Copied from another forum, as I kept updating there during my 4 day ride.
I just started my 4 day trip. It's kind of a quick trip to get it out of my system now that I have a DCT AT.
Dresden, Stuttgart, Porsche Museum, Mercedes Museum, Heidelberg, couple of laps of the Nürburgring and back to Dresden. It'll be around 1800km+ total.
So day one, took off from Dresden at 1:30pm, target was to towards Stuttgart and see where I end up before I got tired and settle in for the night.
Anyways, said good byes to my wife and boy and off I went. I have never done a long trip like this alone, so I was a little apprehensive, specially on a new bike which I have only ridden for 1200km.
I have to say, the AT is one impressive thing. I have never been more comfortable on a bike I think. For the first 2.5 hours, I was just a passenger. The bike was excellent on the autobahn. The DCT is a wonderful thing for this kind of touring. Click and I'm down a gear to pass, and it shifts up when I've overtaken. It's almost like it knew I'm done over taking.
First fuel stop, which was rather disappointing as I only managed to get around 300km to empty, but I was going at 130-170kmh. (AT speedo is VERY optimistic, always about 10kmh more than my Zumo).
But at that speed, it only took me about 2 hours to do 250km. Which is waaaaay better than another Ive owned. And the plus side is that I wasn't tired, and I only had another 300km to go until I reached Stuttgart.
So I decided to banged on and got on the bike and ride towards Stuttgart before it got dark.
And to my surprise, the entire trip today of 550km from home to hotel only took me about 5 hours with stop. And again, I wasn't exhausting when I arrived. I'm well pleased on the comfort front apart from MAYBE cruise control would have been nice.
Day one - done. All in all, AT with DCT was a wise choice for me, as I knew I wanted to take the bike on these kind of tours.
More to come (if you can be bothered following my rambling on ).
![]()
Day 2:
Quick update while waiting for my meal at the Porsche museum.
Be very careful driving in Stuttgart, people here has no time for tourists.
Again, glade i got a DCT, mainly this time it's because of the horrible traffic in Stuttgart. No clutch have does wonders for stress relief IMO.
Mercedes Museum is wonderful, basically every single nice Merc you want to see is there. Tho staff friendliness gets a 1 out of 5 rating.
Porsche is already a 5/5 for the friendliness and good looking staff haha
I'll try to keep this AT and motorbike focused, but it's a slow day of riding in the city... Like 30mins to get anywhere slow.
Day 3/4
![]()
Bucket list almost checked.
Another day another dollar.
Spent the morning rising from Stuttgart towards Nürburgring.
Decided to take the back roads as I had the day to do 300km.
Sunny day out, so why not. Started off very well, with light/medium traffic as I left at 8am and it was work hours. But the bike performed wonderfully, cutting in and out of traffic, effortless over taking etc. Had it on S2 today, and I'm really liking it on the faster runs. It stays in gear longer and giving it more revs to over take.
Then about 90km out, it started raining... The bike is good in the dry, but I have to say, it's tricky in the wet.
As I avoided autobahn, I had to cut through a few villages and towns, and that was not fun in the rain with silly drivers and weird roundabouts. The TC came in a few times, and I tamed it by going back to S1. But after 20km, I decided it was probably going to be better on the autobahn, as there are less traffic and roads are mostly better than village roads.
So hopped on the autobahn for the last 70 odd km. And as I predicted, traffic and roads were much better. And the bike just felt right on open roads.
Thankfully, rain lessened and was only drizzle going into Nürburg.
Getting into Nürburgring was awesome, as this has always been a place where I wanted to visit.
Moving onto the lap, I'll skip the middle bits where I checked it to hotel blah blah...
The Ring opens at 5:30-7:30pm. Some times all day on the weekends.
I got there well early to check what's going on etc. but nothing. Just around 10 cars waiting to get on the lap. From Renault to Toyota GT86 to Lambos.
I was the fifth one out and I must say, it was exciting and scary, as by then, the rain started really dumping down.
The AT at the Ring is somewhere intimidating for me. I must admit that I didn't got full bore and I would be stupid if I did in the wet. The TV came on more than a few times when I was going uphill through the curves. A few scary small slides, but the TC help me recover quickly without too much drama. There were a few times where I can feel the rear sliding side ways, but the TC didn't cut in. Which was odd, but i guess it's not how TC works. I felt it was sliding from oil or some thing, or that it maybe the surface had too much rain.
Anyways, made it back in one piece thanks to the TC I think, and the funny thing was, I was the ONLY bike there, and the workers there were very surprised to see me ride off, but very pleased to see me come back in one piece.
All in all. A good day for me.
I just started my 4 day trip. It's kind of a quick trip to get it out of my system now that I have a DCT AT.
Dresden, Stuttgart, Porsche Museum, Mercedes Museum, Heidelberg, couple of laps of the Nürburgring and back to Dresden. It'll be around 1800km+ total.
So day one, took off from Dresden at 1:30pm, target was to towards Stuttgart and see where I end up before I got tired and settle in for the night.
Anyways, said good byes to my wife and boy and off I went. I have never done a long trip like this alone, so I was a little apprehensive, specially on a new bike which I have only ridden for 1200km.
I have to say, the AT is one impressive thing. I have never been more comfortable on a bike I think. For the first 2.5 hours, I was just a passenger. The bike was excellent on the autobahn. The DCT is a wonderful thing for this kind of touring. Click and I'm down a gear to pass, and it shifts up when I've overtaken. It's almost like it knew I'm done over taking.
First fuel stop, which was rather disappointing as I only managed to get around 300km to empty, but I was going at 130-170kmh. (AT speedo is VERY optimistic, always about 10kmh more than my Zumo).
But at that speed, it only took me about 2 hours to do 250km. Which is waaaaay better than another Ive owned. And the plus side is that I wasn't tired, and I only had another 300km to go until I reached Stuttgart.
So I decided to banged on and got on the bike and ride towards Stuttgart before it got dark.
And to my surprise, the entire trip today of 550km from home to hotel only took me about 5 hours with stop. And again, I wasn't exhausting when I arrived. I'm well pleased on the comfort front apart from MAYBE cruise control would have been nice.
Day one - done. All in all, AT with DCT was a wise choice for me, as I knew I wanted to take the bike on these kind of tours.
More to come (if you can be bothered following my rambling on ).
Day 2:
Quick update while waiting for my meal at the Porsche museum.
Be very careful driving in Stuttgart, people here has no time for tourists.
Again, glade i got a DCT, mainly this time it's because of the horrible traffic in Stuttgart. No clutch have does wonders for stress relief IMO.
Mercedes Museum is wonderful, basically every single nice Merc you want to see is there. Tho staff friendliness gets a 1 out of 5 rating.
Porsche is already a 5/5 for the friendliness and good looking staff haha
I'll try to keep this AT and motorbike focused, but it's a slow day of riding in the city... Like 30mins to get anywhere slow.
Day 3/4
Bucket list almost checked.
Another day another dollar.
Spent the morning rising from Stuttgart towards Nürburgring.
Decided to take the back roads as I had the day to do 300km.
Sunny day out, so why not. Started off very well, with light/medium traffic as I left at 8am and it was work hours. But the bike performed wonderfully, cutting in and out of traffic, effortless over taking etc. Had it on S2 today, and I'm really liking it on the faster runs. It stays in gear longer and giving it more revs to over take.
Then about 90km out, it started raining... The bike is good in the dry, but I have to say, it's tricky in the wet.
As I avoided autobahn, I had to cut through a few villages and towns, and that was not fun in the rain with silly drivers and weird roundabouts. The TC came in a few times, and I tamed it by going back to S1. But after 20km, I decided it was probably going to be better on the autobahn, as there are less traffic and roads are mostly better than village roads.
So hopped on the autobahn for the last 70 odd km. And as I predicted, traffic and roads were much better. And the bike just felt right on open roads.
Thankfully, rain lessened and was only drizzle going into Nürburg.
Getting into Nürburgring was awesome, as this has always been a place where I wanted to visit.
Moving onto the lap, I'll skip the middle bits where I checked it to hotel blah blah...
The Ring opens at 5:30-7:30pm. Some times all day on the weekends.
I got there well early to check what's going on etc. but nothing. Just around 10 cars waiting to get on the lap. From Renault to Toyota GT86 to Lambos.
I was the fifth one out and I must say, it was exciting and scary, as by then, the rain started really dumping down.
The AT at the Ring is somewhere intimidating for me. I must admit that I didn't got full bore and I would be stupid if I did in the wet. The TV came on more than a few times when I was going uphill through the curves. A few scary small slides, but the TC help me recover quickly without too much drama. There were a few times where I can feel the rear sliding side ways, but the TC didn't cut in. Which was odd, but i guess it's not how TC works. I felt it was sliding from oil or some thing, or that it maybe the surface had too much rain.
Anyways, made it back in one piece thanks to the TC I think, and the funny thing was, I was the ONLY bike there, and the workers there were very surprised to see me ride off, but very pleased to see me come back in one piece.
All in all. A good day for me.
