Austria

At last! After months of planning and organising, I'm finally on my way. Due to a combination of miss-information about obtaining the Carnet de Passage, delays with preparation of the bike, and a French air traffic controllers strike, the itinerary is almost a full month behind.

The bike was picked up from the KTM factory in Mattighofen, Austria. It is a 2000 model Adventure R, upgraded to almost 2001 specs, so this trip will be something of a field test.
The changes include:
New 48mm Up-Side-Down (USD) forks, which allows a 25mm lower seat height, yet the same wheel travel.
New 320mm front disk, up from 300mm.
New seat.
Improved clutch friction plates
Two extra gussets on where the subframe connects to the frame.
And lastly, improved engine bearings, but as yet I don't know which bearings.

My first 'job' on arrival was to run it in for 1000klms, so we could do the first service before the trip starts. I needed a GPS holder, and the best I have seen is from a company called Touratech, about 450klms away in southern Germany. This shop has to be seen to be believed, but more on them later. I set off at about 9am for Niedereschach, with just my GPS for navigation. I can download base level information like major highways and cities from my PC, but as anyone who has traveled in Europe will know, just about every piece of available land is criss-crossed with secondary roads, railway tracks, and peppered with small towns. Making good time on anything but the Autobahns is impossible. Although some of the way was on the autobahns, I didn't mind the secondary roads because it gave the opportunity for speed change, which is good for the running-in process. 6 hours later, I finally arrived at the Touratech shop/factory.

They had the GPS holder I needed, and after a brief chat with Herbert Schwarz, one of the partners in the business, he noticed that I had a competitors panniers fitted. Herbert was keen to have his product on the bike, and frankly, so was I. A quick call to the KTM factory, and the technicians were changing the mounting frames in no time. As for the reasons for the change, see the equipment page. While they were at it, they modified my GPS to make it more vibration resistant. My model is susceptible to damage apparently. I would guess the mod would be hot-melt glue applied to some of the free-standing components such as capacitors. Any competent electronic repair facility should be able to make the same modification for you at minimal cost. The wait was entirely pleasurable, as this is a big boys toy shop on steroids. It is devoted entirely to off-road touring, with almost every imaginable bike related accessory.

I was finally on my way back to Mattighofen at about 6pm. It is the summer solstice here, so the days are long. Sun up at about 4.30am, sundown at about 10.00pm. I was close to Munich by the time the sun finally disappeared. One thing I noticed was the closer I got to Munich, the faster the traffic. Sounds like horses, faster coming home than leaving. Some of the cars would have been doing >200kph, and not just sports cars either, most were 5 series BMW's and Audi's.

In my 28 years of riding, I had never fallen off on a sealed road. Off-road, there probably wouldn't be enough digits on a calculator. Notice I said 'had'. I was riding through Muhldorf, a small town only about 1 hour from my destination, and looking for the sign to show the way, doing about 40kph. A car was coming up behind me, so I moved over to what I though was the shoulder of the road to let the car by. The shoulder turned out to be the footpath, with a 120mm step up. I was totally unaware of this step up, and before I knew what was happening, I was sailing through the air in a classic high-side. I could say that the lighting was poor (I couldn't adjust the headlights down enough), I had already done 12 hours riding and it was midnight, I was on an unfamiliar bike, I was on the 'wrong' side of the road etc, but the bottom line is I stuffed up! It should not have happened, and it was a lapse of concentration on my part. How embarrassing, first day on the bike, and I would have to take it back to KTM all knocked around!

I had the bike upright within seconds, but I couldn't see the damage. I rode it to a petrol station nearby, and parked it under the lights for a close inspection. I was amazed. A pannier that I had fitted only hours before had a graze on the front bottom corner, and the inside of the pannier had deformed where it mounts to the pannier frame. There was also a scratch on the right hand-guard, but apart from that, absolutely not a scratch! Then I checked myself out. My brand-new, expensive, never worn before, top-of-the-line Dainese touring jacket that was waterproof, windproof, warm etc, now has an extra 6 ventilation holes from the shoulder down to the wrist. I was not impressed. I thought they should be able to take a small tumble. One of my boots looks like someone attacked it with an angle grinder too.

I finally made it back to my hotel at 1am, and then I had the opportunity to check out the damage to the body. I felt fine, but I new I had a bit of skin missing. I had friction burns on my knee, hip, and elbow, but all minor. I was wearing a Dainese body protection suit, which has back, shoulder and elbow guards attached to an elasticised netting, as well as a kidney belt all built in. I elected to use this for protection, even though it is very bulky, because I have had jackets with the armour built in before, and they are useless. Every time I hit the dirt, the armour would roll away from the parts they were supposed to be protecting. With the Dainese suit, that can't happen. It worked for me that night, because if I received a 3cm diameter friction burn through a well padded elbow guard, I may have done some real damage without it.

The KTM people had a bit of a laugh about the crash, and said that it was just the first of many on this trip. I hope not! They patched up the pannier like new, and we did the first service, but being a Friday, they finish work at midday. I didn't realise this, and since I had a late night, I didn't get to the factory until about 9:30am. We rushed, but still didn't have everything ready until 3pm. A few of the KTM people stayed back to help me, which was appreciated.

After a few photos, I was finally on my way at about 3:30pm, destination Bled, Slovenia. 20Klm out of Mattighofen, I stopped to check the bike out. I had a feeling that in the rush to get ready, something was not right. I'm glad I did. There was oil all over the back of the motor, and dripping from the sump guard. I knew where it had to be coming from, the tappet covers. We checked the tappets as a part of the service. It was only 15Klms to Salzburg, so I decided to continue on to there to do the work, and the oil leak wasn't bad enough to cause a low oil situation. As I thought, it was the rear tappet cover. In the service, the mechanic replaced the gasket, but a piece had folded in, leaving a corner with no gasket. These things happen when in a rush, and I had it fixed in no time. I also had a problem with the GPS. I had no power to it. That was my fault, and it took longer to fix than the gasket because I didn't have the right tools. I decided to stay in Salzburg the night in a camping ground, which was very pleasant. It was where I found another problem. The KTM only has a centre stand, which is almost mandatory when you have a lot of weight on the bike, but the stand only has very small feet. That is fine for the road or hard packed dirt, but everywhere else, it is a problem. When I put it on the stand, it started to subside on the off side, but I couldn't hold it. Down it went, and with a full load, it was a bit of a handful to lift back up. We usually carried a thin metal plate for the side-stand on soft ground in Australia. I will look for a piece of aluminium channel to take with me, because as I write this, both of the camping grounds I have been to so far had very soft ground.


55. You can expect traffic jams in summer.	49. The cockpit.	47. All packed, ready to go. In front of the KTM factory.	51. Hohenwerfen Castle, south-east of Salzburg, Just one of many.

Note: Images with a coloured border can be clicked for a bigger view.
Note: Throughout this website, all photos will have a number in the comments. If you want a 1600x1200 resolution copy of this image, send me an email, and I'll email it back as soon as I get the chance. Be prepared to wait though.

This is all I will be writing about for Austria. You could easily spend weeks touring about here. It is a very beautiful country, easy to get around, and English is widely spoken. The roads are excellent, and the countryside is breath-taking in places. Riding along the freeways, from the frequent bridges you often see picturesque valleys below, with small towns dominated by churches with high spires, and the odd castle on a nearby hill. I would have loved to pull over and take photos, but stopping on bridges is both illegal and dangerous. The purpose of this web site is to document the less travelled roads, starting at Slovenia.

Be aware that you will probably encounter toll roads leaving Austria. I was charged ATS100 on my way to Slovenia.