We sound a bit like big girls blouses... (Scott)

Just reading back through the past couple of posts, I realise that we are sounding like a pair of moaning minnies. Our massive trip when broken down is, we are riding 90 miles to Harwich, sleep on the ferry, ride across Holland, all of 160miles, sleep on the AutoZug train across Germany, then a couple of hundred miles through Italy messing about round Lake Garda and then down to the Riviera over two days. What is all the fuss about? Hugh's prep makes us look like we are possibly being a little dramatic. Here, ladies and gentlemen of the internet is our case.

Motorbikes are designed for large mileages. Vespas are designed to go to the shops, or posing at a Roman sidewalk café having an espresso and a cigarette. Motorbikes can also go fast. Flat-knackers mine can hit 60 indicated, and that was enough, it felt like I was lifting the front wheel off the ground as I increased speed. 40mph-ish is probably optimistic. That 160 miles is looking like six-seven hours trek, not the four I had planned. Vespas are also laden with sacrificial mechanical items, like the 3 month between replacements clutch cable, the clutch is made of cork, the gear cables which bend through a circuitous route, and the many other shoddy components that give them their cantankerous character. Road surfaces can also be variable, we aren't allowed on motorways so we are left to the A roads and other potholed back lanes, Vespa wheels are 10" in diameter. A 12" pothole 9" deep could be rather interesting at speed.

What is worrying me most is that we are on a super tight schedule for the first two days, the ferry and the train, there is no chance a German train will be running late, we have 8 hours total to cross Holland and negotiate a German city of a million people, which doesn't give us much leeway if waiting for der RAC Herren to come and sort out a problem which we can't fix ourselves. This is my major worry. Tim has managed a hundred mile journey, but I have only done a forty miler. My scooter is still at the menders, so I am getting tense. I haven't ridden it for nearly 4 weeks.

We are relying on Google Maps for the most direct route, I've tried looking at the satellite imagery zoomed in, and looks OK, but on the ground with enormous flower lorries screaming past at 100km/h will be quite an adventure, but as Tim says we will also need breaks, getting lost time etc. Google maps also tells fibs which is another worry in itself. Also will I feel after 7 hours in the saddle, numb arse, sore knees, knackered and we will probably still have to navigate Dusseldorf. I must buy some paper maps too.

I'm sure everything will be fine, but we are trying to think of everything, my box of spares and racks arrived today. It will be nice to get the scooter back, put the racks on and do a trial load up of stuff and cruise about a bit, see what the optimum front rack weight should be, if my bag on the back is going to slide off etc.

Tim mentioned in his last post about riding with someone else. It had occurred to me that this may be interesting, Tim's scooter is a 200cc, mine is a 166, will I struggle to keep up? How do we manage keeping together? What is a comfortable speed for both of us, my scooter has definite happy speeds and unhappy speeds, will Tim's be different? My MPG is lower than Tim's so more petrol stops, generally how does Tim ride, I've only been in a car with him once and seemed nice and relaxed, but will he be a racer behind the handle bars? I'm still a little cautious after my spill, if I am constantly racing to keep up, that will wear me out quicker. How do we take who is in the lead? I don't fancy 8 hours of 2 stroke smoke/fumes in my face. How will we communicate this? Is there an international bikers hand signal language we can use (aside from the obvious single digit one!)

I keep on telling myself that this will be fun, but my nagging doubts seem to take over sometimes. Anyway it's all a bit late for these thoughts, I have to be in Sestri next Sunday for the conference, there aren't any more flights. This is it. It will all be fine, a great couple of weeks with Tim and a couple of examples of 1960's design Italian engineering. How bad can it be?