Dual Sporting in Northern Germany

[Patrick]

Weeeeellllll... The 8th Endurowandertage von Visselhˆvede (Visselhˆvede Dual Sport Hiking Days, about 80 km south of Hamburg) are over. It was helluva fun.

Beeing tour guide this year, I was in the lucky position of arriving a day earlier and gettig a private tour with Dieter to review this year's track. We took 180 km in 4 1/2 hours. There wasn't so much time to take some pictures...





Short time after we were back, the guests began dropping in. Dieter had set up two large army tents for the social part and a toilet and shower trailer for the men. The girls were allowed to use toilets and showers at the nearby fire brigade... :evil

As usual, all the tents were set up in the neighbour's garden.



We rose early. Start for the big bikes was set to 8.30 at Saturday morning. The next groups would follow in 10min periods.







Yes, there was a road-only group.



My group with rookies, big bikes and rookies with big bikes startet first. We suffered the first loss within the very first trial section. No, not what you think... A tiger went out and refused to start again. It appeared to have a flat battery. Six men were needed to get that thing out of the trench were this happened...





Dieter's Group cought us soon. Beeing not far away from the start, Dieter decided to dash back and get some wired. In the meanwhile I took both groups to The Pit.











May I introduce? This is Karsten. His other bike is a street fighter. Karsten was with us last year (no, not with his street fighter) and has had so much fun that loved to be with us this year again. He is not ab big fan of ATGATT. Last year, all the protective clothing he wore was a helmet. But he is a learner. This year he improved: Helmet and MX boots. Maybe we can get him to wear gloves next year and some body armour or knee braces the year after that...  

After everyone has had his/her fun, the gruops gathered and continued their tour. Dieter has returned. Unfortunately he couldn't hel the powerless tiger. The cat was out of the game. :(





The route held some suprises for the riders:









Both on and ofroad road parties had to face some water crossing. On road style:







Off road style:







After 80 km of dirt, the off road parties made a stop to refuel and eat a chocolate bar or two...





Whe we started again, my group hit a bit of bad luck. After 4 km my gear lever broke in two pieces. Dunno why.  But I could fix it with a length of wire.



The it was Wolfgang's turn of bad luck: At a muddy spot he lost direction and hit a tree with his GS. No harm to him, but the fork was slightly bent and the front brake line was bleeding. He managed to run home on his own via roads (25 km) by carfully using his rear break.



The rest of the group continued and had to face some small adventures:









The others had fun, too:





After nine hours of riding, my group finally came home:











Just putting some water to the bikes





and giving the kids a ride



the comfy part of the day could start...

Thanks to Dieter and alll the others who made this event possible. Special thanks to the land owners and hunting clubs that permitted us to ride through their land and forests.

(When following Dieter's invitation to our post ride party, some of them asked: "Tell me, is this fun? To throw dirt into each others faces?" Well, it is!)

We were allowed to come back next year. But only if we do a little more riding through the nettles, to put them down.


Have fun!

Patrick

[Stretch]

Wow, sweet!

I have read that off-road riding in Germany is pretty rare, as there are strict laws against trespassing?

Good thing that you were able to work out a ride with landowners in the area.

I think many of us on this side of The Pond take off-roading for granted, since there is such a tremendous amount of undeveloped land in the USA and Canada.

Thanks for the report and keep up the good work!

[fano]

Nice!!!
That looks fun. It is interesting how you could make it day before in 4 1/2 hours and next day with the large group it took all 9 hours. We had the similar experience in our Tiger Ride-In. Still it is fun for all. :D

[Patrick]

How about some moving pictures?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qov_f6cgSEE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qov_f6cgSEE)


Have fun!

Patrick

[WIDGIN]

Nice ride report.  Looks like a lot of fun in the mud and waterholes and no doubt quite challenging for the larger bikes.  8)  Glad to see at least one Tiger ran the distance.    

[abruzzi]

I love the silver steamer with the 21" front from a KTM:

http://tigertriple.com/forum/index.php/topic,3381 (http://tigertriple.com/forum/index.php/topic,3381)

Geof

[Mudhen]

AWESOME - as always, Patrick!!