Trans-Eurasia 2005 part 4
Trip Start
May 20, 2005
1
3
14
Trip End
Aug 05, 2005
Beijing,
China
Sunday, June 5, 2005
it gets old in a hurry. Still thinking about the Isle of Man, so as
long as I've got nothing to do for the next 48 hours (hopefully) I'll
try and fill you in on what the place is like.
There are no speed limits on the Isle once you get out of the villages.
Twice I was "shot" by a radar gun coming into town. Both times over the
limit and once on the wrong side of the road (Stay on the LEFT stupid!)
Both times the cop didn't stop me. I think they are lenient during bike
week.
Every night they close off the promenade on the beach for a little bike
action. They had a Portogese guy riding an MV Agusta. But he was riding
up on the handlebars, oh and he was doing about 70 MPH on the rear
wheel only.
Then there was a Holland guy with a quad. But the quad was powered by a
helicopter turbine motor. You wanna see 0-100 mph fast, this was the
place. The contraption was barely under control doing 360s 180s and all
over the road. And the road is lined by thousands of bikers on each
side. Very little room for error. On one of the last nights they lined
up about 10 of the vintage bikes that were going to run the course the
next day. Giacomo was there riding a 6 cylinder Agusta, and he wasn't
just riding, he was letting her scream. The announcer called it the
Italian National Anthem.
But by far the best part of the week is being to ride the course when
the racers are not on it. There are hairpins, S turns, jumps, and a
really fast part up the mountain. In spite of that, John McGuinnes set
a new track record of around 126 MPH average for the entire 37+ mile
course! I spectated up on the mountain on one of the days races, and
you are so close to the track and the bikes if you put your arm out it
will be taken off. A sidecar went by me at that close range at well
over 140 MPH. I cannot ever imagine this being allowed in the states or
in Europe. Too many insurance nannies (and lawyers). It is a wonder
that there aren't at least a hundred casualties every year, but as far
as I know there were just 2 and both of them were racers. One sidecar
driver and one Swedish TT rider. Rest in Peace.
We finally left the Isle on Friday night taking a late night ferry to
England. We arrived at Heysham at about 11:00 PM and rode for about
half hour before realizing that every gas station was closed and the
hotels don't accept guests after 9:00 PM. Strange. So we rode until our
gas ran out (literally). I believe we were in the town of Kendal, well
past midnight and 2 out of 4 bikes were dry. I got a hose and siphoned
some gas from the bike with gas and we finally found a 24 hour gas
station. Once filled up, we rode on until we came to a truck stop off
the hiway. Ended up sleeping in their coffee shop until daybreak.
Another thing that is strange for me, is the sun sets at about 10:00 PM
and rises about 4:30 AM. But from this point we really had a nice ride
across England to Newcastle on some of the best biking roads ever put
down. And this early on a Saturday morning there was no traffic to deal
with.
We made the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam with plenty of time. The
ferry is like an ocean liner but with about a thousand bikes in the
hold. They give you straps and you fasten them down the best you can. I
can see if the water would be rough there would be alot of damaged
bikes, but fortunately the water is smooth for the 14 hour ride. Once
we arrive in Amsterdam there are photo radar cameras everywhere. The 3
Germans I'm riding with are used to riding flat out and they are
accellerating and braking every time a camera comes into view. But we
make it across Holland and into Germany where speed limits are a thing
of the past. Amazing, these guys ride over 100 MPH in the rain as
normal to them as 70 MPH is to Americans.
Altogether the ride put an additional 2,000 kms on "my" (borrowed) bike
with none the worse for wear. I'm truly not used to riding that
distance at those speeds without having something fail on the bike. But
these bikes, 2 Triumphs and 2 Hondas didn't even require a drop of oil.
I could get used to that kind of reliability!
Now I'm just sitting around wasting time, burning money, waiting for my bike to arrive.
