DaveJ,
thank you for your kind words.


Duive01,
glad to read you could take so much time off! I wonder why you went back from 250 ccm to 125 ccm? Sometimes I definately wished my ride had somewhat more power.

In the mean time I went for a day trip to Mannheim, visiting one of four commercial stream harbours there. I just have to figure how to transfer the images from my new camera.

I had high hopes to do a fast and dirty trip for several days but my job took care of that. Oh well, self employed means always "yourself" and always "employed". Let´s see what we can come up with.

Thank you for the vivid image of your adventure. It reminded me that you don't need to ride 1000 km to have an adventure. I really enjoyed your descriptive writing as well. I think I need to do the same type of trip... Maybe next weekend?

Hey Pete - I love your ride story;its excellent.

When I got back from my jaunts across Africa and then Europe and asia this year, I was seriously fed up because having done long trips in extreme conditions on unsuitable bikes, riding good roads on a powerful, 'normal' bike seemed boring and too easy. But then I realised that it is indeed horses for courses and the more you explore the different alternatives ( like different bikes) the better it gets. So now I'm fixing up a 70cc monkey bike for a winter excursion. And being ignored on a scooter is excellent - nobody has any idea what else you ride, or where you've ridden to, or how long you've been riding, and that for me is the best bit about being a biker - not fitting in anywhere else, and just doing your own thing. Love it.

Roger2002,
thank you most kindly and by all means get out ASAP! Maybe bring your fishing gear or .22 and do a little foraging along the way.

Belle,
funny that you mention the Honda Monkey. My first bike trip was riding pillion on my friends 50 ccm Honda Dax and we had a blast. (But then we were 14 and 16 and in a totally different weight class ...) Enjoy your trip and let us know how it went.

Deleted (doubleposting).

Excellent read, food for thought

In oz almost every body waves with the exception of Harley riders,and even some of them wave but not many.If they dont want to give out a good vibe its their loss.
Noel.enjoyed reading your travels.carry on.

Grumpy and Noel, thank you for your kind words!

Here comes my next ride report. Thanks for nudging me towards the keyboard.




Just A Different Habitat
Sunday 23rd, 2012

I am still chronically short of riding time but today I managed to get on the road. For some time I had been wanting to visit the city of Mannheim. Located in the upper Rhine valley, where the river Neckar flows into the Rhine it has been a prime spot for trade and for manufacturing for a long time.


Besides the old town and several living quarters Mannheim is chock full of industrial areas, a large rail hub and 4 (!) river harbours. Now I knew I did not want to visit four harbours but I chose one, actually the first which would come up on my route.


The weather was good, so I tossed two bottles of water and some snacks under the seat of my scooter and went on my way. For some reason the traffic was light throughout the day, a fact I seriously appreciated.
Passing the town of Hockenheim with its race track, I made a quick detour to have a look at the track but it is shielded cleverley from cheapskate onlookers.





You have to buy a ticket to watch the training runs and I did not intend to do that. Saw som nice hacks, though, and some vintage/expensive cars … nice, though not my cup of tea.





BTW, the municipal parking lot offers some nice wild camping spots in the tree grown area right at the Autobahn, you can´t miss it, is is right behind the sign „Camping Verboten“. Just saying …



Soon I was on my merry way to Mannheim again. Just about after entering the city limits the offramp to the first harbour appeared so I followed the signs. Obviously they are building a new powerplant, looks it is being powered by coal.





With its excellent river and rail connections it makes absolute sense to build the plant at the port.







Nice big hole in the chimney. I guess a small truck would fit through easily.





Now might ask „You are one wierd enough dude for riding a scooter. Why on earth would you visit an industrial area /river port?“ Well, honestly, I enjoy all things industrial and my inner woodsman does not discriminate between a natural habitat like the woods and a man made habitat. Like ants or termites all we do is we change the surroundings to our favour.





It might seem everlasting to us as we have no real perception of time, but on a historical scale man´s activities are just a blink. The jury is still out on to decide what will remain from what we created.





Industrial areas are mostly not as groomed as other parts of town. Finding sign is always interesting. This little trail sneaking towards the river, probably an anglers trail to his fishing spot. Overgrown patches of no-mans-land, trails leading into the bushes, who made them? A homeless person, a drug addict or just kids?


Pigeons roosting under the roofs of industrial buildings, rabbit holes, the occasional stray … I like all of it. The spot with all those little schnapps bottles, probably where an alcoholic fills up before he goes to work.
I noticed several East European cars with people sleeping in them. They chose a good location as the area was almost deserted.





Speaking of sign, this new concertina atop the wall and several scrap cables hanging in it are telling their own story.







A nice old house among the industrial type buildings. Was it an office or did once live the manager of a factory in it?





Then it was time to move on. I took the bridge to Ludwigshafen and suddenly ended up on the Autobahn. Traffic was very light though and I left the next offramp going south again towards Speyer.


Speyer is one of my favorite places these parts, nice eateries, the massiveold dome and a very good state museum, but this time I had set my bearings towards the small town of Phillipsburg.


I spent my first three months of basic training in the German Army there. Honestly, I don´t know what draws me back to the places I served but it sure does!


Besides our company, the garrison once contained a German field artillery battalion with heavy guns and an American platoon which would safeguard tactical nuclear shells until they would be shot from our guns. I still have mixed feelings about the Cold War and boy, I am sure glad it did not come to shooting war.





The barracks we lived in have now brambles growing up into the first floor. The place itself is being used as a storage area by a large shipping company. As times go by …





I had now come to the second last leg of my trip and it was time to grab a bite. My liver ached for some booze and my butt thought it was a good idea to sit on a chair instead of the comfy seat of my Honda.


Due to the lack of a GPS and a decent map it took me some riding and asking around until I got back on track. But then it was just a breeze and I sailed down a narrow alley of apple trees to the place I intended to go to, Fischerheim Dettenheim. It is located nicely between two man made lakes, former gravel pits.





My first order was a ...





The second order was fried char with potatoes plus a small plate of salad and it was good!





The whole shebang including an espresso for desert cost me about 16 € and I was a happy man when I left the establishment.


Let me go on a last rant. This nice restaurant among others is only located 14 kilometers from the A5 offramp Bruchsal. (I kept count on the kilometers.) People travelling through Germany probably do what everybody does and a) either eat overpriced sandwiches at a petrol station or b) give their business to one of the large fast food chains.


Guys, you can eat very well in Germany and it is NOT overpriced. I prefer eating at a family run place anytime. Plus I get my food and drinks served, together with a smile and a nice little talk with the waitress it makes me relax. I also don´t mind tipping a person who is willing to work hard and still being a nice person to talk to. So maybe you might want to invest two hours off the beaten path in Germany before you ride to destinations more exotic. Just saying!


My autumn trip to Hungary has been cancelled due to work. I´ll see what I can come up with to keep all of us entertained.

Thanks for reading and you all take care.

Spot on Pete!
Your writing makes a lot of sense to me + your theme and observation of the landscape are excellent.

I've stayed in a few Gasthaus over the years and you are quite right with your point about local service and the chat that comes with it, compared with what we all can fall into - eating at motorway service areas just because they are there! It happens here in the UK, when just turning off at a junction (ramp) can find a pub within a short distance.

__________________
Dave

Its great to see the stuff we never see on tv.will keep an eye on your blog.Noel

Again Pete. excellent writing very informative.
Think you should try writing for living .
Please give us some more about your beautiful country.
Barry

Sorry guys, no pics this time. I just needed to spend some time riding and thinking.

Anyhow, I wanted to ride around most of the Black Forest in one day and see how it went. The weather was unpredictable so my steed of choice was once more my lowly 125 ccm scooter.

I rode along the northern end of the Black Forest on the B10 to Ettlingen until I met the B3 going south to Freiburg. As I rode the Rhine valley, the weather changed my times from fair to foul. Both the French Vosges mountains and the German Black Forest still sported snopwcapped peaks. However, in the valley the grass was lush and green and shrubs and flowers were starting to bloom.

I could not but praise my ride and thank its Japanese engineers for this utterly practical and beautiful machine. For the traffic given 80 to 90 km/h were just the ticket.

In Freiburg, after about 180 kilometers, I took the B31 towards Donaueschingen. Talk about a scenic ride through the narrow Höllental ("hell´s canyon) and up some nice twisties to the top of the Black Forest. It was cold and my nose started dripping considerably - yuck! From weekend trips I knew the B31 crammed full with cars but obviously it was none of these days.

Then I turned north towards Villingen-Schwenningen and Rottweil (you all know now after which town Rottweiler dogs are named). The road went into the scenic upper Neckar valley passing through Oberndorf (think Mauser and Heckler und Koch) to Horb. It was there where I wished my scooter had more oomph, the roads were just too nice. After crossing a high plain of the Black Forest I travelled down the Nagold valley through the towns of Nagold and Calw (where Hermann Hesse hailed from). Some more excellent riding in the Nagold valley and I was home.

This trip was about 440 km on a 15 hp, 125ccm Honda scooter. Total trip time was about 9 hours with ample breaks (every 60 km or every hour, whatever it felt like). Being a newly diagnosed diabetic, I did not bother eating out. Rather I brought water, full wheat bread and sausages and snacked twice at the road side.

I did very well, besides a sore spot between the shoulder blades and an extremely severe case of helmet hair! If I had the time I could easily imagine going on extended trips with my scoot. However, I also could imagine riding the somewhat faster FES 250 Foresight ...

Sometimes a GPS unit would have been handy but finding the right direction does not bother me. After all I am not on the run. This time I wore a fluorescent yellow vest over my riding jacket and felt this gave me a lot more attention from cagers.

Next trip will be on my GS500E and I really wonder how it will turn out to be. We still need to bond before we hit the Autobahn at least for the first leg of the trip. My intention is to take pictures the next time, there are some nice things I could post for your viewing pleasure.

See you!

Really ejoying your reports, Pete! Looking forward to the next one!

Charlie

Thank you Charlietbird. I have a new trip report in the making, hoping you guys will enjoy my country.

Now folks, I know this is a bit unusual, but my recently acquired bike wants to make its own introduction. We had a rough start in our relationship so maybe this might help to smoothen things.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Suzy!



Konnichiwa.

May I introduce myself to you? My Name ist GS500E GM51A of the Honorable Suzuki family. My new owner likes to call me „Suzy“ and I wished he´d pay me more respect. But I am patient and know how to do nice little things so that he will respect me more … maybe one day he will even love me.

19 years ago my Creators gave me to a young German woman. We were both looking pretty, me in my violet-metalic paint with pink decals and white rims and her in her tight white leathers. We attracted quite a few looks! After three years she rode me to a Honda dealership and I never saw her again. It took some time until I realised that she had sold me for a new Honda! Bitch.

The Honda dealer gave me to a young man. He was slim and not very tall. He had me derestricted so that I could make use of all my 45 hp. That was a nice thing to do. We lived in the Black Forest and he took me for a spin on weekends. I loved those roads but we seldom rode far. Usually I ended up waiting for him after an hours or two riding time while he stuffed his face with cake. He said Germany is the land of cakes but I don´t care for carbohydrates.

I must say he took good care of me. He always made sure to park me in a dry spot and he spent many hours keeping me clean and pretty. As the years went by we rode less and less. The familiar bikes I met in front of the cafes disappeared and found myself more often with new bikes. The new line of BMWs definately looked better than their ugly Airhead ancestors. Harleys made an appearance. First I was scared because I knew Harleys as the bikes of trouble makers. But then I realised the Harley riders were well shaved men, with soft faces. Lawyers, tax advisors, dentists, upscale corporate wage slaves …. they spent big bucks on those imperfect, overpriced bikes to feel free and tough because they themselves were certainly not.

The new shiny bikes sneered at me in the parking lots but I kept my head high and proud. After all my ancestory can be traced back to some of the most noble Samurai families of Japan. Nothing a BMW or Harley would have to offer.

My owner seemed to outgrow his leather suit and was not a handsome and young as he had been when we first met. He moved in with this woman and parked me in an underground garage right in front of his VW Polo. At least he had the decency to cover me with a piece of cloth so that I would not attract much dust. I was missing the great riding which began just a couple of meters from the house and I was sad. I was so sad that my battery got ill.

One cold winter evening my owner jump started me with his Volkswagen and gave me another man to ride in the underground garage. He was older than my owner and even heavier. I instantly knew he had never ridden a sportsbike as he behaved so clumsily. But he said he liked my sound and he bought me for a few Euros. They pushed me on a trailer and strapped me down very rude. In revenge I shed some of my beautiful violet-metalic colour.

I ended up being parked in a workshop kind of building between a stack of salt bags and a Honda scooter. A Honda and a scooter for crying out loud! How low can you go? I instantly hated her and I think she is quite jealous. The very young men in the workshop seem to like us but the older men say that we are always in the way.

At least I got a new battery. But my new owner did not get along with my proven stubby handle bars. Every monkey would have been a better rider than him. Then I had to teach him that I like to be ridden at higher revs. What do young think a throttle is for, idiot? One evening he took away my beloved sportsbike handlebars. It was a painful thing to feel as all the screws were sitting really tight but I suffered in dignity.

Some evenings later my owner came back with two other men and they fitted throttle, clutch and brake to my new handlebars. They gave me a Stahlflex brake line which was a nice thing to do. I liked the young man of the trio, a handsome guy in his twenties, with the most friendly beaming smile you could imagine. I hoped I would be given to him but then I learned that he was riding a Yamaha SR500 cafe racer. She is so lucky and I hope they will always be happy together!

My owner now seems to be more pleased with me. He told the young man that he would rattify me. I don´t know what that means but I am having nightmares of being painted matte black and of animal sculls and other disgusting objects being glued to my fender. What does this mean?

I really felt I was out of luck until he took me out for a ride yesterday. He took me to beautiful places I never had been. We rode nice twisty roads. One time I heard him calling his brother in law and saying „I sure have no idea where we are but there are many trees and the riding is great!“ He has no dignity but I like his spirit. We grew as a team and he found out how sweet a ride I can be. I noticed he would get more relaxed and self confident.

So maybe there is hope for us. I will be patient and do my part. I am GS500E GM51A of the Great Suzuki family. My ancestors took hot baths with beautiful women while the ancestors of HD and BMW would still rub their backs against trees!

Now if he only would get me out of the rain. I think need to grow some rust spots as a subtle warning.

Sayounara.

Perhaps a childrens' story, going by your latest writing; it would make a really good theme compared with the usual stuff that I read to my grandchildren.

hydrocarbons, not carbohydrates for Suzy, so she doesn't become fat!
(and as little ethanol as can be obtained).

__________________
Dave