Motorcycling.

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Are they pretty easy going out there regarding traffic laws? Could Daniel just take his bike to town without anyone hassling him?
 
To a limited extent, it was like that around here in my memory, but probably still not as tolerant as where you are. Seeing Daniel in front of the bar made me think of it. There's no way that would fly here. There's probably places not far from me where it would be more tolerated, but I couldn't point to them on a map.
 
Well...in Daniel's defence....the bar is the restaurant.

Get the younguns out before 11 pm or so and you are fine.

It is sort of the end of the world out here.


Before they burned it down, you could ride your horse or drive your pickup to a country bar and eat a burger...and get served if it wasn't busy.
 
Tomorrow I'm off to Schweiz on a motorcycle trip.
I was originally going to be guiding 5 other guys around the alps, but for one reason and another most dropped out, so now we'll just be me and another old guy. The owner of Nordfeld castle, where we have been logging and living the last 4 summers. We get along real well, I'm looking forwards to doing the trip with him.
He has, like me, hitchhiked the World for many years in his youth, so we share a way of travelling
Nothing new for me in this trip, I've driven all the mountain pass roads before, but he has never been to Schweiz, so it'll be a blast for him.
I'm looking for some time off after logging on Island Møn for 2½ months. I'm really tired both mentally and physically, so some World class driving and good eating and drinking is just the thing for me.
We'll stay in tents on the campground in Andermatt and then move up to my favourite alp hotel, Tiefenbach for the last 2 days for some luxury.
We'll go visit my bonus kids and grandkids while we are there, they stayed at Nordfeld castle last time they were here, so they know my travelling partner.
The weather forecast is a bit iffy, but keeps getting better the closer we get.
Being a couple of old wimps, we are bringing the bikes on a trailer.
Riding through Germany on the autobahns is only fun if you enjoy speed, it is mile after mile after mile of , in Northern Germany, ugly countryside while keeping super alert because when you are going 120 MPH, things happen fast.
I've done it plenty of times before, but don't fancy sitting in the same position for so long, with my bad knee.

Just sitting here, writing this, I can feel my biorythms levelling out :)

American Motorcyclist - https://books.google.dk/books?id=HPsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA41&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
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Jim, I don't know how I missed those pictures, blame it on bad reception on Møn.
They are great!!
Kids on bikes and proof that the America, I love, still exists out there.
Thanks a lot for posting those!
 
Years ago I was all into making my car as efficient as possible and did a bunch of aero mods. My best friend and machinest Dave told me I needed to run a big tube through the center of the car....... Sometimes it is scary how intuitive he is.
 
Anyone else ever ridden a radically different bike? Back in 06 or 07 I chanced across guys I knew who were in process of test riding the Ohlins(?)/Yamaha 2WD with the hydraulic system. Around that time +/- they put a few through the Dakar. The guys were watching me scour every detail of the bike with my helmet cam, down on my knees for detail shots and all and asked if I wanted to give it a try. So I absconded out of the clearing into the woods single track for guessing about 10 minutes. I was currently riding a new (heavier) 4 stroke which I didn't realize how heavy and how much front end push it had, till the 2WD railed me through the corners. I nearly climbed the inside berm on the first turn I made. It was magic in deep loose sand and the only gripe I had was when I got comfortable and started to get to WOT, instead of just rear wheel spin and what goes with that, I got chatter, like wheel hop, from the front wheel while the rear spun. Doing this in a corner was counter productive.

If I had a million dollars... as the song goes. Real eye opener.

I've never seen the pure mechanical 2WD which I recall had some success. It evolved from a mountain bike. Bertolini or something like that.

I can't imagine how street 2WD would mess up the status quo. With a bow legged horse-wide saddle and wind tunnel to boot!
 
The nostalgia machine got me thinking back to another mind opening experience. I stepped off a yz125 tiddler to my friend's early 80's TT600. Hill climb went from bwaaaaaaawwawwaahhhhh to thud thud thud... I told him his bike was like a tractor and imagined the wheel spinning a bit each thud of the piston. I was so scrawny (audience - how scrawny were you?) that I bounced on the kick starter compression! It just held me up! With technique training I could barely start it.
 
I had a great trip To the Alps.
It was raining at the campground when we arrived, it is at 1441 meter, further up it was snow.
My wife called and said all passes over 2000 meters were closed...........bummer.
Next morning around 10 I saw 2 bikes coming out of Furka pass, ran out on the road, flagged them down and asked for conditions.
Passes were plowed, roads open :)
Then we had a week of blue skies and that snow only made the mountains more beautiful.
We got a lot of good driving in, when you want to go anywhere from Andermatt, where we stayed, you have to go through a pass, so we made it through Furka 5 times, Susten 2 times, Grimsel 4 times, Gletch 3 times Nufenen 1 time and the old Val tremola pass that is cobblestones once.
A lot of tight curves and fun.

Had frost at night so when we had coffe made in the morning, we heated water to pour on the bikes, to get the ice off.
Had some good meals and shared some good bottles of wine.
A fine, fine trip.
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My favourite pass is Furka.
Really challenging to ride, lots of hairpin curves, steep dropoffs, crappy pavement and absolutely no guardrail.
Screw up and you're gone.
That pass keeps you on your toes for sure.

As we came over it one morning, there was a silver Aston Martin DB5 parked on a little side spur.
I couldn't believe my own eyes.
The one car that everybody associates with furka pass.

Further up the pass I passed a film crew.
Guess they were doing some promo work for the new James Bond movie or such.

It really made my day to see that car there on such a perfect morning.

I must have driven Furka 20 times on 2 and 4 wheels, but that morning, with the fresh snow on the mountains, was the best.
Second to last picture is the view from top of Furka with Grimsel south side in the background.
 
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