To Erzberg Austria... Going to try and replace this footage with HD and help my friend Don finish this thing. So for someone who has never been outside the US/Canada this is all new and a pretty big deal. What I need from the world traveling Cafe husky regulars is advice on what to bring, or not bring. So far my list is... Passport Camera(s) Credit card Clothes Yeah, the necessities. What else? Later,
#1) A lack of willingness to live Haha, kidding of course. That's freaking amazing. I assume you've got the camelback/tools/e.t.c. down pat. Shouldn't be too much after that. But then again I haven't rode in other continents. Just wanted to say thats awesome and good luck!
Oh, no I am not riding that crazy mess. I am going to support my friend Don and take pictures and video. I would love to ride the event but it is not something I can justify financially. I also wouldn't want to do the qualifying prologue and be fast enough to get on the front row. I can hang with my friend Don in the technical stuff, but not the fast stuff. He is really really fast. He has qualified in the top 50 out of 1800 riders all three times he has done the event. This time he is going to finish, he had bike issues in 2010 and bad weather the other 2 times. Later,
Good luck to both of you guys over there along with bringing a couple cameras for sure (if possible and extra batteries) ... that passport is ~100$ and will open up pretty much the rest of the world also for a decade or so There is beer thread out here somewhere ... You're gonna have access to lots of good beer
Looking forward to this report. Good luck to your friend! A little advice...Don't bring anything home that eats
You will be a great support for Don. Good luck and have fun. With your talents the vids and pix will be fantastic.
You mentioned passport, but if you don't already have it, IIRC, there is some delay in getting them. Be sure to get it well in advance. I don't have any experience in that part of the world, but what I can tell you from watching many Erzberg videos is that you are going to want some very capable hiking shoes. That place is steep and loose, so traction is going to be important. I'm not a big hiking boot advocate. For all of my hiking/hunting and so on, I use "walking shoes" that have heavily lugged soles. They are 10 times lighter, so you don't wear yourself out. And the ones with the soles that taper so they are wider at the bottom help to keep your ankles from rolling over. Bring some climbing rope and pre-tie a loop or some kind of velcro strap thing. You can toss it down to your buddy on the steep climbs if he bails before the top. With the loop or strap he can hook it to his bike so you can pull him up - that is, assuming you will be able to get to those locations to help him. Be sure to post some footage to this thread so we can see how it went! You are doing a good thing for your buddy.
Erzberg is on my bucket list of races to attend and spectate. I am looking forward to hearing the first-hand account of your adventure. Hopefully I can learn some things for when I get the opportunity to go.
Awesome! There's a good section on Erzberg in the movie "Man and Machine, evolution of hard enduro" (get on iTunes) I only watched it recently and it made me want to buy a ticket to Austria. Make sure you have multiple ways to get money: - credit card - cash (euros) - Pre-paid currency card like - http://www.cashpassport.com I had issues with my credit card in Europe because I do not have a PIN and most machines there require a PIN (cannot just sign) Also remember: "there are no kangaroos in Austria" That should make sense once you're there
Good idea on the money ... Some of these foreign lands have some oddities as compared to Kansas ... Changing any currency to a different currency leaves you at the mercy of the exchange rate\person doing the exchanging and airports give rates Al Capone would like. The going rate on the dollar to the Euro. http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=EUR
Jake, I am having a clone done so that work won't suffer.....How much room do you have in your luggage for a short, fat, old man?
Walt, I am sure you will fit in my backpack. Thinks small thoughts. Thanks for the input guys, I have my passport. I got it back in 2010 to do the baja 1000 with the Mike Kay crew, that ended up not working out. I am really stoked on this trip, I even picked up an new DSLR body for the occasion. Now I will take my 40d, 7d, 70-200mm 4.0, 50mm 1.8, and 18-50 2.8, gopro, point and shoot pocket cam, 13 various batteries, 148 gig worth of memory cards and a 256 gig external hard drive. I hope that will do it, I don't want to pack my laptop. Later,
