xmas has come and gone, we have come and gone (to austria and hungary, i mean), and the new year started with a huge cold, which, i hope, will be gone soon as well.
spending the holidays with family and old friends is always great, although there is just never enough time. i am particularity ashamed that this time i was not even able to send proper xmas cards to everyone. thing is that i recently got involved in an extremely interesting project that is, like most good things, also extremely demanding … and heavy on my agenda. which i am not at all unhappy about. from a work perspective at least.
still i could see some of my friends back in budapest, have a chat, spend some time with my family, go to a few concerts with kris’ parents (i will never get used to that national anthem thingy they got going in hungary, though, i believe this is more something for soccer players 😉 ), so all in all it was a pretty good year end.
i could definitely do without the long drive! going to austria & hungary was ok, but on the way back we had snowfall from austria until after cologne, and that was absolutely no fun. next year it’s either the plane, or i’ll stay home …

something else is gone, too: somebody made me an early xmas present (on 22nd of december), and took my bike. it was secured with the steering lock plus two chains, and tucked away behind the trailer and the thrash container, but obviously not well enough. a bike like that is of course not very difficult to steal: you just pick it up (two guys are enough), and throw it on a truck …
i’ve not had a chance to ride it very often this year, in fact, since most of my weekends and evenings were booked i had cleaned it and put some protective layer on it (silicone), and pretty much decided that i would not take it out until spring, but i had also concluded that i would not sell it: the new ones are too expensive and actually don’t do that much more for my riding.
so what we have here is a typical lose-lose situation: the bastard who stole the bike won’t make a good deal, because, even though it was in pretty good condition, the market value of a 3 year old stolen race bike is probably just enough to buy a couple of beers, and i lost because whatever the insurance pays i’ll still have to chip in with a small fortune to buy a new one. i’m not a violent man, therefore i don’t wish that the chain splits and takes off the guy’s left leg: a complex multiple fracture would do, thank you very much.

i’m certainly going to buy a new one! as soon as it becomes clear where i’ll spend my next couple of months / years … 😉 i’ll keep you up to date on that one.

so in memory of one of the best bikes i have owned so far, and of all the fun and good times i had with it, some of the last pictures of me and my ktm.

stolen_ktm_1

still a proud owner of a ktm 400 exc (2001 model).

stolen_ktm_2

yep. they call them dirt bikes. and that is why.

stolen_ktm_3

‘what a bike is, what a bike really is, is freedom.’ 😉 the sky is the limit.

farewell.