Swiss Mike
Registered user
Hi all,
After reading and enjoying many ride reports, I thought it was about time I put pen to paper (finger to keyboard!)
Every year Touratech Germany organise an open weekend at their headquarters in Niedereschach in the Black Forest. This year’s event was from 18th June - 20th June.
We have been talking about going for the last few years but have never made it yet. This year we planned to ride up on the Saturday, camp overnight and ride back Sunday. Ok, so the forecast was bad and we are not as hard-core as we like (well I am, obviously, but you can’t make the other half camp in freezing temperatures and bucketing rain…) so we decided on a hotel in nearby Villingen-Schwenningen.
On the ride up, the bucketing rain started 10 minutes after we left and continued until we arrived at the hotel, after which it stopped. We stopped at a HUGE BMW dealer on the way up and just had to buy a new cold weather jacket and trousers – because it was 50% off, not because I am not hard-core!
Having settled into the hotel, dried out a bit and had a walk round Villingen-Schwenningen, we headed to the Touratech Event. The programme includes an enduro track, where they hold a competition, (we watched some really skilled riders), several different touring films, including the premiere of “No plan is a good plan” about a trip around Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as workshops about using your GPS and camp cooking. There were also various companies there displaying their wares, like thermorest, motorbike tour operators etc. You could also test ride several BMW’s free of charge, if you wanted. The Touratech shop, and seconds shop were open most of the weekend and you can really find everything you need there (providing you are LOADED!)
Food was great and almost at cost. You could buy a mug for 5 euros and get free coffee / tea for the whole weekend. The campsite (field with some portaloos – showers available in the main building) was almost full with proper hard core bikers – mostly from Germany but also a big contingent from Italy and a few from France and Switzerland.
Virtually every bike was a GS, mostly 1150’s and 1200’s a lot kitted out with every imaginable (Touratech) gadget. At a guess there were about 500 people there, nearly everybody on two wheels.
Really great to see a large group of BMW bikers from Chile in our hotel – they must have been feeling the cold!
We went back again on Sunday morning for another look and then had a little tour around the Black Forest before heading home.
The cold and rain certainly didn’t ruin the weekend for us – we really enjoyed the event and would recommend it if you happen to be in the area when it is on.
Ride safe
Gruss
Mike.
After reading and enjoying many ride reports, I thought it was about time I put pen to paper (finger to keyboard!)
Every year Touratech Germany organise an open weekend at their headquarters in Niedereschach in the Black Forest. This year’s event was from 18th June - 20th June.
We have been talking about going for the last few years but have never made it yet. This year we planned to ride up on the Saturday, camp overnight and ride back Sunday. Ok, so the forecast was bad and we are not as hard-core as we like (well I am, obviously, but you can’t make the other half camp in freezing temperatures and bucketing rain…) so we decided on a hotel in nearby Villingen-Schwenningen.
On the ride up, the bucketing rain started 10 minutes after we left and continued until we arrived at the hotel, after which it stopped. We stopped at a HUGE BMW dealer on the way up and just had to buy a new cold weather jacket and trousers – because it was 50% off, not because I am not hard-core!
Having settled into the hotel, dried out a bit and had a walk round Villingen-Schwenningen, we headed to the Touratech Event. The programme includes an enduro track, where they hold a competition, (we watched some really skilled riders), several different touring films, including the premiere of “No plan is a good plan” about a trip around Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as workshops about using your GPS and camp cooking. There were also various companies there displaying their wares, like thermorest, motorbike tour operators etc. You could also test ride several BMW’s free of charge, if you wanted. The Touratech shop, and seconds shop were open most of the weekend and you can really find everything you need there (providing you are LOADED!)
Food was great and almost at cost. You could buy a mug for 5 euros and get free coffee / tea for the whole weekend. The campsite (field with some portaloos – showers available in the main building) was almost full with proper hard core bikers – mostly from Germany but also a big contingent from Italy and a few from France and Switzerland.
Virtually every bike was a GS, mostly 1150’s and 1200’s a lot kitted out with every imaginable (Touratech) gadget. At a guess there were about 500 people there, nearly everybody on two wheels.
Really great to see a large group of BMW bikers from Chile in our hotel – they must have been feeling the cold!
We went back again on Sunday morning for another look and then had a little tour around the Black Forest before heading home.
The cold and rain certainly didn’t ruin the weekend for us – we really enjoyed the event and would recommend it if you happen to be in the area when it is on.
Ride safe
Gruss
Mike.
