Not the European End to End Ride.

The motto of the past days can be summarised as follows:

Just in case you didn’t get it:

Well, what happened in these days? A lot. Too much to remember. So I better get this written down.

I always like going South, somehow it feels like going downhill (Treebeard)

On the morning of the start, I had breakfast in the hotel and received a message from the other four who started already at the North Cape. This meant they had started 90 min ahead of me. I rode to the Nordkapp myself and had the same weather like the day before: very cold and in the mist. I took the picture at the start and set off at 8 a.m. After 30 min, I arrived back in Honningsvåg, where I had to fill up and get the start ticket. The ride along the peninsula was very quick, beautiful and I could make up a lot of time, I would basically keep this buffer for the rest of the day.

In Alta, it was again very warm before temperatures dropped again when I rode towards the Finnish border. Arjen and Filip were still 90 min ahead of me so my pace was quite good, considering the difference in bikes. I pushed the XBR through the tundra and soon crossed into Finland again. After six hours, I arrived at my first fuel stop and met Hilmar and Ulrike who just set off again. I had made up almost 90 min on them. But first I needed to fill up petrol, oil and water for the rider. The oil consumption was high the last days which tells something about the pace. Or the age of the motor. Before setting off, I noticed something disturbing: the rear tyre was very much worn! Maybe I had to change it in Belgium already?

When crossing into Sweden, clouds got darker and some showers dropped the temperature. At Luleå, a big shower turned out to be a thunderstorm: I got pretty wet and the subsequent drying made me feel very chilly. Icy, actually. I started to doubt whether the whole thing was a good idea. I was wet and cold and I realised that this ride was an enormous challenge on this little bike with no frills. At a pee stop, I noted that the tyre degraded rapidly. I texted my colleague Håkan whether he could find a rear tyre for me between Stockholm and Malmö. After quite some trials, he managed to find one in Jonköpping. After riding through the night, I could be there before they opened. Perfect, thanks Håkan! Problem solved?

In parallel, I had also informed the XBR lads and Ralf, located in the North of Germany, offered me a tyre and had it even mounted already on a wheel. However, it got more and more unlikely that my tyre would last until there, so probably Jonköping it would be. The low temperatures and the insecurity sowed some doubts…the tyre change would eat away all of my buffer and even more, so the 72 hour mark would not be achievable. But no problem, I could still make the 78 hour one. Soon after, I passed Hilmar and Ulrike ( later it turned out that Ulrike fell shortly before Tarifa trying to make the 78 hour mark and broke her collar bone…get well soon!).

I noticed some strange movements and decided at 11 p.m. to stop at a petrol station to check if everything was ok with the chain. I stopped in Harnösand. I checked. The chain needed urgent tightening! I asked at the counter if they had a spanner. Of course not.

And then reason raised its voice. Even if I could tighten it, I would need to carry a spanner, because at this rate (I had tightened it yesterday), it meant that the chain was….rapidly degrading. It made no sense trying to continue the ride. I needed time to take care of it. Game over for the ride. 

I booked a hotel with a self-checkin and went to a Big M restaurant where I was the last customer two minutes before closure at midnight. I returned to my ‘suite’. Tomorrow would be another day, trying to sort out how I could get home. Operation ‘E2E’ was over, operation ‚Rescue‘ was on.

I had a good breakfast and left the hotel to prepare the bike. Right opposite to it, there a low budget market and I thought they might have a spanner set. They did. Cheap and surely not the top quality, but I only needed it for the rear axle nut. After having tightened the chain, I left the place. 

After the first meters, it was clear that this was not resolved. The terrible mechanical sound of the chain and the feel could only mean one thing: the chain or the chain kit was completely worn. Dead. Pining for the fjords. Pushing up the daisies. Bereft of life. Game over!

Game over? Not so fast! I needed not only a new tyre, but also a chain kit (the chain including the front and back sprockets). Here in Härnosand surely not, but the ‚big‘ city of Sundsvall was ‚only‘ 50 km away. It also has an airport so whatever I would be doing, my chances would be better there then in Harnösand. So I limped carefully south and selected a motorcycle garage where I would ask for help. In beautiful sunshine, I arrived at the Powersport Center and explained my problem. The friendly guy tried his best to identify a supplier, but as expected, he couldn’t find the sprockets. This didn’t come as a surprise, the bike was not sold in Sweden and even in Germany it is not easy to get them. 

Ok, this plan didn’t work. Ralf had left me a voice message: he not only had the wheel with the tyre, he had also a chain kit for me. Fantastic! Could we get it by express courier? Ralf would investigate, but probably it’ll arrive too late. I the meantime, I followed another route: I could rent a car ( before I was thinking of a van, but this is too much) and pick up the parts in Germany myself. Crazy, but possible. I could leave the XBR in the garage and do the swap two days later on Friday. This would still give me time to be back home on Sunday night. I spotted a Hertz car rental nearby  and rode there.

My request to rent (any) car was met with disbelief. ‚no reservation?‘ ‚yes, I need a car now‘ ‚there is nothing available!‘ But the lady would call a colleague. In the meantime I conacted the Belgian road assistance. After a lot of discussion, it turned out that the XBR is not covered there, only some of my other vehicles. Well, then I called the German ADAC, I knew that the coverage is person-based, not vehicle-based. The other guy explained me in the meantime that there was no available car, only an electrical one. Well, this would mean adding insult to injury, covering 2900 km in two days in an electrical car?? This would mean no sleep at all, charging all the time…

I checked all the other car rental companies in town via their online portals….nothing available either…I saw my crazy plan collapsing. Is this it?? I talked again with the ADAC; as usual, they’d need the confirmation from the garage that the bike is not repairable (in a few days). I went back to the garage and asked the guy to call. This time the operator (who talked no proper English) seemed to be a bit thick…he’d have to pass the information on someone else. I talked to Ralf again…in principle, the express courier should take one day, but maybe also 2-3 days, no guarantees. Well, this was out of question then.

I tried again to call the rental car companies with the same result, all booked. When I tried the very last number, I heard…’I have one last car available’ What? Really? We agreed he would reserve the car and I would get there quickly. When I was finishing the call, I turned around and saw a known face that left me totally perplexed…I stared into the face of Daniel Duvskog, a Swedish LD rider and well-known IBA rally rider. Actually, when we were competing together, I could only narrowly beat him, he always was a great competitor and very nice guy.

What was he doing here?? Well, he followed my spot and as he was living only a few kilometers from here….I thought he lived south, but he had moved up there some years ago. He had seen my post from the morning and after getting the latest update from me he asked me directly: „how big is the thing you need to transport?“ Well, just the chain kit and the wheel…“do you need a motorbike?“. I couldn’t believe it. He wanted to give me a bike to pick up the stuff in Germany? After two seconds of hesitation, I said yes. Was this my last straw apart from giving up and returning by train and plane? I informed the garage guy and thanked him for his support. I called the ADAC if they would pay the rental car: only a small fraction. I canceled the rental caar reservation. Outside, I met Daniel’s family. I followed his car to his home, only 15 minutes away. 

He prepared the bike, a shiny BMW R1200RT, and I swapped the luggage. It was 3 p.m. now, I could still go past Stockholm. I said „thank you and see you in two days“ and set off towards the south. I had mounted my tablet so I could browse for a nice, plush hotel. I thought that I needed this for peace of mind.

I left the hotel garage at 5 a.m. and filled up to have my start ticket. I would have to fill up a lot this day, the tank of the RT is apparently not very big. I liked riding the RT, it was very smooth and comphy, almost like my K1600GT, or even better in terms of smooth changing of gears. The difference to the XBR was flabbergasting. I realised how demanding this project was, riding an XBR. On such a modern bike, it’s almost effortless. And the cruise control comes very handy. It could have worked, although constantly pushing the XBR out of its comfort zone is taking its toll. The tyre issue I couldn’t have envisaged, the degradation was unseen in 37 years. The chain though…had its mileage, but a lot less than the previous one. I had already used it in the Japan trip as it was pretty new, but I think I carried a reserve kit „just in case“. This I didn’t do now, probably because Europe is just around the corner, isn’t it? 

On the way to Malmö, I had mostly good weather, but also some heavy showers. The temperature dropped to 8 degrees….but here I am with a good fairing and a good grip and seat heating. I crossed the Öresund bridge and was slowed down by slow traffic in Denmark. What a comfy cruise this was! After the German border, I had to ride on country roads and circumvent many road closures.

Finally I arrived in Ralf’s town at 2:30 p.m. and filled up to get the ‚turning point‘ fuel ticket for the SS1000.

Before Copenhagen I had to fill up again and allowed me the luxury to have a sit-down dinner in a burger restaurant. I knew that my arrival in Jonköping would be very late. Again some showers and fresh temperatures. When I had to fill up again on the E4 in Smaland, I had a hot coffee that should get me through the evening and warming from within. I had obtained the last ticket for the SS1000 and deserved a little break. Finally I arrived in the rally hotel of the European Tour 2018 in Jonköping before midnight and had a good rest. After 1832 km on that day. Ironbutt Rally style.

The next day I stayed for breakfast and had to cover 700 km of the almost 3000 km long detour to pick up the spare parts.It was sunny now, apart from a few showers, and I arrived in Sundsvall after 2 p.m. I filled up the RT and wanted to wash it, but the payment terminal was broken. I arrived at Daniel’s house where he was already in standby. I hoped that everything went quickly so I could still cover some kilometers….back to the south! The question was: would everything go smoothly? After all, it was a closed chain (no link) which meant I had to take the swing arm…

I removed the back wheel and realised why I hated to use closed chains: to take out the swing arm, I had to loosen the shocks. To do this, you need also to loosen the exhausts. Finally the swing arm was removed. Due to the use of the automatic lubrication system, everything is covered in the lubricant oil, quite messy. I put in the new chain and tried to put back the swing arm. Tricky. Some 12 years ago, Emil Schwarz fabricated some bespoke swing arm bearings for me which means that the arm goes back very badly. We worked both on it and after a series of attempts, the swing arm was back in place. I was still carrying my motorbike gear which was now soaked from the inside.

By the way, I carried only minimal cloths for six days because I had planned to return home before setting off to Spain. I was now into day eight…

Now change the front sprocket….I removed it and was puzzled…the new one was different…I vaguely remembered an issue from the past. As the last change was so long ago, I needed to check with Jo, the XBR encyclopedia….yes, this was a different sprocket, but I had to widen the holes for the securing plate, then I could use it. OK, Daniel used his drill to elongate the holes. This was not pretty, but it had to work. Finally the holes seemed to match. When I put on the securing plate, it would not go in the groove on the transmission output shaft that would keep the whole setup in place. We were totally confused. Then we realised that this sprocket was a lot wider than the old one. This was it. Game over? I just feel the mental exhaustion knocking on the door: “still don’t wanna give up?“

I said to Daniel that it was a pity that it was Friday afternoon, normally a metal workshop could remove the surplus steel on one side, maybe with a turning machine, but now….and than Daniel had the brilliant idea: „why not use a grinder?“. Of course! He had all the tools so he tried. Hm. A lot more was needed. For the next half hour he was grinding more than 2 mm of hardened steel off the sprocket (!), while I was putting back the XBR together. I was dripping now of sweat. Maybe this could work. The mental exhaustion grumpily turned around and was not seen anymore.

Finally I was ready for a small test ride. Ah, the exhaust was not tight…now yes. The bike rode fine, so let’s get going. It was now after 6 p.m., more than two hours later I had hoped for. I quickly reserved a hotel in Gävle and left back Daniel with a very dirty garage. I said farewell to all and thanked him from the bottom of my heart. He proudly called it „some redneck magic“; after all, in a remote place like northern Sweden, you have to be able to help yourself in case of need. We did indeed some magic and this shows the IBA community at its best: you would do everything in your power to help a fellow rider in dire need. Thank you so much Daniel!

About two hours later, I arrived in the hotel in Gävle, had a quick shower and some dinner before the restaurant closed. I permitted myself a dram while reserving the ferry from Göteborg to Kiel the next day. It’s a bit more expensive, but I save about 600 km not going through Denmark.

I put on my rain gear as I expected a rain front in Göteborg. The check-in was quick and soon the ferry took off, heading where I will arrive in an hour in Kiel, less than 600 km from home, a smooth ride I hope.

So was it worth it? Well, yes. It could have worked, but the universe threw a spanner in the works (pun intended). However, on by K1600, it would have been a smooth ride. I underestimated how tiring it is for rider and XBR to be constantly pushing. The bike can ride anywhere, but prefers a lower pace. Yes, it almost won a Brit Butt Rally, and my other XBRs won smaller rallies, but without luggage and only for a short period. But the Ironbutt Rally 2013? Yes, I had forgotten how much I was suffering then, pushing the bike for eight days before it flipped the finger.

It also showed me that the future adventure traveling does not depend on the XBR alone. It runs fine, but after 38 years and 408.000 km, it deserves a lower pace than a constant pushing against the clock.

An intense ten days with some 7.000 km (XBR) & 3.000 km (BMW), with a lot of memories and tales of bad luck and how to overcome it.

PS: Arjen (66 hours) and Filip (69 hours) successfully finished the trip! Congrats!