Day 2 - Brussels to Nuremburg (almost)
Km today: 627
Km total: 1137
Up early, The €8 breakfast didn't live up to the promise the price made, thankfully the continentals know how to do coffee...
On the road there's not much to report, slog it until the fuel light comes on, refuel, rinse and repeat. As we travel further south the snow gets thicker on the ground and we get the occasional blizzard. The wind chill means any moisture on the front of the bike freezes, the screen, the muffs all had a thin coating of ice after a few hours riding.
The pinlock system worked wonders in keeping out the fog, but evcentually it succombed and the ice crystals begin forming on the inside of the visor, gradually working their way up until the view from one of your eyes is completely obscured. Flip the visor up and wipe it away and you're eyeballs feel like they're frozen, then the moisture on your glove covers the whole inside of the visor and blocks your view entirely, I only made that mistake once...
Anyway, somewhere north of Wurzberg we stop for fuel while the snow is falling, at the time it was a novelty as we didn't know this was pretty much going to be par for the course for the next few days:
These were the conditions all the way to Nuremberg, until disaster struck.
Only a kilometre from the hotel we would be staying at that night we come to the end of the highway and stop at some traffic lights, thirty seconds later with the clutch in I hit 1st gear only to get a lurch and stall - the clutch had completely gone, zero pressure!!
Much to the delight of the traffic I wheel the bike over from lane three to the side of the road and set about looking for the problem, there's a smell of mineral oil by the slave cylinder and after some poking and prodding it's obvious the fluid is leaking from the hydraulic hose, where the banjo meets the braided steel.
Thankfully I'd extended my UK breakdown cover to Europe before I left so after a quick call and an hours wait I get recovered to a KTM Roadstar roughly 10km outside the city who were open until 20:00, but only on a Thursday - what luck!
If they know one thing at KTM Roadstar it's customer service, as soon as I arrived a mechanic wheeled the bike off to the workshop and I was greeted with offers of tea and somewhere to sit down, gladly accepted after three hours standing by the side of the road and recovering the bike in the coad weather. After some discussion about parts and times we agreed to remove one of the lines from a 2010 shop floor bike and fit it to mine the following morning. One of the guys who worked there even drove me back to the Motel to save me the taxi fare - awesome!!
As I left the dealer I saw my bike already on the ramp prepped for tomorrow...
Back at Nuremberg a late dinner and a fruitless search for a cash machine were about all I managed before crashing and wondering what would happen tomorrow