the mouse has spoken!

On Sunday afternoon (Day 8), I cycled up to the Germersheim train station with Thorsten and Thomas (regulars at the Leitra shop). From there we rode to Munich, where I purchased a 'Night Train' ticket for me and my LeitraTech.

I arrived home, in Copenhagen, around 10:30AM.

End of story!

:P

Now I plan and prepare for Eurobike (http://www.eurobike-exhibition.de/html/en/home/index.php) in September. It's only 1100 km (most direct cycle route)!

Camping out next to the Exhibition Hall entrance has it's good and bad points.


My camping spot by the entrance to the hall.

Good side: I got lots of attention. Bad side: I got lots of attention. Out of the 50+ people I chatted with about my LeitraTech, over half of them already knew about me either through the 3 forums I shared a link to this blog with, or by word-of-mouth. Several shook my hand in greeting with phrases like "so I heard you swam here", or "did you enjoy the velombolie baptism?" - referring to my sudden detour into the cold and muddy waters of a canal just north of Oldenburg on Day 3 (see earlier the blog post for that story).

I laughed, and joined in on making fun of myself. Conversations quickly moved to "how was the trip?", "how far did you cycle?", "how did your trike hold up to the touring?" and so on, while they looked over the Frankenstein construction methods of my velomobile.

Many seemed quite astonished that even after the crash I continued on. And even more showed surprise that I had been able to cover 700 of the planned 1,200 kilometers - only taking the train between Osnabruck and Koblenz to make up for the lost time repairing the trike.

At one point I abandoned my ride to look upon the creations and contraptions that the SPEZI had to offer.

Along with the Leitra (Denmark) in all it's various colors and configurations (of which my LeitraTech is heavily based on) I also got a first-hand look (and a test drive - thanks Thomas!) of what I'd like to think of as the 'next generation Leitra': the Thunderstorm.

Produced by Steintrikes, the Thunderstorm is a MadMax evo full-suspension trike with a lowered and lengthened Leitra fairing on top. Think 'Pimp My Ride' for velomobiles. The ride was comfortable and fast, and felt much less 'top-heavy' than my LeitraTech or a real Leitra.

Many other velomobiles were on-hand for display and the occassonal test ride, including the Cabbike, the old and new Allewder, the Versatile, the Leiba, the PED-3, and many others.

SPEZI Photos are available at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/SPEZI2008

Photos related to the trip down to Germersheim:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/ TripFromCopenhagenDenmarkToGermersheimGermany

And I don't want to hear about how poor quality the photos are, or that I missed something, or that you hoped I would take more pictures of this-or-that. I cycled to SPEZI because I wanted to. I was not hired as a journalist or photographer. If you don't like it, tough! :p

Up before the sun, I hit the road on my last push towards my destination - a 200 along the Rhein. I discovered that the well publicized 'Rhein Radweg' was meant for short, slow, scenic trips between towns along the river, and not for any serious fast touring. It is bumpy, tilted (leaning quite scarily towards the Rhein in some places), and often little more than gravel tracks through wooded areas or along the edge of the river.

So I abandoned the bad conditions and attacked the parallel-running Route 9, primarily meant for autos and trucks. I had seen several cycle tourists and racing bikes using the main road, so I figured to be not only faster, but in good company. Coming out Koblenz, I pedaled through a series of roller coaster hills, cursing the climbs and grinning broadly on the descents. It was about 10 km outside Koblenz when I made my best downhill speed record: 62 kph (38 mph). I was thankful I didn't have the chance to go faster as there was an occasional crosswind coming off of the Rhein river towards the end of the descent, causing me to tap the brakes a few times as the trike was pushed around, nearly into the opposite side of the road.

After that bit of fun, the terrain settled down to a series of gentle climbs and descents. The region afterwards, between Mainz and Lindgenhavn/Mannheim was virtually flat, and I was able to hold a 20-22 kph cruising speed, with little bursts up to 25-27 kph when the wind was at my back.

As the sun began to set, I took my last break, filled my belly with 2 high-energy drink mixes freely given by the cycle folks in Oldenburg. 'Charged up', I attacked the last 35 kilometers, and with a beautifully smooth cycle path with no stop lights, I made a blistering pace of 30-32 kph, occasionally dipping down to 25 kph on some gentle accents. I was determined to make the last leg of my trip as quickly as possible, and damn the consequences!

With my knees and upper thighs fighting for attention with growing spasms of ache and weakness, I rolled into Germersheim shortly after 9pm onf Friday. I met up with the builder of the *real* Leitra velomobiles (who rode the train all the way from Copenhagen with one of his creations), chatted with some of the people still setting up for the weekend event, then grabbed a bite to eat at a local Asian restaurant.

Around midnight I pulled up to the entrance of the exhibition hall, built-up a cover hanging off one side of the trike, and crawled inside with my pillow and sleeping bag. I was asleep in minutes.

Next up: the Spezi!

Day 5 found me cranking away at a leisurely 23 km/h along the decent cycle paths leading out of Oldenburg. The plan was to make a long push towards Duisberg (253 km/157 miles), take a break/nap for a few hours, then head on towards Bonn - roughly another 200 km.

Unfortunately, while heading towards my first rest stop, Cloppenburg (about 30 km), I ran the numbers through my head and quickly realized that I was not going to make it to Germersheim by Friday night, and probably not before Saturday night. I had lost too much time with the roll-over into the canal on Tuesday, and having to spend Wednesday repairing the damage.

Not wanting to miss out on half of the 2-day exhibition, I steered towards Osnabruck, a fairly central train crossroad. I purchased a ticket for myself and the trike, got some help getting the trike up to the train tracks by cargo elevator, and off I went. towards Koblenz.

I arrived quite late and stopped at a hotel just across from the station, to take advantage of a warm shower and comfortable bed.

The day was spent repairing the side windows and replacing the missing glass front windscreen with a plexiglass. Hopefully it won't rain or I'll end up scratching it a lot using the wiper.

Patched up cracks in the body with red duct-tape, and visited my favorite cacle shop in Oldenburg (Die Speiche) to have the complete external transmission replaced- new front crank, new 8-speed cassette in the rear, and a new chain. With this 'upgrade' I hope to get a bit higher speeds to make up for lost time.

And now I am off to bed so that I can get up early and take off around 4-5 AM. I need to make a 3-day trip in 2-days now! :(