ot coolest places

Sep 27, 2025 Last reply: 9 months ago 47 Replies

Yes. One time when I rode my mountain bike through there a large area both sides of the river was black and still smoldering, with some smoke. It was eerie and probably a bit dangerous. This is one of the "autobahns" I am using there:

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We should all help each other. I carry a fairly complete tool kit in my bikes. Rarely use it for myself but most for others. Including one motorcyclist and a car driver. "What? You have a tool for this? On your bike?"

That surprises me sometimes with Northern Europeans. They should know all that, with Belgium being so close.

No, you just need the right kind of bicycle. This is mine, in fairly "clean" condition:

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Inside the tires are tubes with 4mm wall thickness, plus a tire liner towards the running surface and that liner is sleeved into a slit good quality regular tube to prevent chafing. Lasts forever, or until the tire is through. Rear tires last 1200km, front about 5000km.

I carry a full tool set, a first aid kit and a tow rope but that stuff is generally used for other riders I find stranded or who had a crash.

The top trunk can be removed and then the loading platform underneath can be used to transport larger stuff. Occasionally I use that as a (free) quality test for client devices. The shaking can be brutal.

We have those also. This intersection with a road is really cool. Cars have to stop, bicycles do not:

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Not many apple trees but lots of blackberries. One time on the mountain bike I must have eaten almost two pounds. I didn't reach my destination because some grumbling come up inside me and I had to return home. Fast :-)

Wow! My thighs are burning - and I only watched it! Ed

:-)

Once I was late on a trail like that, stepped on it, 18mph, 20mph, 22mph ... woohoo ... got too close to a Manzanita bush, it grabbed the top loop of my hydration pack, literally ripped me off the seat and ... phssst *KABLAM* ... crashed hard. All rashed up and the next morning I had to fly to Europe. Other passengers at the gate thought I had some sort of infectious skin disease. Sometimes I still dream of that crash, seeing my now riderless MTB disappear upright into the vegetation.

The other side is more technical and dangerous. A few people have died there. They crashed to the south side, down the cliff and landed on big rocks:

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The grease brush is deceiving because it cracks very easily, can't hold back a rider and then it's free fall.

Am 02.10.25 um 18:56 schrieb john larkin:

In our ham radio club station back in university times, we had 2 QB5-1750 tubes, grounded-grid triodes. 5 KW if we kicked them. That was illegal, of course, but statute-barred now. Nice, warm glow.

On the right frequency, we could trigger the lights in the auditorium maximum.

Cheers, Gerhard

Am 17.10.25 um 18:31 schrieb Joerg:

BMW motor bike cross country driving school in Hechlingen, Bavaria. First morning briefing at 8 AM. I still had no idea what I would be doing only 2 hours later.. OMG >8-( )

They bring you in form really quickly; it helped me tremendously in the highland desserts of Island 2 weeks later. There, I had to give up only 2 or 3 times. And I made my bike driver's license at age 61..

(follow the arrow to the right, after a short intermezzo at the Wacken Open Air with my daughter...)

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cheers, Gerhard

Andy from Peru is probably the hardest user of a BMW GS. But the ride can end suddenly if the Bendix fails:

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I am thinking about it. Learning it at 67 and then riding is more risky but I probably would not ride anything bigger than a 250cc dual-sport. Zero motorcycle experience so far but I did a lot of road bike and mountain bike riding on fairly hostile turf. So things such as counter steering are already programmed into muscle memory. just not at motorcycle speeds.

One of my main decision points will be whether I can lift a 300lbs bike after a fall. My lower back is pretty shot so that might not work. Out here you have to be able to do it alone because there are many trails where you'll see nobody all day. Except for bears and they aren't going to volunteer.

Iceland looks like a nice place to ride. Though we have a lot of similar stuff right here, including hot springs.

Maybe you can go back and fix that 12-cylinder engine :-)

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