Europe Tour and Speedway Grand Prix

[Millietant]

Those of you who frequent the FaceAche FJ groups, might already know of this, I recently got back from a 9 day tour of Europe (7 and a 1/2 days of riding), ostensibly to watch the Speedway World Championship Round in Gorzow Wielkopsky, Poland....but also just to get back to my favourite riding place in the world - the Black Forest, in South West Germany.

So, in true Dean "War and Peace" format, is a little note of our trip, with as many photo's as I can fit in.

2,700 miles covered, on 3 1989 FJ 1200's, with my riding friends Pete and Chris.

Most of our friends and VJMC colleagues thought we were crazy to take 36 year old bikes for the trip, especially as Chris had only recently bought his FJ for the princely sum of around $550 and Pete picked his up around Christmas for $1000. Preparation in general took the form of an oil and filter change for all 3, new tyres for Chris's bike and the fitting of luggage kits (second-hand from eBay).

Ready to leave from home



As it turned out, the bikes (as I knew they would be) were ideally suited to a mix of long days, motorways and the twistiest roads I could find !!

Our route took us across the North Sea by ferry (12 hours) to Rotterdam, where we headed across to Eastern Germany for 516 miles on the first day abroad, ending up at our hotel in Leipzig and meeting up for dinner with another friend from home Grant (on his BMW 1250 GSA), who was also on a tour to a different part of Poland (having left the UK the day before us). The day was quite eventful, as we encountered our first (and only) significant issue of the trip - the fuel pump on Chris's bike failed completely. Luckily we were able to cruise into a service area and after identifying the issue, we removed the fuel pump and replaced it with the fuel filter (zip tied where the pump lived), and connected the main fuel line straight from the fuel tap to the filter. This meant we could get Chris's bike running, but we weren't sure what the running issues might be - fortunately, the bike ran perfectly, except for the fact that it started to cut out if Chris let the fuel level get below about 1/3 of a tank. So, for the rest of the trip, we stopped around every 110 miles to refill the bikes.







From Leipzig, we headed south east into Poland to Oswiecim (380 miles), which is where the Auschwitz Birkenau Nazi Concentration/Extermination Camps were, during WW2. This was a very sobering place, giving huge cause for reflection and somewhere that really makes me thankful for the service and sacrifices of "the greatest generation" during WW2. By this time, we had covered around 1000 miles (in 48 hours), in scorching heat and I noticed my clutch beginning to feel like wasn't disengaging properly, so a quick 30 second "bleed" was needed to get things back to normal (this is not unusual when I cover lots of miles in high temperatures on my FJ - I think I might fit an Oberon slave cylinder in the next couple of weeks).










Next we headed north west to Gorzow Wielkopski (335 miles) for the Speedway Grand Prix round there and a rest day, to support our local hero Dan Bewley. In a stadium the size of a small football stadium, packed with people, the atmosphere was fantastic - a full party atmosphere, with activities and events going on most of afternoon and evening to keep the fans entertained. The racing was superb, close, fast, exciting and Dan finished in 3rd place, behind local favourite Bartosz Zmarzlik and the winner, Brady Kurtz of the USA.

On the ride up to Gorzow, Pete had noticed a strange noise and rough feel from his FJ and checking his chain showed it be both dry and badly needing adjustment. As we had a day of not riding, all 3 chains were treated to a good soaking in lube and Pete's was adjusted (problem solved) - mine and Chris's chains didn't need any adjustment yet. I'd also noticed that my bike's starter motor was beginning to sound a bit lazy when firing up the bike and as my (lead acid) battery was 8 years old and we were staying only 1/2 a mile from a Yamaha dealer (and local battery warehouse), common sense dictated that I take the chance and fit a new battery - especially as they are about 1/2 the price in Poland that they are in the UK. While we were at it, a quick oil top up was done, my bike didn't need any, Chris and Pete's bikes took about 200mls each.









After a rest and the Speedway, we headed south west to Berlin and then on to the Colditz Castle WW2 Prisoner of War camp - famous for being inescapable - or so the SS thought !! - before settling for the night at our hotel in Zwickau (300 miles). Colditz has an Escape Museum dedicated to the ingenuity and dedication of the prisoners. They tried climbing the walls, tunnelling, impersonating laundry collection staff, impersonating Nazi officers, all successfully - and they even built a glider in the rafters of the castle, which was ready to be used when the Camp was liberated in 1945. Those guys were totally inspired !!!









Leaving early the next morning, we headed south west again, via Nuremberg and Stuttgart to Furtwangen in the Black Forest, where we met up a couple lovely people from Bayern, who were also on FJ 1200's (one 1TX and a 3CV, in the same colours as our 3 FJ's  ) and then up the famous Schwarzwald Hohe Strasse/D500 to our Hotel in Schonwald im Schwarzwald (370 miles). This area is heaven for motorcycles and this was evidenced by the number of bikes on the roads, even though it was a normal working Monday.









The next morning dawned beautiful and bright, so we got up early and went out to explore some of the Black Forest twisties before breakfast. After a couple of hours we returned for breakfast, packed up our kit and headed north to Luxembourg. Our route took us along the D500, D33 and then some seriously twisty back roads to Bad Peterstal Griesbach, before we folwed the D28 back to meet up with the D500 and followed that to Baden Baden - the highlights of our trip, to me. From Baden, we headed across the Rhine into France and took the scenic roads to Hagenau and Bitche, then onto Sarreguemines (back into Germany), Saarbrucken and Merzig. From Merzig we followed the river Saar valley up to Trier (a fantastic curving, sweeping, high-speed run) and then up to Bitburg (home of the Bitburger Pilsner Beer). A road closure at Bitburg (the 4th we'd encountered on our journey that day) meant a detour through some more scenic villages and beautiful roads before arriving in the lovely Luxembourg town of Vianden (285 miles). Dinner by the riverside in the old town was excellent and we went to bed ready for the last day abroad and our final journey up to Rotterdam.























After a relaxed breakfast, we adjusted and again lubed the chains on all 3 bikes and topped up the oil again on Pete and Chris's bikes. By this time, we'd noticed an oil weep from Chris's gearchange shaft seal, Luckily it was minor and nothing to worry about, but Chris's bike took 350mls and Pete's only 250mls. Mine took around 150mls just to bring it back up to the full level. We left Vianden and again headed along the twistiest and most scenic roads we could find to our first (and only scheduled) stop of the day in Malmedy, Belgium. This is a lovely little town adjacent to Spa Francorchamps race circuit and after a quick coffee and look around the town, we headed to Francorchamps and did a lap of the "old" roads circuit, before getting back on route to Rotterdam. About 112 miles from our previous fill up, we had our second (unscheduled) stop of the day, when Chris's FJ died on the motorway, as if it had ran out of petrol. Luckily this was again right next to a motorway service area. After removing the fuel pipe to carb and noting it was dry, Chris sucked the pipe briefly and fuel started flowing again, so it was connected back up and we headed strait to the fuel station for our "final Europe fill up" and the last 95 miles to the ferry port at Rotterdam (262 miles covered).







And finally, we arrived back in Rugby



The only minor niggles we'd had over the trip were Pete's FJ occasionally deciding it wanted to be a 900cc triple for a couple of miles (he knows there are a couple of small pin holes in one of his diaphragms and all 4 were planned to be changed once we got back home) and mine seemingly having a stuck float valve for a short period (cured in a couple of seconds with a sharp tap to the float bowl with a small hammer and punch) - as I slowed to a set of traffic lights, I noticed the FJ "stuttering" and could smell fuel, so i pulled over and sure enough, fuel was dripping from the number 3 cylinder overflow pipe. Over the last 36 years, this has happened a couple of times, so I was ready to tackle it - it was solved in around 30 seconds and hasn't happened again since.

My bike used 238 litres of fuel, over the whole 2,698 miles of the trip (including the rides to and from Hull to catch the ferry), for an average of 51.2mpg (imperial), which I consider absolutely brilliant. Chris's FJ used the most fuel (he has standard 17/40 sprockets) at around 10% more than mine at each fill up (so around 46mpg) and Pete's used only slightly more than mine (just under 50 mpg) also on 18/38 sprockets just like mine. I'm now more convinced than ever that Yamaha deliberately geared the FJ lower than optimal to maintain the legendary top-gear-roll-on performance. Chris is going to switch to 18/38 at the next chain change.

What I also find really interesting and heartwarming is that despite both Pete and Chris buying their FJ's very cheaply, with the intention of doing this tour and then probably selling them on, and with both having many other bikes in their garages, including much more modern bikes such as a 2015 R1, 1999 R1, Honda RC51, BMW HP2, Suzuki TL 1000S amongst them - since buying the FJ's, they have become the most used bikes for both of them. Chris in particular has ridden none of his other bikes since he bought the FJ, except to take his 1974 Kawasaki H1 triple for display at a couple of bike shows.

Both now love their FJ's and will not be selling them. In fact both have also caught the moditis bug and upgrades to their FJ's are already underway (both have the 17" YZF 600R Thundercat rear wheel conversions (done by me  ), Pete has the Fazer/FZS 1000 mirrors, both have blue spot brake calipers and Pete yesterday acquired a full FZR 1000 RU USD front end to go on his FJ.

And yes.....we've already started planning next year's FJ Euro-Tour Volume 2 

[Millietant]

Our Mainland Europe routes

[Waiex191]

Dean, awesome trip and report!

[giantkiller]

Thanks for your posts. I really like going along for the ride.

Hey you know what the best mirrors for the 89 are. 86 fj mirrors.
Sorry not the best picture of my 89. But you can see how the are way out sideways around your arms. And look like they belong on the fj.
The angle of the base plate on the 86 is perfect for the 89.

[Millietant]

Thanks Dan,

Those mirrors do give excellent rear visibility  , but I still prefer the FZ1 mirrors. The biggest surprise I've had with them is the reduction in turbulence and wind noise around my helmet, especially at speed.

I think it's to do with the flat profile of the 86 and 89 mirror pods, causing the increased turbulence compared to the rounded profile of the FZ1 mirror pods - and I think they really complement/update the front end styling of the 3CV

[JohnnyTheCraneGuy]

Great trip and awesome writeup!