You do not see anything any more through the windscreen of the FZR 1000. A thick coating of dirt covers the bike like a veil. It is parked on a terrace. Outside. At Pulheim to the west of Cologne. It is there that Alfons Broekmann lives.

       Alfons Broekmann ! To the fans who make the pilgrimage to the Nürburgring, in order to get high on the legendary circuit of the North, Alfons is known only as “the guy in rubber boots”. "The story of the rubber boots is really an evolution”, says the 48 year old man, for whom his black toecapped rubber boot with reinforced steel inserts, have become a distinctive sign. He wears them on every ride he makes on the circuit of the North. And he has already accumulated several thousand in the course of the last 20 years… “At the beginning I simply did not have enough cash to buy real motorcycle boots” he explains while pushing a piece of chocolate into his mouth. “And I can also state that rubber boots are really and truly practical. You can use them without them falling to bits ! and then, with size 47 you can put them on incredibly quickly.”

       For Alfons, riding on the circuit, it is more than a hobby. When he started he was going through a profound crisis. “I was smoking lots of hashish and taking LSD” he recalled. “At 28, physically I was at the end of my tether.” His method of getting out of it : to ride on the circuit. “At the beginning it was just a therapeutic occupation. Otherwise I would have been at the bottom of a hole.” Today it is like a drug. “When the weather is good, I feel ill if I can’t go on the circuit.”

       High speed ? That is not important for Alfons. For him it is the inclined position that fascinates him : braking like fury in the bends, laying the bike down and scraping the sides of the rubber boots and wearing them down to the toecaps. And Alfons almost shows us how he manages. ”It is pure happiness” he says with a radiant air. “And after a good run round the circuit, a piece of chocolate and a nice cigarette – what more can one want ?”

       And in order to do this Alfons does not need a super sports bike. He wants to be able to sit in a relaxed position and not have to bend round short handlebars. “I always attach importance to normal handlebars and protection against the wind. I also made myself a fairing. Often my bikes look really awful” smiles the Rhinelander. And they are always dirty. “It’s quite simple : they must have a used appearance like well worn boots.”

       That fact that people take the piss out of him on the circuit never concerns Alfons. He never does things like everyone else. Very quickly he started to feel cramped in the very catholic family house. His father’s aversion to motorbikes prompted him to buy his first two wheels at the age of 17 –an NSU Lux– thanks to 50 Marks that he obtained from his brothers and sisters. And for Alfons, a regular job did not seem important in his life. A school technical designer, he previously worked as a warehouseman. Until his visits to the circuit of the North transformed his professional life. “I broke my hands during accidents on the circuit” Alfons explained while another piece of chocolate disappeared into his mouth. “That I can do. It does something for me while in general I prefer to avoid my fellow men.”

       Seven years ago he switched to a new type of employment by following a First Aid course. He gets something out of this “I work in teams. I always try to organise my work so that I will be free when the circuit is open. The few 100 kilometres up to there, that’s nothing.”

       Alfons has himself already fallen off on the circuit. By chance he has not injured himself badly. But it is too much for his wife ; she does not accompany him any more to the circuit. For him the annual access card remains the key to paradise. “That as well is quite a story” he says angrily. “Before, such a card was only available for licensed riders.” And one had to extend the licence and the access card by payment in cash.“Then I discussed the matter with the authorities and made them understand that they would gain much more money if the circuit was available to non licensed drivers.”