Arjen Steiner, June 17th, 2024
European End 2 End, an IBA UK certified ride
Motivation, Thoughts, Planning, Execution, Resumé
This year I wanted to do the, in my view, ultimate European long distance ride. It’s a ride from North Cape in Norway to Tarifa in Spain. The shortest distance between these “opposite” locations is, acc to Google Maps, 5.666 km. Within the European Iron Butt or long distance community, there are two such certifiable long distance rides. One is the NG72 from the Finnish Iron Butt Association, from North Cape to Gibraltar in 72hours (or the other way around) or the European End 2 End ride from the British Iron Butt Association from North Cape to Tarifa (or the other way around). Each ride has specific rules which can be found on the respective websites. In my personal opinion, the European End 2 End is the more favorable ride for two reasons. First it really covers the most northern point and the most southern point (accessible by road/motorcycle) in Europe and secondly, there are three levels in which you can receive a certificate after completion. The Finnish IBA only offers one certificate with a 72 hour limit. The three levels of the E2E are.
· Insanity Gold less than 66 hours
· Insanity less than 72 hours
· End to End less than 78 hours
Looking at the ride rules of the different organizations, it’s funny, that the British have a ride that does not allow ferries (as a former naval superpower) and does not stop in Gibraltar. True British humor.
Planning this ride and living in Germany, the shortest total km to make this ride is around 11.300km, as one has to ride to the starting point, do the ride and return home. Consequently, the British version offers more time if something deviates from the planning and more time is needed to complete the ride. In my case the total ride is plus-minus 12.000 km
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European End 2 End Route on Google Maps |
The European long distance (LD) community organizes meetings, so called Rides To Eat (RTE), where long distance enthusiasts meet somewhere in Europe on a given Saturday at 4pm at a certain location and then have dinner together, fun time and everybody goes his ways the next morning. This year one of these RTE’s was in Estonia. Consequently, I combined the two events and decided to start at Nort Cape. This also has a certain advantage, which I will talk about later.
Combining the E2E ride and the RTE, the total time needed is approximately 10 days including two weekends. The planning already started several month before the ride, as vacation had to be submitted, hotels had to be booked and preparation had to be made. I posted the idea on the IBA Benelux Facebook page and found some other riders that were interested. Consequently I started a group on the FB messenger where all interested people could join for easier info exchange.
One of my riding buddies, Filip from Belgium, also wanted to do this ride and we agreed to do it together. Filip and I have done some long distance rides together and our riding style fits well, as well as our need for food, rest, gas, etc.. Otherwise a “ride together” in that dimension would not be possible. However, we also agreed, that if something non critical or life threatening does not go as planned for one of us, the other one rides on. So we did not ride as a team such as Hilmar and Ulrike (more to that later), but still tried to stick together, which was a great to one extend and an issue to the other extend, but more to that later.
The RTE in Estonia was set to June 8th, 2024. Consequently, the total trip started on Friday June 6th when we met at a gas station close to my house and rode to Estonia together. The total distance from my home to the meeting point is 2021 km which can be done in 24h. As we had the E2E in front of us and Filip has another 3 hours ride from his home to my place, we decided to do the trip in 2 days, riding from Germany to Panevėžys in Lithuania on the Friday (doing an Saddel Sore 1600k) and then to the RTE meeting point in Estonia on the Saturday. As I have been riding the route from my home to Tallinn before, I knew the route and also know that is generally possible, as roads are generally in a good condition. Traffic can never be predicted, but as LD rider we must be flexible.
Knowing that the “mission E2E” starts on the Sunday morning, after the RTE, more detailed planning was required. We needed to think about how we get from Estonia to North Cape and then of course how to do the ride. The way back home from Tarifa is easy as there is no time pressure.
It was clear that the ride will be North to South. The decision had to be made on the starting time. If you start in the afternoon at North Cape and you do the ride in June, there is no real night, as the sun does not go down. Hence you have good vision, hopefully one does not get too tired and, the most important part, during the night, there is much less traffic than during the day. There are no multilane highways in the northern part of the ride, so less traffic is an important part to move forward. Starting from the North, riding South, there is one small disadvantage. You have more hours with the sun from the front, hence in your face. Riding South-North, you have the sun most of the time in the back. Anyways, the advantages predominate the disadvantage and of course as I combined the RTE and the ride, it should go North-South. However, starting in the afternoon is very contrary to my sleep wake cycle. I am an early riser getting up at 5am every morning. Waiting 11 hours to start means loosing 11 hours of wake time for the ride. One option is changing the sleep cycle over the duration of one or two weeks to adapt. However work and hotel check-in/check-out times are big obstacles sleeping all day and getting up at 2 pm to start the “day”. I am also bad at sleeping over the day for longer than 20 minutes. In addition to my own considerations, I also spoke with some of the experienced riders in the German community and they also valued the personal sleep/wake cycle more important than the advantages of starting late. Consequently I decided to start in the morning.
Planning the ride and all the stops with the Garmin Basecamp software, simulated the ride with the staring time of 09:00 on a Tuesday morning and saw one big advantage. I could sleep at home, as I would be in the area at 19:30 the next day. The detour to sleep at home is 37km, which is approx. 25 minutes and absolutely worth it. I do not need to check into a hotel, which easily cost 15-20 minutes and can park the bike directly in front of the house without the need to dismantle/securing equipment. Food can be ready at the time I would like to eat and noting is better than sleep in your own bed. It also offers the opportunity to have my rear wheel changed as the whole trip, including the trip to the RTE in Estonia is more than 12.000 km and change gear, depending on the weather. With respect to riding through the night and using the midnight sun, starting at 09:00, the simulation showed only about 1h of “real night” before Stockholm, which is great. Somehow I did not pursue the Idea of the rear wheel change any further, which turned out to be a mistake (more to that later), as usually my tires (Conti Trail Attack 3) is good for 12-14.00 km considering my riding style for rides (not rallies).
Starting in the morning and assuming that you make the ride in just less than 72 hours, you also arrive in Tarifa in the morning and if you want to sleep in a Hotel, you need to find a hotel with a 24h reception and you might need to pay for the room in advance to arrive in the night and sleep over the day.
During my planning I was lucky to have the riding information of fellow IBA rider Willi aka Moped Bummel, who did the ride in 2022 in less than 64h. My planned schedule for the ride included 10 minute stops at every of the 20 planned gas stops with a distance of plus-minus 300km between the stops. for getting gas and personal needs and the 6h rest brake at home, It did not include any further rest breaks that may be needed.
As these are general considerations, and in addition to respecting the general rules for the ride, one also has to do some more detailed planning. The main route to follow must be decided. From North Cape to Hamburg in Germany, there are hardly any alternative routes that one can take. One of the major bottlenecks is the Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg. If there is too much traffic or the tunnel is blocked/closed, which is the worst case, there is only one other way to cross the Elbe river. You have to use the Elbe bridges for which you have to go through a large part of Hamburg city, which costs a lot of time, especially during the week. After that, several routes exist. Also the passage through Spain has to be decided, via the western route (Irun) or the eastern route (La Jonquera). As I have ridden both routes in the past, I decided to take the western route. It is the faster one. The easter route often has very strong winds between Montpellier and Perpignan in France, which can become very dangerous and forces the rider to slow down. As I decided the western passage through Spain I had to pass Paris, which is always time consuming because of traffic. Luckily, lane splitting is “accepted” in France and French road users, especially in Paris, are used to motorcyclists rushing through the lanes. I have passed Paris several times and it is always a scary ride through the traffic, especially when riding with hard panniers. Consequently, I first decided not to use my aluminum panniers, as they are slightly wider than the front part of the bike, but only the top case, tank bag and a larger bag on the pillion seat. As I spent most of the time riding anyways, I do not need so much “civil” clothes anyways. Finally the route through Germany was set and I decided to take the A1 from Hamburg to Cologne, then the A4 to Aachen and then the fastest route towards Paris. The remaining route to Tarifa is pretty straightforward.
After the route was chosen even more detailed planning had to be done.
Gas stations, which are open at the anticipated time one plans to arrive, have to be found as close as possible to the main route. The distance between the gas stations should match the fuel consumption of the bike. Usually there is no problem finding gas stations on the larger highways, but up north and during the night in Spain, detailed planning is required. Even though I ride a R 1250 GS Adventure with a 30 liter tank, I decided to take gas every plus-minus 300 km. It is faster to have planned stops where you can execute a proper refueling procedure than getting scared you might not make the gas station or being surprised that the gas station is closed and you have no fuel left. Stepping off the bike every 3-4 hours is a good thing anyways to stay focused and gives you the time to have regular bio breaks. The British version of this ride required that all distance is covered on the road, whereas the Finnish equivalent allows taking ferries. This meant that we had to cross the two big bridges, the Öresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark and the Stoerebelt bridge inside Denmark. For the first one, an electronic ticket, can be obtained, so you do not need to stop at the gates and can take the fast lane. For the second bridge this is not possible and one needs to take a ticket. With respect to the Tolls that have to be paid to use the highways in France and Spain I got a Telepass through maut1.de to not stop at the gates and line up but go through the fast lane.
Another very important part of the preparation is planning the nutrition and sleep during this ride. 72 hours without sleep is not possible, at least not for me. Every person has another sleeping pattern and individual needs for rest and sleep. I planned the ride to have one 6h break with 5 hours of sleep after plus-minus 30 -33 hours. In between power naps were planned.
The travel planning form the RTE to North cape also had to be looked at in more detail, as the distance is quite large and enough rest must be considered to be well rested before the start of the E2E. For the trip home from Tarifa I did not do any detailed planning at all. According to the time schedule I had two days knowing that 1,5 days would be sufficient. I wanted to be flexible to react to the aftermath of the ride. The only concern during the preparations was if the rear tire will hold it. I ride Conti Trail Attack 3 tires and can do 12-14.000 km on the front tire easily, but depending on the riding style, the rear tire wears out sooner. As the E2E is time sensitive and the total km will be more than 12.000 km, I had to put some thought into it. In addition, the service interval of my BMW is 10.000 km. 10% more is usually accepted, so I had to find a way to deal with it.
After the RTE in Estonia, most riders stayed at the Hotel in Tartu for beers and dinner (no beers for me though). It was a 186,km (2,5h) ride to the Tallinn harbor on Sunday June 9th. There were several ferry options and I opted to the one leaving 7:30 in the morning arriving at 9:30 in Helsinki. As check-in ends 60 minutes prior to departure, this would mean leaving Tartu at 4 am, which is very early, but doable for me as an early riser. The plan was to ride from Helsinki to Rovaniemi on the Sunday (826km, 9h) and then from there to Honnigsvag on Monday (878 km, 9h). We did not book the hotel in Rovaniemi as we wanted to be flexible to adapt for all possible conditions (tiredness, weather, etc.). During the preparations Hilmar and I spoke on the phone and we agreed to meet in Helsinki and ride up north together.
So far for the planning.
Thursday June 6th, Day Zero:
The day was filled with last minute work and preparations for the ride. The bike was ready, except for the handle bar position. Since I got that bike last year in August, I am struggling with the right position of the handle bar and the levers. I was experiencing pain on the thumbs and always carried the tools with me to make small changes on the road to find the right position. I also informed Filip that I might need to stop on the ride to make some adjustments.
During the preparations that day, I found out that I did not have enough tea for the whole ride anymore. I thought that I still had a full box finding out that the box had been harvested already. Some years ago I somewhere read in the IBA Forum that some riders use Sportea Iced, a tea that hydrates well without caffeine and sugar. It also turns cold water into a great beverage when on the road and not having a chance to get hot water. I got some packs on my work trips to the USA and kept them for such events. I like to have some warm teat on the road, especially when the weather is cold and wet. It’s good for the moral.
As Filip and I rode together, Filip booked a hotel close to my house and arrived there Thursday evening at 21:00. I jumped into the car to quickly meet with him. We sat together for some water and food and discussed the next day. Meeting at 05:30 at the gas station for a coffee and the starting receipt, to leave for the SS1000 to Panevezys at 06:00 was finalized. I left the restaurant and went home to get a good night sleep.
Friday June 7th, Day One 1.615 km:
As always before such events I woke up very early in the morning just couldn't sleep. I got up finalized my morning routine got dressed and jumped on the bike.
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Ready to leave home |
I arrived at the gas station at 05:00 finding Philip already there. He already filled up his bike so instead of having coffee I filled up my bike and we started the ride at 05:10 towards eastern Germany Poland and Lithuania. The weather was good and we progress well into Poland, seeing that there are now Toll stations and Toll is collected. This was different to some years back, but OK. We hit a lot of traffic around Warsaw, but what will you expect at a major capital on a Friday afternoon at 16:30. The highway eastwards is very well build and we progressed well.
Robert, a fellow IBR rider was also on his way to the RTE and was also going up to North Cape for the E2E ride. His personal challenge was to do the ride on his 30 plus year old XBR. A true Challenge seeing the capabilities of his bike, the distance to cover and the weather forecast. He already left his place on Thursday and spent the night in Peine (Germany). I had his Spotwalla link and could see his position. According to our plan leaving at 06:00, we would not meet him on the road, but with us leaving at 5:10, there would be a chance and I followed his location throughout the day to see where he was. At the Polish border his position did not change for quite some time and we thought he might have an issue (not yet as turned out later). I sent him a message but did not get a reply, so I thought, as tuned out to be the case, there was something wrong with his coms and Spotwalla did not update his position.
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On our SS1600k to Lithuania |
At each stop Filip asked where Robert was and we discussed a plan to “catch” him. It turned out that we did not, but were very close. In Kaunas we took a different road through the city and passed him. He planned his stop in Kaunas and we needed to proceed to Panevezys where we had booked the Romantic Hotel for the night.
Just before Panevezys I figured that we do not have enough km for the SS1600k ride. The ODO stood at 1.593,5km. The planned route was 1.616km, so a close call but anyway. We stopped and searched for a gas station which is still open at some 10km away and went there to get our final receipt. Problem solved and we headed back to Panevezys to the hotel.
I had been at that Hotel before and knew the location. It provides a safe parking situation for the bike. I am always scared to leave the bike in open space or on the street for the night and always look for hotels with protected parking or a parking garage. We went inside and directly to our rooms. Time for rest.
Saturday June 8th, Day Two 490 km:
I had a very bad sleep that night. The room could not really be shaded and somehow I woke up very early with a throbbing headache even though I was very well hydrated. I still felt very tired and got concerned looking at the next days. Sleep is extremely important. I went outside to find Filip smoking and we chatted a bit while I took out by tools to change the handle bar position AGAIN. Every time I do this I take a picture to remember the position but did not find the right one yet.
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Romantic Hotel Panevezys |
We had a good breakfast and a relaxing morning. Only a 450km ride to the photo location of the RTE at Õuna, 48439 Jõgeva maakond, Estonia (Google gps = 58.7448, 26.3632). The weather forecast was OK, maybe some rain up in Estonia. The morning in Panevecys was sunny and moral became better. We also discussed to ride into Riga and have a coffee in the old town, as we had enough time and Riga is a very beautiful city. We took off from the hotel and I immediately felt, that the new handle bar position was far from acceptable. Just geared up and on the way I needed to stop again and take out the tools. Filip took it well and had a smoke while I worked on the bike AGAIN. However, after that change, somehow I had a great feeling and couldn’t believe that I found a good position. Happy about this we proceed north at a normal pace, as we were not on the clock. Great riding on a sunny morning.
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