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So, just how tough are you?
Yesterday I rode 1133 kilometres from Reims to Dunblane and as a result am feeling pretty manly. Can anyone top this?
(Knowing this forum, I'm sure it'll take about three minutes for someone to come back saying "I've ridden a Ural in my underkecks through a Siberian winter on farm tracks for two thousand kilometers in a single day." but what the heck.) Matt :) PS: I am available to put up shelves and open jam jars at a reasonable rate for pretty ladies. |
:innocent:I managed 45kms from Brussels to Antwerp this morning in my Landrover - by the time I got to work I really needed that 1st cup of coffee .
I bet yer bum ached :rofl: |
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Don't even go there with this thread, many riders 'hit' 1600kms from time to time. |
Did 450 miles in one day, temp got down to -12c
on a c90..... |
Oh geez, there are all sorts of um... interesting adventures that people have embarked upon. Cold, long, muddy, hot, dry, wet…..If you will expand the question to how stubborn are you or how stupid in some cases I'll toss in a story. Caveat, not recommended.
Long story shortened somewhat. Invited a girl (whom I had recently met and was trying mighty hard to impress, even going to the extremes of showering and brushing teeth) on motorcycle trip to Europe. I convinced her that this was a good idea and how simple and straightforward it would all be. It was all her fault for listening to me. We picked Turkey for it's combination of culture and riding. Only problem was that we, as well as the bike were still in North America. She, being very organized, looked at flights and picked a date to fly from Canada a couple of weeks later. I, being organized in manly sort of way (i.e. not at all) stupidly agreed as I figured there was plenty of time to ship bike over and meet up. After a few delays and unhelpful shippers later, I called the airlines directly and got them to ship bike to Frankfurt. One flight delay later, only one problem now, the day the bike and I arrived in Frankfurt was only a few hours before she was scheduled to arrive in Istanbul. Hmm, this seemed to be a small problem so I did what most men would do, I left her a vague message that I was "running a little late" and that she should get to the hotel herself and I would see her soon. Meanwhile, I hoped on my bike, rode an hour south to Heidelberg to pick up my original green card from Stefan and headed east in the early evening. Germany came and went, thank goodness for the autobahn, and once in Austria it got dark. Usually I find Austria quite picturesque, at night not so much. I tried to stop in the middle of the night a couple of times to unpack my sleeping bag and sleep but couldn’t find a decent spot and usually what happens in these cases is you ride long enough and by the time you find a spot, you are awake again. The smart may even stop and drink coffee, the stubborn bounce up and down and slap their helmets. Slovenia at night looks a lot like Austria. Entered Croatia at sunrise, strangely enough not much traffic at that time of day. Very awake now that it was daylight. Crossed Serbia, still light, into Bulgaria, still light for a while and then darkness fell. You know you've been riding a long time when you get to see darkness twice. A lot of riding with face mask open and even stops for coffee. Moderate amount of singing to oneself, plenty of yelling at oneself. Finally, at around midnight, arrived at the border with Turkey. Crossed with a couple of German guys in a car who were driving around the world. They were amused that anyone would ride a motorcycle long distances. I was amused that anyone would use such a soft means of transport as a car with extreme luxuries such as "heat" and "music". Stumbled through the border and at one point took an exit that I thought said Istanbul. Things didn't look right so I asked at a petrol station if he knew where the Blue Mosque was and he said it was about 120 km from there. Hmm, my middle of the night route finding could use some work I thought. Onto Istanbul, finding your way through Istanbul with a clear head is difficult enough, with no sleep it took a couple of hours of driving the wrong way up one way streets. In fact that is the little known secret to getting around Istanbul quickly, that and riding up the tram line (even better when the tram is not on it). Finally, at about 5:00 am, found the miniscule hotel by the Blue Mosque and knocked at the door as if I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible. Slept rather well that night, coma might be a more apt description. Eventually told her how far I had rode that day so that she wouldn’t kill me. Total distance, around 2,400 km in about 30 hours. |
I rode my XT250 back from Portsmouth on Tuesday night the 150 odd miles home, brrrr... :freezing:
Those who use the Portsmouth-Le Havre route will be pleased to hear that they're putting a second ferry on the route which means I won't have to get back to the UK at 10pm and ride through the night, there will be an overnight ferry on the return trip too. This will transform this route. Starts October 2008 so no good for this summer though. |
Stupid mistake !
I did a stupid thing in 2006, comming back from the Northcape.
I was on my wat from Ramsjö in Sweden to Denmark, planning to find a hotel and to use the bridge to Kobenhavn the next day. Then, at a parking I met a Danish couple with children who invited me for a cup of coffee. We had a chat and they told me that it was much better to get the nightboat from Gotenburg to Denmark, sleep on the boat and drive home the next day. The +/- 800 km to Gotenburg was no problem but then I had to wait for hours to get on the boat. On the boat, there was no way I could sleep so the next morning, at a quarter past three in the morning, the ferry arrived in Frederikshavn and I was on the road again in a cold foggy night and without any sleep that night. I did manage to ride the almost 1100 km home without accident but I needed a lot of Redbull and coffee. I'll never do that again ! |
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:) Matt |
I think the most I ever did was...
... about 1000km on my 1990 ZXR 750 H2, from Pamplona (N SPain) to Cherbourg (N France).... on standard suspension...with luggage...
Suffice to say, on arrival, I needed the immediate attention of both a chiropractor and a yoga guru... preferably working tag-team style... On top of that France, that April, managed to send me every form of precipitation known to man, from snow in the Pyrenees, to Thunder storms and hail around Bordeaux, fog, sleet and then just plain boring rain, too... Ahh, the memories.... Suffice also to say, I am now older and wiser... next time its, sod the ferry crossing, where's the nearest Bed and Breakfast. |
Extreme travel
Last august I sold a gold wing on ebay and jokingly said " you buy the gas and a bus ticket home and i'll deliver this bike". The guy says "how soon can you be here?". Turns out he lives in Kansas...which is about 2000 km from me. The 26 hour ride there wasn't so bad but the 38 hour bus ride home was a killer.
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I have 3 registered IBA rides: twice 1000 miles in 24 hours and once 1500 miles in 36 hours.
:-) |
pmsl
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most i done was 1256miles in 23 hrs including calais-dover ferry. everytime i went to visit my parents i thought 2 days but i just continued everytime! 23hrs was the quickest time though. |
It not the same...
All those records are on pavement. Hard to top those km when most of my riding is off-road... but
My friend Craig (XR600R) and I (XR650L) took a trip with our wives for my 40th from Pucallpa, Peru in the Amazon (where we lived) to Oxapampa (a beautiful town/German colony 5,000 ft in the mountain jungle. Gravel road in rough shape during the beginning of the rainy season... It was like traveling in an "emerald tunnel", twisting and turning, climbing and dropping. 14 hours (6 in the pouring rain) with the wife, no bridges (river crossings up to the seat!), one landslide to cross.... but warm water when we got there! The wives decided they they would take an airplane home???? So Craig and I thot we would see how long it would take to get home if we went flat out! 10 hours (660km) to the minute including stops for gas and a cracker while they pump the gas from a 55 gal. barrell.. In the 1st hour I had a panic rounding a mountain corner to find a oncoming bus. Threw the 650 to the ground and slid to the edge of the drop off. I still hadn't completely stopped, so I threw the bike over and ended sitting with my legs just over the edge. Craig did the same and scraped up beside me. The bus stopped and all aboard yelled at me, but did help pull the bike back up the ravine! Just a cut on my elbow.. 9 hours later we made it home. By the end we were crashing (virtually no traffic) every couple of miles (and laughing each time) we were soooo tired! Leg cramps rampant the first night, but no other damage aside from the insanity. The next year we turned it into a 50-bike Moto-Rally and continued each year until the terrorism put a damper on it. Things are calm again, but we take other longer, but more relaxed trips all over Peru. Guess it was that "insanity" that formed the 'plan' to take my 17 yr old son on a 10,000km (Peru-Brazil-Bolivia-Peru) on 250's as his "coming of age" ceremony.... Turning 50 next year, but I just can't get it out of my blood...... (not that I want to!) Toby (charapa) Around the Block 2007 | |
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But as for bigger manly achievements, how does learning to walk after fracturing 3 vertebrae count? I'm tough me, or bloody ignorant... |
To Mountain man! You sir, are THE MAN:) Not because of the distance you rode, nor even for your manly stupidity (a thing we're ALL guilty of) Not even because you managed to persuade a lady friend to accompany you. No, you are the man, for your sentence which I have quoted :)
By the way. I loved your story :) [QUOTE=MountainMan;183997] Finally, at about 5:00 am found the miniscule hotel by the Blue Mosque and knocked at the door as if I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible. |
Great story, Mountain Man, hope she was worth it!!
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Nice stories people. All well 'ard youse!
I rode from Liverpool to Munich and back again, 2-up, tent, clothes and sleeping bags - 1977 Vespa Rally 200. Mind you, it took us 10 days. We rebuilt her in my mate's front garden, in the dark, the night before we left. We got pulled over on the motorway with no lights weaving about in a cross wind. The rozzers didn't like the fact that my pal was on a provisional licence with no L-plates, so made me ride for the first time in 4 years. As dawn broke we realised the steering bearings were falling apart. We pushed her to Luton High Street and dismantled and repaired everything on a Saturday afternoon. Later, a huge nut securing the front damper unit fell off on the ferry ramp, disappearing into the brine. After sleeping on a wooden bench in the port, the fly-wheel flew off in Luxembourg and we both fell off on the autobahn following a blow-out. Oh yeah, after trying to sleep under a collapsed tent in a French lay-by, (the tarmac bit), in the torrential rain, we swapped shelter for the underside of a lorry. Suffice to say, I'm not that tough anymore. Memories I'll treasure 'til the grave, though. |
I dont know about tough,,, how about stupid.
Friday, I took my transalp, with just 569 miles on the clock out for a 3 mile trip to check my tyre pressures and then was going to go on for a small rideout of about only 30 miles. i wanted to do this to get my mileage nearer to the 600 mile mark for my first service next week. At the air pumps in the garage, I manoeuvred the bike to get to the valves and pushed it off its stand. It fell on to the kerb, shattering the fairing and the Radiator. I had a two hour wait for the recovery truck and then dropped it off at my dealers house as it was now getting on for 7 o'clock. I called to the dealer yesterday and was met with a £396.00 cost for repairs.. These will be carried out this week. I will never, ever move my bike from the 'wrong side' while it is on the stand again. If it was not for the bloody kerb I would have just scratched my fairing ! You live and learn in this life, but most mistakes are expensive Lee:funmeterno: |
Thought this thread might throw up some nice stories! I like your story Stretcher Monkey, most of my best/stupidest stories are behind me I guess, but the years of youth definately supply a few, eh?!
Matt :) |
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Also, I am in awe of you guys - I spend a lot of time avoiding long trips, and planning where to stop to make the trip pleasurable...I've done more, but my ideal is 300 miles-ish a day, MAX. Then its tent out, wine bottle out, and hey ho relax! |
I ate four Shredded Wheat this morning....
But seriously I'm in awe of you guys riding that far (is it awe or wonderment at the stupidity?) The furthest I can claim is Darwin to Perth via Adelaide, with stops only for fuel, coffee and bathrooms. But we were three up in a Holden HQ Stationwagon, so could sleep for hours in the back. My applause went to the car though. |
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A year or fourteen later, I'm the bloke holding a G&T at 7.00 pm or I'll want to know why! Andy |
On my fourth date with a woman I was really coming to like, we both found ourselves flying from the US to Italy for my cousins wedding. Her father is best friends with my uncle- the father of the groom. Well since we were in northern Italy, my brother and I decided to rent Ducatis for three days. His wife on the back of his bike and my new girlfriend on the back of mine. Having only been on a motorcycle twice before that, she put in three consecutive seventeen hour days on the back of that Ducati. Rain, snow, 140 MPH recklessness. Not a word of complaint from her.
That's when I knew it was love. We got married on November 11, 2006. |
My longest solo ride was Mulage, Mexico to Berkeley, CA in one go. It was late December and snowing even on route three in Baja. It just got worse as I went north. I think the total was around 1,200 miles. But huge mileage numbers are pretty easy to rack up in the US. The Iron Butt rally is eleven concecutive 1,000 mile days. Oooh, that's gotta hurt.
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Some great stories, I cant match any high milages but I did about 500 miles across spain on my TTR 250 with knobly tyres stopping only for fuel and pee.
When I pitched my tent by the road that night I was too tired to eat so I lit a cigar and drank a can of 7up . I woke up the next day after sleeping with a rock in my back. I think the trips in the cold are the worst whenever I have to catch a ferry the ride to it always seems to involve lots of freezing fog. Now I like the idea of little miles and lots of smiles. |
can't compete!
Mountain man - awesome story, well written. You should write a guide book called "Eastern Europe by Night".
Pete from berkeley - nice story. Hope your brother didn't get divorced over that trip though... Alas, heroic endeavours are not my cup of tea - I go slow and short each day, but big trip coming up in July-Oct around Europe so might have to do a big dash back to the UK if we don't make it round in time with so much to see - will let you kow if I come close! Cheers |
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All this pales in comparison to just how tough riding an enduro can be.
90 miles of pure Torture if you hit a hard one. Don't get old.... |
Nice distances guys,
surely what your riding must carry some weight too ??? - Joe90 - 450 miles on a c90 gets my vote.....oh the pain the best ive managed is Dorset to Garmisch Partenkirchen - 852m / 1371km on a Dr650 in 24 Hrs with rain ALL the way and tempratures just above freezing - that took a few days to get over..... and Collioure, France - Back home to Dorset on a TTR 250 - 926m / 1491km in under 24 hrs had a short 'power nap' in a rest stop on the ground by the bike for an hour and was woken up by a small French child poking me with a stick at 7am.... |
After a three week holiday (1974 ish) touring around Italy on an 860GT Ducati (cant remember the number of times Italians told us to buy a decent bike like a Honda 750!!), we were on an Autobahn somewhere South of Munich, I remember it was a public holiday weekend as the traffic was really heavy. I throttled up a bit to be met by an over revving engine. A bit of arm waving got us onto the hard shoulder.
"Oh look no chain and look no battery and look no chain guard, and look only half a rear mudguard" I wandered down to the emergency phone, "Mein moto ist kaput at telefon nummer 123" "Und?" "Und ****ing help me" "Ach zo" but it could have been arsehole though. The tow truck turns up, gives us a bill the size of the UK national debt and then radios for a tilt truck, we then get taken off to the local town that has a bike shop, the owner came in at about 7pm on a Sunday and got us a new chain. Ein minor problem - no credit card facility, no bank open and no Deutsch Marks, just a UK cheque book and Eurocheque gurantee card. Write cheques and away we go. No real money left, just enough for two or three tanks and few cups of coffee. We rode at about 75kph from Munich to Calais (about 1100kms in those days) non stop, took turns at sleeping on the pillion, coasted onto the ferry and ran out of fuel. At least we got to eat after cobbling together a few pounds from change. We got talking to a couple of sidecar racers who had a good laugh at us, but did give us a jerry can of fuel to get home on. Ah those were the halcyon days!!!! |
[QUOTE=MountainMan;183997]I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible.[/COLOR]
i really impressed from the story above. i know how bad riding is in Bulgaria and in Turkiye. congrad mate.. my long and horrible ride was from Dover (UK) to Venice (Italy). had a broken rear suspention near Strasburg in France. 2 hours wait for repearing it. and 3 hours in Verona, Italy. I have ridden from L'boro to Dover and was Dover around 9pm. I was a guest of a chap in Dover from hospitalityclub.com. went to bed like 12ish am. there was also some other guests (2 from Germany) just after went to bed, i have realised that i have left my carne, passport, etc all my documents in the paniers and the paniers were not locked. I couldn't go down cause i did not want to disturb them and couldn't sleep becase worrying about the documents. just slept an hour and woke up at 4.30pm to rainy and windy British morning. rode to Dover, cought the ferry. I have tried to sleep but childeren did not let me. arrived to rainy and windy France. got lots of red bull and espresso on the way. Stoped twice for meal in France and a big stop for rear shock near Strasburg. rain has stopped in Switzerland around 12am. I had a nap in Switzerland in a service station in disabled wc (cause they are bigger). tried to dry up my gloves, socks, boots using the hand dryer. spend there almost 2 hours. entered Milan around 9am and realised that i have missed the ferry to Greece which was at 10am. then i was slow on the trotter. then i show a bmw sign on the motorway near verona. entered Verona for bike repairshop. found one honda garage with the help of locals. they said, they don't have bmw rear shock and takes a week to order and get it. spent there almost 3 hours. and finally arrived Venice, a camping place near Marco-Polo airport at around 3pm next day. so, about 1400 km in 32 hours with a broken suspention half of the way. not bad 3 months after having the driving licance on a overloaded single huh?? |
I`ll enter the silly category.
Champion effort Mountain Man.
I rode about 1150km in 12hrs from Namibia to South Africa via Botswana (incl 2 African border crossings), but the difficult part was that I couldn`t use my right hand at all from a large crash a week earlier, and so I wound 8 guage fencing wire around the throttle and handguard to keep the throttle stuck open. And even if I could have been scared enough to try to pull the front brakes they didn`t work yet anyway since when we welded the cracked axle mount back to the forkleg during reparation we mis-aligned it and so the brake pads were not aligned. I had only the rear brake and gears to slam down whenever a wild boar, disorientated African, etc would cross the road. The day was New Years Eve so couldn`t miss the party, which went until 8am... A ´difficult to stay on the road`one was 13hrs from middle Austria to a World Enduro Championship race in Alpine Italy on a Ducati, but it was following 15hrs in the bar which first started with 8hrs drinking with a girl friend before she retired, and then a further 7hr “free bar” lock-in with her friend, the bar owner`s daughter. Only 3 hours sleep between leaving the bar and starting the ride is really not recommended, although I did sober up by sunset and the real twisty stuff. Off road i`ve only done 5500km of dirt in 10 days, but that was Oz. I have a Dutch friend, Jan Heemskerk, who use to ride 850km from near Amsterdam to the south of France every Monday for work and back Friday (lunchtime start and finish for those days) for 9mths because he preferred it over flying. He also rode from Vladivostok to Amsterdam in 24 or so days on a Tiger 900. And through a South African MX riding buddy I met a Capetown guy, Freddi Stafford, who road from Capetown to Sudan/Egypt border, where he was refused entry, and so he rode back to Capetown all in a total of 21 or 22 days! Including 2 days stuck in about 150km of southern Sudan swampland. I saw the photos, and there he could only sleep on top of his stuck bike it was so wet! I bet he still does 400km mountain runs on his R1 at warp speed Sunday mornings before his wife and kids wake up. P.S. Toby, I`m going to be in that area of Peru soon, and it will bug me to try now that there is a time to beat! |
apols to M Python
Right !
I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, , eat a lump of cold poison,extract cod oil from the dustbins outside the chip shop for two stroke oil for me BSA Bantam , work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, ride to Scuntorpe Steelworks on't Bantam and beg for iron fillings ter make a new bike ,and I couldn't afford a saddle - no I had ter make do with a roll of rusty barbwire on't frame , I allus used to ride in't rain 'cos sunshine were reserved for rich folk ,then when we got home, I would have to lick bike clean wi'tongue then our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah." But if you try and tell the young motorcyclists of today , they won't believe you ! |
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and Simon's average speed was 96 Km/h (app 60 mph) for 12 h. is Namibian, Botswanas and S.A roads are that good? |
Kudos to you Mollydog
Thanx Mollydog, but I was 40 then. I ride the sweeper of the groupthese days as I tend to be the elder. That`s OK, my challange now is to keep the rest of the group ALIVE. On this last trip my son got dimensia at 14,000 ft, and took a wrong turn and was taking crazy blind corners at full speed. Because he was on the same bike as me and hundreds of feet ahead of me, I couldnt catch him. Yelling by blasted head off behind him and waving with my free arm (NOT a good idea at that altitude¡). Took me 10 km driving like a madman to catch him.
Your Baja trips sound grueling. I`ve been down there as far as Cononia Guerrero, so I can imagine your Baja to SF ride. Was wondering where the name 'Mollydog' came from..... (Is she? still with you ?) |
Dodger - and tha wa lucky!
I can't compete with the motorbikes, so I wont. But I can say I've twice had to re-locate a truck from Kathmandu to London as fast as possible and one time from Cairo to London. With myself and another driver doing a tag team thing with one sleeping in the back whilst the other drives and only stopping for fuel. It took 12 or 13 days, maybe 14, can't really remember as I lost track of the time. Bear in mind this was in an ex-army Bedford with a 80km/hr top speed. |
I am happy to admit that I am not very tough but credit to my partner.....
In Pakistan we hit the infamous road to DG Khan - after sleep deprivation (thats another story) we were riding through some deep sand when he rode into a pit of soft sand. as he tried to accelerate out the bike lept foward, fish tailed before both he and the bike were airbound. To my horror he landed with a cruch on some rocks with the bike on him. After finally coming round after about 5 mins and me suprisingly calm thinking "this is it" he got up, bent the front forks back into shape with the help of a truck driver and 2m crow bar. The outcome: One cracked helmet, 4 broken ribs, concussion, broken ankle and mangled thumb. He finally went to the hospital 5 weeks later after insisting everything was ok as I dosed him up on painkillers to find on the xray that despite 2 breaks to his ankle, his motorcross boots had acted as a splint and it was healing well. Stupid B**tard!!!!! |
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