3*1250 GS’s France 🇫🇷 & Germany 🇩🇪 Episode 2.

The Ramblin’ Men annual trip following on from last year’s Britain Bikes & Banter tour, for 2024 we go to The Black Forest visiting Arras and Nancy on the way, returning via Verdun and Arras. All three riding BMW GS 1250’s (one a GSA). Good weather, great fun; join us for the inevitable banter.

[Music] please do me a spell what’s the spell luminous luminous please do me a spell elimination that’s your [Music] man good morning everybody and welcome back it is Sunday 25th of August and we are now heading out of non SE plugged in a route into caloto to take us to Gengenbach in Germany so we’re going over from France Germany today we’re going to be traveling through the vog uh hotel is stopping point for two nights looks like a nice hotel on the edge of the black forest and NY had 110,000 inhabitants genger back has about 11,000 so about 10% of the population of n SE today it’s 17° which is half of the temperature that we came in on yesterday at 35° 34 35 it was swelteringly hot and a finished up with a massive thunderstorm last night and looking at the news this morning there’s a fair bit of uh wreckage caused by storms across France yesterday so that has cleared the air fortunately and dropped the temperature significantly it’s forecast to rise from 17° up to about 23 which will be very very pleasant this is where caloto comes into its own these roads we certainly wouldn’t have found it taken more direct route probably some lovely Countryside it’s very quiet and a Sunday morning I’ve noticed for these little Villages the actual name of the village on the sign is upside down now this isn’t just one there’s numerous unless is a phantom sign Turner which is a bit bizarre but there’s got to be a reason we need to find out what that reason is just set of Interest plan the routs of breakfast this morning shared it by WhatsApp clicked on it of course we’ve all got exactly the same routes and you can see mine just is linked seamlessly to chiggy so after all the faf we’ve had over the years with Gins and sharing routs for Garmin that doesn’t necessarily work it’s slightly different I know it’s pretty basic but for bikers you think this had happened a lot sooner than it has but for once we’re all tring the same route and it’s all working very nicely fingers crossed it stays that way first two Villages I’ve seen after I talk about signs being upside down of course they’re the right way up another sleepy Village on a sunny Sunday morning could be some kind of political protest do you think it’s what some kind of political protest do you yeah right well it’s either some kind of national April’s fool something that they do right every weekend or something not it wasn’t my imagination was it no there’s been loads load I didn’t see that but I acknowledged didn’t I went sorry I didn’t see that yeah I did good come on then glorious leader okay come on we’ll find you a coffee somewhere I feel confident okay [Music] so we’re now in the voge after having a little coffee stop taking it very easy today just a gentle ramble through the French Countryside roads have been good weather’s nice temperature it’s now 19° all very good we’ve gone up a 2,000 ft the temperatur dropped 16° some beautiful scenery forests Hills looks like there’s a bit of getting going on around here in the winter so we’ve now just gone into the alas region and as I said we’ climbed up the reasonable weight few bikers out touring locals SE a sign that says this is the monster Valley hoping to get a view of that Valley there you go it’s pretty impressive Rolling Green Hills trees very pleasant open coal colder wetstein wetstein wetstein holder wetstein ah traffics on the main road to Kar this could be an interesting Little Road definitely a few [Music] twisties some pretty houses so might short of sunshine here for power what happens in the winter winter Sunshine right hand twisty just got to make sure you got enough revs ready for being able to carry yourself through the bin the trick is to look where you’re going in advance and not focus on the turn itself so Lo and turn through the bend the bike will follow that was a mistake that should have been in first gear on second there we looking yeah thank you that was a classic well I should have been in first I was in second not not enough revs was fine no problem but you’re much better off being in a a lower gear with higher revs that’s when the mistakes okay you end up with too low revs too too low speed revs drops and you stall stall the bike that’s when you drop it very rare I’ll use a quick shifter between one and two do find a bit clunky on the old BMW well these boys are local aren’t they what like it anyway from the second quick shift is great third fourth and as the bikes got more miles on the downshift is working better than it it used to which is nice the other thing I learned after being on the motoride out strip is to carry higher revs you’ve got four all control of the bike with higher revs there an education that trip and if you’ve not seen that video was in 2022 BMW motor trip of the Alps I learned quite a lot on that trip largely from the tour leader Rob great guy really Talent Rider followed him uh a couple of occasions on that ride and yeah I learned a lot terms of the line and particularly uh using the gears and higher reps really I think the the bike’s screaming at you but it’s not it’s it’s well within its capabilities this is definitely a definitely a caloto route a normal route would have taken us directly into Kar um I was thinking could do with a bit of lunch is it worth going direct I’m really pleased we didn’t missed out on this which is lovely [Music] n n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] oh wow that looks like a War Cemetery Memorial dear L what’s up what’s up you know what’s up what’s up with him you nuisance what’s up to leaving his engine Roney about 10 miles that way there would have been a perfect lunch slot up it was by the chair lift yeah I S it was too busy so what is that Cemetery then German Graves black crosses there’s no significance of that Allied Graves white crosses really yeah happens all over Normandy do you know i’ never knew that now if you go there there’s a book so if you so if you are um are they all um unknown as well no no no they got names on have they yeah every one of them and they the Germans and and what they did in the uh in the first world war so you’ll see um you know gunsmith uh oh okay amazing food so it’s a first world war first war yeah there was a huge pointless battle that was it’s all it’s all over there it’s a really pointless battle where tens of thousands died um but no strategic game whatsoever amazing and every one of those is marked and there’s a little book in a little sort of box over there so if you were Ian Bennett Bennett Berg you go you know Granddad bendit BG and they’ll give you 17 oh wow so you can go up and Stand by Your Grave by your grave and reflect upon those times that you would have had what significant is the age the battle D it’s like 16 year olds 17 year olds 19 year olds they’re all all babies what they first that’s what it’s called behind you the B the B the battle batt the LA and there’s a big M just down there [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that was an impromptu lunch or snack stop we ended up having a mergo sausage which I’ve never had before and absolutely delicious apparently it is lamb and paprika sausage lovely spicy sausage with a bit of ketchup definitely filled the Gap and we’re now going to skip Kaa another great backdrop alas Vineyards here temperatur risen to 23° so we have now crossed the border into Germany temperature still 23° just filled up with fuel good to go sun is shining the downside of one of those mergo sausages is is I can still taste it so beware [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay we’re now coming into gang and back uh just coming up to 5:00 still 23° Sunshine’s out it’s ready for a bear actually very Green River Hotel son and for1 a night including breakfast here is the room very nice no lifts unfortunately but we just got to climb four little flights of stairs which is a bit of a challenge um very pleasant very pleasant indeed shower toilet you go again very clean and the benefit of that is we get key this little tab here this little tab what does that do what it opens your room but also it opens the garage for underground parking for our bikes so bikes are safe and secure it’s a lovely little place so boys are gone down for a beer I refuse to go down in my motorcycle gear I’m changing into shorts so there we go come and join us for a bear every mile after there eight I can’t did yeah of course but you didn’t know there was eight so how many miles uh left had you got in your tank 63 63 63 left in the tank with 4 to Resort and he insisted that we leave the route to find pedrol no that’s not true true um I had uh 57 you told me how many you had you were saying how have you got 96 still and I’m on 66 you got 40 acres and I got 23 you’re going to the corn is going as a result gear around the hair of that going on today so and this is the problem so you’re getting great uh fuel economy um and that’s why I’m I’m low on Miles have you ever run out of fuel yes when twice when once when I was 16 so that’s 70 years ago you do the best just hang on to those thoughts yeah go on when twice listen we all know no answer the question well actually run out of fuel you’ve never run out of fuel no one ever runs out of fuel it’ be stupid to do that but I to be honest I nearly to be honest if you it’s filling up every K ex you never going around are you do you want to fill up tomorrow morning say this so do you want to fill up tomorrow morning before we go he prob does fair In fairness the proximity of that super you took all the window out myself well the combination of all of all the technology we have and the um the triangulation of It Go G although of the eight stations that we passed through of them were cash only manned not automatics so AR yeah please do me a spell what’s the spell luminous luminous please do me a spell Griffin let’s go lumination that’s your man I’ve never done this hot standand thing before no you not no it’s good we’ve got one at home we’ve got one at home you got one at home yeah and what’ you do with the stone then you want what you do with it well Stone he the stone heat yeah but where did you heat the stone in the the one we’ve got is there the heating element underneath the stone okay bit like the ones you get in the out great right so we got three types of potatoes yeah stick them in the middle cuz that would be nice that’ be like a um doen was the this be appropriate for what these glasses with the shirt so you you match your glasses to your shirt well look um ni [Applause]