Prologue

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At friday one by one the contenders arrive. Weather is fine and the view at the Tatra mountains from our hotel, in a small village near Zakopane in southern Poland, is astonishing.


Tatra mountains

The bikes are lined up and except a BMW HP2 Enduro, my Tenere is the only heavy bike and the only All-road bike. All the others are enduro bikes.


who's the fool with that Tenere?

Half of the group are quads; 2 Yamaha Raptors and a lot of Can-Am's 4WD Outlanders and Renegades.

Ahead of us are 8 riding days that will lead us through Slowakia, Hungary, Romania and back to Poland. Most of the stages are about 300km's of which 200km are off-road. 5th day is a day of rest: only 110km.


Most of the stages has a timed 'special'. Speed is not the winning factor, but navigation skills is.

Day 1
Nice ride through Slowakia on sandy or gravel roads through fields, forest and over hills. My mate on his F390 Husaberg leads the way using a Tripy (digital GPS roadbook).
Just before we reach Checkpoint2 at a local MX-track we struggle to find the right path... only to discover there is no path and have to cross straight through a field.
But before we do, we took a direction that lead is into some thick bushes with no other option than to pull out the bikes backwards.
I dropped the Tenere in a hole while attemptinh a U-turn uphill. By the time all front wheels point in the right direction we're soaked in sweat.


I decide to keep it cool ... under the shed

I decide not to take a blast at the MX-track: it's noon and there's still a long way to go. No need to wear myself out with the risk of dropping the bike again.


READY, GET SET, GO!!




somewhere along the track

Wise decision because the last few km's off-road late in the afternoon is a tight an twisty descent on a rutted track.
At that point, when you're alread tired, it becomes quite a struggle to control a heavy bike. The Tenere is at its best at speed, but to do so you need some space ahead.
On a tight track you'll need excellent riding skills or a lot of physical strength and endurance: me not having either of them...


taking a break just after the descent

I did get down the hill but had to take brake for the coming stretch of off-road... which turned out to be only one km....

Day 2
It's rather cold and wet ; a light drizzle spoils part of the fun. I'm wearing my usual all-road outfit, the same I use for every day commuting, so still comfortable in combination with a twist of the heated-grips knob...

The first stretch of liason is forbidden for the heavy bikes due to muddy and slippery conditions so we take the paved road to CP1.
From there it's a nice ride on mostly sandy roads with a patch of mud due to the drizzle... until the second part of the special where we have to plough our way through mud covered country roads through large croplands. The trick is to keep the Tenere at speed, aim for the horizon and direct with your knees against the tank.
My mate on his Husaberg rides a different pace and signals me to take the point... the roaring of the LeoVinces coming up from behind is getting to his nerves...
The mousse tires are battered but provide lots of grip because of that... but even then I drop the bike when taking a peak at the roadbook and release throttle only for a moment. The front end being heavy the bike will 'dive' at such a moment: the front wheel will dig in, bar will slap around and you need to shift weight and/or apply throttle quickly to save it.


a true mud puppy.. .


only a taste of what was ahead of us...

Almost missed CP2 'cos I was blasting along with about 100km/hr and didn't dare to slow down...


finally reached CP2

A bit surrealistic: the guy at CP2 was standing in the middle of a mud plain... wearing cracking white MX-boots and next to a pristine looking Beta dirtbike!!
Must have been dropped by helicopter!! His explanation: "If you ride fast enough the mud will not have a chance to stick...." Yeah... right!

On we go into Romania. There's a warning in the roadbook: "SLOW! BRIDGE IN BAD CONDITION" and I was soon to find out... missed that warning simply because I didn't keep track of the roadbook: I just followed my pathfinder mate with is Tripy. I watched him crossing that bridge and saw how his rear wheel slipped sideways and how he struggled to make it to the other side. My thought was to just blast at speed across... not a good idea... ofcourse both wheels lost traction on the mud covered metal bridge surface... bike fell on its left side... sidestand locked behind a crossbarr and snapped just like that at the bolts.
Did bent the gear lever to.

No further harm done but the sidestand switch was torn off and had to be reconnected and/or bypassed before we could continue. Took me some time to figure out where it should be connected: took off the complete tank looking for that connector only to discover it is located next to the rear brake oil pod...


now where's that switch hooked up...


blood on the fender... and broke my nail too...

Where it happened:
https://maps.google.com/?q=Eastern+E...37165&t=h&z=15

Got it fixed but lost more then an hour and we decided to call it a day. Still had to cover 180km to the hotel. It's 10degrees and wet.
My mate is starving from cold and we need to take a break where he starts jumping around to get some heat in his bone cold body. I just turned up the heated grips a bit more


my mates Husaberg: really nice piece of equipment

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Riding the Mad Mule !! ... no more... went orange...