Frequent drivers: people and their motorcycles

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Frequent drivers: people and their motorcycles

Frequent drivers: people and their motorcycles
Saddle Festival

On the way to the meeting, no way is too far for them: On a small scale, the spearhead of Germany’s frequent travelers met at an intersection of German-German history. Eight motorcycles then cover 3.6 million kilometers.

Thomas Schmieder

03/11/2009

Siggi is a little disappointed with the durability of his BMW K 75. Because the three-cylinder of the ex-engineer suddenly made complaints: “I was hoping to make it to a million miles with the second engine.” But it’s stupid when a piston ring breaks after 930,000 kilometers. So now the third engine is in, and the clock shows 945558 kilometers, and the number is rising. “Oh well”, says Siegfried Donath modestly, “I don’t drive as much as I used to.”

In his record year of 2000, he had unwound 114,900 kilometers in twelve months. In the meantime, the 74-year-old has calmed down. Jurgen Hereth is Franconian, come on “from the world capital Nuremberg” and his Honda CBX from 1983 hummed a good 675,000 kilometers. “My baby” he calls the six-cylinder affectionately. And takes it almost every day. Even in winter Jurgen only drives in leather, he doesn’t own a rain suit, and certainly not a car. At meetings, he covers the neat CBX with a tarpaulin at night. This is also the case today in Duderstadt-Nesselroden (Gottingen district). Host Thomas Andres, alias Speedy, invited the frequent drivers there. Speedy, who owns a Yamaha XT 500 with 204,061 kilometers and a BMW F 650 GS Dakar, grew up just two kilometers from the GDR border, on the western side.

From the roof of his house he could see the other German republic. “When mines went up, we heard that in the village. They didn’t have to be refugees, sometimes they were deer or rabbits.” Siggi also tells of a past that has been overcome. Like him in 1955, with just under 21 and? Inter-zone pass” in his pocket, left his family in Saxony and started over in the west. Including a new driver’s license and soon afterwards an NSU Max. But the present also offers plenty of material for crackling gasoline conversations around the campfire. Gunter Baron drove here from Hechingen in Swabia on one of his Yamaha TR1s. 1045 kilometers just to be at the meeting for a single evening. A piece of cake, he says. Manfred Moller reports on his Honda XRV 650: “It recently sheared off all of the teeth on the transmission output shaft.” So emergency repair in Portugal: The pinion is now spot-welded on the remaining teeth.

“Lasts for 4000 kilometers, but only until the next chain change.” In total, Manfred’s Africa Twin has now demolished 487,000 kilometers. But today the Hessian is here with his second motorcycle, the bright blue 950cc KTM LC8 Adventure S – with 123,000 kilometers only just retracted. Andreas Gottschalk is also there with his youngster, the Yamaha XJ 900 S Diversion. Special license plate: 147,758 kilometers and retrofitted cigarette lighter. As a smoker you have to set priorities. There are still oldies at home, an SR 500 as “Winter and dirty motorcycle” plus a Kawasaki Z 750 from 1983. But because of chips in the engine oil, the Kawa is temporarily idle after 360,100 kilometers.

The next day, start of the tour along stations of German-German history. Shortly before the once best guarded border in the world, Speedy stops. Only young trees in an endless row tell of the former death strip, which was almost 1,400 kilometers long at the time. And concrete slabs on which IFA trucks, open Trabis and olive-green MZ patrols used to be. “We played games with the GDR border guards, says Speedy. “They drove on the control path along the fence onto their MZ, we parallel to it on the other side with our XTs. Then we accelerated and they tried to follow us. They had to see what happened there. But they always lost.”

With terrain translation, the Emmen just ran 80 things. Erich Zimmermann lives as far away as possible on another German border, namely the one with Switzerland. Over there, people from southern Baden can always fill up their BMW R 1200 GS Adventure cheaply. Quite often despite the huge tank. He has chased the boxer away 203,132 kilometers since March 27, 2007 – over 70,000 km per year. ? One for all, according to the motto Erich drives the 1200 as his only motorcycle even in snow. Bruno Just doesn’t do that to his VFR 750 from 1986. The motorbike-mad Rhinelander still has an RC30 and several vertical shaft Ducatis. Among other things. Nevertheless, the VFR alone has already covered 486,000 kilometers. Christian Stalter collects in the saddle of his 1150 GS Adventure countries. So far, he has raced around 50 states on 249,347 kilometers. He has neatly listed the trips at www.transeurope.de, the forum for motorcyclists who have completed at least 100,000 kilometers on a single machine. On the second evening, Speedy shows in a slide show how he drove the then 25-year-old XT 500 from Paris to Dakar at Christmas 2008. Together with other daring XT drivers on the trail of the first rally from 30 years ago. Just like that, without an escort vehicle. For eating sand and kilometers.

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