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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Estonia |
In Pasvalys, close to the border to Latvia we were taken over by a tall man on a small bike making a suffering noise and the stink of an old bike. Robert. We stopped at a nearby gas station and welcomed each other. He told us that he was also observing our position as he had my Spotwalla link and we had a good laugh about our “chase” the day before. It was great to see him. He had some issues fixing has auxiliary gas tank on the bike and was on his way to Riga to a store to get some screws. This is why he was pushing north to still be a the photo location on time. As he thought he had lost one of the screws; I saw it immediately under the handle of his panniers. He was lucky to have the screw back, but he was not able to fix it as the thread was damaged. Even screw lock that I had in my toolbox did not work.
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Robert caught us on the way to Riga |
We geared up and headed north. I was not in the mood to hurry up and kept a moderate speed to enjoy the day and landscape. Very relaxing, especially after the bad night I had. Filip followed Robert and both headed off. I took it easy into Riga and drove around the old city for a while searching for a place to stop and get a coffee.
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Riga |
Unfortunately, I did not find a nice place where I could park the bike and stay close to it. No parking spaces and a lot of police which prevented me from just putting the bike on the walkway. I stopped and called my wife to tell her that we need to put Riga on our list. It’s a very beautiful city. One of the many places I visited travelling on the bike where I definitively need to go back to with time to visit. Finally
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Gulf of Riga |
I headed north and took the longer, slower but more beautiful road along the coast of the Gulf of Riga. Very beautiful. I stopped an some locations to take pictures. I later found out that me and Martin, a fellow IBA rider from the UK, took a picture of our bikes and the sea in the back at the exact same location at completely different times. What a nice coincidence.
I entered Estonia and made my way to the photo and meeting point of the RTE. 20 minutes before the location, I hit heavy rain and got pretty wet. Stopped at a gas station to fill up and get some hot dogs as a quick snack and waited until the rain stopped. Arriving at the photo location I parked the bike and was welcomed by the other riders who were already there. It was great to see all of them and we had good chats. I really like that community. Great people from all over Europe sharing the same interest.
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RTE Group Photo |
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RTE patch |
After the photo, we took off to the Hotel in Tartu. I checked in and took a shower. I felt better but still very tired from the bad night before. We made sure that the front gate would be open, when we leave the hotel early in the morning. It was at the hotel, when talking to Hilmar that I found out, that he and Rike had booked another ferry to Helsinki. As the ships arrive in Helsinki at the same time, but at different piers, we discussed a meeting point and found one at a rest area outside of Helsinki. Meeting somewhere at the harbor and driving together through the city was excluded simply as too complicated. We exchanged location data through WhatsApp, so that we could see the other’s location. The one who arrives first waits. Finaly it was time for the RTE Dinner where we had very good conversations. The main topic among the 5 riders (Robert, Hilmar, Rike Filip and me) that do the E2E was the weather as a heavy storm front was expected in Helsinki traveling north. So you are either in front of it or in it. We hoped for the first but even if so, if we stop in Rovaniemi for the night, the weather fill get us and the second day will then be wet. Robert had booked a later ferry arriving at Helsinki at 12:30, so he was already expecting heavy rain. We also discussed the E2E ride itself and were lucky that Willi, who did the ride in 2022 in less than 64 hours was there and gave valuable info.
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Ride to Eat Dinner |
Now, in retrospective, as I write this after the total trip, I know what this time (64h) means and he has my utmost respect for that achievement. With respect to the food during the dinner, I decided to eat light, pasta with chicken, but there was so much cheese in the dish that I regretted the decision quickly. Anyway, Filip left the diner early to get some sleep. The next two days would not be an easy walk in the park. 1.000 km on the next day with the Ferry passage in between and then up to Honnigsvag at the expected weather conditions. I also left for my room also soon, as I needed the rest.
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Start in Tartu to Tallinn |
Sunday June 9th, Day Three 1.025 km:
With the a bit unsure situation of the time we need to travel to Tallin Harbor on a Sunday morning, we left the Hotel at 03:45. Just to be on the safe side. Rike and Hilmar already left at 03:00. I saw them leaving when I came down to pack my bike. The Hotel provided lunchboxes for the early departing, as it was too early for breakfast. We headed north and moved quickly. One eye was always looking towards the sky to see what the weather is doing. We were lucky, as we stayed dry. We filled up the bikes just before arriving at the harbor.
Queuing up Filip was approached by a man who tried to sneak a cigarette from him. When he was not successful he tried to squeeze us out of the lane, but a couple in a minivan with South Korean plates let us in and we managed to move forward in the queue. I ate my breakfast waiting to bord the ship as I planned to sleep on the passage. Boarding was quick and easy as there were only very few travelers. I removed the Russel seat and put the straps over the frame of the bike to fix the bike on the ship and to protect the seat. I had a bad experience in Italy once when they nearly damaged my seat. One other rider on an older GS was also on board. He was from Bavaria and also wanted to go to Rovaniemi, but in more days. Everything stored away, we left for the restaurant, got a coffee and found a place to eat some more as we wanted to ride off as soon as we were arriving in Helsinki.
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Board Restaurant |
We found a bench and laid down for some sleep. I was only able to get a quick nap and was impressed how quickly Filip fell asleep. Slight snoring noises were audible when I checked my phone and called home.
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Filip sleeping on the ferry |
Arriving in Helsinki it was raining. We looked at the rain radar and saw that we are just in the first wave of the rain. As discussed yesterday we were hoping to escape from the rain by moving fast north. The speed limit on the highway from Helsinki to Lahti is 120 km/h so I was positive that we have a chance. We geared up and a guy on an older Goldwing with Finnish plates showed up. He was fully packed in rain gear and I did not have any, just my riding suit. Enviously I looked at him and we started talking. We was from Finland and told us that he has to go home which is close to the Russian border. He expects a lot of rain. When we told home where we were going he said that we might be lucky to get dry after Lahti. He was right after all and this statement boosted my moral. Without a rain suit I can stay dry for several hours, but eventually you will get wet. Before the trip I ordered thin latex rubber gloves which I put over my summer Gore-Tex gloves. It felt ok and riding was no issue. I was curious how long that will last, especially if you use the heated grips, as the sweat cannot escape.
Entering Helsinki was OK, but the city is a complete construction zone. Road repairs nearly everywhere. Uneven pavement and flooded parts all over the place. A disaster, but we managed to pass and headed towards the highway. As we could not move fast in the city my glasses fogged up and I hardly saw anything. I was glad when we reached the highway and could speed up to the rest area where we were supposed to meet Hilmar and Rike. Before we left the boat I checked on their position and saw that their ship arrived on time. We were first at the meeting point. I saw that they had left Helsinki but on the wrong highway. Shortly after that I saw that Hilmar realized that we was on the wrong road and they turned towards our position. It was still raining and I felt bad, because I wanted to move and escape the rain but had to wait. They showed up and we quickly started the ride up north together. I rode first, then Filip, then Rike and Hilmar took the end. Filip and I moved quickly and build up quite some distance to the other two. They kept up and we rushed further with a good speed. Shortly after Lahti the rain stopped. Half an hour later the road even got dry. We had to stop a bit more often, as Rikes gas tank was the smallest of the group, but that was no problem. In Jyväskylä we stopped for lunch. Burgers, fries and coke it was. We realized that we needed to eat fast as the bad weather was approaching. When we stepped out of the restaurant, it started raining again, so we geared up and left for the dry. We were extremely lucky that day. Temperatures were between 12 and 18°C and rain only in short showers. Robert, who took the later ferry had to ride all day in extreme rain.
Riding further north was very beautiful. The more north we got, less traffic we experienced and we had a great ride. In Simo we decided to take another route. Instead of following the A4 through Kemi and then towards Rovaniemi, we took a right turn and rode through the forest.
A very beautiful road and landscape. Half way in the woods we saw that the sky got from gray to very dark gray and a thunderstorm broke loose.
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Luch break |
I have never ridden in such a heavy rain before and we got completely soaked. We even needed to slow down as the water level on the road was rising and visibility got lower and lower. That was when I remembered the warning from the Finnish Goldwing rider on the ferry to watch out for reindeer. Luckily the sky broke open and the rain stopped. What an event.
We stopped at a gas station, filled up and had something to drink. We stood together and looked for a hotel to stay. We found a house on booking.com with 4 bedrooms at a good price and booked it. We headed for Rovaniemi and found the house but no one was there. The reception of the hotel was just 500 meters away and I drove there quickly to get the keys. Most of the restaurants were already closed so we found a Burger/Pizza etc. place where we sat down and had dinner and a good time after the eventful day. We were so lucky that we escaped the rain and looked for Robert on Spotwalla as we knew he got soaked all day. We discussed the start time for the next as escaping the weather was still our biggest concern. I also wanted to be in Honnigsvag before 17:00, as I needed to do some shopping and needed time for final ride preparations. 05:00 was decided to be our start time.
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Our house for the night |
Monday June 10th, Day Four 878 km:
As usual I was up early and made myself my morning coffee with my immersion heater and soluble coffee with creamer. I does not taste well but helps me getting started. I have tried a lot of coffee options in the past but none was suitable for me, so I stuck with the heater and the soluble solution. When I looked out of the window it was still dry and I was in a good mood. 30 minutes later when I was fully dressed I saw the wet street and told the others to hurry up so that we can escape the bad weather. We did! Shortly after Rovaniemi the rain stopped and we even had dry roads.
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Filip Riding |
We pursued further north passing wonderful scenery. The ride through Finnish Lapland passing Inari and Karasjok is an absolute stunning ride. Especially the road from Kaamanen to Karasjok is unique. A straight road with several hundreds of km Forrest left and right and a lot of ups and downs (hilly road), which is great for motorcycle riding, at least for me. We drove into Lakslev and had burgers for lunch at a gas station. The next few km would be very nice riding along the coastline of the Porsangerfjord.
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Me riding |
Beautiful scenery and nice riding. As we left the hotel early, we also arrived in Honnigsvag at 14:30 and directly checked out the hotel and went to the supermarket to buy some food. I use to eat soft rolls with ham and cheese during the ride as this combo can be easily eaten with gloves while riding. I grabbed the rolls and water to fill up my one gallon jug. We then went to the café, which is attached to the gas station and had some coffee and water and chatted a bit about the next day and the weather. Initially we planned to start at North Cape at 09:00 in the morning and all my planning was based on that. However, we experienced all that we were up very early in the morning for the last days and discussed the starting time. I texted with Robert and he drove to North Cape that day already hoping to find good weather to take a nice picture. We decided to have dinner at the Havly restaurant at 18:00 and informed Robert.
I went to my room and took a shower and washed some of my gear. I had spent 3 days waring more or less the same stuff and that needed a thorough wash.
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Hotel in Honnigsvag |
I was bit concerned that the clothes would not dry until the next day and the room had no hair dryer to support the drying process, but it had enough towels to roll in the clothes in the towel and then wring them out. All good. For dinner I just put on jacked and helmet and drove the short ride with jeans and sneakers. Robert joint us for dinner and we had a good conversation and fun. Of course we talked the starting time. Robert wanted to take his breakfast at 7:00 and could start at 8:00. We (the other four) had just a room with no breakfast. We tried to find a mutual start date as I thought it would be nice to take a group photo at the Globe before we start. Finally we decided that the four of us leave the Hotel at 06:00, take the photo and leaving at 07:00. We finished dinner as we all wanted to go find some rest. The next three days would be very intense. 8h before departure from the hotel we were all back in in our rooms resting.
Tuesday June 11th, Day Five:
I was up at 4:15 fresh after a good sleep and ready for the day. I got dressed and went downstairs to prepare my food. I set the cattle for hot water to make my tea and opened the rolls. This is when I found out that I grabbed the bread a bit too fast. I thought that the dark spots were dried raisins (krenten in Dutch) but found out it was chocolate.
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Chocolate buns with ham and cheese, yummy |
Chocolate buns with ham and cheese is not my favorite snack, but there was nothing I could do so I prepared the food and packed my tank bag. I went back to my room, packed all my gear and went downstairs to pack the bike. The others were all up and we finished the preparations and left the hotel at 5:44. The ride to North Cape is approx. 30 minutes. The weather in Honnigsvag was clear and sunny with 8°C, but shortly after riding north it became very foggy and temperature dropped to 5°C. The closer we got to the North Cape, the lower got the visibility and the wetter and colder it became. It became dangerous because you can't see the reindeer walking around in the fog.
At the North Cape, the fog was thick. Visibility was maybe just 10 m, but we were able to get past the closed barrier and ride our motorcycles to the main entrance of the visitor center. I then explored the way to the Globus and we rode there on the motorcycles to take pictures. I didn't take a photo with me and the motorcycle and the globe, but only the pictures with the motorcycle and the globe and us, but I think they turned out nicely.
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North Cape |
We then drove back to the main entrance with the motorcycles and parked them there. This was it, we were at North Cape, ready to start the ride. The weather was cold and foggy and a strong wind blew. This is why we did not spend much time there and decided to start. I said good bye to Hilmar and Rike and wished them all the best for the ride. I had Hilmar’s location and he had mine, just in case. I checked in with Filip if he was ready to go. Filip then took my starting photo picture and I took his. Tuesday June 11th 06:36. This means we need to be in Tarifa on Friday June 14th before 00:36, if we wanted to meet the 66h deadline.
We then set off as agreed. Philippe and I as well as Hilmar and Rieke.
In Honnigsvag we filled up our bikes and then came the first surprise: Philippe had lit up a cigarette. I was prepared to let the bike roll as long as possible and to eat and drink on the bike.
I knew that you have to ride consistently from the start and minimize breaks in order to have breath at the end, because you don't know where the journey will take you. The whole route is 5470 km long and a lot can happen. Well, we continued straight away and quickly got into a good rhythm and were able to drive quickly through Norway. The landscape is remarkable and just after the turn in Olderfjord we took the route towards Alta, which we hadn't taken the day before.
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Start of the ride |
So it was new territory. We made good progress and the fuel consumption was okay, so that we were able to drive through to Enotekiö in Finnland without having to refuel. When I was about to pay the fuel, an older lady approached me with a phone in her hand showing a message in German language from a translation app saying that there are cops out there who do speed control. I thanked her and went outside to inform Filip. I also texted Hilmar and Robert. We moved on. The temperatures were between 5 and 10° and there were occasional rain showers, but in principle the driving conditions were very good and the roads were mostly dry. There were two occasions where I had to hit the brakes heavily as Reindeer showed up on the street. Their behavior is absolutely unpredictable and one has to be very careful. Filip reacted a bit late and passed me at high speed, luckily not running into a reindeer. Distance between us is paramount. We had a good pace and in Töre we had our second fuel stop and everything went acc. to plan. The road condition changed and the two lane road changed into a 4 lane road and the speed limit changed to 110 km/h in Sweden. I set the cruise control and rolled south.
The next fuel stop was Umea. We stopped and when I walked around my bike I took a look at the rear tire and was shocked. The profile in the middle was nearly gone. I immediately realized that this could be the end of this ride. I would never be able to ride to Tarifa with this tire. I had some issues with my manual pressure gauge and the reading of the RDC (pressure sensor of the bike). I increase the pressure by 0.2 bar before the ride and apparently that was a bad decision. I apparently rode on a smaller contact surface and the roads up north are rough like grinding paper. Filip advised to reduce pressure by 0.2 bar to increase the contact surface, which I did and which worked, but still the tire was dying and I needed a solution. It was Tuesday afternoon at 18:20. All shops were closed. I immediately realized that there was only ONE solution. I had a spere rear wheel at home. Unfortunately with the wrong tire mounted. I ride a set of Conti Trail Attack 3 and the wheel carries a Pirelli Scorpion Trail tire. I bought it for the 12 days rally last year and did not need it. As the Conti tire was not available last year, I mounted the Pirelli and this is why the Pirelli was on the spare wheel. In Germany it is illegal to use tires from two different brands on the same bike. Consequently, I sent an email to my dealer and asked him, if they could mount a tire next day (Wednesday).
I know that they only get tires once a week (Tuesdays) from the warehouse which is some km away from the store, but this was my only chance. As I visit them a lot during the year and I already bought 4 bikes from them they know me and also know the kind of riding I do and I was hoping that they would help me out.
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Tire problems |
My wife was working the next day, so I called my neighbor Johannes, who is a professional musician and sometimes has free time during the day, if he could get the tire to the dealer the next day. My wife would pick it up after work. He said ok. I then called my son to get the tire out of the cellar and bring it to Johannes. Just when I was about to put on my gloves to continue riding I saw that I had a missed call from my dealer. 19:35. Whoa. I called him back and he told me that if he gets the wheel in the morning he will get the tire and mount it on the wheel. That was great news and I was relieved. Many thanks to StuteHengst, the BMW dealer in Cologne. Maybe I would have used the Pirelli anyway as in other countries it is not forbidden to use different tires on the front and back wheel and I don’t ride in Germany so much on that ride (after the wheel change), but this was a perfect solution. Luckily I had done wheel change myself before and have all the tools at home and knew the torque of 60Nm by heart. It’s a 5 minute work. Problem solved. Later I got a message from my wife that she was free that day, which I did not know and that she will take care of the wheel. Perfect.
Finaly we put on the gear and continued riding south and into the night. Luckily it only gets dark late around 23:00. As we started earlier we had more night time as planned, but we did not lose wake time in the morning. Naturally tiredness came slowly. Riding all day and the near mental breakdown because of the worn tire left marks. I was however relieved to have a solution and still fully motivated. I lost more than 30 minutes on the time schedule because of that, but was sure to catch up once we were in Germany.
Wednesday June 12th, Day Six:
The night was pretty eventless. We had a good rhythm and moved forward pretty well. Approaching Stockholm I felt the need for a break. The plan was to ride through the night and only have one stop at home. However, around 01:30 in the morning we were looking for a place to nap. We stopped at two possible locations but hey were not suitable. Filip then searched for a truck stop and we ended up somewhere outside of Stockholm. When we decided to get back on the highway as we did not find what we were looking for, we saw a large Q8 gas station in Västberga with a big store. We immediately went there and parked the bikes directly in front of the store and went inside, It was large store and they had seating options in the back with long benches. We immediately went there, took out the jackets and laid down. When I laid down I saw that the table was not very clean. I did not care, but when I woke up all around us was clean. The personal was great. They did their work and let us rest. Fine people. After some 90 minutes I woke up, used the bathroom, freshened up and poured us coffee. I woke up Filip who slept like a bear and we filled the gas tanks and prepared to get back on the bikes. The total time we spent was 2 hours. With the 30 minutes we lost in Umea and the riding we were now 1.5h behind the schedule. Not optimal, but doable, as we had still enough time to catch up. Honestly, Scandinavia is not the place to catch up time on highways.
We continued through Sweden and arrived at the Malmö Bridge at 09:30 in the morning. I had paid the bridge toll up front and used the fast lane to get on the bridge. It’s a stunning ride with great views and I am fascinated each time I ride on that bridge. We entered Denmark and stopped for gas and some breakfast. The stop was too long for my taste but the coffee and the snacks tasted good. I wanted to get home to the wheel change and the sleep. Continuing through Denmark I got tired and needed a break. Filip passed me some time before and was ahead of me, but I needed to stop. I exited the highway and luckily found a bench at a car park and laid down for 20 minutes. The nap did its job and I continued riding. I entered Germany and met Filip at the gas station in Handewitt. We fueled up and continued riding. After some km Philip passed me signaling that now he needed a rest. I acknowledged and continued riding. I was able to use the German Autobahn to its full extend and made up some time.
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Traffic jam Hamburg Elbe tunnel |
Approaching Hamburg I saw some traffic before the Elbe tunnel on google maps, but not as much as to redirect the route to take the bridges. Lane splitting is illegal in Germany but one has other options. I approached the tunnel and then got completely stuck in jam. 30 minutes absolutely no movement. Never had that before. OK bad luck, just deal with it. I later learned that Filip even stood still for 45 minutes. After Hamburg I took the A1 pushing forward as much as I could. Many construction zones and some traffic jams made it difficult to make up the lost time. Due to our sleep stop in Stockholm and my time planning, I knew that the 66 hours would be very tight. In principle, I had already written it off and concentrated on the 72 hours. But I wanted to be as good as possible, so I wanted to get as close to 66 as possible. The planning of the times between the refueling stops was correct, but there was no time for breaks, which were urgently needed. One could have extended the refueling interval in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. 300 km was already very secure and 350 to sometimes 400 would also have worked, but it was for our conscience and that also worked.
I now entered my home territory approaching the Rhine Ruhr area. After exiting the highway I fueled up to start riding after the sleep break and arrived home at 20:00. I texted Filip and we agreed to start again with a full tank at 02:00 on Thursday morning. I had booked a hotel for him close to my house. He still had some time to ride. Arriving home I parked the bike and immediately started changing the rear wheel. I checked the pressure and was done after 5 minutes. Perfect. I felt good. My wife prepared dinner and I got my pasta dish and went to bed immediately. During the day I received a work related call and I needed to call he guy back as it was very important. I did so which I did not like, but luckily it was not bad news which prevented me from sleeping. By the way, I was pretty tired.
Thursday June 13th, Day Seven:
I woke up at 01:00 got a shower, my favorite coffee and prepared my food and tea for the next leg. I felt very good, relaxed and in a good mood. It was good that I accepted not making the 66h deadline, as it took the pressure out of the game. With 6 extra hours to the next deadline I could easily ride on.
I arrived at the hotel at 01:55 and Filip was not to see. I went inside to have the receptionist call him. 5 Minutes was the answer. I was disappointed as I was hoping to move. He showed up and told me that he needed to get gas on the way. Again a holdup. OK just go on and hit the road.
We went on the A4 towards Aachen and as there was hardly any traffic at this time of the day, we moved at a great pace but the temperatures of 5-10° were really tough. Entering Belgium Filip took the lead as this is his home territory. As Filip did not fill up his gas tank before the sleep break, we needed to stop in Belgium for gas. I had to put on a jacket because it was too cold. I also filled up my tank and we hit the road again. We pushed through Belgium and entered France. Filip was still in lead and I needed to get some food. I did not eat after waking up as I had my food with me. I set the cruise control to 120 km/h and opened the tank bag to start eating. Filip vanished as he continued at a faster speed. All was good. At 6:30 I approached Paris. Of course a lot of traffic, but filtering was easy and I could move forward quickly. I missed a turn and was kind of lost but google maps recalculated the route quickly and put me back on track. Less a problem than expected even with hard panniers.
I had never given up on my schedule and the hope of making it in 66 hours. So I was constantly on the computer and thinking about how I could make it. But even though I had slept well (not much, but still), I got tired and had to take a break. So I stopped and lay down on a bench to take a little nap. The break was successful and afterwards I felt fresh, but I had lost another 35 minutes. Nevertheless, I didn't give up hope and kept strictly to my riding style and behavior, because even if I didn't make the 66, I wanted to get as close as possible to the 66 hours. Fortunately, the weather improved after Tour and I stopped, took off half of my clothes and enjoyed the sun, the warm temperatures and the speedy ride on the French highway. I had planned to get gas at the boarder to Spain, so I stopped.
I had always looked from point to point (gas stop to gas stop) on both navigation systems in order to give the system the computing power to react quickly if there were any changes in the traffic situation. Now, entering Spain, I entered the route from my location to Tarifa in Google and saw that it might still be possible to reach 66 hours, as google estimated times are very generous and I know from experience that the real journey time can be faster. So I set out on my mission to ride the remaining 1200 km through Spain in the next few hours. I felt good and didn't have the feeling that I needed another break and concentrated on what was ahead of me. The gas stations were easy to reach and the traffic was moderate, so I was able to get through Spain easily. At some point, however, I had to refuel and then I realized that I hadn't included the times for the three fuel stops in Spain and the last fuel stop in Tarifa in my calculation. I also forgot the time one has to get from the Tarifa gas station to the photo point. I opened the IBA UK website and opened the ride rules and saw that they count six minutes for that. Another six minutes that I had to catch up. So I had to make up more time here too. The positive attitude of being as close as possible to 66 hours was exactly right. Once I had made up the basic time difference I saw that the goal is reachable. I finally had 23 minutes of spare time when entering Tarifa.
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Arrival at Tarifa photo point |
Friday June 14th, Day Eight 870 km:
It was after midnight. Just some more minutes to the ga station in Tarifa. I stopped at the gas station and refueled. Set off again to the photo point. As I have been to Tarifa before, I knew the way and arrived there quickly. Finally, I arrived at the endpoint of the ride. It was very windy and I did not have a selfie stick as rider and bike have to be on the picture. I somehow managed to make a decent photo and added date and time to it. DONE. I made it with 12 minutes to go.
It was a strange feeling. The last 10 hours were filled with constant observing the speed, the time on google maps and calculations in my head what I can do to make up the time. The gas stations were there and open but a bit off the route, which cost me time again. I had phases when I was absolutely desperate and did not know if I make it. On the way there was a large construction site and a traffic jam. I hoped that google had incorporated the slower speed in its estimate, but did not. I managed to bypass the traffic and was back on a clear road quickly. I guess that the constant use of the brain to calculate and reevaluate the situation kept me from getting tired and kept the system up and ready.
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Photo point next day at daylight |
When I arrived at the final point and took the selfie, there was a kind of emptiness in me. I was standing at the photo point and looked over the sea. From the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea in one big ride, from 5°C in the north to 24°C at windy Tarifa. It would have been good to share this experience with Filip, a true companion and reliable friend. I pulled out my phone to call my wife. I then checked on Filips position and saw that he still has some hours to go. Hilmar and Ulrike were also hundreds of km away. After that I saw that Willi was the first to congratulate me, he had followed my last hours. That was a great feeling. One minute later I got a text from Tommy, another IBA veteran who also congratulated me. It was a great feeling knowing that your friends cheer along. After that I received a lot of messages. Thanks to everybody who followed my ride.
After a good 10 minutes, I felt the tiredness and set the coordinates for the hotel. 10 km to go. I checked in and parked the bike in a closed garage. So no need to get all stuff of the bike, just one bag and off I went to my room. The only beer they had a the reception was Heineken, so I put myself to it and ordered two of them to celebrate the arrival. I only managed to drink one as I fell asleep immediately. What a trip.
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Hotel breakfast room (and wine bar) |
The next morning I took the time for a long and extended breakfast. The hotel had a great buffet. This was when I heard Filip entering the restaurant. He came in 3 hours behind me. Apparently he had some technical issues with his bike in Paris and also lost quite some time. I was glad to see him. We checked the position of the others and saw that Hilmar and Ulrike still had quite some distance to travel. We were worried that thy may not make the 78h time limit. We both knew already that Robert had to stop the ride due to technical issues with his bike. Too bad for him after the ordeal he had to go through getting that far.
After breakfast we drove to Tarifa again to take some more pictures in daylight. Filip took off seeing a friend and I went back to the hotel. I arrived and stood there outside thinking what to do. Filip had left and the others are hours away. I went to the reception and was able to cancel the second night. I checked out and hit the road home. I thought to ride in a decent way towards home and see how far I get. Temperatures rose up to 38°C and I made another 870km until close to Barcelona when I stopped and searched for a hotel to sleep for some hours.
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Special Parking spot |
This is when I called Hilmar on the phone to hear how things went. He put the phone on speaker and Ulrike told her story, that she fell and broke her collar bone. It happened at that long construction zone that we all needed to pass. I felt very sorry for her. She came so far. Very impressively, she left the bike there and jumped on Hilmar’s GS and they finished the ride, unfortunately outside the 78h limit but anyways. They finished which is true sportsmanship. My utmost respect. After the call I hit the road again to get to the hotel. I wanted to make it home Saturday night to have the full Sunday for recovering.
Saturday June 15th, Day Nine 1.585 km:
I hit the road again at 01:10 on Saturday morning. An uneventful ride home via Lyon and Metz and arrived at 17:30 home. What a trip.
Resumé
In retrospective with the trip just 3 days behind I still feel the thrill. A lot of impressions. I am glad that I took the time to write it down. This helped me process the last week. Travelling through Europe, crossing 17 borders without one passport control is a privilege that we have. Seeing the barren landscape in the north, travelling through endless forests into the industrial and highly developed Central Europe down south into warm and sunny regions to the Mediterranean sea showed to me what Europe is all about. It’s wonderful.
The challenge of the ride is a complete different story. It is tough and demanding, no doubt about that. Of course one needs to have a certain set of equipment and experience, but at the end of the day it’s the mindset that gets us to our destination.
After my DNF at the 12 days rally last year, this trip was also a test if I manage to do many miles for many days and to see if I would be able to manage a multi-day rally. I think I can.
As for riding with a companion, my opinion is a bit twofold. On the one hand its great not to be alone and to have someone watching your back and sharing your experiences. On the other hand, this kind of activity is highly personal and if things do not match 100% conflicts can arise. I think I would do it again but only in this framework as I had it with Filip. We tried to ride together but left the other with all the freedom to take a break or to move faster or slower. Thank you Filip for that ride and the time we shared.
From the equipment side the only thing I will get is a proper rain suit, something that really works.
That’s all.
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