Europe Here I Come!

[keny]

So I made the trip! It was a great one.

So here is a short write up from the trip, Hope you enjoy! You can find the planing of the trip HERE

All That I met on the trip are welcome to post pics and Vid from my trip. (as tell there side of it, if I forget something!)

The trip began Thursday 12.6 (june) as I left work 12 a´clock and had lunch whit my wife.

After that I heddet to Helsinki for the ferry whit My van that was loaded whit My VFR.

The Ferry left 18.00 from Helsinki hedding to Travemund. Here a pic from the sun going down that I tock from the ferry.

I arrived the next day, or shall we say evening to Travemund, 20.00 local time (21.00 Finnish time)

Here a pic as the Ferry arrive to Travemund:

Then my Drive to Dougs place begun, 650km! First 300 km went well as planed as I was counting to be at Dougs plas around 2.30-3.00. But then I hit a roadwork, the A1 was cut and I had to do a round way as all other, that was plenty, and some red lights did it tock me 2 hours to get back to A1 and continue. The rest went ok and I arrive at Dougs house 5.00. I was ready for some sleep!

[keny]

Saturday 14th

So I had a good 5½ h sleep, and was a bit tired, so I didnt go rideing against V4 Rosso and Dutchy as planed.

Doug was at the track checking out the WSBK qualifers so I did relax a hour and then repaced the bike from my van.

Dutchy arrived first and we did go out for a spin, some 40 kms of local twisty roads. It was nice, and some new to me as I´m not used to so much hight diffrence. As we arrived to Dougs place V4 Rosso had just arrived

Here Dutchy and V4Rosso outside Dougs house as there bikes including mine

Lather Doug also arrived whit Brian from the WSBK qualifi and made some great pasta carbonata as dinner :fing02:

We went to bed quit early so we could head to the track for the WSBK races early.

[keny]

Sunday 15th.

We are ready to go to the track.

Brian tock this pic whit my camera of we all 4 on our bikes just before we hedded of to the track.

from left, V4 Rosso, Doug, Dutchy and me

At the track Doug had got us some great seats :fing02:

Here a wiew from out seats

It was some great motorcycling racing :laugh:

totally 5 starts, one superstock 1000, 2 superbike, one supersport 600 and one gsxr750 cup start.

2 had a big accident in the first corner(superstock and supersport), the 600 race even got red flag.

Sadly Dutchy had to leave us at the end of the day (end of second WSBk start) as he had a flight to catch early next day to Scotland. Sad, but great to meet you Dutchy! Maybe a nother time we can ride more togheter?

We rode the same nice twisty backroads back to Dougs as we rode there. Sure fun!

After a dinner we got to sleep late after a fun day!

[vfr_steve]

Great pics... excellent seating position too, that corner is insane :fing02:

[keny]

Monday 16th.

We woke a bit late, and Doug had a bad allergy so he tock some medicine that got him dizzy, so V4 Rosso and I got out for some short rideing, a twisty backroad Doug suggested. Before that I changed to my lower stock screen, as it was sunny, I only like the tallet one if it rains. It was a great road, even not so long, we ended up ridening it down and back 2 times! The second one V4 rosso did take a vid clip of me rideing in front, I´m waiting for it!

Here a pic of the wiew V4 Rosso had.

As we got back to Dougs house Doug was feeling better and we hedded to Nurburg rings Nordshlef, the "Green Hell"

here is out bikes ready to take of:

We got company of a friend of Doug, Lee a pround owner of a Ducati 848!

As we got to Green Hell we tock some pics, as this that prove I was there!

As we were hedding to get tickets, 21€ a lap, they informed the Green Hell was temorery closed becorse of a accident. 20 min lather it opens up just to be shut down agan 15 min lather. This time for an hour! Then it opened up but first 30 min just for cars, so 2 hours after we came there we finaly got to ride the Green Hell, and a green hell it was! All made it safe, thanks to Lee, but it was sure scary at times, as for exampel one car passed me on the outside in a corner sideways!

I sure checed the mirrors more that lap than following the track, ok we rode at some low speeds to be safe!

I would love to ride a clean lap whitout trafic, as the track is amacing!

As the plans got bad becorse the wait we had to do, we hedded to Dougs for dinner instead of eating on the way, and as we didnt do a long ride on the backroads V4 Rosso fixed also the next day off so we could do a ride the next day! Great.

[keny]

Next day, 17th.

Me and V4 rosso went for a short (80km) spin as Doug was busy whit his family, as he been whit us or att the track all days for 4 days!

We found some great backroads, and did stop at a outlook

Here me whit my bike:

There was a great wiew from there! We also did ride the twists up to the lookout 2 times, and stoped on a part that you could see several bends. We sure had a great time!

We got back to Dougs place, and his kids wanted to go to MacDonalds.. Ok No problem Me and V4 Rosso hed for a nother loop of backroads and find a great place to eat lunch. We rode to the Mosel river. We did find a great spot to stop for some pics and a great wiew, one of the greatest I seen!

As we lather got back to Dougs place, still whitout having lunch, he joined us for a ride, as we went to Dougs mecanic, thro this time along autoban to the mecanic, and back some werry nice twists! While Doug was at the mecanic we had some late lunch at a pizzeria place. Here we have just arrived outside Dougs mecanic. Pic by V4Rosso.

Then as we got "home" to Dougs it was time for V4 Rosso to leave, as next day would mean work for him.

It was werry nice to meet you and ride whit you! I´m sure up for it again!

Then it was time for me to load my bike into my van, as my stuff, as I would leave early next morning.

[keny]

Next morning wensday 18th.

I woke up early, still had a chanse to share some words and say goodby to Doug before he went to work. Then got my last things packed and to the van, when I accidental look myself out of the Dougs house, but had all my things out. Felt ashame to leave the of the Dougs family whitout saying goodby! They had give me a place to stay during my trip (as to V4 Rosso and Dutchy and Brian) I really enjoyed the stay and felt like a part of the family! So I hit the road, again some 650 kms that went this time whitout roadwork stops, but did some stops to eat and was at Travemund early, some 17.00. My ferry checkin started 20.00 and got in the ferry 23.00. Time for some night food and then to sleep, tired as I was after the long drive I guess I slept 20 of the 27 hour the ferry trip lasted, well not in one sleep thro, have to eat now and then, right. Ferry left 03.00 from Travmund hedding to Helsinki where it arrived Friday 20th 8.00 in the morning. From there I head to a Midsummerparty and finally got home today sunday! Have to say it feels good to be home, even I really enjoyed the trip werry much. I cant thank you all that I meat under this trip enough! Whitout you this trip would not been made! :fing02:

[keny]

Great pics... excellent seating position too, that corner is insane :beer:

Yes, and the corner has a dip also, hard to see in the pic thro. 2 of the 5 starts had a accident in first corner, and one of them was red flagged as 9 riders was down.

[Guest]

Great writeup Keny and some very nice pictures! I wish I could have been there the for the following days at the track and riding around the area. Again, it was a pleasure to meet all of you! :beer:

-Bryan

[Dutchy]

Well Keny,

It was great meeting and riding with you, you did well on the "elevation changes" and hairpins :beer:

Ofcourse good to meet V4 "gravity fed" Rosso and "Doug truly the Cook" and family again.

Rhodes, next time bring a bike!

Best seats in da house!

I did catch my early morning flight and before I knew it I was enjoying

Bike content!!!

[V4 Rosso]

WSB

We sure had nice seats at the end of the main straight overlooking the first three corners (new, almost 300 degree loop). Lots of action as the the bikes get to max speed and then have to brake hard for the tightest corner of the track. And as said, that doesn 't always go as planned.

Dutchy posing in front of "our" stand 4A overlooking the new Mercedes curve. As you can see the weather was very nice when we got there.

Some of the "action" from the superstock 1000 class:

At least one team manager will be pissed seeing one of his riders take out his teammate

Start of the 1st SBK race.

Here is a clip of the second WSBK race with Corser and Haga in a fierce battle for first. Corsers bike was throwing flames out of the pipes ever time he closed the throttle.

It was the dip in the corner that posed some problems to the less skilled riders. Not so to Corser (with the rearfaced flamethrowers) and Bayliss, but you can clearly see the dip in this picture. Also note Bayliss' Duc suspension is completely bottomed out.

From our seats we also could see where we would be riding the day after. The Nordshleife runs through the hills round the Nürburg castle. You can see it in this pic behind the paddock.

Lunch at the track consists of curry oder brat Würste mit pommes frites. Doug is enjoying his:

Keny and Dutchy digesting theirs while the rainclouds start to come in.

At the start of the second SBK race the rain clouds were going past the racetrack but still the race was cut short by 4 laps due to rain on the west side of the track. Umbrella girls standing by to not only protect the riders from the sun but from possible rain too.

Part of the west loop as seen from our stand.

It was a great day at The Ring with some great racing and some good old victory burnouts

On our way back to Doug's place we unfortunately got some rain. I was feeling a bit sorry for Doug who was riding in perforated leathers. Also Lee's brand new 848 (that he picked up just two days before) was getting a little muddy.

Nordschleife/Grüne Hölle/Green Hell

Next day we would ride the famous Nordschleife, there is some video footage of Christoph Dahne (Superbike racer & Metzeler testrider) on an RC30 doing the Green Hell in the other thread.

Prior to visiting the Nordschleife we did some laps on Dougs Xbox360. I completely suck at steering a motorcycle with just my thumb so that did not help me a lot :beer: Fortunately Lee had ridden the track couple of times before and he would lead us around the Nordschleife on his beautiful Duc. I must admit that when we got there, the sight of the cars in the parkinglot was quite intimidating at first but once you're on the track you only want to open the throttle :wheel: There were lots BMW M series, Porsches 911 GT2/GT3/GT3 RS/GT4/Turbo, Corvette Z06, Ultima, Caterham, Audi R8 and lots of other supercars waiting to share the track with the bikes. I do not have video footage of us doing our lap, there was a sign that said it was not allowed to take pictures or filming while riding the Nordschleife. Still I saw a few bikes with videocamera's mounted to the tank :huh: I also did not really trust my ram mount, I need to get myself s a better mount like the others had (Touratech like mounts). But here are some pics taken in the parking lot:

Keny and your truly in front of the track layout. The small loop on the bottom is the Nürburgring where the SBK race was the day before.

Our bikes are in that row somewhere but my eyes keep focusing on the MV. Lee's 848 had some admirers too :fing02:

Keny, Doug, Lee and a collegue of Doug (brought a BMW M3) admiring a 1098R parked next to a gixxer and a 2008 "Blade".

There were more vifferari's besides ours. Among them this nice 6th gen being boxed in by even more Porsches.

Sport bikes of every make (I also spotted a Bimota) and age were waiting to do their lap.

Not everyones cup of tea, but I happen to like 'em

The guy on the right in the suzuki outfit is likely an official of the minstery of silly walks :laugh:

This race prepped mini was also quite fast.

Ultima:

"Starting grid" Middle lanes for bikes, right side lane for cars and left side for those just coming of the trackand doing a consecutive lap.

Dougs collegue (I can't remember his name, Doug help me out here) took his beautifull M3 out for a spin with Lee, our lead rider, sitting next to him trying to memorize all the curves.

15 seconds 'till launch :biggrin:

Like Keny said we had to wait quite long before we could do our lap due to accidents. There was an electronic board that shows where the accidents had happened. Before we headed out the track was closed for motorcycles for a half hour, possibly because of spilled oil (there were signs alongside the track warning for oilspills) that is more dangerous to a two wheeled vehicle. After the M3 with Lee in it returned it was our turn. Once out on the track we mostly kept to the right side of the road letting the realy fast ones pass on the left. Once out on the track I did not feel threatened by the other traffic at all and loved to see that caterham slide by me on the outside of a curve, awesome :fing02:

After we did our lap we got ourselves some Nordschleife decals and I am sure I will be back to do some more :wheel:

Riding in the Southern Eifel.

Doug happens to live in a very nice area for riding. Lots of hills and the accompanying twisties. There are fast sweepers and very narrow roads with switchbacks up to little villages scattered accross the area. I wish the road to work was as nice as yours Doug :biggrin:

Doug, being the good father that he is, had to spend some time with his daughters so Keny and I went out to look for some nice roads to ride. Doug had previously pointed us to some road we just had to ride and I also had some nice loops programmed into my GPS. So we headed out and found some very nice almost deserted twisties. Also the wheather was pretty good so we got some stunning overviews of the area. The one overlooking the Mosel river and the vineyards, being one of the best I have ever seen. It was too beautifull to be caught on camera, the pics really do not do it justice :mellow:

Riding the L46. It wasn't before I looked at this clip that I noticed there were rider friendly guard rails on the outside of every corner :fing02:

Well you don't look were you don't want to go, right?

In the credits it says that Rhodes has no ride yet, but in fact he has, but not in Europe. If I recall correctly he rides a sixth gen. Also my apologies for misspelling your name in an other post Bryan.

A series of switchbacks lead us down the valley to the Mosel river.

The man that started it all

And here he is again on the "tail of the iguana" :biggrin:

Somewhere to the left lives Doug and his family.

In the afternoon Doug joined us and we did some legal high speed stuff on the autobahn heading to a motorcycle shop to drop of some carbs for repairs.

While Doug was having his suspension checked out, Keny and I went for some lunch and after that Doug showed us some really nice twisties back home :wheel:

But all good things come to an end and at the end of that day I had to go home. I think it was Germany that was playing one of their Euro 2008 football matches that evening as the roads were completely deserted and I managed to get a very good average using only the twisty backroads :wheel:

I had a lot of fun and it was very nice to meet you all (again). A very special thanks to Doug and his family for having us over. :fing02:

[keny]

WSB

Nordschleife/Grüne Hölle/Green Hell

Like Keny said we had to wait quite long before we could do our lap due to accidents. There was an electronic board that shows where the accidents had happened. Before we headed out the track was closed for motorcycles for a half hour, possibly because of spilled oil (there were signs alongside the track warning for oilspills) that is more dangerous to a two wheeled vehicle. After the M3 with Lee in it returned it was our turn. Once out on the track we mostly kept to the right side of the road letting the realy fast ones pass on the left. Once out on the track I did not feel threatened by the other traffic at all and loved to see that caterham slide by me on the outside of a curve, awesome :fing02:

After we did our lap we got ourselves some Nordschleife decals and I am sure I will be back to do some more :wheel:

I really noticed you was enjoying the Nordschleife V4 Rosso, was afraid you would hit me in the corners as you were rideing way faster than me! I was not so comfortable whit the cars passing that close, and would perfer just bikes on the track, or maybe just we four on the track :biggrin: Maybe you should had ridden in front of me, but then again you had missed my Micron exhaust sound :musik20:

I would also like to come back some day and ride it again, more that one lap perhaps....and whit less traffic on the track.

Now I guess It would not mine to do a track day or two before that...

Thanks for an exelent backup to the writeup, just wounder whitch is better mine or yours (I think yours) but hope all enjoy them!

Hope to see your all soon again!

[V4 Rosso]

Maybe you should had ridden in front of me, but then again you had missed my Micron exhaust sound :musik20:

I noticed you were not feeling as comforatble as on the streets, that's why I stayed behind you. To watch your six, as they say.

Seems like you prefer the cars to come the opposite direction :biggrin:

Either way, I had a blast and we all can say we rode the Nordschleife :fing02:

[keny]

Well Keny,

It was great meeting and riding with you, you did well on the "elevation changes" and hairpins :biggrin:

I did catch my early morning flight and before I knew it I was enjoying

Dutchy, thanks and yes also nice to meet you and your rc36, maybe you should come and see how I do the local non elevation bends!

Seems you had great in Scotland :musik20: according the pics, yes you had!

[PhatPat33]

Great report! Looks like you guys had a great time. I can only dream of riding the Nurburgring while playing on my Playstation2.

[V-FORE]

Excellent :rolleyes: Looks like a good time was had by all! I especially love the pictures taken above the Mosel, brought back great memories... I would love to go back with a Viffer!

Thanks for letting us enjoy your trip!!!

Gary

[Baileyrock]

Great stuff, thanks for all the fantastic pictures too! :fing02:

[SEBSPEED]

Great stuff, thanks for all the fantastic pictures too! :fing02:

:fing02:

Excellent job guys, excellent job!! :beer:

[meddle1999]

all i can say is.... wow..... great post man... just great. Defiantly a "must do". Thanks!!!

[HispanicSlammer]

Nubby from Nubbins racing (Baylis) couldnt get an handle on that corner to save his life, this picture of his bike bottomed out explains alot why. The announcer gave him the benifit of the doubt saying he was simply taking a different racing line, but it looked like to me the racing line was much tighter than what he was doing and he paid for it at least 3 times.

[V4 Rosso]

I especially love the pictures taken above the Mosel, brought back great memories... I would love to go back with a Viffer!

I am glad yo like 'em. I had seen many pics of the Mosel snaking through the vineyard covered hills in brochures, but it is nothing like the real thing.

but it looked like to me the racing line was much tighter than what he was doing and he paid for it at least 3 times.

Yup, as much as he wanted to, he just could not get to the inside line. The guys in front of him did, and the set the up perfectly for the next lefthander.

[douglasthecook]

Let me tell you, living in Europe as a displaced American sucks!!! Nurburgring is 40 minutes from where I live, and Spa is 60 minutes from where I live. I was able to go to the Sachsenring Moto GP race last year, and that was a 5 hour drive, this year it was the Nurburgring WSBK Race. This is simply not tolerable anymore!!! It's costing me waaaaay to much $$$ to feed my motorcycle addiction, did I mention that my first trackday was @ Assen this year, that was also just horrible!!!! Where else in the world can one be to so many world class tracks and facilities??? Oh, the people here are very friendly, the food is great, and the beer is even better!!!!! Plus all the cool ppl that I have met here from VFRD has just made this a very miserable tour so far, so miserable that I extended to July 2012!!!!! Ok, all sarcasm aside, I really do enjoy it here, so much so that I did apply for an extension, and I was lucky enough to have it approved, so that means more WSBK and Moto GP Races, as well as more excellent track days. We're already planning on a track day at Sachsenring next year, as well as a trip to Spain for some track time as well. Fortunately my wife is really supportive, as she gets to go to Poland, Belgium, Switzerland for shopping...ah yes, the life of a displaced American is a rough one, let me tell ya!!!!!

[V-FORE]

Doug,

I wish I could be as unlucky as yourself :goofy: oh wait I was.. But I left there in '84 & back as a civilian in '88, boy what a change DM rate 84-3.86ish 88-1.29ish. Me & a buddy had a cb750 & it was fun! but I sure wish I could fly my vfr over & spend some time traveling...maybe my dreams will come true soon :rolleyes: . Enjoy your time there & Bitte, Ein Bit!!

[Guest]

V4Rosso...

Great post!! I was in Germany in `07 and drove the `Ring in a 5 Series BMW (time 11:27) and was happy to just keep myself out of the trees! I'd love to go back with my 6 Gen and do it again as you have inspired me to do.

Thanks...

[V4 Rosso]

Doug, thanks again for the DVD with pics, there were some nice shots on it that I think are worth sharing.

Tha night before the races, BS'ing over dinner and some beverages.

From left to right: Dougglasthecook, Dutchy, Keny, Rhodes & V4 Rosso.

Öhlins bling to drool over.

The girl third from the right takes being a pit bunny very seriously.

"Shocking" graphics by Wilbers. :fing02:

More nudity, this time it is Ten Kate showing what's under the skirt.

I did not expect them to use just static balancers, especially as the rear tire is quite wide :huh:

It was not just us who had a wheely good day at the Nürburgring :pissed:

Retireing after this season, but still one of the fastest riders out there. Thanks for always putting on a good show :goofy: