TET

I mentioned it in a few blogs and i told you i would tell you more about it.
TET stands for Trans Euro Trail which is an mostly offroad trail all over Europe starting at the Arctic Circle and ending there again 51.000km later.

This trail is divided in several tracks per country made and maintained by the so called linesmen.
You can download those tracks for free (click logo to get at the TET website) and ride them whenever you want with whoever you want.
They also have an app where you can download the tracks, report problems when you come across some. For example a road closure like here in the Netherlands where they spread like the corona virus or a wash out because offroad on the TET is not just dirt roads.
Thankfully there are also a lot of country’s where real offroad is still possible and allowed.

I bought Ecstasy for tracks like the TET trails. I started the TET south Netherlands with Ragnarok fitted with a set of Anakee Wild’s and despite of the weight i managed pretty well on Ragnarok but on loose sand the weight and the 19/17″ wheel sizes the fun gets lost pretty fast, hence the buying and upgrading of ecstacy.

When i bought Ragnarok i was not planning to go offroad, the Crosstourer looks like an allroad but Honda never intended it to be an allroad, it’s just a tourer with a lift and a nice upright riding position.
But that doesn’t work for me. If you talk the talk you should walk the walk and that is when i started to upgrade Ragnarok.
I don’t do show. I bought Ragnarok because of the engine, getting hooked on the V4 with the VFR 800Fi VTEC which i rode for over 8 years.
When it was time for a change it was to be a choice between the Crossrunner (VFR 800X) and the Crosstourer (VFR 1200X) at that moment i found the Runner better looking and you’re sitting in the motor and not on it but the torque on that 1200…. 😎

When i crashed my VTEC a year before i planned to buy a new bike i had to decide to ride on with a damaged bike (it was economical unwise to repair him) or to buy the new one already.
That was the smartest thing so i had to make up my mind between the two X’s.
The 800 had to be an 2015 or later, the ’11 – ’13 was just a butt ugly VTEC and the ’15 still pretty expencive but i didn’t really like the looks of the 1200.
Until i went looking for one to really buy another bike. Like as it had to be this way.
The cheapest at that moment was the closest at that moment, only 35km’s from my home and with the Hepco & Becker Explorer panniers and crashbars, in black it didn’t even looked bad. Still not “wow” but not bad and after a test-ride i bought him right at that moment.

I have the tendency of not keeping things standard, that was my VTEC.
Designed and executed by yours truly, just as Ragnarok and the work in progress on Ecstasy.
The work on Ragnarok started with some paintwork because Honda made some covers stupidly light grey looking cheap like shit so it had to become black as the top halve of the bike and in a later stage when i had a bit more time make it matte with a matte clearcoat and adding a touch of personality making him mine.

When it started to look like a tough bike the thoughts came to make him really though and start to do some light offroad, like i said… i don’t show.
When i do something i do it for a purpose and there are a lot of riders with bikes looking like they’re taking the long way round or down but when it rains the bike stays in the garage.
That’s not my style so i made him look like it’s made to go allroad because i take him allroad and in a previous blog you could see that i really do and this year i also started doing long trips and in between i’m planning to do some sections of the TET with Ecstasy.

I filmed some parts of the TET south NL when i rode it on Raganarok until we had to stop when my friend crashed his bike and we didn’t get to it to finish it.
It was one of my first montages so it is not very spectacular but i will embed the first part (from 7) below. The rest you can find on my YouTube channel, all unedited.
Plan for this year is finishing the TET south NL, ride the north section, the Drenthe loop (a TET sidetrack from the north section) and the TET Belgium with Ecsasy and off course a new 3 week adventure with Raganrok, maybe implementing a few parts of the TET as Well.