Serendipity played it’s part yesterday. A series of events that lead me to an open invitation track day at Hampton Downs. With summer drawing to a close here in New Zealand, and my bike going back into storage due to overseas committments, “scratching” on a track day was the perfect way to end the season. But it wasn’t the thrill of the 20 somethings on their sports bikes being left in my wake on my “tourer” that I enjoyed most.

Being new to the bike, it’s always a good idea to bed yourself in. Find out traits and characteristics that could save your ass on the road. The best place to do that is on the track. Period. Though a little daunting at first, once you get over your pre track nerves and put down a couple warm up laps, you begin to appreciate how much of a controlled and safe environment the track is.

After enjoying all the outright speed of the MV Agusta F4, and the touring capabilities of the BMW GS1200, coming back to NZ I knew I wanted something in between. Meet the new addition, a KTM 690SM Prestige. The previous Yamaha XT660X was/is mechanically a strong bike. It just lacked a little “punch”. The above KTM comes with an after market exhaust & air filter. Plus a power commander kit with auto tuner installed.

There’s something about being on a bike that endears me. Sure there’s the thrill of the front wheel popping up, being thrown back in the seat, and the sound of your tyres clinging on by a knife edge. But it’s the mastery that really grabs me. That balance of pushing yourself and your machine to your “perceived” limit. There’s a couple of things that I’ve learnt in “my time” thus far.

Just because you can go as fast as you want on a track, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should! Though its a little hard to notice from this camera angle, the end of the straight finishes with a down hill. Just to make things interesting when you want to slow the f%#k down! Run off areas for the win!

So as much as I want to screen a video of the alpine roads that followed the Stelvio climb, I am actually “through” the other side of something completely different. A month free hiatus from sugar, coffee, alcohol and social media! The first week was the worst “mostly”. Changing habits is hard. My normal coffee commute had to be replaced with a “new and improved” habit. Green tea for the win!

After crossing through an Italian border, cruising through beautiful alpine roads and taking in the scenery, there was just one more mountain face to conquer. How happy am I another 48 hairpin turns later! Crazy crazy piece of road! And an epic hot summer day to be riding this pass. I was giggling in my helmet all the way up, and I thanked it all the way down? I have plenty more footage so here are some of the highlights.

Making my way from Austria towards the Stelvio Pass. Plenty of alpine roads and such a glorious day to enjoy them! I could have quite happily done a u-turn and re-discovered all over again! Super glad it’s not winter, check out the poles used to mark the roads.

As the old adage goes, when you get given lemons, make lemonade. I’ve been “eyeing up” the BMW R1200GS for a little while now. Being that it’s a bike that can tour the globe. And now with Agnes parked up in the garage being reserved for race tracks and autobahns, what better opportunity to check out how this bike performs? First impressions: The sheer size of the thing is daunting to start of with, but for a 1200, she is remarkably light on the bars.

My F4 MV Agusta (Agnes) is a drop dead gorgeous piece of machinery. At any given stop tourists take photos. Even regular bikers at the Nürburgring pull their cameras to capture the red trim and clean racing lines. On top of the looks, she does one thing very, very, well. Speed. I’m not even close to harnessing her potential (yet). With a strong raw acceleration which sits you back in the seat and an ever present eagerness to always go faster, Agnes devours the road ahead.

All of the major brands. Kawasaki, Ducati, MV Agusta and Suzuki….

250kms from home, the battery light flashed red on my dash. After locating the blown fuse, we “happened upon” a spare 30amp fuse in our luggage. On restart, we were charging again….until 400mtrs down the road. Out of fuses, we unplugged the main headlamp and decided to see how far we could get on the battery alone. Surprisingly not that far… After making the “AA” call, we had to wait a couple hours.

Someone didn’t get the memo. The open speed limit in Norway is 80kmph**. For those of you who haven’t been playing the home game, the bikes we are riding only get comfortable at 150kmph upwards. So what does this mean? Pain. And plenty of it. For the non bike riders in the audience, pain and discomfort on a motorcycle leads to fatigue. Fatigue leads to bad. It’s a simple equation.

Mount your trusty steed and take to the wild blue yonder. In theory we are ready….but we know that in 12 days time, we will be broken men. Both of these bikes are gorgeous. I beg you differ. With either of these, on the track, you are the lord of the domain and in a straight line (we likes curves of course), you will be left wondering where we’ve gone?

It’s official. It’s done. One less thing. After putting on the new plates, one needed to take their new bike on her first little ride. How “better” than the Nürburgring??? I mean, taking a simple cruise around the quiet back roads, to get accustomed to the new riding position, bike dynamics, brakes, horsepower and handling, not to mention riding on the opposite side of the road. That stuff just sounds like child’s play.

Getting all “legal tegel” for a new motorcycle registration is a strange manual process here in Germany. License plates are assigned to the city in which you live. So if you move town, you have to re-register your vehicles and get the plates changed? A “bit” back-forwards if you ask me. Once you get through the paper work, you then make the walk down the road to the old lady who actually presses the metal plates.

So I previously mentioned my Drift Ghost HD action cameras. Don’t get me wrong, they take a pretty good still. But really, their sole purpose is to be strapped to my bike snapping up video of my knee down. So for the better exposures, I wanted something a little more professional, but still designed with action in mind. Meet the Olympus Tough TG-850 Waterproof to 10 metres out of the box, macro and landscape shooting modes and of course video if you want too.

There has been a stalwart in the action video camera world for some time now. Mention the term GoPro and everybody will know what you’re referring to. However, I knew that competition wouldn’t be far behind, so before embarking on my trip, I made sure I did some homework before making any camera purchases. Introducing the Drift Ghost S So what makes the Drift my action camera of choice?

For all those who asked from my first video post, I can say yes, technically I am getting that bike in the video…just not the one you think. The actual bike was shown in the screen of my phone. Furthermore, it’s not one I am getting, it’s the one I now already have! Granted it wasn’t the race limited addition, but a 2007 MV Agusta F4 1000S is not something to sneeze at (in my opinion).

Much excite for June 2015! Off to Germany (and Norway, Italy, Croatia) to go pick up a new toy I’m bringing back to New Zealand.