Howard
Registered User
The plan was to make our way down from Rotterdam to Baden Baden and the B500 through the Black Forest, then up to the Nurburgring.
Because of bad weather we decided to follow a route on the west side of Germany, keeping off the Motorways, then cut across hoping the weather would have moved on by the time we got to Baden Baden.
Usually there are just two of us, but this year my mate Geoff (Hayabusa) decided to invite his brother Alistair on his Honda CBR1000 and his two sons, Kieran aged 19 on his Suzuki Gladius and Nathan aged 21 on his Kawasaki ER6, all 3 only passed their bike tests late in 2012. Geoff?s son Arron aged 19 also came along on his Suzuki GSXR750.
We ended up taking the Motorway from Rotterdam down as far as Antwerp before getting off and following a route along the N roads.
All went well until we lost Kieran and his Dad Alistair, we stopped and waited for about 20 minutes, then Geoff went back to have a look for them, Geoff came back after about 10 minutes as he couldn?t find them, anyway they arrived about another 10 minutes later. Kieran had a plastic top box with a small rucksack bungeed on, the rucksack had fallen off, wrapped itself around his back wheel and locked it up! He skidded about 40ft but managed to stay on?..lucky lad! His hugger was broken and his rucksack destroyed, but thank god he was ok. We all checked that our luggage was secured.
We arrived in Diekrich just north of Luxembourg about 5.30pm and searched for a Hotel, but they were either too expensive or just had double beds, the town seemed a bit crap anyway with lots of dodgy looking individuals so we decided to try the next town. Geoff?s Hayabusa then refused to start with the Speedo and Tacho sticking, eventually after about 10 minutes it burst into life and was fine for the rest of the trip. We headed a bit further South to the next town called Mersh managing to find a nice little hotel with garage parking for the bikes.
The following day we headed towards Baden Baden hoping to be able to ride the B500 late that afternoon, again by way of the N roads.
At about 1.00pm I was chasing Geoff on his Hayabusa on a nice long straight road, I looked down to see I was doing about 130mph so slowed down, checking my speed I noticed that the speedo and tacho were both reading zero! I slowed right down to walking pace and knocked the Bird into neutral..???it died!!
I stopped and tried to re start??nothing, not even a click, the guys pushed and we managed to bump start the Bird, I then put the lights on and she died again! ( I had a pretty good idea what was wrong, but thought we should try again) We bump started her again and I rode for about 40 miles with just the sidelights on, I then tried main beam again (HID fitted) thinking if I am wrong with what I think the problem is enough charge will have got back into the battery, however she died again!
Before we came away I saw a chinese copy of a Reg/Rec on ebay for ?12 delivered, being a skinflint I ordered it and just stuck it under my seat , hoping that if an emergency occurred it might work? So by the side of the road I stripped out the HID and replaced it with an ordinary bulb, I took off the rear cowling and could see brown crap leaking out of the Reg/Rec, fitted the chinese copy and the guys once again helped to push start the Bird. I rode for another 40 - 50 miles with just sidelights before we stopped for fuel. I tried the main beam and all was ok, so turned the ignition off then tried to re start the bike, without hesitation she started up again?..great stuff!!
OK I know some may say the Chinese copy may have burned out all manner of things, but it did the job and saved my holiday, so for ?12 it was a true bargain. It?s still on after completing over 1000 more miles! OK as a spare, but I think I will replace it anyway with an upgraded unit.
We arrived in Baden Baden about 6.00pm totally knackerd, so decided to look for a Hotel and ride the B500 the next morning. We parked outside a bar/hotel and by luck they had rooms. We had a walk around the town, which has lots of bars and restaurants and is really nice, we ended up sitting outside a bar watching the local talent walk past????some really classy birds!!!
The next morning we headed up the B500, the day was bright and sunny and the roads dry to start with, as we climbed up the mountain we came across some damp patches and then water pouring across some of the sections coming down from the mountain. We stopped at the top for a breather and photo opportunity.
To be continued?????
Because of bad weather we decided to follow a route on the west side of Germany, keeping off the Motorways, then cut across hoping the weather would have moved on by the time we got to Baden Baden.
Usually there are just two of us, but this year my mate Geoff (Hayabusa) decided to invite his brother Alistair on his Honda CBR1000 and his two sons, Kieran aged 19 on his Suzuki Gladius and Nathan aged 21 on his Kawasaki ER6, all 3 only passed their bike tests late in 2012. Geoff?s son Arron aged 19 also came along on his Suzuki GSXR750.
We ended up taking the Motorway from Rotterdam down as far as Antwerp before getting off and following a route along the N roads.
All went well until we lost Kieran and his Dad Alistair, we stopped and waited for about 20 minutes, then Geoff went back to have a look for them, Geoff came back after about 10 minutes as he couldn?t find them, anyway they arrived about another 10 minutes later. Kieran had a plastic top box with a small rucksack bungeed on, the rucksack had fallen off, wrapped itself around his back wheel and locked it up! He skidded about 40ft but managed to stay on?..lucky lad! His hugger was broken and his rucksack destroyed, but thank god he was ok. We all checked that our luggage was secured.
We arrived in Diekrich just north of Luxembourg about 5.30pm and searched for a Hotel, but they were either too expensive or just had double beds, the town seemed a bit crap anyway with lots of dodgy looking individuals so we decided to try the next town. Geoff?s Hayabusa then refused to start with the Speedo and Tacho sticking, eventually after about 10 minutes it burst into life and was fine for the rest of the trip. We headed a bit further South to the next town called Mersh managing to find a nice little hotel with garage parking for the bikes.
The following day we headed towards Baden Baden hoping to be able to ride the B500 late that afternoon, again by way of the N roads.
At about 1.00pm I was chasing Geoff on his Hayabusa on a nice long straight road, I looked down to see I was doing about 130mph so slowed down, checking my speed I noticed that the speedo and tacho were both reading zero! I slowed right down to walking pace and knocked the Bird into neutral..???it died!!
I stopped and tried to re start??nothing, not even a click, the guys pushed and we managed to bump start the Bird, I then put the lights on and she died again! ( I had a pretty good idea what was wrong, but thought we should try again) We bump started her again and I rode for about 40 miles with just the sidelights on, I then tried main beam again (HID fitted) thinking if I am wrong with what I think the problem is enough charge will have got back into the battery, however she died again!
Before we came away I saw a chinese copy of a Reg/Rec on ebay for ?12 delivered, being a skinflint I ordered it and just stuck it under my seat , hoping that if an emergency occurred it might work? So by the side of the road I stripped out the HID and replaced it with an ordinary bulb, I took off the rear cowling and could see brown crap leaking out of the Reg/Rec, fitted the chinese copy and the guys once again helped to push start the Bird. I rode for another 40 - 50 miles with just sidelights before we stopped for fuel. I tried the main beam and all was ok, so turned the ignition off then tried to re start the bike, without hesitation she started up again?..great stuff!!
OK I know some may say the Chinese copy may have burned out all manner of things, but it did the job and saved my holiday, so for ?12 it was a true bargain. It?s still on after completing over 1000 more miles! OK as a spare, but I think I will replace it anyway with an upgraded unit.
We arrived in Baden Baden about 6.00pm totally knackerd, so decided to look for a Hotel and ride the B500 the next morning. We parked outside a bar/hotel and by luck they had rooms. We had a walk around the town, which has lots of bars and restaurants and is really nice, we ended up sitting outside a bar watching the local talent walk past????some really classy birds!!!
The next morning we headed up the B500, the day was bright and sunny and the roads dry to start with, as we climbed up the mountain we came across some damp patches and then water pouring across some of the sections coming down from the mountain. We stopped at the top for a breather and photo opportunity.
To be continued?????
