So you think you're an ADVENTURE rider?
So you think you're an ADVENTURE rider ? I thought I was until I had the pleasure of meeting of of Kiwibikers newest members last week.....
Some of you may have seen a few threads and messages posted by a guy who calls himself FREDONTOUR
His real name is Fred Klein, and he's a 48 year old painter and logistics manager from Germany. and obviously, he's on tour, again........
OK, nothing too amazing there you might say, but wait until you hear his motorcycling history, it put's most of us to shame
But first a little more background on how he comes to be here in Timaru at present....
The local Kawasaki dealer here informed me last Thursday that they had just received a damaged 2008 green KLR, and when I enquired as to whom it belonged, I was told some German tourist travelling through the area. Seems he had come off and had a broken arm and ribs. Further enquiries led me to the local backpackers where a certain Fred Klein was staying. Apparently he had been travelling north into the Haka Valley and was still on the seal south of Cattle Valley when around a blind corner immediately in front of him appeared a very wide ( read as being wider than the two lanes of the road ) forage harvester with no pilot vehicle in front of it. Fred took evasive action and swerved aggressively, going down a bank, breaking approx 6 ribs, his left wrist and doing a fair bit of cosmetic damage to the KLR.
The forage harvester driver called the ambulance and police, and when Fred asked the policeman why the machine had no pilot vehicle, the answer was......
What are you doing on this road anyway !!!!! ( And the say our police aren't helpful :-)
The KLR is at the local bike shop here, nearly $1300 worth of parts have been priced, ordered and paid for ( he had tried unsuccessfully to insure the bike at the AA, but was uninsured at the time of the accident ) and he's spending his days in the local backpackers while the arm heals up
I invited him over for some beers and learned just how serious this guy is when it comes to motorcycling......
A few random facts
He started riding in 1980, has owned approx 100 bikes over the years, at one time 13 at the same time ( all registered )
He has ridden over 1,000,000kms with some examples 220,000kms on his last adventure bike, a BMW R100GS, over 140,000kms on a 1990's KLR650, over 40,000 on a Kawasaki Tengai 650, and over 140,000kms on his Suzuki GSX1100E
Current 2008 KLR was purchased new in Australia and now has 27,000kms on the clock
One of his KLR's has a flat deck sidecarwhich he uses to take his classic bikes to rally's, and a few of his bikes have spiked tires for ice riding
Check out his website for further details......
It's all in German, but I'm sure some google thingy can translate it roughly.....
It might be easier to use these links to get to the good bits.......
Nothing on his website of his pre 1995 travels, but.....
For his adventures from 1995-2005
http://www.fredontour.de/bericht95.html
For his adventures 2005 until early 2007
http://www.fredontour.de/bericht05.html
For his adventures 2007 until now
http://www.fredontour.de/neuseeland.html
Scroll down the scroll bar on the right of the main box to see lots of photos and information re the travels in each country named on the left
So as you can see, experience is always relevant
By the way, I've been looking into insurance for him, and after NAC insurance took a look at his history, they had no problem with selling him a policy :-)
He can be contacted on suzifred@hotmail.com ( don't expect a fast response, he has erratic email access ) and is staying at the Wanderer backpackers in Timaru - 0 3 688 8795
He spent 4 hrs here yesterday sorting out email, flights, insurance and various other things, but being a 1 bedroom apartment, I'm a bit pushed when it comes to having a lodger sadly
Anyway, if anyone is passing through over the next few weeks, I'm sure he would appreciate a visitor :-)
Cheers, Stu
0274 342 372
A couple of shots of the damaged KLR attached
My KLR thinks it's a Hyundai - running happily at the red-line hour after hour.....
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I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR SPEED 
Originally Posted by junkmanjoe
( 1 of the benefits of being the backbone of the country I guess......)
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