Km ridden: 800
Today's Destination: Hanover
Breakdowns: 1 Oh FFS!!!!!
So, riding along on day 1, I had an amazing rant about the Dutch all planned. Seriously it was going to be epic. I had even managed to get a quote from Austin Powers in there. Fate however, is possibly Dutch, and had other plans.
So, lets start at the beginning (6am) this morning. Bags packed, luggage strapped down onto the bikes. All is going swimmingly apart from the pissing rain. Still, if thats all the world can throw at us today, then thats pure childs play. We've got rain suits so no worries there.
So off we go. We left Switzerland in a mix of mild drizzle and sunshine. Then comes Germany. Sadly, as you can see from the pics above, the bikes were fairly heavily loaded, so we could only cruise at about 90mph (150ish kmh). Not much of a problem, until I looked at my fuel gauge. It was at this point that I noticed, that the Aprilia is CRAP when it comes touring. I was averaging the same mileage on the motorway that I used to do with my V8 Jaguar...... Not good seeing as I'm only about 10% of the weight of the car.
Still, have credit card, can travel, so onwards we pressed. Slowly, the Dutch aside, things were going very well. The sun started to shine and the roads were now dry, and apart from frequent fuel stops it was quite a nice ride.
Then, we decided to have a little stop to just check the straps on the luggage as it had shifted slightly. Straps tightened, a light lunch taken, and the drive chains lubed it's time to move on. Across the other side of the car park, a chap from Denmark had his bonnet open and was asking everybody in the carpark if they had jumper cables. "Poor bloke" thinks I. Still, at least that won't happen to me. WRONG!!!!!! Key on, clutch in, press the starter and then sod all. The battery is dead.
Now, those of you who remember, I brought the bike for one reason and one reason alone. So exactly what just happened, wouldn't. To say that I was a little bit annoyed would be like saying Hitler was a "little bit naughty". So after having tried "Le AA" on my last long distance trip with Vanessa, it's time to try "Das AA". 2 hours and one jump start later out comes the voltmeter and it confirms my worst fear. The Alternator has pretty much had it - 500km from home and on day 1 of a long distance journey through Scandinavia. Great......
Still, we've just about managed to get around it. If I keep the speed below 130kmh, there is just enough charge to run the bike and load the battery. Well, I say enough, but the engineers among you will love to know that at 5000rpm, I'm making just 12.12 volts. Anyway, seeing as we're pretty much all the way through Germany now, and the chances of us going over that speed for the rest of the journey are slim, we're going to take the risk and push on.
Tomorrow, we're off to Copenhagen. With any luck without incident.
I will leave you with one thought. I've been to the UK and back on Motorbikes 3 times without incident. Twice I've attempted long distance rides with Vanessa, and were now going 2 for 2 on breakdowns. Co-incidence? :)
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