{"id":678,"date":"2014-06-16T14:21:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/?p=678"},"modified":"2014-06-16T14:27:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T13:27:44","slug":"taking-stock-nc700x-rental-day-34-and-ride-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/?p=678","title":{"rendered":"Taking Stock: NC700X Rental, Day 3&4 and Ride Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, well, it was good. Actually, it was great. I mentioned the differences between the NC and my F, and one of the biggest ones didn’t hit home until I did. My F is too damn low. More on that in another post!<\/p>\n

I took the bike on a planned route in the area of Germany known as Lipper Land. My riding partner from my Alps trip joined me – we enjoy riding together alot. It is not so easy to find other ladies to ride with, so while we are not perfectly matched, we suck it up and ride on! We left from the dealership and headed to her place to group up and load the bikes. Once again, I have to remind: Never take your gear without taking a tank bag. Just take it. Preferably a strap one, as bikes like the NC have no metal up top. I forwent a pair of sneakers, but did manage plenty of socks and underwear. \u00a0We rode out to find our little place to stay, the Hotel-Caf\u00e9\u00a0Waldruh, R\u00fcheweg 8, Holzhausen.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0560\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Lipper Land, we started the day with a gluten-free birthday cake from my GF- how cool is that. The ride started near the Externsteine, a rock formation that is truly impressive. From there, we headed to the Hermanndenkmal and then off to an artillery range. This was truly neat, although we were too nervous to stop for photos there. The varied terrain was outstanding and the signage was quite threatening.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0562\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0564\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0567\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0575\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From there, we rode north and up and around several cities about 30km north of Detmold. The winding roads were fun and we enjoyed quite a bit of forest riding. This was more than welcome as temps were over 30\u00b0C both days. We came around the eastern side of Lipper Land and found the K\u00f6terberger Biker Treffpunkt, one of hundreds of little stops that welcome riders with a hot meal and clean bathrooms, along with plenty of parking and a nice view (and this sweeeeet Guzzi!). Then, it was back to our little hotel.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0578\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0579\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The route home took us on familiar roads through Westphalen. We stopped for lunch, then some sweets later, then for a break in the shade, then at another Bikertreff, the …..<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0584\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0585\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0591\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0576\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0577\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0593\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0592\"<\/p>\n

Getting the NC in motion was so easy and riding was so pleasant that I stopped everywhere to take pictures. It started with the Global Multi-Grab from ADVrider.com – a game where riders take photos of their bikes with a list of objects or locations. I started with a list of farm-y stuff, and ended with a holiday list, which I grabbed in short order.<\/p>\n

First, a haybale man.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0595\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, irrigation in progress and a tent.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0596\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some wildflowers…<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0598\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0601\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A windmill.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A community picnic.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0602\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On monday afternoon, I rode down to K\u00f6ln to visit a friend, and then rolled back into my hotel about 15 minutes before all hell broke loose in D\u00fcsseldorf. The worst storms in ten years blew in and fortunately left the bike untouched. As I looked out the window, the midwesterner in me said “wow, that looks like tornado weather”. And so it was – the transit system was shut down for almost three days, with very few trains running at all due to the number of trees and wires down. Thank goodness for lane splitting and filtering!<\/p>\n

I returned the NC700X to the dealer with a bit less rubber and a lot more smiles. For a weekend rental (or even for longer, seat issues aside), I’d go for it again. The turn-in process consisted of a quick walkaround by the gentleman I did the original paperwork with and a quick “thank you, we are done here”. What about the extra 200kms? “Have a good day. Email me if you want to do this again. I will arrange everything for you.”<\/p>\n

What a birthday, hmmm?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, well, it was good. Actually, it was great. I mentioned the differences between the NC and my F, and one of the biggest ones didn’t hit home until I did. My F is too damn low. More on that in another post! I took the bike on a planned route in the area of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorbikes","category-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomicalex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}