SaddeSore 1000 Ride

It all started during my internship at Océ Research, back in 1996. A collegue pointed me to the Ironbutt site. I was intrueged by these riders and even more by their awesome rides. Me and that collegue often talked about doing a SS1000. But, that internship ended, and I sure didn't want to do a SS1000 on my Honda Magna.

So here I was, May 2002, and on the Europrez mailing list a new get-together was organized (EP7). At first I though I couldn't go, but as the date came closer by, I found myself with a weekend without obligations. I quick entry into a routeplanner on the internet showed that Törwang was exactly 500 miles from Eindhoven (where I live). So it was quickly decided that I would do a SS1000 to EP7 to buy the T-shirt.

So here I found myself getting up after just 2 hours of sleep. Saturday, 6th of july, 2am. A quick shower and call to my girlfriend later I mounted my beloved bike. She was eager to go, and so was I. I rode over to the Police HQ of Eindhoven. I asked inside for someone to verify my odometer and one officer gladly helped. He didn't even look surprised at my request. My odometer showed 36026km. He signed, I took a photo and headed off into the sleepy city in search of an open gas station. Unfortunatly the only one that was open was at the highway itself (some 7km further), and my starting time was 3:01am.

Police HQ Eindhoven

I followed A67 east to the border crossing in Venlo, where I jumped on A61 heading southeast. As this road also leads towards Switserland I'm pretty familiar with it now. Long stretches with no speedlimit and little traffic made for some good time. I kept it down to 140km/h so I wouldn't become tired too quickly. I wasn't sure I could do 160km/h for the full stretch so I took it easy. I was counting the kms as they clicked away. The eastern sky was becoming light already. Luckily it was cloudy so the sun didn't shine in my face. It's always nice to ride the autobahn near Koblenz with it hills and great high-speed curves.

My first gas stop was at Worms. I gassed up, peed and got going again. No need to waste time at a gas station. Soon A61 ended, and I hopped onto A5 towards Karlsruhe. Still familiar territory. And generally a speed limit of 130km/h. (Almost all the way to Munich the speed limit was 130km/h.) Easy to follow straight ahead 3 lane autoway. At Karlsruhe, the unfamiliar stretch started. A8 all the way to my turning point. The start of the A8 touches the northern part of the Black Forest and that means hills and high speed curves again. That should normally be fun, but the road was concrete (I don't trust concrete that much) and it started to rain. I was reminded that my BMW Seattle jacket isn't too warm, and I quickly got cold. Should have brought some warm clothes. I knew this was going to be the coldest part the whole ride, so I didn't mind it that much. I passed Stuttgart, Ulms and Augsburg pretty quickly. I was near Munich when the light came on that indicates I was low on gas. I just passed a gas station and I didn't see any signs how far the next gas station would be. Darn. I continued. The autoway around Munich (A99) was uneventfull until the autoway coming from Berlin joined A99. Traffic came to a standstill. Really zero movement. I lanesplitted but had to watch out for people getting out of their cars. Lanesplitting improved my mileage but I wasn't happy with the lack of a gas station. Lucky for me soon enough, a gasstation showed up. I got gas, peed and wanted to be on my way again. Except the traffic jam extended into the gasstation and accompying parking lot. I couldn't exit the gaststation!

The only way I could get out was over the curb, but I had to attack the curb at an angle. Ofcourse my rear tire slipped a few feet while getting on the curb, but I had it under control. Everyone was looking at this darn biker who had to use the curb to get into the traffic jam. I guess the thing that saved me from a lynch was the blue-white roundel that has it's origin in this city. I returned to lane splitting and exited the first exit to take some secondary road towards Salzburg. This road proved to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed taking the curves and seeing the rolling hills. No turbulance from the high speed autoway, but wind blowing in my face through my open helmet. This is more like it! It had stopped raining at the gasstation and now even the sun came out!

Some 130km on the secondary road I crossed with A8 again and headed towards Salzburg again. I looked at my odometer and it showed I was way over the 500mile mark. I got gas at the next gast station and took the receipt and considered it my half-way point. At the next exit of the autoway I turned around and headed towards Törwang.

At Törwang, there was only one bike standing outside the hotel. A Triumph with Montana plates. This had to be Duner Tor's bike. Yep, he walked up, introduced himself and filled me in on the details. Everybody was out riding, except for him, because he had too much grappa the evening before. :) I bought him coffee, and had a "strammer max". After about 30 minutes I had to be going again, without the Tshirt.

Magnet at the EP7 HQ.

I headed back towards A8 and pointed the bike for Munich. Just before I reached Munich the rain came back. Darn. I got cold again. And the traffic jam for the exit to the autoway to Berlin wasn't helping either. After Munich it was Augsburg, Ulm and Stuttgart again. Easy going. Between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart I filled up on gas again. Chatted with two french guys on a GS, and two swedish guys (a Goldwing and some HD). I couldn't stay long and longed for the fmiliar stretch home. I was surprised to see A5. I guess I was in a trance. The rain stopped and the sun came out again! A5 leads to A61 and the home stretch followed. Lovely road, and I sped on home. Now at 160km/h 'cause I knew I could make it home. Not that tired at all, and my butt wasn't hurting that bad either. One more gas stop and then the cross into slow 120km/h Netherlands again. A67 towards Eindhoven and my gas stop at 19:45 in Eindhoven.

I was heading towards the police station again, when I noticed a motorcycle officer going the other way. I turned around and tried to catch up. He pulled some young kid on a scooter over, and I stopped besides him. The scooter guy got off with a warning and I asked the officer for his help. He gladly verrified my odometer reading. 37733km! 1706km in 16 hours and 45 minutes. Shot a photo of him, his bike and Magnet and headed home.

End witness on a K11LT

Called my girlfriend to let her know I was home safe and relaxed for the tv until it was bed time.

All in all, I found it to be less difficult than I had imagined doing this. I had some 700+miles days before and I was hurting way more then. I did have a headache the next day though. I guess from the noise all that time (I do wear earplugs). Will there be a next time? Maybe....but not this summer!
On october 4th, I received my certificate from the Iron Butt association, confirming that this was a real SS1000

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