Introducing Dralla

[krtw]

April 1st 2021. Between 2 and -6 degree Celsius - Wake up at 4:00 AM, gather gear, papers, make coffee, eat, and get picked up at 5:00 AM to drive 447 KM to pick up my new bike. 20 minutes out of the city its a blizzard. I looked over at my pal and said don't worry - it'll pass.

We made good time on the 4 lane highway. Had to meet another person there, who I was selling some audio gear to - he had to drive 1.5 hours to meet us. All went well - and then it was time to get the bike.

Drove a few blocks to the sellers house - and there she was, as blue as the sky...loaded and ready to go. The owner was at the dentist, but the wait was only 10 minutes. I handed over a bank draft, and we immediately headed to the license bureau. Because I was using the cash from the sale for part of the payment, we skipped the lineup and got the transfer done in 8 minutes. And that was it. I was the new owner - had plates and sticker, insurance - and ready to roll.

Back at the sellers house, I got a tour of the bike, he handed me all kinds of spare or OEM parts, I got kitted up and away we went. I was following my buddy who drove me down.

It was cold. Took 7 stops before no more skin was exposed and I was comfortable. Within the first 30 km my body adjusted to pegs and shifter and just the general ride - much different than what I'm used to. We took the milk run out of the city and for a while thought we were cursed as we hit every single red light there was, so it seemed. It took a full hour and half to escape the traffic - and just as the highway opened up we stopped at a Tim's to warm up and eat. I made final adjustments to my gear.

Hunting boots with 1 layer of normal socks. 1 layer of thermal socks
2 layers long johns
sweat pants
ski pants
Insulated rain pants for breaking wind better
shirt
heated vest
sweater
leather riding jacket
40 degree below down parka
leather insulated neck and face protector along with a necker and a scarf
my open face helmet didn't work, I brought a full face which was too small - but I had to wear it. It caused my head to go numb...so I had to lift if often off my head and hold it to get circulation back.

From there, all back roads, sunny but friggin cold and windy. 2 Degree Celsius, with a 30km/h cross wind. At a speed of 100 km/h that's a wind chill of -26 - not including the cross wind.

It was a beautiful ride....we got lost, saw wonderful small towns, and there was no traffic at all. Stopped for gas at a small town and kept going, with the sun starting to drop.

We hit the main highway back - no more turns - with 200 km to go and the sun really dropping, along with the temperature. My thumb on the throttle hand started to freeze again...This part of my body caused the most trouble....Although I had heated grips, I only had ok cold weather gloves on. My hands, specially my thumb got cold.

I tried to signal my buddy at a small town to stop as I was getting really cold, but he missed the signals, so we kept on going. It was 36 km to the next town and I could feel my core temp dropping.....my feet were getting cold, started shivering, my thumb was frozen (it still hurts) but the smile on my face was bigger than the setting sun.

But now its feeling dangerous. I'm really cold - so I speeded up, really hammered it to get to the next town and to a Tim's to warm up.

It worked. Got there safe - my buddy found me as I'd left him behind. Hot tea and some sugar with jumping around and holding the tea cup on with my hands along with getting dressed and staying dressed in the heat - got my temp back up.

The rest of the ride, about 85km was spent never going over 80 km/h on out of the way back roads to home safely....still smiling.

Folks - Let me introduce you to Dralla. Dralla is a 2013 BMW F800gs with the following: Barkbusters, LED headlights and fog lights, hydraulic clutch, adjustable brake lever, after market taller wind shield, GPS ready, phone mount, auto oiler, panniers, extra gas tank (not installed yet) rear brake and side stand upgraded, upper and lower crash bars, with skid plate, light and rad protectors, Mitas E07's, comfort seat, and a tube tool kit holder installed.

Sure I forgot a few things and not even mentioning all the extra and spare parts.

My friends thought I was stupid to go. My answer was - its an adventure bike, this will be an adventure - and it was.