The Red Baron
Officially this is a 2006 Honda ST1300 Pan European. To us, it is simply "The Red Baron". This was Matt's first venture into touring bikes and eventually came to Germany in 2018. I say eventually as it suffered a puncture the night before departure leaving Matt to ride the 275 miles on his own. Now some may have taken another bike (see below) as it had a Sat Nav, but Matt had promised The Baron it would be get to do a lap of The Nurburgring and he always kept his promises, even to a motorbike.
You'll see more of The Baron on other pages.....
The Kaiser
This is a 2013 BMW GTL1600, named The Kaiser by Matt for no other reason than it was large and German. The Kaiser joined us in 2015,2016,and 2017 and had a fully functional Sat Nav system, hence why his promise to The Red Baron mentioned above was somewhat of a surprise. This was the bike on which Matt gained his SS DGAF nickname but again more of that later. In addition, this was the last bike Matt ever rode.
The Green Goblin
As mentioned, Matt hankered after a 10 minute lap and having narrowly missed with both The Kaiser and The Baron, he sought advice from Mr. Grover who was previously a pretty successful racer.. Mark's advice - "Ride faster Matt". The following year he surprised us all when he turned up on this 2019 Kawasaki ZZR1400, otherwise known as The Green Goblin as it gobbled Fireblades - (Guess what Mr. Grover was riding?). Whilst he got closer to the 10 minute lap, The Green Goblin is more famous for Keygate, but more of that later....
tHE LEGEND OF MATT RATANA ON TOUR..........
SS DGAF
We find that as an evening's debrief winds on, we tend to be more honest about some of the highly skilled riding we have witnessed..
During one such ride Stuart had been entertained by having nothing but The Kaiser occupying his mirrors due to the size of the machine and Matt's attempts to help the environment by being close enough to save petrol. When the opportunity arose though, Matt decided to test the acceleration abilities of The Kaiser, squeezing between Stu and the nearside kerb....!
Stu's comment "Good Gosh, it was like being overtaken by the SS Don't Give A F...ish" - Therefore SS DGAF was born...
Keygate
Having lost The Goblin's keys upon arrival in Germany in 2019, the only place they could be was a near vertical 50 foot drop behind our parking place.
Matt somehow managed to persuade all the hotel guests to, on a nightly basis, scour the hillside for his keys. All to no avail.
As we were preparing to leave on the final day Matt emerged with the keys. Apparently his new bike jacket had a secret key pocket stitched into it to ensure one's keys were always secure. He'd put them in there upon arrival thinking "I won't lose them in here....."
the kiwi and the Portuguese chap
In 2018 a bike got amongst us on route to lunch and even parked in the same bike park. Matt approached the interloper and appeared to fully engage the rider in conversation. After a while (situation normal...) Matts arm went round the slightly diminutive chap and Matt announced that his new best friend would be joining is for lunch. His arm remain around the chap for the 5 minute stroll to the restaurant.
It soon became apparent that the rider hailed for Portugal and could not speak English, whilst Matts understanding of Portuguese was equally as basic.
The chap joined us for lunch remaining unable to converse and as soon as his plate was clear left rather quickly
I remain convinced that the poor guy thought he had been kidnapped by am aging biking gang, with Mr.Ratana as the gang's main muscle...