The 2010 Superbike Adventure.

After the laps of the Nordschleife



We decided for our 2010 adventure to head back to Germany and visit the Nordschleife. Learning from the 2 previous times weve been this way we decided to break the journey into 2 days, stopping at the Ashford Travelodge on the way. We set a few challenges along the way to relieve the bordom, which was mostly to do with economy, so we recorded the amount of litres of fuel we added on each petrol stop.
Also when we tried to book the hotel on the nordschleife in Adenau, we call Eddies it was full so after a quick search on the internet we came across Sliders Guest House who had a room for us.
On the way to Ashford it chucked it down so were glad of the overnight stop for a chance to dry off. We parked our bikes along side 4 others and turned in for the night.
The following morning we were about to set off to the channel tunnel when I heard a crash. Cols bike was lying on its side pinning Col underneath it.
''What happened I asked?'', Col said
''I forgot the disk lock was still on!''.
We picked him up and checked his bike over but a 2 inch piece of fairing had broken off.
We arrived at the tunnel 5 minutes late and had to wait nearly 2hours for the train as there was a problem with the track, some seaweed on the line or something.
We arrived in Calais to find the weather was sunny so decided against waterproofs. Next stop Belgium. Brussels has always been a problem to navigate around,( read about it in the last 2 trips) but this time I got it right. To be fair its sounds simple its right fork then left fork but the signs around there dont exactly say Germany this way.
It chucked it down, then dried up, and then chucked it down again and we arrived at Dollendorf.
Dollendorf is a nice quiet village. Just in the middle of the main street is Sliders Guest House which we recognised from the picture on the internet.



Sliders Guest House

We were met by Andy, Brendan, Ross and Daisy a Great Dane. Brendan showed us around and we were all impressed with the accomodation.
Sliders is ran by Brendan who is from the UK. We thought this was great as there isnt a language barrier, and the TV is also in English. Andy does repairs to bikes and is based at Sliders. Both Brendan and Andy can be found lapping the Nordschliefe when the weather is dry and can lap in around 7 mins 30 sec, which is very fast.
(clickhere to visit Sliders website you can see some laps from an on bike camera.)
We put our leathers in the drying room and helped ourselves to a coffee, then we heard more motorbikes arrive. Looking out I could see 4 motorbikes, the same 4 that were at Ashford the previous night. So we met Phil, Dave, Mike and Michelle a nice bunch of riders from Cornwall. None of us had eaten so Brendan took us for a meal at a restraunt a few miles away, the mode of transport was a Citroen Burlingo, with a leaky roof, I ve not been in one before and didnt expect that a Burlingo could go that fast, especially with 9 people crammed into it !
The following morning Brendon cooked us breakfast and said he knew a good route to go to Cochem, so we followed his directions and were suprised at how good the B258 was, it was that good we did it twice.



Cochem Cas


Cochem castle stands on top of a hill above the town and the Mosel river. It took ages to find the carpark, but eventually we got there and took the guided tour which was done in German. As I understand the most German of the 3 of us, so I thought I would translate for the others. I know about 2 words a sentance so what I was saying wasnt exactly accurate!
Jon who is about 6' 4'' found a suit of armour that was bigger than him, apparently made for a farmer who was 7' tall !



Jon with 7 foot suit of armour


We then went to the Nordschleife and met the others from the guest house who went out on their 1st lap of the track. There was more traffic than I like it to be, but a good time was had by all. Jon filmed the lap on his hidden helmet cam, but it didnt turn out quite as we expected. Click here to see Jon at over 250kmh



Ready for a lap


The next morning at breakfast, Brendan said he had another route for us to try, this time to Rurberg dam in the national park. The best way to describe it is like a little Switzerland. There is a biker cafe on the edge of the dams and the traffic free, twisty roads are some of the best we have ever ridden on.
Thanks Brendon for pointing us up there!



Rurberg Dam Cafe is behind me

On the way back to Nurburg we had a look at the Südschleife, which is a fairly inknown extension to the Nurburgring. Originally, there was the Nordschleife (North Loop), the Südschleife (South Loop) and the middle called Zielschleife (Finish Loop) which along with most of the Sudschleife was demolished to build the new Nurburgring GP circuit.
The Sudschleife is now a road past the campsites that goes to Mullenbach which is nice and twisty, then you turn off the nicely tarmaced main road and join a derelect bit of tarmac and up a steep hill with some nice banking and covered by trees, before going under the bridges by the new GP circuit and back to the carpark.



Remains of Sudschleife

We had a look at the new buildings and nurburgring experience, which was most impressive before heading to the entrance to the Nordschliefe to have another lap of the Ring which I personally enjoyed better than the previous days effort, Jon, Col, Phil, Mike and Michelle also had another go and Brendon past all of us.
The ride to Sliders was as good as going round the track, there is a bit of everything, open corners, hairpins, hills up and down and very few cars, so we had lots to talk about when we got back.
Once back at the guest house Brendon put some videos from youtube on the TV and some new guest had arrived from Australia. They write for the Australian MCN and were doing a European tour starting from the UK and going to as many places as possible by the sounds of it.. The Cornwall riders joined us so we swapped stories over some beers and then packed for the ride home in the morning.The Cornwall riders were also leaving at the same time, we quickly thought up a new challenge, to beat them back to Ashford and get the best parking spots, which we did!



Theres some tinkering going on here

The Eco Challenge
We filled up with petrol at the garage up the road, and rode to oxford 81 miles away. We took that as our avg mpg.
The challenge was then to get as close to your average everytime we filled up.
in summary Col won 57mpg , Ed 2nd 52mpg, Phill 3rd 51mpg, Jon 4th 49mpg.

Summary
Date:- 7th - 12th Aug 2010
Weather:- 2 wet days, 2 dull days, 2 sunny.
Hotels:- Travelodge Ashford / Sliders Guest House
Miles:- 1300.
Fuel cost per litre:- 1.18p to 1.24p a ltr (14 petrol stations)
EDSBK Riders:- Phill,Col,Jon
Aim:- Lap the Nordschliefe and Südschleife, visit Cochem Castle, ride some new roads.