trip around the IJsellake

[OhCrap]

On the day of the Dutch TT I decided to take a 250 mile trip around the IJsellake aka Lake IJsel. It's a man made lake that was created in 1932 when an inland sea, the Zuiderzee (Southsee), was closed by a 32 km dike, the Afsluitdijk, and it's the largest lake in western Europe. I was planning to make this report a bit more extensive, but as always I had a hard time getting myself to stop to take photo's when I'm riding. Sorry about that  


First stop half way the Afsluitdijk, first picture shows the lake-side, second is the Northsee side:











It was pretty clear today so you could see a couple of our islands in the distance. Making a good  picture with this much zoom without a tripod turned out to be a little harder, I think this was Terschelling, the second island:







The reason I stopped here was to get a shot of the monument for this report, it was build in honour of the engineer who designed the dike:











After about a 100 miles I noticed my clutch was starting to go (again), so I went looking for a place to park and ad a little fluid. Yes, parts for a more permanent fix are on their way.







In the background was on old ship with kids jumping of it (it was a pretty hot day for us today, finally..) and some of them were water-skying as well. I'm not to happy with the results of the photo's though, I need to get a smaller tripod I can bring in my topcase.











Lelystad in the distance:






A huge-ass bug challenged me for a fistfight at 80mph. Unfortunately for it, it lost:





I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was a bumblebee...



And the last stop about 60 miles from home, this time I took a slightly longer smoke-& sammich brake. As I was pulling up to this resting area a group of bikers asked me for directions. Their leader drove a funny little bike with two small front wheels and one larger rear wheel. I wanted to take a picture of it, but unfortunately they were already gone before I could take my camera out of my case. I think it was a Carver but I'm not sure.



















The last 60km I drove together with a BMW driver I met while waiting for a closed bridge to open (need to find a way to take pictures while I'm driving). He still looked pretty comfortable at 100mph on his 1200RT, even had his chin-piece and visor open at those speeds, but for me it felt like it is pretty much the maximum cruising speed I can maintain for a longer while. All in all it was a pretty good day for me, hope you folks enjoyed it to  

[fishball]

I love riding along the water.  Nice pics, looks inviting and relaxing.

[skramer360]

Nice report OC  Looks like it was a great ride. Cruising at 100mph? Do you have speed limits and cops?

[isleofmanfan]

Thanks for the tour! 

No Assen pictures?!      

Oh, Robben is one of the Dutch teams main and most experienced strikers.  He is playing now, albeit slightly injured.

[OhCrap]

Thanks guys, it was an awesome drive. I was afraid it'd be a little to long for an afternoon but I actually had time and energy for another 100mi or so when I got home.

No Assen photo's unfortunately IOMF, I decided I needed a ride in the country more then the annoyance of an overcrowded Assen today, sorry. And like I told you, I know virtually nothing about soccer.. 

I think all the cops were in Assen today Skramer, they make a lot of money over there during the TT weekend. I did saw two motorcycle cops today but that was it, they even waved back btw 

But we do have speed limits over here, as well as way to many speeding camera's and radars. The fastest you can legally go is 120km/h on the highway, that's about 75mph. Just gotta keep your eyes open 

[gammer]

The fastest you can legally go is 120km/h on the highway, that's about 75mph.

That's pretty quick for a maximum speed limit. In Ontario our max speed limit is 100 Km/h (63 MPH). But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone going that slow on the highway. Most folks cruise at 120 Km/h.
Anyone from NY State will tell you, that as soon as they cross the border into Canada, people "drive crazier". Doesn't take long before they are going faster too...you gotta keep up with the flow.

[fishmeister]

Very nice OC, better fix that slave cyl before it gets jammed.

You should have brought your fishing pole.

[Burgi]

A bumblebee?? Do you get bees over there the size of bombers?? 
(I'm still hoping for bicycles, someday.....?)

[JB1290]

Great report, OC. I love the look of your bike. That is one very clean '86. I have to say.. I'm am very envious of you lucky few that have the RWB edition. One day...

By the way...How big was that bug?? The size of a small truck??? Imagine how that would have felt without gloves on. 

[OhCrap]

The fastest you can legally go is 120km/h on the highway, that's about 75mph.

That's pretty quick for a maximum speed limit. In Ontario our max speed limit is 100 Km/h (63 MPH). But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone going that slow on the highway. Most folks cruise at 120 Km/h.
Anyone from NY State will tell you, that as soon as they cross the border into Canada, people "drive crazier". Doesn't take long before they are going faster too...you gotta keep up with the flow.

There have been talks about raising it to 130km/h like in most countries surrounding ours, but I don't think that will happen anytime soon. And I guess that crazy driving must be in at least some of the Canadians genes, the Frenchies have somewhat that same reputation, especially the Parisians  


Fish, I still have to build one of those fishing pole holders for mah bike first. I thought about bringing a line, a hook and some sinkers today, but I have to get me a new fishing permit first..
Although I probably would've gotten aways with some illegal fishing with all the cops gone today  


& sorry about the bicycles Burgi, I completely forgot about those     Next time I promise!


Thanks JB. This is probably not a good thing to tell you since we already talked about perhaps shipping some wheels your way one day, but I do know another one for sale in almost the same condition.....I think I can get it for 800 euro's or so...  :what, no grinning devil emoticon?:

I only saw it coming out of the corner of my eye at the last moment, but I think it was an inch or so in diameter, and I felt it pretty well even with a glove on! I once had a duck exploding on my knee at 50mph, but this sucker came pretty close to that kind of impact  

I had completely forgotten about hitting that thing btw. I only noticed the goo after my first stop when I was putting my glove back on and laughed out loud remembering the poor fellow. So turned the bike off again and grabbed the camera back out of the case to take a picture of it. Man I was sweating there in mah leathers, haha.

[Hangster]

Nice ride report , i found out that the only way to tell what bug it was after the aftermath is to taste it 

[OhCrap]

Oh, I'm so sorry I already washed it off my glove. Otherwise I would've have a lick for you guys for sure 

[gammer]

Sorry to  for second...
But speaking of bugs...I love it when you are riding behind someone and a large bug, like that of the dragon fly type, hits them and you see it going flying up in the air and then come crashing down. Usually when this happens I have a crowd of voices in my head going: "oooohhh....ahhhhhh".

[Old_Rider_54]

Excellent ride report OC - really enjoyed it!!!!

[hppants]

Great report and your bike is looking nice.

[luckylindy]

 Good report Oh.   

[Burgi]

Sorry to  for second...
But speaking of bugs...I love it when you are riding behind someone and a large bug, like that of the dragon fly type, hits them and you see it going flying up in the air and then come crashing down. Usually when this happens I have a crowd of voices in my head going: "oooohhh....ahhhhhh".

gammer, I'm worried about you.