This weekend it's the Touratech Travel Event with tents and vendors like at BMW in Garmisch. In this video I stopped filming just a little too soon - the couple seen approaching in the last frame both waved and said "Hallllo" into the camera. I said to them, "You're on TV!" and they both laughed heartily.
What a great event -- I could care less about all the stuff for sale, what makes it rock for me is just seeing all the bikes and bikers in full battle regalia, as these are my (or shall I say our?) people, the ones who have really invested the energy and intellect and worked out what it takes to outfit themselves and their bikes for those long-day-in-the-saddle missions. It was a sea of high-quality European textile combi's (jacket + matching trousers) bearing the names Rukka, Pharao, Reusch, iXS, Hein Gericke, Held, and of course lots of BMW gear. On the bikes, it seemd every second bike was wearing stickers from all around Europe, esp. the Alpine passes, and some bikes sported stickers from far-away places around the world. GPS brackets were de riguer, as were the 80/20 tires, and additional racks of lights. Sabo, any one of your adventure bikes would have been happy grazing in this paddock as with its stablemates.
What's amazing to me is seeing so many of this kind of rider in one place -- these people are not easy to organize, as they are generally independent and busy riding. It's like holding a tent revival for non-religious people -- there's little incentive or tendency for this kind of creature to seek congregation with others of its kind. So finding several hundred in one place is like stumbling across a herd of orangutans. Not that we seek to avoid contact, mind, it's just that we're kinda too busy doing our own thing to join a club. If you happen to see us on a Passo, say hi, we're friendly and will tell you all about the accessories that make the most sense to us. But one doesn't often get to see such a gathering as this. One year you'll have to join me here, you'll see what I mean.
I got my ride off to an interesting start: A large silver Mercedes violated my right-of-way at the end of my own street, causing me to take evasive braking action, whereupon I *almost* dumped Ol' Blue on the curb due to loose gravel, but I managed to save it at the last second with a well-planted foot. I gave the driver a serious dose of the evil stinkeye, then went home and put on my neon safety vest, which I had not been wearing (for shame!). The rest of the 350-km trip was uneventful. Wouldn't that have been special, setting out on an all-day trip and then being knocked off 12 seconds after departure?
It's nice to be able to report that all my equipment and apparrel worked brilliantly. Shining stars of the day include the Schuberth helmet's retractable sun visor, and the BMW phase-change pants and jacket (under my Rukka trousers and black Held jacket). It was quite cloudy and dark upon departure, but occasionally the sun poked thru, and when it did it was great to be able to snap down the sun visor inside the helmet with the flick of a switch. Later in the day, as I was riding through areas with as much difference as 11C to 18C in just a few miles, the expensive undercrackers did their 'phase-changing' job of keeping me comfortable.
Best of all, Ol' Blue proved yet again to be the perfect bike for the mission. Can't imagine being happier on anything else. Few machines I know of can do so much so well. No squawks at all, just a super bike, and a super experience. I packed for an overnight trip in case I decided to overnight it somewhere, but at the end of the day I happily rolled up to the cheapest and most comfortable hotel around -- home.
That's the ride report!
