Originele thread:
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/5-days-solo-ride-in-wild-wild-western-europe.1152749/#post-29641815A few weeks ago I decided to take a week off and do a solo ride once again. So I packed my bike, stuffed my Giant Loop full of stuff I didn't need, like a tent, matras and sleeping bag, extra gas, tools and so forth. I ended up sleeping in little hostels, finding plenty of gas stations and a bike in perfect working order.
Anyway, my target was to ride as many unpaved kilometers as possible, starting in Amsterdam, riding towards Nancy in the North of France and back. Estimated distance: 1500 km. Estimated ratio off/on road: 60:40
The short of it: I succeeded. Which is not easy living in Western Europe, I can tell you! I ended up riding about maybe 10% offroad in the Netherlands, 30% in Belgium but at least 80% in France and I have tons of pics to prove that
So France did not disappoint me at all. I remember from previous trips that anything in and around the Ardennes is off limit with thousands of signs to underline that. Motorcycles not permitted. You know the kind. But I was lucky, the trails I made at home, using Google Maps, Earth and Garmin were spot on. And the occasional sign was easily discarded...
The trip started easy, knobbies on tarmac, for about 120 kilometers. But I made sure to have as many green laning, sand and other tracks to be part of my journey to greaner pastures so actually the fun started close to home!
Then Belgium, where they can confiscate your bike as soon as you leave the tarmac. Well, I did and luckily I went unnoticed and I had lots of fun with fields, woods and the occasional MTB single track.
But France was what it was all about. I'ts quite a large country, very rural with lots of scattered patches of wood. Typically all hilltops are green, scattered with tracks and often interconnected. So I spent the three days I was there riding woodland and fields only using small roads to cross over to the next patches and to find a place to sleep. As they predicted rain during the night I did not feel like camping so I hauled 5 kilos of gear across the country for nothing. And you guessed it, I had perfect weather, the whole 5 days...
I did run into trouble a few times. One was a overgrown track that wasn't used for many years and ended up in deep mud with nowhere to turn. Obviously I got stuck but managed to get out. With all the adrenaline pumping (no cell reception)
I completely forgot to take pics... And at one point I went downhill, very slippery, uphill on the other side was no option but luckily I found a horse trail that brought me back to a road.
So all good, I'm gonna do this again later in the year but than I'll take my trailer and skip the more boring Dutch and Belgium parts. Well, boring compared to France and of course the wonderful scenery everybody seems to enjoy but us, Western Europeans!
Oh, before I forget, not unimportant. The SWM was perfect, seriously the best for this type of stuff I ever had!
When I sold my KTM 450 I sort of promised to myself I would not ride off road again but a few months later I bought the SWM as I already missed having a dial sport in my garage and I was right. That was definitely one of my better choices in life!
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** in september ga ik weer, wil dan
** met een klein groepje van max.
** 3 man gaan. Zelfde recept maar
** dit keer laat ik de tent e.d. thuis
** alleen hotelletjes, minder bagage
** Interesse? Stuur me een PM...
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Post Merge: 12-06-2016, 16:44
