MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY
I picked up the KTM from Ralf at Allround Vermietung about 0800. I rode it around town for a while to get used to riding on the right hand side of the road, and left about 10:00 because I had an appointment in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.
Boris had told me that Bernhard from Iwan-Bikes had lent him a Victory when he rode to Serbia a few years ago, and that I should visit him.
“If I buy him lunch,” I asked, “do you think he will recommend some good roads?”
“He certainly will”, said Boris. “I’ll tell him that you’re coming.”
I told the GPS to avoid highways. Pfaffenhofen was about 45 minutes away doing that, but I missed some turns from concentrating on riding on the right rather than staring at the GPS and got there a bit before midday.
I introduced myself to Bernhard and said I was there to buy him lunch, and he said he wanted his girlfriend Katrina to come as well, and I said that was a good idea.
Katrina was busy until 1300, so Bernhard showed me the dealership (Indians, Royal Enfields, Urals and Mashes) and his sidecar manufacturing business; and then he said he would take me for a nice ride before lunch.
The Iwan-Bikes sidecar showroom
It’s very scenic around Pffafenhofen. It’s one of the world’s largest hop growing regions, and there are a bunch of winding roads through the hills past the hop farms. We spent a diverting hour on them. I can report that the KTM 990 comes out of corners as hard as you would expect.
Now all we need is water, yeast and wheat.
We arrived back in time for Katrina to join us for lunch. We all got on our bikes and rode to a restaurant about ten minutes away and sat in their beer garden and ordered food and beer.
I asked why the GPS told me the speed limit was 100 a lot on the way up but I never saw a sign with “100” on it. Apparently the speed limit is 100 if no other signs apply. It’s 50 in towns, and sometimes there’s a sign, unless it’s lower, in which case there’s a sign. Outside towns it’s usually 60, 70 or 80, with a sign. Sometimes there’s one of those numbers with some diagonal grey lines through, which means that that number no longer applies, which means that the speed limit is 100, unless you’re on an autobahn, in which case you can go as fast as you want to. There’s often no sign coming out of a town but the GPS says I’m in a 100 zone and the other drivers go 100. I asked how you know where the town ends and they gave me pitying looks and said there’s no more town.
We had a tasty long lunch and told each other stories and they told me great places to go and said they would give me a map when we got back. Bernhard and I discussed our favourite whiskys, and he told me about his bike ride to Scotland and how one of the distilleries had a warning sign nearby that said “DANGER: WATER”. I told him I particularly liked The Balvenie, and he said he did, too; but one of the serious Scots on the trip called it breakfast whisky.
The bill came and Bernhard pulled out his wallet, and I said hey, I’m paying, and he said no you’re not, you’re my guest. So I said thanks and we went back to the shop. Bernhard pulled out a big map of Bavaria and Switzerland and the top bit of Austria and the left bit of the Czech Republic and he and Katrina showed me the good roads.
Bernhard and Katrina. Iwan-Bikes. You should go there and buy something.
I’d planned on going to another Deutsches Museum branch at the airfield at Oberschleissheim to meet the Fokkers, but lunch and sidecar inspection had taken way longer than expected and the GPS said it was closing soon. I got back to the rental place after 18:00 and said I put a hundred and fifty kilometres on the 990 today and I was going to put another three hundred or so on it tomorrow and that drive chain looks pretty loose.
Ralf agreed and adjusted it.
The weisswurst I had for lunch was filling. I decided I’d skip dinner. I went back to the hotel, went online and arranged to have a bottle of The Balvenie shipped to Bernhard.
Breakfast is important.
About the Author
Al Al does a bit of everything, and likes hanging around with Boris, because there are generally motorcycles and whiskey, and because hilarity generally ensues. He wastes his spare time not moderating the BIKE ME! forums, where he posts occasionally and is regarded as unfair, unbalanced and unmedicated. Shows how much THEY know.
