Nürburgring; August 2004
The Plan
Like me, most bikers have heard of Nürburgring (Ring) and we decided that the Nürburgring would be a good objective for a week’s ride across France. The only time we’ve been to a racetrack is to watch others race but, hey, how difficult can it be? How naïve I was!
Chris, my wife, and I decided we would stay in French B&Bs (or Chambres et tables d'hôtes) along the way. As we’re Poole based, the plan was to take the ferry midweek to Cherbourg and ride East across France and Luxembourg to Germany stopping off at a couple of B&Bs on the way. We would then spend the weekend at the Ring and return by roughly the same route once more stopping off at a couple of French B&Bs.
We pre-booked the ferry and all the B&Bs on the Web. (I find it’s easier to compose an email with a French dictionary nearby than to try and hold a conversation with a French speaking person on the end of a telephone.)
Cherbourg to Hotel Wilhelmshöhe
Wednesday 11th August, we took the fast ferry from Poole at 7:30 am and were in Cherbourg by 10:45 am. We rode down to Caen, east through Rouen towards Beavauis to Savignies. We’ve never stayed in a French B&B before and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. In comparison with British B&Bs they are generally cheaper and you get a lot more. The first B&B we stopped at was a farm in a small place called Savignies near Beauvais, about 55 miles north of Paris. The room was large with a mandatory en-suite and had 5 beds, one double and three singles, two of these up some stairs amid the large oak rafters. It’s not unusual at French B&Bs for everyone staying there to have dinner together and we had dinner with the farmer, his wife and two other French couples who were staying there. We managed to have a good chat, us with our smattering of French and the others with their smattering of English. We really enjoyed our night there, room cost around £27 and dinner for two with wine around £15. Not bad at all!
We left Savignies and took the N31 through Compiegne and Soissons to Reims. On arriving in Reims, the rain, which had been threatening all day decided to open up. I immediately headed for a McDonalds but was thwarted by the Reims road system and ended up doing an unplanned tour of Reims. The only positive note was that we saw the Cathedral. When we eventually made it to McDonalds, the place felt familiar even for a McDonalds and we realised that we had been there some years before on one of our French camping holidays with the kids!
We left Reims and took the D980, the D946 and D947 towards Luxembourg to Montmedy. These were the best roads we rode. The second B&B was in another small place called Charency Vezin close to Montmedy, nestling up against the Belgium border. A very interesting house and another pleasant stop over with dinner.
We left Charency Vezin in the rain and headed towards Luxembourg. After making an unintended excursion through Belgium we quickly passed through Luxembourg to Germany where we were treated to the soaking of a lifetime. We’ll always remember riding across an elevated section of the autobahn in torrential rain surrounded by black clouds and the bike misfiring. It’s the only time the bike has ever missed a beat. Once again we took refuge in a McDonalds.
When we emerged from McDonalds the rain had stopped and we returned to the Autobahn to continue our journey. A German rider and his pillion on a BMW went flying by us and I took the hint and decided I would see what the old CBR was capable of. Chris seemed to take it all in her stride. After all, we were on a German Autobahn and everyone seemed to be getting ‘excited’ as we got nearer the Ring.
We eventually rolled up to the Hotel Wilhelmshöhe located at a place with the same name. A couple run it, and the wife is English. As Chris and I know barely of word of German this made communications much easier. The hotel is well run and popular with Ring regulars. Chris and I found the place very comfortable and the food was great. All at what we thought was a very reasonable price too. Surprisingly, we found the Ring ‘petrol-head’ regulars staying at the hotel to be very interesting and likeable. They were all passionate about the Ring and the hardware they used to go on it. There were two groups of motorcyclists, one of six and one of two. The group of six were very professional, some them transporting their motorcycles by trailer complete with spares and a selection of tyres.
Moselle and Koblenz
On Saturday morning it was raining hard so we decided to go to Koblenz to look around the town. The Moselle region is very pretty and we passed through the Cochem with its fairy tale castle and a vineyard covered valley on the way there. It stopped raining in Koblenz and on the way back the sun came out so we decided to go to the Ring. The Ring seems to have its own microclimate and as we approached the sky become dull and rain clouds once more appeared. Being in the middle of a forest, the Ring was very wet and damp. A friendly Brit advised us that the track was ‘bloody lethal’ and not to go on it. As he seemed to know what he was talking about we took his advice and left to meander our way back to the hotel. Later that night, we discovered that two of the eight motorcyclists staying at our hotel had come off at the Ring trashing their bikes and, in one case, breaking his arm. (Embarrassingly, he gave it too much throttle at the start and crashed in front of the crowded car park.) We also heard that a Brit in a BMW M3 had had a very bad crash and was in hospital with serious injuries. (Hope he’s OK now.) Apparently he had overturned his car and took the roof off as the car slid along the Armco for few hundred metres. Rumor has it that when he gets better he’s facing a £15,000 bill for damage to the track and loss of revenue to the track whilst it was closed.
Finally, A Lap Of The Nürburgring
Come Sunday the sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day and, although I am not so confident after the previous day’s happenings, I am thinking that today is the day to lap the Ring. Unfortunately, one of the other motorcyclists from the group of six joins us for breakfast and tells us that he’s had enough and he’s going home after seeing his mate crash in front of him the previous day. All the bravado has now gone and I am definitely wondering whether it is a good idea to go around the Ring. Chris is also feeling a bit anxious about it all. Trouble is, how can I go home without doing a lap?
We go down to the Ring and it is absolutely packed out with bike and car ‘petrol-heads’ from near and far. It seems that I was not the only one to pass on the Ring yesterday and now the sun is out today they’re all here ready to go. We go into the car park and you cannot help but tune into the adrenalin buzz as everyone waits to take his or her turn on the Ring. But, the Ring is closed again. Another accident. We wait and the car park fills until the gate into it is closed. The Ring opens again and a great swarm of bikes and cars descends on it.
I wait 15 minutes, leave Chris in the car park, buy a ticket and join the queue of bikes waiting to enter the Ring. Am I the only one wearing Gortex with a luggage rack? Yes, everyone else is on a sports bike clad in leather one-piece suits. I put my ticket in the barrier, it opens and I am off on my lap. I had never been on a track before then and, unlike others I know, I had not watched videos of the Ring or gone around it on a Playstation. The track twists and turns with plenty of blind summits and the short strip of grass preceding the Armco and trees made the track look as unforgiving as it reputation says it is.
The Ring is around 14 miles long with 172 corners (88 right-handers and 84 left-handers) and plenty of blind summits in between the corners. To be frank, I don’t remember much about it. I was too busy following the track and trying to keep to the right out of everyone’s way (as they were all going faster than me). I remember a guy on a bike with a pillion overtaking me at some ridiculous speed and lean angle on a bend. I also remember overtaking a coach and a guy who crashed his Kawasaki in front of me and nothing else! And I do remember the banked carrousel. I also remember a ‘mad ass’ in a BMW car overtaking me on the last corner sliding sideways with its tyres screeching. I haven’t a clue how fast I went because I didn’t get a chance to look at my speedo.
When I rejoined Chris (worst job, waiting) back in the car park my emotions were a bit mixed up. I was glad to have done my lap but I also now knew how dangerous the place is. I was contemplating doing another lap when the Ring was closed, yet again, owing to three separate accidents. It was very busy that day and apparently there are weekends like ours when it seems the Ring is closed more often than not. Relieved to have done my one lap we left the car park and soaked up the atmosphere of the Ring. There is a lot going on around the Ring and it was a great day. It must be the ‘petrol-head’ capital of the world?
What's It All About?
What do we think of the Ring? It is a very dangerous place if you don’t know what you’re doing and it’s dangerous if you do know what you’re doing. Bikes and cars do not mix well on a racetrack. Their acceleration, braking and cornering characteristics are totally different meaning they often get in each other’s ways, especially when there are people going for lap times as many are. (Thanks to people like Jeremy Clarkson.) We have respect for the ‘petrol-heads’ riding bikes and driving cars that have the skill to ride and drive it well. I will not go so far as saying never again but I know my limitations and it is a track to be treated with extreme respect from what we saw.
Monday morning and it is with great sadness we left our hotel. The sun is not exactly shining but it’s not raining either. We head back through Luxembourg (and a bit of Belgium again) to a village called Lavannes just outside Reims. Another comfortable B&B but no dinner offered at this one so we go into Reims to get something to eat, a McDonalds again. We get ripped off at the local Tabac but as far as France is concerned that was the exception rather than the rule. We race back from Reims to the B&B with a huge black storm cloud behind us. Just after we park up the bike in the farmer’s shed at the B&B the cloud opens up with big hailstones! Can this really be August?
Tuesday we make a long haul to a B&B south east of Caen at a place called Berville L'Oudon. A white-van man almost got us going through Rouen. (My fault for looking too late.) The B&B’s a horse riding place rather than a farm. It’s nice enough but for our tastes it’s a tad too manicured. We spend a comfortable night there and on Wednesday 18th August we slowly wind our way up the Cherbourg peninsula beset by occasional heavy rain showers. On the way we take in some of the D-Day sites. It was the 50th anniversary so it was very busy. In Cherbourg we did what all French bikers do and parked up the bike on a pavement beside a café. We sat in the sun having something to eat and drink whilst we waited for the ferry. We boarded the ferry at 7:00 pm and we were back in Poole 10:15 pm.
We had a great if rainy holiday across France and I did my one lap of the Ring. Over the week we covered around 1500 miles on our CBR.