TTTT (XBR goes Russia)
After all this rallying, it’s time to go on a short long trip. A long distance ride of a different kind. Not really a real touristic trip, although some hints of tourism might be involved, if there is sufficient time. Actually it is a kind of “shakedown” ride to test the bike and rider. Well, actually for the bikes and riders. For the first time in 10 years, I will be accompanied on an “exotic” trip.
My English buddy from the “Black Coontry”, Mr John Young, will join me in this ride that is supposed to be a test for a much bigger adventure in the future: a trip through Russia to Japan. What is particular about that trip: we want to do it with our old clunkers, i.e. my 1985 Honda XBR500 with 362.000 km on the clock, and John’s 1969 Triumph Trident that had also (in contrast to my XBR successfully) participated in the Iron Butt Rally in the USA. This means that also the test ride should be done under similar conditions.
It’s not only a test for the bikes (they have shown their reliability enough in the past), but also a “compatibility test” for the riders. The planned trips are (very) challenging with time limitations; add some unforeseen problems, bad road and weather conditions and some usual group dynamics and you quickly end up with a potentially critical situation. However, we both are used to a tough riding, rain, wind, weather and what the road throws at us.
Our test starts on Saturday morning at the 25th Honda GB500/XBR500 Meeting in Germany and will lead us to Minsk, Moscow, Riga and Kaliningrad. For the mentioned obvious reasons, this trip is called
TTTT – The Tronda Test Trip
You can follow our journey via my SPOT tracker: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=117cc577d54b2eebd2.
We will be riding most of the time (the trip is supposed to take only 8 days), but I hope I will find the time for short updates. 🙂
TTTT – the plan
hutzlmandl on tour 
Good luck in Russia….be VERY carefull on the roads as they are atrocious…there are what we call ‘potholes’ in English that you can hide a bus in!!!. Very dangerous for bikes!!!!!.