RIDING DAY 2 : ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER – HEIDELBERG

Riding Day 2: The journey continues! Today I ride from the fairytale town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber to the historic city of Heidelberg. Stunning scenery, winding roads, and a taste of Germany’s charm along the way. Come along for the ride and feel the freedom of the open road!

Riding on day two, Rothembberg of Du de D de D de D de D de D de D de D de D de D de Dur Tur to H highidleberg standard route 189 km 117 mi. So second day of riding we are on our way to H Highleberg uh about 187 km away. Uh going to do a bunch of stops I think at a monastery maybe a covered bridge no doubt some castles. Uh so it should be a good day of riding. Uh, looking forward to it. Um, I’m on a Harley-Davidson 1250. Uh, I guess it’s called a Paname. Um, and we’ll see how it compares to the Ducatti from yesterday. So, that’s Mark right in front of us. Uh, I am 49 LG. That’s Mark. Um, we’re going to try and be the first two riders of the group, but we’ll see how it goes. All right, we’re off on our way to H Highleberg. Uh, but this is the apparently the oldest city in Germany that wasn’t bombed uh during World War II. So, for some reason, and the night watchman did go over why, but I wasn’t really listening. But all of these buildings were not destroyed during the war where every other city we seem to be at, they’ve been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. This city seems to have lasted. So interesting. Uh still has an original wall made out of wood going around the city. So I think this is uh about 600 years old. And I could be making that up, but I believe that’s what I heard. So all of this stuff is older than Munich, etc. So I think this is part of the wall. Uh hundreds of years old. So uh quite cool. Today we will pass through a true fairy tale landscape over the Ben Worthingberg where the famous University of H Highleberg is waiting for us. On the way we will see castles, palaces, monasteries and beautiful halftimbered villages as well as a lot of quiet green countryside. I think we’re going to get there around 4:30 into H Highleberg. Yesterday morning was very hectic. nerves were up there obviously. Uh, one guy did have an incident and his bike fell over in the garage before we’d even started. Um, and so that sort of set the tone for a lot of the morning, at least in my mind. Uh, and then the rider two ahead of me uh had an accident in a corner. Um I guess he wasn’t ready for the road and it dipped down and the Harley sort of fell over and tweaked his knee. He is okay. Um and he is up ahead of us. Um so yeah, yesterday was a was a not the best of uh anything really. Um technical problems, bike issues. Uh but the riding was good. Um the roads here are very smooth for the most part. I see a few patches right here. Um, but that’s to be expected. They don’t use that rubber snake stuff, I don’t think, and cracks in their roads. I also don’t think they get the winter that we do, so maybe there’s no need for it. Uh, they also have an aversion to doing a straight line from point A to point B. So, we are in the middle of a corn field and I see four corners that could have been made into one very straight line very easily. Enjoy the ride. [Music] So for the motorcycle guys, I’m going to compare the two bikes. So the Ducatti had power instantly everywhere. You rolled on the throttle and that bike wanted to go. It also had very grabby brakes and I had it on the softest suspension setting. So, as soon as you grab the front brake, the front nose would dive a crazy amount. Um, so I’m going to attribute that to the suspension settings that I chose. Uh, the back was also set on the Ducatti so that it was as low as possible. Um, and you could tell that it was very plush, almost bouncy. I don’t have those feelings right now with the Harley. Um, the brakes are more progressive. They’re not biting nearly as strong. Um, but they’ll slow this bike down. I think I’m going to test it a little while later. I don’t want to do it while I have four guys following me. Um, the transmission on the Harley is very clunky. Um, and obviously way down on power, but transmission, I’m in fourth gear now, where I think this would have been third gear on the Ducatti. Engine doesn’t feel as responsive as on the Ducatti, but understandably, the Ducatti is a V4. This is a V2. Noise are comparable to different sound obviously, but the volume is about the same. Again, I do not have earplugs in or any music playing in my ears. I wish I did. Neither bike, the Harley or the Ducatti, have a motorized windscreen. You can adjust them by hand when you’re stopped, or if you’re adventurous, you can do it while you’re riding, but I’m not. So, uh, it’s going to stay where it is. Uh, so I didn’t really take the time to get to know the bike. I could barely figure out how to start it. So, I think I’m going to see if I can keep this bike for the rest of the week, maybe get a little more used to it. Uh, so very similar ergonomics to the Ducatti. Uh, my legs are actually, now that I think about it, they’re about the same spot. The seat, I’d say they’re both fairly good. Um, I sat on Mark’s BMW and the seat is hard as a rock. So, uh, the Harley and the Ducatti are are well com are very comfortable. All right, that’s all I’m going to say for now. [Music] Very German looking town. At least a lot of these buildings are. At least that’s what I think of when I think of Germany or German towns is buildings that look like those. [Music] looking at the buildings. That’s where we are anyways. Very wellkept, very clean. smells like the countryside. The first stop already offers a beautiful view of a deeply incensed river valley which we will follow for a while. All right, so this is the group one taking off. Uh that is a castle. It’s been around since 1300s apparently by a famous family. Uh, and inside there is a Deutsche Auto Museum. So, Dutch cars, German cars, I guess. We’re just going to walk down here. It’s the Schllo Langenberg. And for anyone that reads German, there you go. For any that only speak English, there’s not much here for you. There is also a wonderful Baroque monastery on our way. Here we will take a break and be seduced by the treasures of the monastery’s pastry shop. [Music] Just a little update little update video. So we stopped uh uh stopping at this little city town monastery I think is what it actually is. So just give you a little bit of view of what I’m seeing other than motorbikes. Yeah. Looks like your typical monastery in the northeast of Germany. Yeah, we’re going to do a little tour, I think, with our with our guide and uh maybe I’ll record it. We are walking in a monastery, right? Like it’s called, I can’t remember. It’s just a courtyard of the monastery of some sort, and they need some roof maintenance. But it was really, really cool riding our motorcycles in through all this. Yeah. Not sure if I’m supposed to be doing this in a church, but this is pretty cool for 500 plus years old. Very cool. So, this is a monastery. Here [Music] we have the Moto GP rider Dave going twice the speed limit. This looks very different than the Munich one. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]