motor

the next links are special motor pages:

there's a load of links at the bottom of this page. Do not go further before you have a look at them. I'm always open to comments.

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Next to interests already mentioned I'd like to ride my motorbike. I've got my license since 1987, but bought my first bike in 1989. since I didn't have that much money at the time, I started with a smaller one , a Honda 250 whatever. Although it was a light bike it had the looks of a bigger one. It was only after the next year, when the petrol tank leaked, and I bought a new one, that I fully appreciated it because of it's maneuverability in city traffic.

The next bike was a Kawasaki 454 LTD. It was a nice successor. It had the looks and it handled very well, although thanks to it's weight, it handled more difficult in slow pace situations, like shopping in the city.

I had a lot of fun riding rallies, also thanks to a friend I had at the time (Mathijn) who tagged me along and looked after my machine.

But then, through circumstances, I didn't ride for about a year and a half and was just about to give up on riding at all. In the mean time my bike had some troubles starting and some other difficulties as well, which had to be looked at. So I decided to try it again. It was costly to repair all the stuff, but to give riding all together wasn't that appealing as well. So the bike was repaired. When I went back after we went on holidays, I immediately spotted a bike in the showroom I had always laid my eyes on: a Yamaha Virago with a blue tank. Out of reach I thought, just having paid a rather huge bill.

A couple of days later though, we were talking to a friend and the Yamaha came up. Ilke said to me: ' If you really want it, why don't you buy it then". So the very next day I went to the dealer and asked what I would get in return for the Kawasaki. We made a reasonable deal and I bought the Yamaha. The very same day a friend, who hadn't been riding for some years asked if she could lend the Kawasaki. I wasn't too keen about it now, but did it after all. When she came back, she was thrilled and a bit disappointed that I had sold the bike. Well I returned to the dealer and asked if they would mind me selling the Kawasaki to a third party. They didn't, and there was even a bonus in it as well (they didn't have the fuss of trying to sell it). The next surprise was that Ilke joined the buy for 50% and started to take riding lessons herself ! This would have been unimaginable two weeks earlier.

In august 2001 Ilke got her license as well !! She almost immediately took a course with the NVVM, touring over winding, hilly roads in the Eifel (Germ), which she really enjoyed and came back with the words: "I want a Ducati monster". So she bought a Ducati Monster 600, two weeks later at Star Twins. Obviously there was a lot of riding involved the first days, including a trip to our own national park the "Hoge Veluwe".

But then, august 2002 something weird happened. After enjoying our trips to Tuscany and Westerwald, Ilke decided she wanted to go further, that is more than tarmac, that is "off-road" , that is Marocco or Island or ......... WOW. So we went looking for more suitable bikes. We tried the BMW 650GS-Dakar and the Honda Transalp (newest version). The latter felt best. I even tried the Honda Africa Twin, but again the Transalp felt more agreeable. And guess what ? We both bought a secondhand, but fairly new (2001 and 2002 models) Transalps. Actually it hurt to see my beautiful Yamaha stay behind at the dealer's. Maybe, just maybe .........!

And here it is : my latest

In October 2006 Ilke had a nasty accident in Germany, which easily would have costed her live. She came through with a deep fleshwound on her lower leg, which resulted in a kind of shark bite scar. Her Alp was a total loss though. She "survived" the winter with her Ducati, but in mai 2007 she then traded her Ducati in for a brand new Aprilia Pegaso trail. Also with a 660 cc engine ( comparable to the Alp), but much leighter in weight and a bit more slender, so she can reach the ground more easily, when standing still.

To end this site here are some you might be interested in: