Welcome to the first part of a travel series from Northern Germany. In this post I will talk about my cute little bike a bit and show you pictures of my first trip to the coast of the Baltic Sea, hopefully you will enjoy the ride!
The bike
The Simson S 51 is a very German thing, built in the East when Germany was still separated into two states. Production was stopped in 1990, making each of the many bikes still rolling over thirty years old.
The main appeal for many comes from an interesting law loophole called 'Bestandschutz' (roughly 'protection of already existing equipment').
Due to some inexplicable decisions scooters these days are limited to 45 kph where even the slowest city traffic goes at 50 kph, making scooters of all kinds a hassle for everyone.
Because the former GDR had a much more lenient - one might argue sensible - stance on small displacement motorcycles the S 51 and its sisters were allowed 60 kph, many of them going about 70 kph without any modifications.
That makes them desirable for many younger people because you can ride these starting at 16 (15?) with an affordable licence and on a 32€ insurance per year.
Personally the decision to buy one came from the fact that I did not have the money for a motorcycle licence when I got my car licence and now it would cost me roughly 1,500€ and at least a week to get one and I am postponing that in favor of more urgent purchases.
There are also other aspects for me, I love working on vehicles and this is so easy to work on that I can do all maintenance and most repairs myself. With an upgraded ignition and carb they are also pleasantly reliable, especially for thirty year old machinery and because they are so popular it's possible to source spare parts pretty much all over the country. Since it's technically a scooter I don't have to deal with expensive insurance or bi-yearly TUV certification, another nice benefit in my opinion.
I had to get it to a shop to replace the cylinder head, but a couple other repairs I did myself, with just a book and a couple of basic tools on the street in front of my apartment. It's really fun to work on your own vehicle and I love how reliable it now is after some very basic repairs that cost lest than insuring my car for three months.
My particular version is the enduro version with a higher exhaust for more ground clearance, all of these benefits making it an incredibly fun jump-on-and-go-everywhere machine.
It's really the perfect machine for me personally and I love every minute I spent working on or riding it, to the point where I'm sure I won't sell it until I'm too old to ride thanks to infinite rebuildability of all parts.
The first trip to the coast of Scharbeutz, Baltic Sea
For my first trip I decided to travel one of my favorite routes, Hamburg to Scharbeutz. By car or fast motorcycle it's little over an hour thanks to being one single stretch of Autobahn with partly removed speed limit, but taking it slower on a 50cc along smaller roads with a refuelling stop for the bike and plenty for myself it took me just under four hours.
I love riding along backroads, there is something incredibly relaxing about it that I find hard to put into words. Probably the freedom of just stopping when you feel like it, no urgency to get anywhere.
Of course riding for hours can get exhausting, but with frequent stops it's a kind of exhaustion I like a lot.
One of the cool things about the Simson bikes is how everyone seems to love them. No matter where you go there will be at least one person telling you they 'used to own one', 'nice bike' and the like which I find quite fascinating because in essence it shouldn't be anything special with small cc engine but everyone loves them regardless.
The coast
Arriving in Scharbeutz I found everything just as I had left it a couple months ago when I had last visited. It's an interesting town, free parking for RVs is the first you notice, then the town center is the most elitarian place full of the most annoying and least likeable people and then you get to the beach that is simply beautiful.
I love this mixture, my family has taken day trips there more times than I can count and no matter how often I return it's always a relaxing experience that clears my head.
I can spend hours just walking along the beach, picking up interesting pebbles and shells and smelling the air of the sea.
This turned out to be my favorite picture of the trip, I can't really put to words why but I almost want to frame it.
With death in the last picture love was in the very next one I took, just one example of how diverse the place can be.
No one can say which depths of the ocean this creature emerged from to see the light on a rainy day, experts are still debating.
I hope you enjoyed this trip, let me know what you think in the comments because I love hearing from all of you :)