This is part of the fifteenth section of our
around the world trip.
Complete Trip
Overview &
Map
Coming from Austria or
read our
previous
visit to Germany
in magnificent condition, an
old brewery on top of the hill, seems to have been there forever, plus
many beautifully restored houses in town. A lovely corner of Germany,
and at this time of year quiet of tourists. 
was in Europe again, having been here more than a dozen times riding
motorcycles on holidays. We first met Larry at the H-D 100th
anniversary in the US in 2003, had kept in email contact, but this was
our first re-meeting. As Larry puts it, he has almost dedicated his
long life to the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, having ridden them for
over half a million miles, owned a number, and still works on
repairing and inventing things to improve them. He has a number of
inventions that are designed to remove some problems associated with
the older models, like his oil flow diversion kit that prevents base
gasket leaks, a common problem on our model, and Larry generously gave
us a kit. He also invented and makes a kit that removes the relay
starter problems on old EVO starting, also a problem we have had, and
he promised to send us one, when he returns to the US. The five of us
sat down to a BBQ dinner and beer over much conversation and discussed
a ride for tomorrow. 
and visits a couple of times a year for a
ride here and in
Switzerland. As we had ridden with Werner and Erika along the Rhine
River on our last trip, and liked it, it was decided to visit a friend
of Larry's at his cafe on the other side of the Rhine. Benno owns
Benno's Truck Stop, now a motorcycle stop as trucks were banned from
this road a number of years ago. He rides a custom chopper, and after
we had relaxed over a coffee, and small eats at his shop, he produced
enormous iced coffee's for everyone and T-shirts for us then proceeded
to leave the place to his staff while he joined everyone on a ride to
the Lorelei lookout above the river and led us on a ride through some
of his favourite territory, winding up in the hills, through forests,
and back to the river before we parted company, getting back to Werner
and Erika's late evening. It was a great day. What motorcycling is all
about, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. One of our
best days in a long time.
agreed to supply us with two more tyres, same
arrangements as last time. Our rear tyre had now covered 17,500 km's
and the front tyre 31,000 km's, quite amazing. The smooth European
roads we assume were the reason for the extra mileage. We said goodbye
to Werner and Erika with
them offering to store our motorcycle if necessary at the end of our
next trip, in about a year's time, when we will likely be passing
through this region again.
The two tyres were at Premio Tyres, next to the Dunlop complex, where
we were welcomed as old friends by everyone, but particularly by the
Polish workshop attendant who speaks good English, and again they let
us remove the wheels in their workshop, providing the lift, shop cloths
and grease to grease the wheel bearings. They fitted the tyres and
balanced the wheels and this time there was no fitting charge, a nice
and appreciated
gesture, and they even brought us coffee. It took us over three hours,
taking the opportunity to clean and inspect the brakes while the wheels
were removed. Our evening destination was to a place near Limburg where
we had arranged to meet Kai, a German man who with his wife, Ulrieke
had travelled 
from Germany to New Zealand, the more
traditional route
via Iran and India, a few years ago. We hadn't met them before and
unfortunately Ulrieke was away on business so wasn't at home. Kai is
now a home person, looking after their two dogs, taking up hobbies, and
hasn't been able to or really wanted to return to the workforce. He and
Ulrieke are in the process of planning early retirement on the road
with their dogs and have a BMW motorcycle attached to a side car, the
swing variety that allows the motorcycle to lean in corners with the
side car remaining horizontal. It was a relaxed evening outdoors on a
lovely autumn evening around a wok log fire which doubled as a BBQ.
a cam
follower, probably not holding oil or
not rotating on its wheel. We have had problems with lifters (cam
followers) before.
They have lasted anything from 100,000km's to more than double this,
but at just 6,500km's it seems a bit strange. The noise is worse at
start up but after warming, five to ten minutes, the rattle subsides to
a steady ticking. Larry had suggested fitting quick install adjustable
push rods so it would be easy to remove the lifters without removing
the rocker boxes. We had looked for a set at the H-D dealer in Hanau
yesterday, no success, and again at the H-D shop in Wiesbaden. There is
little demand for these parts now, this engine design having gone out
of production in motorcycles ten years ago and even the H-D supply
storehouse
in Belgium didn't have a set, but after a few phone calls by the HOG
club in Wiesbaden a set was located in Fulda, 140km's north east, so we
headed there to collect them. Luckily it was Germany's H-D open day at
all the dealers so the shop was still open when we arrived, and in full
swing with demo rides on the 2010 models and eats. We picked up the
part and stayed for a couple of hours mixing and mingling before
heading south, back to Würzburg for the night, and camped
alongside the Main
River, right in town.
20/9/09 Boats, mostly
cargo or tourist, plied up and down the river all
afternoon. It is amazing the amount of cargo that is transported along
the rivers of Europe, through its locks. Over a leisurely breakfast we
watched the river unfold on a Sunday morning, canoeists, kayakers,
speed boats, plus the usual barges with cargo. We planned to head south
towards Switzerland and the German enclave of Büsingen, another of
the
Most Travelled Peoples places. When we started up the motorcycle the
rattle had oddly disappeared, and stayed away all day. An
interesting result. Having bought the parts we never needed to use
them? It was 300 km's
down the motorway, cooking lunch in one of the great German roadside
stops, before we reached the enclave mid afternoon. Surrounded by
Switzerland and with an area just under 3sq/km's and 1500 residents, it
fronts the Rhine River and is a holiday destination for both the
Germans and Swiss, and both currencies are readily accepted. We had
planned to stay the night in the area but found the
accommodation
expensive, and after hunting around for a couple of hours ended up
moving on to the town
of Tengen, back in Germany, where on dusk we
found a guest house for the night.
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Story and photos copyright Peter and Kay Forwood, 1996-
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