628 km – 32.5° C
Today I started this years motorcycle journey from my parents place in Brüggen. The plan so far: Today just going to Berlin to change my tires from ANAKEE-3 to something more offroad worthy-the Mitas E-09. After that we (Benni, my year long travel companion and me) want to drive up to the Nordkap, NO using the TransEuroTrail (TET) for the most part, returning via Finland.
Yesterday I just finished maintenance on my motorcycle, for the whole trip I hoped. A clutch cable needed some replacement as well as some other minor things. For this cable I bought a universal replacement with some screws to fix it to the proper length. This scew turned itself loose during my first 250 km leaving me coasting in neutral gear into a rest bay. I sweared internally for a bit but wasn’t fazed as I packed a second replacment one. Or so I thought. Turns out it was still safe and sound in the garage on the desk. So I improvised with a nut, a washer and a bolt of my luggage rack (no panniers on this journey anyway).
With this seemingly working I started anew. Only 400 km to go.
On the ramp to the autobahn I could not get any speed. The clutch was slipping with any revs above 3.5k shit. So I coasted with leisurely 80 km/h down the road getting passed by trucks every now and then. At the next rest stop not only could I fill up some gas and talk to a Turkish German motorcyclist who did a trip to the Nordkap earlier this year as well, but on his Hayabusa with 7 other people. Now he was on his way to Poland to drive along the coast and enjoy the summer. I removed a setting nut from the cable-adjustor thus lengthening the adjustment as far as possible and voilá: hassle free acceleration again. With this behind me I floated down the highway listening to an audio-book about a unhappy french married woman living at the turn of the 19th century, kinda boring but it made the time pass. When I entered Berlin this book was over and a western started. When I arrived at Bennis grandparents place it was pretty hot and my water was empty. Benni didn’t arrive from work yet so I started removing the wheels as a change to a more gravel worthy tread pattern was needed for the future. Benni arrived we got to the tire place, a spacer was misplaced but later found, some Döner was had close to the train station. This started the mystery of the vanished front brake. After refitting the front wheel it would not bite. Then suddenly one hour later: Bam. Working normally again. We were baffled, and planned for a call at the BMW dealership tomorrow. Three other fasteners worked themselves loose, sloppy fastening on my part together with the long autobahn ride were probably the culprit. Luckily the oil-tank to air-box connecting screw and spacer weren’t lost and we were able to replace or refit the others. We fitted an extra Power plug to the rear of the motorcycle and managed to find a neatly fitting watertight bag for my laptop. With some packing and tidying up this closes today. What a hassle.