First stop in Sweden

Today the weather started out OK, little overcast but it soon cleared. Then as the ride progressed into Sweden the temperature went down and I soon wished I had put on a long sleeve top, then we came accross damp roads but no rain, this is OK I thought if it just keeps like this, but it dod not, first it was just a drizzle then this turned into rain, not heavy, but enough to find its way into my jacket and trickle down my arm!
I must admit, I have not been impressed with the Halversons jacket for the waterproofness.
Luckily it was not too long before we arrived at Kalmar and although it was only just coming up to 15:30, we decided to call it a day and look for somewhere to stay. Quick check on the satnav found another Best Western so we done a U-turn and went the 0.1 miles just around the corner as directed. It was great ,as there was underground parking for the bikes and free sauna and hot-tub for guests to use which was just perfect to warm up the cold bones!

Leaving Demark heading to Sweden

We packed our bags, checked out of the Best Western at Copenhagen and headed for the Oresund Bridge to leave Denmark and go into Sweden. A little overcast to start with but the bridge was a mighty sight. In fact the first part was actually a tunnel which then came up out of the water on a narrow stretch of land to the start of the bridge.
You can read more about it here

Milestone for RT

Alex's RT has rolled round the 50k mark !!!

Copenhagen

Tivoli Gardens, an interesting place, read about it here

There ain't no way I'm going on this ride!

Going through Denmark

We decided to head straight to Copenhagen after leaving the ferry via the most direct route. It was quite boring until we came to the Great Belt Bridge. Read about it here

Dry land again

Well that's the first crossing over with!

We are on our way...

Bike ready...

Well the final preparation work on the TDM is all done, top box mounted on new rack, new Michelin tyres front and rear, with a bit of light off road capability!

So now I have just got to pack me bags, finish sorting the route and we should be good to go.

Oh, and the 101 other things I should have done before going away, of which 99 of them wont get done!

More bike prep...

Now that the engine bars were on, I mounted my new Givi driving lights on them.

Then I put on the new tank cover to protect the paintwork.

Bike prep

After many hours work I have modified the lower cowling to fit with the engine bars on. This will help protect the engine casings from stone chips whilst the bars protect the engine cases from a fall.

The Baltic trip...

OK, this blog is about a new motorcycle adventure I am doing where my friend Alex and I are heading off for a trip to the Baltic States on our motorcycles.

Alex will be riding his BMW RT and I will be riding my Yamaha TDM900.

We start by taking the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg  then travel accross Denmark over the Oresund bridge into Sweden. We then head across the bottom of Sweden and up the east coast to Stockholm where we will catch another ferry to Tallinn in Estonia. From here we travel down through the Baltic States, (Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania), carry on through Poland, into Czech Republic, then Germany, Belgium and France before getting back to the UK.

We are leaving on the 29th August 2012 and getting back when it is done, which we think will be about 20 days give or take a bit depending on how it all goes.

I will endeavour to update this blog regularly throughout the trip so keep an eye on it for updates!

Click here to where we are now!

Thanks for looking,
Graham.