BMW Biker Meet Garmisch and Dolomites Ride Report

[Mike Werner]

I decided to go to the BMW International Biker meet in Garmisch last weekend, meeting up there with YoYo and his brother.

Loaded up the bike and set off from Paris to Munich (about 900 Kms, and 10 hours of riding) on Thursday.

On Friday went over with a friend to Garmisch. Loads of BMW bikes, loads of people (mostly German).

In fact, international is a bit OTT... 99% were German:

I've written a blog about it on my site if you want to read about my gripes (
Bikes in the Fast Lane )

There were several after-market suppliers there, but the tents they were in were small, and they only sold things, not install. They didn't even sell it to you, just mail the bits you would buy.

You had a chance to play around on the R1200GS with BMW Off-road instructors. They had setup a small track with obstacles.

For an European-style biker meet, I'd guess it's big, but for USA standards, it's not:

There were a couple of customized R1200GS's there:

AC Schnitzer:

and if I remember correctly, this one is from PIA. It's a supermoto version:

Here's YoYoin the "camping" ground, saluting you all:

The camp ground:

And for the next part the Dolomite run (next post)... hang on:

 

[Mike Werner]

We stayed in a small hotel close to Garmisch:

It was obviously full of bikers:

From there we went on to Austria:

We then decided to take our first Coll/Pass:

To immortize the event, YoYo decided to videotape the climb;

I don't know if it worked, he's still there and only back next week.

Here's the view from the top:

At the top is a look out point, called the Biker Nest (I wonder what they call it in the winter)

There's also a very nice restaurant there (best Appfle-Struddle I've ever eaten):

What goes up, MUST go down, so down we went. Not easy, since my bike was acting up (more on that later):

Along the way, we hit some severe rain and hail storms, and decided to call it a day, and check in to a hotel:

There was a nice castle next to it:

The problems I was having with the bike made it next to impossible for me to really enoy the ride. The front wheel, under 40 kph (when you don't have gyro effect) would start wobbling. And considering all the hairpin curves, it was a job to take the curves. We had even brought the bike to a BMW dealer on Monday, and he confirmed there was a problem, but couldn't fix it apart from balancing my new tires again.

So I decided to head back home, through the rain, to Paris. Bike ran well with high speeds, apart from some heavy vibrations at 120 kph.

YoYo went on with another friend who lives in the Dolomites. This guy would serve as guide. And he drives a Honda Goldwing !! And no-one, and I mean no-one, can pass him. he passes all the sportsbike on the outside in the hairpin curves, putting all to shame.

YoYo, when you're back, chime in.... maybe you have some photo of Pieter on his bike (and video ??).

End of report. 3000 kms, 33 hours riding !!

 

[rqw]

hi folks!

my first contribution on this huge forum:

on this page u can find a link to 174 pics from the 2004.internationales bmw motorrad bikermeeting.

grtz,
rutger

 

[Mike Werner]

That's a lot of photos !!!!!

Welcome...

 

[Earache]

Very cool pics - thanks for posting them.

Have more?

Eric

 

[Invicta Moto]

Mike, excellent story, wish I'd gone now!

 

[rqw]

Very cool pics - thanks for posting them.

Have more?

Eric

well, the following pics will be those of the intermot show in september (can't wait to see the k12s in real! oops, forgot this is a gs forum )

grtz,
rutger