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The Eifel, The Mosel And The Turkish Pizza


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I thought I might do this backwards for once. I will start with the mooovie and write the report after. I hope you like it. I think it has a few good visuals of the surrounds. Keep in mind, it looks a million times better in person. Ride report and review of the MT09 (FZ9) to follow.

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  • Member Contributer

Very cool little film, reminds me of my days in the Hunsrück great roads leading down to the Mosel :wheel: Back when the Mark rate was high and no worries :woohoo:

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I've got an MT 09 as a company bike, and I've put about 10,000ks on it so far. It's brilliant.

and that bike probably used to have an orange tank, or someone changed the wheels.

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I would have had the first installment on here now, but windows 8 is the biggest steaming pile of crap in the universe, so, no.

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Did you go SCHWOOOOOOSHH???

I tried a new thing and stayed upright on the bike. But I did have to test them and see how they felt. Very nice. Never used leather before, but I may now only use them. Thanks again, Leon !!

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I will now report on my motorbike tour of europe. I do realize it was not on a VFR, but please allow me to bend the rules just a tad. I will confine this to the 5 Day sub-trip to Wallendorf Germany on a rented Yamaha MT09 (FZ09), because no one wants to hear about Rotterdam, the World Cup game, Blijdorp and Bokito, The Hague, the beach, the Yacht I was on in Freislan, The Speelerij that was like the Burning Man festival for kids, the canals of Den Bosch, the Eftelling, the soccer game i PLAYED in, my Fiat Panda with an 800cc motor, or my 2 day walk-about in Iceland.

Day One:

Got up early and loaded the Panda with camping gear and headed south to Echt to pick up my bike. I rented from Motoport Echt for the fourth straight year. I will always go back here as these folks are the best. Great shop, friendly and informed staff. My guy there, Peter Hennison isn't just a good dude who gives me fantastic deals, he is an enthusiast and world traveler on his BMW GS. Cannot say enough good things about Peter, so go down there and have a cup of coffee with him. Tell him I sent you.

I was a tad late. so I changed and hopped on and split. As I left, I thought that I should have photographed the slight damage on the bike, considering I totaled the last one, and turns out I handed my son my phone as I changed and he took care of it for me.

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​Got away and did some boring highways for a spell. Once you get off these roads, you start to go up and the view gets better by the minute. Rene and I usually stop after an hour or so and grab some french fries. We usually stop at a joint called Chez Willies, but this time we stopped in a town called Spa. Yes THAT Spa.

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​As we ate our freedom fries and drank our Fantas, we could hear the engines screaming past on the track. I got a great view of the circuit from a mountain top later, but we were moving, so no photo. Along we went, through Belgium and into Luxembourg. It always rains on me in Luxembourg and it did so again. Good thing I left not one, but two great rainsuits on my kitchen table in Maryland. I did go to a kind of dollar store in NL and grabbed some waterproofs that surprised me how good they were. Best ten Euros I have spent in a long time. So we stopped, gassed up, rain geared up and headed to the camping.

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If you havent read one of these before, the place we go is called Wallendorf Germany. It is the site of a huge battle during the Battle of the Bulge. The Allies had to cross the River Our, over a small heavily defended bridge. There are still bunkers on the German side. Our campsite is on the bank of the river, nestled right up to that bridge. On the other side of the bridge is Luxembourg. We arrived in the pissing rain and I figured that I couldn't get any wetter, so I put up our tents in the driving rain. Rene sat under a party tent and drank some beers. As I finished the fight with my tent, the rain stopped and Rene calmly put up his tent in the dry.

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As I walked over to put the bike away for the night.........

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.....I noticed a familiar tyre friend:

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​I was handed tomato soup and beer and started to relax. I settled in amongst this and I too, have no idea.

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Put stuff up to dry and started planning the next day of riding. We decided on going up the Mosel River to the first place my last name "Steffes" was ever recorded in Tries-Karden, Cochem Germany. I was prepared to be handed the keys to the castle there.

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Day two:

I woke up with a very large head, but ready to go. The night before I stuffed newspapers in my boots and left them by the campfire, so almost everything was dry by the time we were ready to go. Hopped on the MT and started out.

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We went off to find my ancestors. The first recording in history of my last name : "Steffes" was in the 1400's in a place called Treis-Karden, Cochem Germany. It was a few hundred KMs up the Mosel River, so we headed that way.

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The roads around the Mosel are always good and the towns are pretty, so it was a win-win prospect. Plus I was expecting to receive the keys to the family castle.

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We got there........and found that IF the Steffes clan was here, they were prolly hillbillies, or "Mountain People" as Rene likes to say. At least their covered wagon is a Benz:

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Although we didnt find a single Steffes, we did find a place that made Turkish Pizza, so a stop in was done at this little joint right near Mosel Island:

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Rene and I talked about tyres and riding in the rain and mountain people, and I took a tiny stroll around "my" town.

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They even had flat black cars for sale. This really MUST be my town

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Full of grub, we headed back. We were pretty far from the camping so we picked up the pace.

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We stopped to put on rain gear and decided to try and outrun the storm over us. The Autobahn seemed like the only way to outrun it. It started off well and there is a rumor that 245KPH was seen. Then the drizzle turned into a monsoon. I am on one of the most dangerous highways in the world, wet, and I cannot see my hand in front of my face. It was in the top 5 heaviest rains I have ever ridden in. Porsches and Mercedes Benzs were flying past us until Benzs were upside down and the chaos started. We pulled over under a thin bridge because it just got stupid. A helicopter landed right on the lanes of travel to rescue the Benz driver who didnt slow down. After a while we had to press on and it was bad. We picked up 4 or 5 other guys on motorbikes and limped back in our direction. After we got off the highway, the rain slowed and stopped. We pulled over to get out of the steam chamber-rainsuits.

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Those nutty gerrys

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There was a lot of laughing and pointing at wet socks and wet chicken-looking guys, but we felt OK, and rode back to Wallendorf. It hadn't rained there and the campers all asked what the fuss was about. Grabbed some Gin and tonic at a gas station on the way in, so I made myself a tall glass and relaxed. In a relaxing place.

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Tomorrow we ride Luxembourg. All of it.

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Day Three:

We got a bit of a late start due to high-jinks in the river and swollen heads. Somebody must have poured the bottle of gin out, because it was empty in the morning. Can you guess who the american is?

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We decided to circumnavigate the vast majority of Luxembourg. The roads there are special. Glass smooth and deserted. There was one very long section near a river that was like an uncoiled Deals Gap. It went on for ever. Even though we kept it short due the late start, we saw almost the entire country. I really like the town of Wiltz. Very pretty with all the coffee terraces filled with motorcycle folks in their leathers, relaxing. We didn't stop much, but when we did, who can resist the photo of their riding buddy taking a whiz?

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Here is the "Tail of the Old and Mellow Dragon"

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Very, VERY fun road

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With great views to boot

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Rene, not presently whizzing

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We went on until we needed gas. My MT09 has a teeny tank, so this was often. After filling up, I was stretching my legs and I walked around the gas station. On the far side, I noticed a Military cemetery that I assumed was full of our brave boys from the Battle of the Bulge.

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Then I saw this opposite the graves. Makes one stop and think...

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We came back and I did some of this

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Next...Last full day, so lets ride all the roads

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The African summit has me working 16 hour days with no days off. I could tell you things, but it is at the State Department level and I shouldn't, but there was an incident that I was in the middle of. All days off are cancelled. I can ship or you can come meet my wife and sons, who will grab the stuff for you, but I am tied to work right now.

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  • Member Contributer

Flashing a monkey tattoo during an African summit is a sure way to start an incident.................. :wacko:

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Day Four

It started like this

Then we got our stuff together for a Honey-Badger about the area. No real plan, just ready for a relaxing ride. No direction, no route, no way points, no return time. Just the way I like it. Rene tells me that next year, I will lead. I explain that I dont think I know the area well enough, and he confesses that he just takes random turns when we are out. He has no plan and never did. The roads are so good, you can just take a right or a left at any junction and the next road will be as good as the last. Not much photo taking, but we did stop to hit an ATM with a cool water feature in ?, Germany

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I had to pee really badly and this sign captured my feelings fairly well

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We got some gas and I captured 2 of the nearly 20 VFRs I saw on this trip

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This guy has the same Givi bags as I do. Woot !

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We returned safely and I said my goodbyes to Wallendorf

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Had a nice evening with my chimps

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I got in one last ride before bed

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Tomorrow: NORTH, to the south of the Netherlands.

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  • Member Contributer

what happens in the Netherlands stays in the Netherlands??? …………………………

Looking for the rest of this, feeling like going through withdrawal here….

C

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Dat five:

Wanted to get up early and pack up my tent and gear before the rain. An epic rainstorm was predicted and I was surprised that I could get it all done and depart without getting wet. We rode north, using some of the roads from the previous few days and all was groovy. We seemed to stay just to the left (west) of a giant mass of ugly black/grey clouds and I wasn't complaining. It started to sprinkle so we stopped in Luxembourg for gas as fuel prices, and booze and cigarettes are low there. I made the epic mistake of waiting until we were both leather-ed and waterproofed up to start looking for my key. It may not have been raining outside, but the sun made it rain inside our suits as I fumbled. I put the key in a small unused pocket in my tailbag, that I had never used before...d'oh. It wasn't too long a wait, but I broke the cardinal rule of riding when it may get cold -sweat. Later on, when the rains came, I was cold and soggy. Still better than being at work, but I was glad when we needed gas again in Belgium, so I could warm up, pee and have a smoke and a coffee.

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The rain was getting kinda ridiculous, so we picked up some friends in the covered gas station

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We even allowed cars

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I was certainly glad I was on Pilot Road 2s rather than Rene, on his thrashed supercorsas

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So off we went, with garbage bags over our socks, north to return my bike. It was raining really, really hard and it was difficult to see the road from the actual rainfall, the rain drops on my tinted visor, and the road spray on my visor. Then the strangest this happened. We crossed over the border and back into the Netherlands and I could instantly see much better. At first I thought I was imagining it, because how can an imaginary line make your vision better? Turns out it was because of the asphalt that the Netherlands uses. It is porous and water goes right through it. Zero water pools on the road, no mater how hard it rains. When I realized this, I noticed that there was no spray from trucks and damp asphalt, although it was bucketing. Right ion, Dutch road designers ! Here is the stuff in a driving storm:

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We made it back and the end of my riding arrived. I was a bit sad to return the bike, but happy that I got it back without falling off, like last year. I met my family at a nearby restaurant, and my youngest son immediately hit me with spitballs.

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I took the camera off my helmet

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and got behind the wheel of the Panda (on the right), that actually has 50cc smaller of an engine that the MT09.

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The end, unless you want the above mentioned boring stuff.

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