’m not done yet as Kielder Forest run and some more fast riding and even more colder camping still to document, lol. What I am keeping is the amazing wee man who deemed that the MT-10 must be one of the best road bikes around, this was due to his vast experiences with many and I mean many many R1’s and many miles but it was all his accidents and that fact that he lived is what was amazing….
I have thought that my (forum post number 1000 by me) should be about (yeah, yep eventually) the final (Part 6) of my 2016 whopper holiday trip ride N.Ireland to Harz Mountains Germany.
Day 18 recap. So.... so. He ha. I'd arrived back early morning in to the U.K. at Hull on the overnight boat from EuroPort Rotterdam.
And boy was I glad of that real bed on the boat instead of the tent and sleeping bag.
So after arrival and clearing passport control, with a ton of bikes heading off to the classic TT, I rode the tiny tiny wee six miles to gate crash into my real good friend's house outside Hull on a glorious morning. Feelings were that the big Mt and I had accomplished a great trip to zigzagging and whizzing thru biking heaven roads in the Harz Mountains together all on our own-eee-o and all still in one piece, felt good and I was glad to get away from the getting much too warm heat warnings regions of Holland and the Continent, were the Yams fans kicked in a lot if in towns / cities. Trips are were you really bond and get to know your bike for real. so these 6 miles outta Hull seemed effortless and very quick and the 10 was flying in the cooler mid 20 degrees Celsius air temperatures. My mate place was going to be my first proper chance to clean the bike and check it over for the next few days. However, I was already planning which way to ride home via England or England / Scotland and which boat to get home to Belfast, Northern Ireland but not for a few days yet though as I've learnt to enjoy the return leg as much as the out leg of a trip.
So arriving at what I will call my mates pit stop, launch pad, hop-off point place he has already got the bike washing kit out and the coffee on, top man. I could not have done this trip as well without his help, his place, his skills he built my pannier bag support bar, his quite encouragement and his total generosity. So I thought I better buy lunch, lol, and help him change the diff oil in his car, lol. So with that done and the Yam washing done and it revealed that the back wheel was still blue below the thousands of miles of chain oil but none on the tyre i.e. the Tutoro chain oiler was fantastic, it was time to garage the bike and get beers and light the wood fired pizza oven lite. It's at this point that I realise that the iPad SatNav CoPilot App was now not needed anymore as I know I'd get back to Belfast without it, but I kind of liked it and the music playing on the iPad too, it was brilliant as was the tank bag for it. But now it was a day or so off the bike, beers and homemade pizzas. But would I ride the Lake District or Keilder Forest home was still a decision I was mulling for when I would departure.
Day 19 begins with getting the 10 all shiny again we found out that the now not so UKs biggest secret Cold War unground bunker was close by to Hull and that it was now open to the public. So that was visited and it was interesting. The secret bunker now has a full blown public road sign to it, so not so secret now, lol. The Yam repacked and beers appeared out again.
Day 20 So by now I had decided to ride North to Bellingham campsite near Kielder Forest going up north via Pickering in the North Yorkshire Moors and up thru Castleton and Tee Side, Durham etc.
The year before on my MT-09 I'd rode down this way passed Kielder Water down from the north so now I could ride Kielder up from the south into Scotland on the deceivingly quicker 10. And then my next days plan was I then could head to ride west across to Dumfries and on to Crocketford and the over the cracker Queens Highway to Newton Stewart and onto Cairnryan for a boat to Belfast.
Well I hinted before that I'd keep a few tales of folk I met to where they happened in the trip. So... Well after the days ride up and on arriving into the handy campsite just outside Bellingham; I noticed a gent and his dog listening (yes the dog cocked his ears too) to the MT-10s burble engine note as I rode in and they came over to me. Boy this guy was the most gentle most mild mannered friendly gentleman that you can imagine. He asks, "is that a 3 cylinder engine"? No I say it's the 09 that has a 3 cylinder engine and this is a 1000cc engine devired from the 4 cylinder R1 engine. He nods and puts a magic thumb up at me and he tells me that he has had every single R1 from they came out right up to 2008 and that he reckons the 10 will a modern 4 cylinder Yam engine would therefore be an ultimate road bike, then comes the bombshells. He processed to calmly tell me about his trips and that he crashed badly over in Northern Ireland and that he was left for dead at the roadside by otherrides and he was read the last rights but somehow he lived. Omg, this guy was for real, and I guessed him to be one of those quite gentle folk that totally change into a full on competitive all out racer nutter when they get aboard a motorbike. Umm, umm I am saying nothing. He explained he been read the last rights once before too, lol. Omg, and that at one point he was refused insurance for sportsbikes. In one accident he had wrote off a car on an R1 and he didn't have scratch on him, omg. He said the 10 sounded like a twin to him so I told him about crossplane engine technology. He said I'd made his day. He has an Aprilia Shiver now but you could see the glint in his eye at the Yam. He amazed me as he was for real as fellow people in the campsite said he was Jacklyn and Hyde on and off a motorbike. So it was tent up time, dinner in town and thank goodness the last night in a 3 seasons sleeping bag, arms out on the continent but arms tucked in and a tee shirt on in England.
Day 21 a Heavy morning due meant a bit of tent drying in the sun shine before packing it up for the last time and riding off up into the Keilder Water Ride north. As the norm the 10 made short work of getting up England and into Scotland. Why is it that after many miles and near the end of trips that you nearly bin it, lol. On over and Dumfries sees me turn off the A75 at Crocketford to go over the Grampian Hills and across the great Queens Highway road. Well just in to the Queens Highways good bits there is a righthanded that I fired up into let's say going tad too quick and luggage or not the braking had me running deep in towards the gravely edge of the road but tripping and turning the bike in hard on the brakes just got be round thanks to tho Yams good handling, phew, he ha all was good and the rest of the road was fast and I know the next few tight spots fairly well by now. Wheel up over crests and the front going light and the steering damper keeping all good this was class and a great way to end off a great 3 week trip from Belfast to Harz Mountains. The Scottish Queens Highway is more bumpy far less will surfaced that Harz roads but just as if not more rewarding to ride fast in fact more challenging and the Yam was best thing I have ever ride over it. The front tyre bite in to rail round into those fast slightly down hill corners was brilliant and boy oh boy I knew that front tyres sides were wearing right there and then and I was leaving some rubber down there on that road. He ha.
So I back off and back onto the A75 to make it to nice and easy into Stranraer, to book 19:00 hrs boat from Cairnryan to Belfast, get dinner and reflect on I am a lucky dude. To the boat and after sleeping across seats for the sailing with 600 very loud fairly intoxicated football fans I was recovered for the ride to my house. Upon arriving home there was fireworks on the way (obviously for me home coming, nah) for end of some circus festive and this seemed a fitting end to my summer trip on the mighty -10 for me.
That was me home...
Cheers happy motorcycling.