Every Second Gas Station

Getting out fast

I procrastinated. Again. The plan was to leave Cologne early in the morning and get some kilometers on the road.

I left at more or less noon.

Being me, I’d overthought everything and still forgotten half of it, so I repacked the luggage at least five times, each round remembering something else that wasn’t in there.

Also, to be honest, I was nervous. Nervous about the trip, and about everything that could happen on the road. Which was probably the real reason for the procrastination. The repacking was just the excuse with better cardio.

The plan

The plan this time was simple. Get out of Cologne as fast as possible, point the bike towards the Mediterranean, and ride for as long as the day allows.

As soon as the late afternoon hits, find somewhere to sleep, stay there, carry on the next morning. Easy, right?

I also decided to take every toll-free road there is. Motorway, highway or country road, didn’t matter. The point was to reach the coast quickly, not expensively.

Luggage

I did it again: overthinking. I love minimalism. With the backpack, I’ve more or less achieved it — it’s down to a carry-on these days.

Motorcycle travel is a new environment, and apparently my minimalism doesn’t travel. I was sure about the base clothing. Everything around it, less so.

So I thought a single 90-liter roll bag would be enough. And it is. I just ended up with more anyway:

• a 90-liter roll bag for more or less everything
• a 20-liter bag on top of it, for the things I “have” to take with me on a longer stop at a gas station
• a shoulder bag for snacks
• a tank bag for electronics and anything I need to reach quickly
• two fixed side cases

That’s a lot of space to fill. It is full. Two days in, I already know what I forgot, and what I can leave at home next time. Which, annoyingly, is not the same list.

The first day

The first day was surprisingly easy. Motorway straight to Trier, get briefly lost in Trier on the way to Luxembourg, cross Luxembourg, cross into France, and ride straight into the rush-hour traffic around Metz.

Most of my breaks were fuel breaks. The CMX1100T has the same issue as my old NC750X: a small tank. Around 240 kilometers until the reserve kicks in is the absolute maximum. I got nervous at about 160.

So I decided to turn the nervousness into practice. I tried every second gas station on the way, to get comfortable with the unfamiliar routine. How fueling up works. How paying works. How many times my debit and credit cards get rejected before one of them isn’t.

An exciting first day, then. It ended in an industrial estate just south of Metz.

Accommodation

The plan for finding somewhere to sleep worked well on day one. Cheap, but not shabby. Some food, a quiet night, and nobody asking why I’d brought five bags.