I took this photo in 1986 traveling around New Zealand on a Honda CB400 when I was 26 and without a worry in the World. I had just left Germany with a backpack and was on my way to Sydney to travel by motorbike around Australia.
I was a fighting fit 66kg in those days, today (2019) I am 93kg+ and my Wanderlust diet may have had something to do with it. On this glorious occasion I had ordered just about everything from the menu of a Take Away cart on the side of the road manned by a very large Maori woman. When I had finished my order she asked me deadpan “Would you like a six pack (… of beer …) with that?” with her best big belly laugh.
I always liked to get around on two wheels, starting in 1975 with my trusty Zündapp Moped I manage to tune to twice its legal limit of 25km/h (most of my mates got their Puch Maxi up to 60-70km/h – a well known fact to the local police while I managed to stay “under the radar” as it were) …
… to my ‘elegant’ Zündapp Scooter my mates called “the ambulance” for obvious reasons – no tuning possible – I tried everything (!) …
… and my beautiful Honda CB500 I fell in love with and cleaned and polished every single day, my mates would ask “… have you licked under the oil pan today?…” – which sounds so much funnier in German …
The motorcycle chick on the right is my dear late mum who worried herself sick when I went out with my friends on “motorcycle tours” (aka mad racing around the country side).
The only bike without my own photographic record was a completely crazy competition KTM250 Moto-Cross (36hp, 96kg wet) I could entice to a wheelie in 6th gear. I had it for 12 month riding in winter across military exclusion zones with phosphor bomb mine fields close to my home.
The things you do when you are 18 and plain stupid …
In 1980 I discovered the joys of more sedate touring when I bought a 1977 R75/7, a bike I still ride today.
“Sedate” still meant scraping the cylinder heads whenever I got the chance (I stopped that when I got married and the kids came along during the 90’s).
I had a lot of fun with that bike – riding around Canada, USA and Mexico with my good friend Lothar in 1984. We had the bikes with us on the plane from Frankfurt to Vancouver and flew them back from Toronto the day before Christmas.
In 1986 I left Germany with a back-pack for good and hired a R65 in Sydney and took it around Australia clock-wise, while my R75/7 was on its way from Hamburg to Auckland.
– draining the boots and wringing the socks
(every 30min or so)
In 1988 I flew my R75/7 from Wellington to Melbourne and that’s where the bike is today. My last big ride was in 2010 solo Melbourne to Birdsville via Innamincka and back down the Birdsville Track into SA – 5,000km mainly dirt in 10 days and a wonderful experience.
Now (9/2018) I have permission from Anne to go on my “retirement” ride for ~three month April-July 2020 flying the bike to Korea, taking the ferry to Vladivostok and riding the Transiberian Highway to St Petersburg and on to Murmansk, Nordkapp, Tromsoe, Bergen, Hamburg and my hometown Paderborn in Germany.
There was an Alternative Plan B taking in some of the ‘Stans’, Iran and Turkey. I decided against it at the end for a number of reasons:
1) I read about the border/visa trouble just about guaranteed and my tolerance for bureaucracy is virtually non-existent.
2) 50deg in the shade during July in Iran is not my idea of fun (if I really want it, I can have it closer to home in Australia).
3) In any case, I have completed ‘Russian for Beginners 1 and 2’ currently doing 3 with hopefully 4 and Intermediate to follow. It is hard work, but also a lot of fun!
Я понимаю немного русский
(I understand a little Russian).
At the end a 12 month period of preparation came to nothing as in March 2020 I found out that the South Korea to Vladivostok ferry was bankrupt and while I managed to get the last space in a container Melbourne-Vladivostok for the bike – it was all over Red Rover due to COVID in April.
A year later I decided to get a different type of transport – the legendary Toyota LandCruiser 78 TroopCarrier 4.5Ltr V8 and to my great surprise the build in Japan and delivery took less than 4 weeks while any other type of new Landcruiser had 9+ month delivery times and the price for used ones was going through the roof in Australia (nobody could travel outside so everybody bought 4WD vehicles new or old and did Australia travel).
With this vehicle I would like to tackle “Plan B” of 2020 once COVID travel restrictions are within reason: Melbourne-Chennai-India-Nepal-Pakistan-Iran-“the Stans”-Turkey-Germany.
I have started to bring the Troopy to Overland specs – more later.