Solo ride

Germany

1.344 km, 2 days, view track

At the end of 2015 I moved on from the car side of BMW to my new and always-in-my-heart home BMW Motorrad. Now talking about motorcycles the whole day long was no longer tolerated nerd behaviour but actually part of the job. When getting acquainted with the product range, I formed a hasty opinion about the six cylinder touring bikes as being too large and clumsy for me. My colleague in product management responsible for the touring bikes asked for a fair assessment with a proper long distance ride. Thanks, Oliver! The trip to a conference on automotive apps in Berlin was a piece of cake on the K 1600 GT. Only stopped for refueling and arrived very relaxed.

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Ride with Marcus’ family and friends

Germany, France

1.639 km, 3 days, view track

This time it was me that joined a group, rather than the other way round. Marcus et al. started in Western Germany (Ruhrpott) and we met near Koblenz for a ride through the Eifel region, visited Nürburgring and went on through Alsace. While I went East through the beautiful Black Forest, the other guys had some more days to spend and went through France. 

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Ride with Marcus

Germany, Luxembourg, France, UK, Belgium

4.534 km, 12 days, view track

And now for something completely different again! As my good friend Marcus moved to London and re-engaged in riding motorcycles it was time for a tour together, this time taking my Triumph Bonneville “home”. The weather was mostly… British, but didn’t stop us from having fun, admiring the Vincent Black Shadow again in Sammy Miller’s Motorcycle Museum and even ran into Sammy on our way out. We felt very honoured that the legend himself gave us a tour through his workshop. Extremely nice chap.

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Ride with Sebastian

Germany, Austria, Italy, France

2.864 km, 8 days, view track

Well… how should I call this trip…? Intended to go to Barcelona on my reliable R 100 R. Sebastian and me rode via Black Forest (Highlight: “Hotel Lawine”) through the French Alps to Nice. On the way to the Verdon Gorge I took a closer look at the (no longer existing) tire profile. Seems like I left too much rubber in the French Alps… and although the strongly committed BMW Motorrad dealer in Toulon tried everything, a new set of these no longer commonly available tires during holiday season took several days. The guy in the workshop said that with almost any other form of breakdown, he would have solved it in a matter of hours. Ok, I get it, tires seem to be important… So I joined my wife and family in Barcelona by train and picked the bike up on my way back. Going there in an air-conditioned TGV was almost too comfortable 🙂

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Solo ride

Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria

1.929 km, 4 days, view track

Another human-factors conference taking place in an interesting location, Krákow. Why not heading east on a motorcycle? Well, after that trip I realized that it’s not really my cup of tea…

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Solo ride

California

627  km, 1 day, view track

When sending me on a business trip to the US the gods of motorcycling seem to favor me. Again a motorcycle rental in walking distance from a human-factors conference venue in San Francisco. Started very early in the morning and rode down legendary Highland 1 in legendary weather. Seriously underestimated the distances… Turned the bike around much too late and arrived in the middle of night back at the hotel with a remarkably sunburned nose…

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Ride with Falke

Germany, Austria, Italy

1.020 km, 2 days, view track

A trip with two motorcycles from 1992. Falke on his R 100 GS, and me on my R 100 R. Through the Allgäu over the Brenner Pass, Würzjoch, Valparola Pass, and Passo Tre Croci to Lago di Sauris. The tour was actually supposed to be longer, but I got a little sick. So, we headed back the next day, but we still managed to enjoy beauties like the Pordoi Pass and the Karer Pass!

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Solo ride (more or less)

Germany, Belgium, France, UK

3.241 km, 6 days, view track

After riding mostly in the Alps, I thought “and now for something completely different”. On the day before starting my tour to Cornwall, I went to the Technical University of Munich for the annual summer party of an institute I worked with in the past. Coincidentally, my former (and later) research partner also planned to go to Cornwall with his family… Meeting there three days later for dinner and drinks was fun. Sammy Miller’s Motorcycle Museum is also a must-see! Vincents! The highlight on the way back was to meet Michael on the Euro Train on his way to Germany and join him. We drove to the Biker’s Loft in Groenedijk (www.grd.be) where you park your motorcycles in a big storage-like hall and all the hotel rooms open to that indoor parking space. Unique.  

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Solo ride

California

277 km, 1 day, view track

Went to San Diego for a conference and was asked to stay over the weekend as the flight costs were substantially lower then. I would have agreed to a weekend there anyway – but finding out that a motorcycle rental was just around the corner really made my day. First time riding in the US!

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Solo ride

Germany, Austria

967 km, 2 days, view track

Just a quick trip to Vienna and back over a long Easter weekend. Kind of a highlight was a personal parking space right in front of the hotel in the middle of Vienna center. The hotel staff didn’t know where the next motorcycle parking was, but they were so kind to produce a very officially-looking hotel-stamped document that successfully prevented the local authorities from fining me.

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Solo ride

Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland

6.303 km, 10 days, view track

That trip has a special place in my heart. Born as just a crazy idea, I ended up riding my bike all the way down to southern Spain to meet my wife for our annual vacation. Didn’t have much riding time and almost no knowledge on tour planning, I spent far too much time on highways with several days doing more then 600km … Wouldn’t do it again like this, but I enjoyed every minute back then.

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Solo ride

Germany, Austria, Italy

686 km, 3 days, view track

Very first tour with to the Dolomites on a motorcycle. Instantly got addicted.

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