Visit the two furthest points North and South on mainland Europe drivable by road in three days. On a 1986 Honda XBR500.

In the beginning, there was the idea to join the European Ride to Eat in Estonia. A ride to eat is a get-together of IBA riders to meet for a picture on a Saturday at 4 p.m. and later having dinner together. In case of a Europan R2E, this place can be anywhere in Europe. The June meeting is located in Tartu, Estonia. My old Honda XBR500 has been to every country in Europe – except Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and….Estonia! So it was a no-brainer to decide to join the R2E with the old thumper.

So far, so good. Some months ago, fellow IBA rider Arjen had an idea and shared it: is there anybody interested to do a European End-to-End ride afterwards? The website of the Ironbutt Association UK states:

“This ride is a multi-day challenge, with three levels to suit the rides LD riding ability. Planning the route and managing their ride time, sleep and fatigue is an important factor for success.

The two furthest points North and South on mainland Europe drivable by road. 

• Nordkapp, Norway, 71.169466, 25.783198
• Tarifa, Spain, 36.008538, -5.606893

The ride is classed as Extreme at the three Levels which are categorised by time taken to undertake the ride.

End to End (less than 78 hrs)

Insanity (less than 72 hrs)

Insanity Gold (less than 66 hrs)”

When being up in Estonia, you’re almost close to one possible starting point, aren’t you? Not quite. Northern Europe is big. I had this ride on my mind…why not doing it now?

There is only a small problem. The ride is considered an extreme ride, but should pose no big problem for an experienced LD rider…on a modern bike with >1000cc, fairing, high windshield, heated grips, heated saddle, etc…And my choice is…a 38 year old, 498 cc, one cylinder bike with 402.000 km on the clock. Quite an obvious choice, isn’t it?

I last visited the North Cape on July 1st 1993 on the same XBR…at 7 degrees and totally frozen. The forecast predicts some 5 degrees for next Tuesday. As I said, modern bikes are rolling living rooms. The old XBR is not.
Another challenge will be my traveling speed. While my 110 – 120 km/h is sufficient for Norway, Finland and Sweden, it is rather slow for the rest of the trip. And no, a cruise control is not available.

The ride is similar to the Finnish North Cape – Gibraltar ride that existed for many years. In the Halls of Fame of both IBA Finland and IBA UK, almost all successful finishers had big bikes and nobody used a bike smaller than 650 cc. Well, that seems like a challenge!

But first, the bike needed some nursing. The last ride was two years ago, the trip to the Balkans. The XBR still carried the dirt of Albania. One idea was to increase the protection. I had bought a large(r) windscreen in the US that should replace my screen that served me over many years and countries. Another plan was to connect my 17 L auxiliary tank of the BMW. I just needed to i) build a mounting base and ii) connect the fuel line to the carburetor. And need to mount a new GPS cradle for the new Garmin Sumo XT. And to connect the tablet. And the heated gear. And a full service with fresh tyres.

Well, what is the plan? Well, first I will ride to the Ride to Eat in Estonia on Saturday and take the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki on Sunday and ride up to the northern end of the Baltic Sea. The next day, I will pass the Inari Lake and arrive at Honningsvåg, the northernmost town in the world:

On Tuesday morning, I will set off at the North Cape and arrive not later than 78 hours later in Tarifa.

After a relaxing evening and night in Tarifa, I will head back home in a relaxed way in two days. You will be able to follow me via my GPS track that will be active from Thursday evening onwards.