Burt Munro once said: „If you don’t take a risk everyday, you might as well be born as a potato.“ And he was right. But we still are fools. Risks and adventures are relative, although straightforward risks can be really adventurous.

 My friend Helmut popped the following idea into my head: The “Transpyrenäica, a roadbook-rallye across the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1,300 kilometres off-road. Difficulty is easy to relentless. Normally you ride this with light-weighted trail-bikes (approx. 120 kilograms). But as a long-time trail-bike-rider, I knew that this would be way too easy for me. And when you are in the middle of hopping into midlife crisis then you need to set yourself higher goals. At the same time JvB-moto and LSL constructed the “Tridays-Rumbler”, based on a Triumph Scrambler for the Tridays, the event that I invented and organize. As I passed on my suggestion to ride this promotion-bike, which was adapted with the finest Öhlins-parts, 1,300 kilometers off-road through the Spanish dirt – before the official presentation – Jens vom Brauck (JvB-moto) and Jochen Schmitz-Linkweiler (LSL) weren’t really that happy.

 But it’s never enough. When I told my plan to a befriended director, he said, that this was exactly the kind of thing he was planning for a new TV-show on ServusTV: some crazy guys who got themselves into tough situations. Good idea!

So I only had to find a bunch of crazy guys to make their lives harder. That’s why I told Jens vom Brauck, Jochen Schmitz-Linkweiler and Wim Peters (Öhlins) my exciting idea: we would ride on 220 kilogram Triumph-Scramblers on the legendary “Transpyrenäica” – and they are my elected guys, my very own dream-team for this crazy trip. Four guys between 41 and 62 on motorcycles, which are - like themselves – totally inappropriate for this hard roadbook-rallye. For Scramblers for a Hallelujah! The excitement was surprisingly low.

After using all possible mental tricks, legal drugs, pleas to the honour of men, senseless promises, skilled belittlement and obedient time shifting, I got them and the madness could start! Triumph Germany gave us 4 Triumph Scramblers which we immediately started to customize. We wanted to adapt the 4 motorcycles individually for the persons needs and so 4 different motorcycles began to form. After half a year of motorcycle tuning and body-shaping we finally started in May 2012.

Logistics was an adventure itself on this journey. Imagine it like this, when our film crew starts to roll: you need a full transporter only for the equipment, on your motorcycle are permanently two small cameras, the director and camera operator follow you on their light-weighed trail-bikes, another camera-operator sits with a guide, a tone operator and the head of production in a jeep and meet you at agreed destinations. You could say an organised adventure. But way better to say it: organised chaos! But you get the chance to practise a lot. 

 For every different perspective you need to do the exact thing over and over. And after a hard, long 10 to 12 hour ride through mountains you still need to give statements for the camera, when you long for nothing more than a hot shower. A real adventure, don’t you think? Might sound strange. But that’s really what it was.


It was really awesome. But it was also really cold and wet and hot and sometime unbearable. And sometimes even cosy. And unforgettable. And it even hailed. If you travel to Spain in May, you expect everything expect snow and cold. But if you fight yourself up to 2,000 metres into the mountains, then this can happen even in Spain, Andorra or France. But we longed for an adventure and we got one. And only God knows why, humans think that a real adventure also needs a bit of suffering. 

 That’s why we suffered. Sometimes with proud sometimes not that grand with a big glass of red wine in our hand. We passed amazing areas, we crossed grand mountains and sometimes we held our breaths for this amazing beauty of nature around us in the Pyrenees. Somehow this area reminds me of the Dolomites – expect no cars. Because even if you get lost on these streets, you are as alone as you are in the open country. And thanks to funds of the European Union the streets are in best shape.


When we finally arrived at the Atlantic Ocean we lost a few pounds, were really dirty and became really good friends. We had an idea and didn’t stop in just having one. After half a year of preparations we finally lived our adventure. Sitting in front of the TV and watching football can be nice as well, but such a trip will be forever in your head. Most of the football games will be forgotten.


Uli Bree - triworx.com