Somewhere around the beginning of the nineties a couple of friends and yours truly went on a 7 day trip to and from Prague. Of course we only used regional roads, highways are too dangerous with these old bikes. More so when you come into the hills and mountains of southerne Germany. At slopes of 10 % or worse speed decreased to about 65 km/h max, though it didn't matter if I shifted down to 3rd gear, or stayed in 4th. In 4th a friend of mine could actually feel every single exhaust stroke blowing against his pants/feet. He was riding 10-30 metres behind me....
Things didn't get comfy. Generally, people were a lot smaller in the fifties, when this bike was built. I'm not, being 6'10". To make things even more interesting, the travel of the rear fork is only some 5 cm, and the seat is supported/hinged at the front, with the back supported by springs. I sure wished I had replaced those springs before going. When riding towards a railroad crossing, in the former DDR, I discovered that the tracks were protruding some 5cm above the tarmac. Of course I saw this when it already was too late. I discovered that the human back is quite some shock-absorber. At least I didn't fall off... I did have a very nteresting colour-scheme on my butt, and the back of my thighs for the next couple of weeks, with blue and black as dominant coliours.
We did have an awful lot of fun. German tourist who tried to videotape those funny Chechs (they thought) and their ancient bikes. Little did they know that old bikes have handles for advancing/retarding the ignition, and that one can also use this handle to produce certain sound effects when starting.
Sometimes things got a bit hairy, just imagine: On two wheels, riding on a cobble-stone surface, after the first rainstorm in weeks. Did I mention that, at that time, Trabi's were still abundant, blowing 2-stroke-lube-oil-saturated fumes on those same cobble stones ? Oh well. To add to the fun, there was local traffic, which went by a different set of traffic rules us, so it seemed.
