Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Nurburgring - The Nordschleife

My second biking holiday to Germany of 2008 was with a Lancashire IAM group. We were staying at the same bikers hotel, Hotel Zur Post, Klotten, for the whole week, so a very different type of biking holiday from a Winginit Tour. We were also close to the famous Nurburgring too.

This time a mixed group of bikes and mine was the only Wing. No bike to bike communications either and only a few of us had satnav. Of course in these circumstances a Wing tends to be a bit conspicuous and you get a bit of good humoured stick from the other riders, asking which pannier the dishwasher is in, that sort of thing.
The rendezvous was at the Hotel in Germany and the odd rider did make his own way there but most of us took the same overnight Hull to Rotterdam ferry and rode together from Rotterdam to Klotten. This journey is about 270 miles so it is easily achievable in a day, which makes the Mosel Valley a very attractive destination, especially for inexperienced continental motorcycle tourers. It is a very good and fairly easy way to cut your teeth.

Rhine Ferry

As with any Channel crossing however, you almost have to do the first 150 miles on the other side on motorways because the alternative roads near the coast are such a poor biking prospect, especially in Belgium, which with the exception of the Ardennnes is pretty unattractive motorcycling territory altogether.
So the first half of the ride from Rotterdam was on the motorway and because I had put the Tour Leader’s map route into my Garmin before departure, and he didn’t have satnav I ended up leading the ride to Klotten.

I asked before we set off if everyone was happy with a cruising speed 80mph on the motorway and in the absence of objections, set the cruise control and let the Wing get on with it. Then the rain came down and it got a bit chilly, so I opened the foot warmer flaps, selected a notch or two on the heated grips and even put the seat heater on low to maintain my comfort. I had to bear in mind that some of the bikes have small fuel tanks so after 120 miles or so I pulled in for a break (actually my bladder only lasts about that distance these days) only to find that these roughy-toughy IAM riders were all moaning about the discomforts of sustaining 80 in such conditions. It’s OK for you behind that big screen they moaned. “Oh, don’t your bikes have foot-warmers, heated grips and heated seats then?” I asked innocently.

The weather improved for a while for the second half of the route and we stopped for a break at the Nurburgring to get our first peep at that. But the rain came back and we ride the last 20 miles or so in a real downpour. Happily the Hotel Zur Post has a really big garage and we were both expected and greeted, so we could all ride straight into the garage in file, take our wet kit off indoors and hang it in the Hotel’s Drying Room before making our way to the bar for our first refreshment.

Hotel Zur Post Klotten

The Hotel charges were very reasonable (I paid only €58 per night DBB for a single en suite room) and the accommodation was really very good – and the food excellent. The drinks were not too bad either; the hosts spoke excellent English and it was very good value. The only catch, which really didn’t bother me, was that the Hotel is very close to a railway line and freight trains run overnight; if you are a light sleeper ask for a room at the back of the hotel or use your ear plugs. The owner, Klaus, is a very capable rider and he led us all on a ride one day, taking us to places and showing us some really spectacular views we would never have found on our own.

Klotten is a small riverside village in the Mosel Valley, close to Cochem, which one of the bigger tourist towns on the river. The Mosel Valley and its surroundings offers spectacular scenery, interesting towns and villages and wonderful biking roads, far more than you can cover in a week. We rode as a group, in sub-groups and independently during our time there and I found this approach very appealing; it was nice mixture of sharing experiences and doing your own thing.

One of many riverside cafes

Although I did look at the map from time to time and vaguely plan a route for the day, it became much easier and more fun to go here the fancy took me using the satnav. I would ride along the riverside until I spotted some twisties going up one of the side valleys (of which there were dozens) and take it, then ride the high plateau for a few miles and come down another side valley and another set of twisties to find a nice coffee stop along the riverside. Wonderful!

On the Tuesday afternoon we all set off for the Nurburgring, about 20 miles North, all except me with the intention of riding it.  The Nurburgring is a racing circuit with 73 turns and is almost 13 miles per lap.  Although only used for a very limited amount of racing these days, the circuit is maintained in excellent condition and used for a variety of training and testing purposes including by manuafacturers.  It is also, uniquely in the world, open to the public at certain times so that you can turn up with any vehicle (as long as it is roadworthy) and pay per lap to go round as many times as you like.  People do it driving all sorts of vehicles including motorhomes and coaches as well as high performance cars and of course motorcycles – all at the same time. There are rules and the barriers are staffed (so are safety cars, first aid people etc) but the whole thing is remarkably open; you can literally turn up at the barrier driving or riding anything which is road legal, put your ticket into the machine like at a car park and off you go.

The Nurburgring

I had watched one of these public sessions on a previous trip to Germany and seen how hard and fast some people were driving and riding; there is lots of noise from revving engines and screaming tyres and the whole thing looked terrifying. So when all the IAM guys I was with wanted to ride the circuit, many with wives on the back, I thought they were mad and chickened out. I volunteered to take pictures as they passed by instead. So I watched and I took pictures; they all survived unscathed and had clearly enjoyed it enormously, including the pillion passengers. I ended up feeling I had missed out on quite an experience.

Come Friday, our last full day in Germany, I had decided to go back to Nurburgring and try it for myself. One of the other riders kindly offered to accompany me. The public sessions are from 5pm to 7pm and while Tuesday evening had been relatively quiet, on Friday lots of weekend warriers had turned up and the waiting area was heaving with all sorts of souped-up cars and lots and lots of sports bikes. The main reason for my reluctance to ride the circuit on the Tuesday had been that it seemed to me that doing so would invalidate both my bike’s insurance (brand new airbag model GoldWing) and my travel and medical insurance – so if I crashed the bike on the circuit (and assuming I survived!) it would work out very expensive to get the bike and myself home. However I managed to persuade myself that you only live once and this was an experience not to be missed (and Management was back in UK) so I went for it.

The Nurburgring

The plan was to ride two laps, one to get to lie of the land and learn how to keep out of trouble, the other one, hopefully, to enjoy the experience. Mark, my companion, would lead at a safe pace and he briefed me to keep an eye on the mirror almost continuously and whenever anything appeared, move over to the right to let it pass. If I didn’t do this they would overtake anyway and anywhere, so it was safer to take active steps to keep out of their way. The whole thing sounded terrifying and impossible to enjoy. Off we went, in my case heart in mouth and buttocks tightly clenched.

Mark took it very steadily indeed and, as it turned out rather too slowly for comfort because anything and everything was overtaking us and I felt vulnerable, permanently installed in the right side gutter as these screaming cars came past, sliding all four wheels around the bends. I didn’t notice any Trabants overtaking me but it might well have happened. There was certainly a car with roof box went past at what seemed a very sedate pace. My lap average speed was probably about 40 mph! Nevertheless we survived the experience unscathed and as we took the slip road back into the waiting area I began to feel that at least it was possible to get round the circuit alive, which I hadn’t been sure of before we started. Back in the parking area we agreed that again Mark would lead but this time at his own riding pace and I would follow, but not necessarily try to keep up with him. I had ended up with the ticket in my pocket after our first lap, so I went through the barrier first and left the ticket on top of the machine for Mark to use next, as Mark had done for me first time around.

Traffic on the Nurburgring

Mark had a video camera which he had mounted on the rear of his bike, so he had filmed me following him the first time around and planned to do so again, providing of course that I could keep up with him. Unfortunately the Barrier Attendant spotted Mark’s camera as he made to follow me through, so instead of being allowed to do so Mark was pulled out of line, sent to the naughty corner and given a serious talking to. His ticket was blocked and he was banned for 24 hours. It seems that there are rules about using cameras and they had ways of making you face the music if you broke them.
Meanwhile I had gone through the barrier and pulled over to the right to await Mark. I saw him being prevented from coming after me but didn’t realise why; I assumed it was a ticketing problem, so I waited. Eventually however I worked out that I was on my own – and with no easy way of going back. So off I went, all on my own.

I took it gently to start with, although I did go quite a bit faster than on my first lap, finding a speed which felt relatively safe, allowing me get out of the way of overtaking traffic but, because I was going faster, encountering less of it, so in between attacks from the rear I could actually line up for the bends, taking something much closer to the racing line. I even began to enjoy myself. I even managed to scrape the footpegs on a couple of bends once I started to feel comfortable about being able to spot the overtakers quickly, so as to be able to get out of their way without a panicky moment.

The Nurburgring presents bends in very challenging combinations, far more so than ordinary roads. Sometimes the bends involve fairly steep rises and falls too, and there is even banking on two of the bends. The circuit certainly keeps your attention focused but it is also extremely enjoyable to ride for a biker. There is only one straight, near the finish, and otherwise you are handling the bike in and out of an almost continuous flow of bends, some open and fast, some really quite tight and slow – but all very enjoyable. There can be no equivalent experience using ordinary roads, even on the most daunting of Alpine passes, because the Nurburgring is purpose-made to provide challenging combinations of bends. You cannot hope to learn the circuit and start to lap with speed and consistency in only a few laps of course, you would have to spend quite a lot of time there to start achieving that. And quite a lot of money too; I thought the price was quite reasonable for the facilities they provide, but it still costs about €20 per lap.

Did I enjoy the experience? Yes I certainly did, especially the second lap, even though I would probably have aborted it after Mark was stopped if I had been free to do so. In retrospect however I have no regrets, I really enjoyed riding the Nurburgring and it was a lot less hairy than I anticipated, even when I was being overtaken once every few seconds. Next time I go touring to the Mosel, which I certainly hope to do again soon, I may well ride the Nurburgring again.

Spending a week in one hotel on a biking holiday was a first for me and I enjoyed it very much. I paid over the odds for the Ferry because I booked it relatively late but if you plan ahead a bit more and book the Ferry early, a biking holiday for a week using the Hotel Zur Post in Klotten is a very affordable way to visit that area. Staying in one hotel is a more relaxing and a more flexible way of taking a motorcycling holiday than the Winginit approach, not least because you ae not packing and unpacking every morning and night. But both types of holiday have their strengths and weaknesses and I like to do both when I get the chance.