2005 Belgium
 

Wet, Cold, and Happy

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On Wednesday, I started my journey home to Speyer a bit later than usual. The weather was cool but dry, which made for pleasant riding conditions. As I set off, I told Karin that I needed to floss my teeth to get rid of all the bugs that had gotten stuck from smiling so much.
 

On Thursday, I set off from Speyer towards Trier, opting for the quieter secondary roads. As I was getting ready, I made a comical mistake: in my haste, I grabbed the wrong helmet from my bag. Instead of my full-face motorcycle helmet, I ended up with the ski helmet Dash1 had given me before he left. Same bag, same weight, but definitely not the same level of protection or rain resistance. A classic case of packing in a rush! Oh, and the "WILSON!!!" prank? Well played, Dash1, well played. I left the ski helmet at the Luxhof hotel and continued my journey. The rain intensified, but it was still manageable. There were stretches of road shrouded in thick fog, reducing visibility to a mere 50 meters. The heaviest rain came just as I stopped for fuel, coffee, and a TomTom recharge. Thankfully, my heavy-duty rain gear held up admirably, keeping me dry throughout. Upon arriving in Trier, I was relieved to find dry conditions. I headed straight to Das Bad, a large sauna complex, to relax and unwind. Friday morning, the sky was overcast but the rain held off, save for a few scattered drops. The ride through Luxembourg and southern Belgium was a delight, with rolling hills, lush greenery, and winding roads. The N4 highway, which alternated between two and four lanes, took me straight into Brussels. I relied on my TomTom for directions, which led me to a part of Brussels where I felt quite out of place.

Fortunately I met some friendly locals who helped me find my way to American Choppers – Jack. There, I reunited with Leon and Q. After a few beers and the arrival of Duke, Gucci, and Doc, After having briefed the basic group riding rules, we decided to ride to our accommodation, a church. Apparently I had spoken in Vulcan or Aztec because on the ride from American Choppers to the church we looked like a well rehearsed, over horse-powered, noisy group of circus performers – you can guess which ones. Later we had another briefing and for the rest of the trip I was very happy with our formation, discipline, and how tight we kept the group. In fact our accommodation was a very cool bar located in a church basement – the youth gathering spot. But the bar was reserved for us! Despite the unusual setting, it became a lively place.
 

We settled in for the night on the hard, cold floor of the bar. I had neglected to bring a sleeping pad, a mistake I would soon regret. The discomfort was compounded by the fact that I had indulged in a few too many 9.5% beers. So at about 0200 there seemed to be a mule kicking me in the head. Luckily, the bar floor we were all sleeping on...well almost all – more on that next...was so hard and cool that the headache seemed dull in comparison to the pain in my hips. Again, I did not heed Leon’s guidance and did not bring a sleeping pad. A poncho liner, as perfect a piece of kit as that is, is not so cushy for my (apparently) old (spoiled by German Spa nights and super Gasthaus beds,) bones. But back to the sleeping pads – Leon had stashed one there for him earlier; several of the Members did heed Leon’s advice and brought pads. Doc was not one of those but he found a perfectly good one in the bar, surely counted his good Dutch luck and superior genetics to be able to find such a treasure, and proceeded to drift off to sleep floating on a thin but comfortable bed of air mattress. Leon was the last to lay down and after he turned off the lights he went to where he had stashed his matt and lo an behold, it wasn’t there. He looked for it briefly before convincing himself that he just thought that he stashed it there earlier. And being the consummate host and polite, refined man that he is, he did not turn the lights back on but just joined my misery on the floor with just a cover/fart sack.
 

On Saturday morning, Leon found his sleeping pad – under Doc. He was pretty happy. “He” refers to both individuals. There was a lot of talk for the rest of the trip about the Dutch, Doc in particular, and status of unsecured gear. After a great breakfast of hangover dampening croissants and good coffee, we rode to Ghent; weather was dry, windy, and quite cool; Doc had an annoying front tire slow leak that we finally got fixed by tightening his valve stem – you gotta have a special tool to do that but we finally found a gas station that had one. Bit of a cluster-fuck getting into the Ghent Bahnhof where we stashed our gear before riding into a good parking spot in Ghent and taking a nice walking tour. Again, Leon did a great job of briefing us on the plan but we didn’t grasp the concept very well and there was a traffic circle and bicyclers that didn’t quite understand why we needed to use their sidewalk lane (For the record - I didn’t either) and some acrobatic turning skills practice to get to where we unloaded the luggage from the bikes. But Ghent was quite nice and we saw the Draak (dragon) on top of the church. We thought of, and talked about Draak and Angela, and wished they could be with us. Had great Frittes in Ghent! Then we rode to the Van Steenberge Brauerei, the brewers of Gulden Draak beer. There we had the most extensive brewery tour ever from Andreas who used to be maybe their lead salesman until he retired a couple years ago. Free beer sample on the way in and on the way out and it was really a struggle to tear ourselves away from there and continue on to Brugge. Andreas called ahead to a cool bar in Brugge and told them we were coming and that we were not paying for any beer. Nice! The extra bonus to that phone call is he was able to tell the barkeep that I had left my camera at the brauerei – I’m sure I was overcome with beer excitement! And
before I forget, Gulden Draak is fantastic!!!! And – we did a big video toast to Draak and his Dad – “Fuck cancer!” We arrived at our sleeping accommodations in Brugge, the Ibis “Budget” where we had two rooms for the six guys and all our gear. “Budget” translates to room size of about 12 square meters of which 10 of that is taken up by a double bed. I quickly claimed the bunk bed and left Leon and Gucci to snuggle. But, I was overjoyed to be on a mattress and we figured out how to stash our gear so we could navigate to the shower and toilet without breaking any hips or destroying any equipment. They were having a Triathlon in Brugge that night so after we got some good chow, we had to navigate our way to our designated bar through the race course in the rain. But we made it and sure enough, free beer was there for us. God Bless Andreas!!

On Sunday we rode from Brugge to Oostende. First we rode directly to our hotel for the night – by far the coolest place we stayed, Bikers Loft Groenedijk. It was fantastic! Then we went into Oostende proper and had our formal Club meeting. Short, to the point, and some good action items came out of it. Q will publish the minutes soon. Only thing was that we went into a Café with a sign that said “Belgium Waffles” and when I ordered them they said, “Oh, we don’t make them until 2 PM.” Huh? So we all ate cake instead, (Holding up the tough biker image that we molded in Sweden with all that cake and coffee!) Left Oostende and immediately began riding along the “Atlantic Wall” with the bunkers and anti-aircraft guns and machine guns still in place, concertina wire on the jetties left over from 1944 – very cool. Went to Flanders and toured the WW I trenches. Wow! Sends shivers up our spine; especially as military guys. Wow! Rode to Ieper and saw the thousands and thousands of names inscribed on the town gate of the guys that died at Flanders – again – shivers. Finally got a great waffle because Leon had us on a strict no food, water, or other drink regimen after our Café stop. Also had more great Frittes because we were all pretty much starving and had to ride back to Oostende where we were going to feast on muscles. Got to our very cool restaurant in Oostende, right on the Boardwalk, and found out they didn’t have muscles. No big deal, they fixed us a fantastic Bouillabaisse and we all waddled out after the owner insisted we have a second half ”cauldron.” I say cauldron because no pot is that big! Then back to our WAY cool hotel; 2 three man rooms but with separate single beds this time. I may have sensed a little disappointment from Leon and Gucci but not from Doc and Duke. Beers, cigars, and a visit from Freddy, the Rokker representative and former Jeckyl and Hyde representative. Interesting because Duke is getting some Jeckyl and Hyde pipes and we got to hear the whole story of corporate intrigue and dirty dealings. The Rokker clothes were very nice and have good function but the least expensive pair of jeans are Euro 350! It is for sure a once in a lifetime investment and the Dynatec liner is pretty impressive. I did not line up to buy any nor did any of the other guys.
 

On Monday it started raining at 03.00 This hotel is sooo cool that you have full access to the kitchen and can cook up
anything from bacon to eggs any way. Duke showed off his former chef training by making perfect eggs. The rest of us just enjoyed overcooking everything on the huge griddle. We pulled out at 0940; Duke, Q, and me in one group heading for Brussels and Luxembourg and Speyer; Leon, Gucci, and Doc heading for the Brauerei to pick up my camera and then one to Netherlands and one to points east and north. Leon just had a short ride back home and by the end of the day I’m sure we all envied him. I lost Duke and Q in a 5K construction area near Brussels and despite keeping my speed down at the exit, never saw them again (until 4 Jul when Q took me up for a fantastic Glider airplane ride for 1.5 hours!).
Rode in ridiculous rain for about 7 hours; autobahn, glasses wet on the inside, low visibility, trucks spraying hurricane force water, rainwater trickled down to my crotch – maybe the sportiest ride for me ever. Just north of Kaiserslautern I saw a patch of dry road. About 1K later, the whole road was dry and I twisted that throttle and made it to the Luxhof in Speyer at just about 1800, 1749 to be exact. I very much enjoyed my pizza and beer and jotted down these notes while the experiences were still fresh in my mind.
 

Woke up on tuesday, breakfast, cloudy but dry to Stuttgart and straight back to work; completely not motivated to be there but that is my lot for now.

Gear observations:
• Besides what I already observed about the HD rainsuit; overall I am very satisfied with that.
• “Held” brand waterproof gloves were great in moderate rain but wet inside and out after several hours of the heavy stuff; may have been leakage from
the wrist down; not sure how to fix that.
• “Saddleman” sissy bar bag packs well, rides well, and secures to the bike well. But – the rain cover is a cheapo piece of crap; tore easily when putting over
the bag. The bag itself is very much not waterproof; all outer pocket items were soaked. And it doesn’t have many spots to hook a bungee cord to it; a
couple loops just for that would be nice.
• Round Saddleman bag : Great for rain gear and secures well to sissybar, resting on the back seat.

• Day and a half rucksack (issued to me in 1990) was my third bag and as always, fantastic; definitely needed a third bag.
• Waterproof bags : My Granite Gear bags have worn out after about 10 years; the inner liner flakes off. Only my Seal Line waterproof bag is still good after
about the same timeframe. My Bike Still doesn’t feel the same as pre-wreck In some ways it is better;
• Front brakes are not where they need to be stopping power-wise;
• Ride is very rough, very positive, feels like I’m riding on solid tires;
• Heated grips are nice but with wet “waterproof” gloves there was no noticeable difference;
• Still really like the look, the responsive throttle, the torque, and the sitting/riding position; can’t imagine anything fitting me better.

Trip observations : Leon and I had a conversation about hotel rooms; only two men per room in the future – max!

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Final observations/musings:

• Leon – fantastic job putting together a memorable trip! Thank you!!

• HD rain gear works well in moderate rain; not sure if anything less than a full- up dry suit would have kept me dry on Monday.

• TomTom is great but a power hog. Discovered that I had the capability to power it off my bike with me the entire trip. But if I had known that I wouldn’t
have been able to stress about conserving battery power.
• Europe is still so fascinating to me; so much history crammed into such a relatively small geographic space.
• Gucci – hang in there Brother!!!
• Duke – really enjoyed your company and your confidence and riding skill.
• Doc – you are Dutch...what more needs to be said!! Ha!
• Q – the adult in the Club...thank you...I really value you and your friendship!

What a great trip! Cold, wet, typical European summer but worth every terrifying autobahn, truck-passing moment when I get to hang out with guys that I would choose to under any circumstance.

GunZ
RWMC
Sergeant At Arms