A MC Adventure – 2016 (2), through Germany

Last Updated on: February 24, 2023

This is part 2 of the story of my MC Adventure, which was going to prove a little bit more eventful than I appreciated.

Inexperienced and with limited vacation time on my hand, had decided to take the Autobahn down south. While in Flensburg I met a couple of Norwegian MC’ers at the hotel, on the way home. They’d been going down through Europe and Balkan many times.

Down by the harbour in Flensburg

Down by the harbour in Flensburg

Considering I used my GPS to find the hotel, combined with “eeni meeni mini mo” logic, I have to say the timing for getting “where to tips” could not have been better.

EU Map - Germany

Cutting through Germany, Autobahn style

I’d made absolutely no plans beyond the first leg. Intended to let the adventure unfold by itself. Getting random tips was very much a part of it.

The fellow rider suggested a route from Würzburg to Füssen called Der Romatisches Strasse, or Romantic Road. 350 Kilometers of road connecting old cities in the region of Bavaria. Ending up at the foot of the Alps.

As I’d originally had intended to get to the Alps, and ride across at least a mountain pass or two, decided to go for it. So then, Würzburg it was, and then route like shown right.

Leg 3 – Flensburg > Würzburg

Set out in the morning and started the journey south. Knew the stretch fairly well from before, but from a car perspective. Riding MC on the Autobahn is something different.

But as R1200RT’s goes, riding long distance and in relatively high speed was not a problem. In a sense, without losing neither sight or control, for me riding MC is like a meditation. A meditation while keeping senses keen and sharp. Well it’s hard to explain. MC’ers would understand.

Anyways, the journey down south seemed to pass uneventfully. Some winds, turbulence that put the bike’s windshield on many tests. With an additional spoiler on the top from Wunderlich. Don’t think I’d manage very well without it.

Made a few stops for petrol, food and drinks. Met quite a few bikers, not surprisingly, from the the almost muted, to the slightly more talkative. Among others a couple of Italian guys on the way home. They’d been all the way up to the North Cape!

MCs on the autobahn

Two Italian registered bikes to the left, they’d done over 8000 kilometers on their journey!

A chilling (or startling) discovery

Near Fulda at a autobahn stop “in the middle of nowhere”, twas around 19:30’ish, while the temperature had climbed past 32C, I made a unpleasant discovery. Inside the rear wheel there were oil splatter all over. Could not see where it had come from so wiped it as clean as I could wit paper napkins, then rode a few miles in lower speed and made a new stop.

Now I discovered the source of the oil. It seemed to come out from the hub of the wheel somehow. This was not good news, but riding at lower speed seemed to cause less oil droplets coming out, so I went for the last 80’ish kilometers to Würzburg.

BMW RT O-Ring problem

In the center of the wheel, behind a black plastic cover was the source of oil spill

Decided to stay in town, found a hotel with a garage and parked the bike.  Was a nice hotel, just outside the old city. Booked for two nights optimistically hoping I could leave Sunday.

Arriving on a Friday didn’t have high hopes with regards to getting the problem fixed during the weekend. Which meant staying longer than I wanted. In Norway you can forget about getting any aid on a Saturday, well unless you’re in the outskirts of the country. Where there are people who actually would sacrifice a few hours on a Saturday to help you out.

Via BMW Motorrad international website I located a dealer about 10-15 minutes ride from my location in Würzburg. Sent a mail to them and planned to call as they opened Saturday morning. Now time for winding down, get some food’n drink, relax and enjoy vacation. Below some shots from the first day in the city. I can recommend it!

View over the river Main towards the old city of Wurzburg

City of Wurzburg

Wurzburg, across the river Main looking at the old city. Pretty place

Statue on the old city bridge

Statue on the bridge in Wurzburg

Along on either side of the bridge there are old statues, 12 saints in fact. Here one of them looking at the city.

Local food, local drink 🙂

German dining

Maybe not everyone’s taste but for me, when in Germany, eat German, drink German. And.. after all it was vacation!

Festung Marienberg – The Marienberg Fortress

Festung Marienberg - The Marienberg fortress

I never went up to the fortress, but it looked really nice. Something saved up for next time!

Die Alte Brucke – The old bridge

Die Alte Brucke - Wurzburg

Seen from below, this bridge reminds somewhat of the Karl’s bridge in Prague

And that was the Saturday, full, tipsy, happy I returned to the hotel hoping Saturday would bring a solution to the issue with the bike. And Save my vacation. More soon…

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