BMW Berlin 2021

I went to a BMW event in Berlin for their 75th year party in the nineties, accommodation was up to you, but I stayed on a large camp site run by a motorcycle club, this type of camp site was one of many around Berlin and run by different clubs.
I went to most of the official BMW shows, dinners, tours but enjoyed my time the most with people on the camp site, eating, drinking and out riding bikes with them
 
Waiting for dates too. We will be heading over to the Harz mts and hoping to take a wkd in Berlin, so combining the two
 
I went to a BMW event in Berlin for their 75th year party in the nineties, accommodation was up to you, but I stayed on a large camp site run by a motorcycle club, this type of camp site was one of many around Berlin and run by different clubs.
I went to most of the official BMW shows, dinners, tours but enjoyed my time the most with people on the camp site, eating, drinking and out riding bikes with them

I went to the same event & camped there and remember meeting you - it was an DDR checkpoint by a river
Great event, laid on by eV and BMW’s marketing team
Next year we went the eV BMW event at Tihany on lake Balaton in Hungary
 
I went to the same event & camped there and remember meeting you - it was an DDR checkpoint by a river
Great event, laid on by eV and BMW’s marketing team
Next year we went the eV BMW event at Tihany on lake Balaton in Hungary

Who's eV JB?
 
Who's eV JB?

BMW Clubs Europa eV, in full - it was the old group of European BMW Owners Clubs, back then

They organised the original 'Motorrad days' type events, for owners of BMW cars and bikes and they were hosted by a different country federation each year and lasted a week at a time.

They were fantastic and well organised

BMW saw that this could be run as a corporate event and created BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch, same place every year and the Owner's club event died a death

Shame, as it was better to visit a new country each year, as you could plan a trip there and back

Berlin in 1998, we did the Baltic coast and into East Germany and then dipped back into the Eifels and home

After Hungary in 1999, we did Praha and Bohemia, bought Daytona boots at the factory shop their old factory at Passau and wound our way back over Austria
 
BMW Clubs Europa eV, in full - it was the old group of European BMW Owners Clubs, back then

They organised the original 'Motorrad days' type events, for owners of BMW cars and bikes and they were hosted by a different country federation each year and lasted a week at a time.

They were fantastic and well organised

BMW saw that this could be run as a corporate event and created BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch, same place every year and the Owner's club event died a death

Shame, as it was better to visit a new country each year, as you could plan a trip there and back

Berlin in 1998, we did the Baltic coast and into East Germany and then dipped back into the Eifels and home

After Hungary in 1999, we did Praha and Bohemia, bought Daytona boots at the factory shop their old factory at Passau and wound our way back over Austria

That sounds like it was well organised, spread about very nicely and fun.

a pity it all went corporate!

Thanks for the info.
 
BMW Clubs Europa eV, in full - it was the old group of European BMW Owners Clubs, back then

They organised the original 'Motorrad days' type events, for owners of BMW cars and bikes and they were hosted by a different country federation each year and lasted a week at a time.

They were fantastic and well organised

BMW saw that this could be run as a corporate event and created BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch, same place every year and the Owner's club event died a death

Shame, as it was better to visit a new country each year, as you could plan a trip there and back

Berlin in 1998, we did the Baltic coast and into East Germany and then dipped back into the Eifels and home

After Hungary in 1999, we did Praha and Bohemia, bought Daytona boots at the factory shop their old factory at Passau and wound our way back over Austria

I'm sure Faaker See stared locally and then H-D corporate took it over.
 
That sounds like it was well organised, spread about very nicely and fun.

a pity it all went corporate!

Thanks for the info.

It was and you could experience local culture first hand and on the Hungarian edition we signed up for a day’s ride out to the east side of the country in the Romania border

A father and son of the Hungarian club had a shoe factory in this wee town and organised it - to a bike and car museum in their town
Unfortunately they got their kilometres and miles mixed up and the notice board said 500k’s and not 500 miles :blast

It was actually a round trip of 800 kilometres (or 500 miles) FFS

So, being stupid Brits we thought a 500 km (300 mile) day trip would be fine:rolleyes:

So 20 Brits went, 1 old boy from Portugal on a demo new F650 Funduro and borrowed riding gear (we lent him some gloves and a jacket and BMW’s Hungarian importer lent him an open face helmet for a 500 mile jaunt ) and a few dour Germans went in this day trip

Up at 6 am with Breakfast was 7am & a departure of 8.15am ( it was supposed to be a holiday )

The Hungarian BMW club had organised a 4 bike police escort on K1100 police bikes - 2 up front and 2 at the back and the drop-off system was deployed
Fuck me it was like a cannonball run, we never stopped at any lights/road junction or roundabout for 250 miles, as the Police riders would block every bit of traffic so this 30 bike procession could thunder through at 60-80 mph everywhere

At the 125 mile point we stopped at a pre arranged fuel station with a cafe for a breather

Arriving at this wee town at about noon after a 250 mile high speed ride - the whole town was decked out in bunting and all the folk were lining the streets for this motorcycle cavalcade, cheering us and clapping - like something else and all the roads were dirt and gravel, no tarmac
We went to the shoe factory and try had a canteen with a sports centre, the father/son duo did us proud with a 3 course meal and then a game of 10 pin AML bowling afterwards in the firm’s own sports arena (remember the town was poor and had dirt roads and no street lights or amenities)

After lunch we went to a smarter residential street with American style houses with long grassed front gardens
Pulling up outside this house and parking the bikes, this father & son duo met the owner and we were shown into the massive farm size shed behind the house
The shed housed all manner of old bikes like HD’s and Indian-plus old Eastern European bikes and some cars/steam engines etc
Fascinating couple of hours

At about 3.30 pm we were off again, with the Police escort for the 250 mile return journey, again all on A&B roads with the odd dirt road thrown in - no motorway at all (there weren’t any)

Now the Portuguese rider wasn’t the best and he found the trip an ordeal - being Brits we stuck him
In the middle of our group & told him to follow the lines of the rider in front of him and we’d mop up any issues behind him (bends weren’t his strong point)

After about 100 miles into the return trip, we were crossing some fenland type land with open land and dykes
The old fella failed to make a bend and he was in the grass and gently heading for the deep ditch
He rode into the ditch on this brand new borrowed Funduro and lent it against the ditch side without crashing and stepped off it
We stopped and got off our bikes and went to his aid
The new bike was covered in pond weeds and about 10-15’ lower the the road and bank side

We managed to get the bike out, with me riding it and 4 other Brits manhandling it out, whilst the Germans stood by tutting at being held up
No damage done we got him back on the bike and the Police riders set us off again at 80 mph

We got back at 8pm, after a 500 mile day ride

Some holiday that was
 
It was and you could experience local culture first hand and on the Hungarian edition we signed up for a day’s ride out to the east side of the country in the Romania border

A father and son of the Hungarian club had a shoe factory in this wee town and organised it - to a bike and car museum in their town
Unfortunately they got their kilometres and miles mixed up and the notice board said 500k’s and not 500 miles :blast

It was actually a round trip of 800 kilometres (or 500 miles) FFS

So, being stupid Brits we thought a 500 km (300 mile) day trip would be fine:rolleyes:

So 20 Brits went, 1 old boy from Portugal on a demo new F650 Funduro and borrowed riding gear (we lent him some gloves and a jacket and BMW’s Hungarian importer lent him an open face helmet for a 500 mile jaunt ) and a few dour Germans went in this day trip

Up at 6 am with Breakfast was 7am & a departure of 8.15am ( it was supposed to be a holiday )

The Hungarian BMW club had organised a 4 bike police escort on K1100 police bikes - 2 up front and 2 at the back and the drop-off system was deployed
Fuck me it was like a cannonball run, we never stopped at any lights/road junction or roundabout for 250 miles, as the Police riders would block every bit of traffic so this 30 bike procession could thunder through at 60-80 mph everywhere

At the 125 mile point we stopped at a pre arranged fuel station with a cafe for a breather

Arriving at this wee town at about noon after a 250 mile high speed ride - the whole town was decked out in bunting and all the folk were lining the streets for this motorcycle cavalcade, cheering us and clapping - like something else and all the roads were dirt and gravel, no tarmac
We went to the shoe factory and try had a canteen with a sports centre, the father/son duo did us proud with a 3 course meal and then a game of 10 pin AML bowling afterwards in the firm’s own sports arena (remember the town was poor and had dirt roads and no street lights or amenities)

After lunch we went to a smarter residential street with American style houses with long grassed front gardens
Pulling up outside this house and parking the bikes, this father & son duo met the owner and we were shown into the massive farm size shed behind the house
The shed housed all manner of old bikes like HD’s and Indian-plus old Eastern European bikes and some cars/steam engines etc
Fascinating couple of hours

At about 3.30 pm we were off again, with the Police escort for the 250 mile return journey, again all on A&B roads with the odd dirt road thrown in - no motorway at all (there weren’t any)

Now the Portuguese rider wasn’t the best and he found the trip an ordeal - being Brits we stuck him
In the middle of our group & told him to follow the lines of the rider in front of him and we’d mop up any issues behind him (bends weren’t his strong point)

After about 100 miles into the return trip, we were crossing some fenland type land with open land and dykes
The old fella failed to make a bend and he was in the grass and gently heading for the deep ditch
He rode into the ditch on this brand new borrowed Funduro and lent it against the ditch side without crashing and stepped off it
We stopped and got off our bikes and went to his aid
The new bike was covered in pond weeds and about 10-15’ lower the the road and bank side

We managed to get the bike out, with me riding it and 4 other Brits manhandling it out, whilst the Germans stood by tutting at being held up
No damage done we got him back on the bike and the Police riders set us off again at 80 mph

We got back at 8pm, after a 500 mile day ride

Some holiday that was

Brilliant story - thank you for posting that; stories are what make life memorable, in my opinion.

If you haven't gone anywhere and you've done nothing you've got no stories to tell!

We've all got, I'm sure, loads of stories we could share (I know I, you and many others have).

New thread required!
 
That’s a good story JB, wish I’d been there too

‘‘Twas a funny old day, even after 20 years and the biggest thing was the miles v km’s cockup

500 mile day trip was a big one on smaller roads and I was on a R1100 GS

Automobile Museum was worth it, we couldn’t work out how the old fella had so many iconic American bikes in what was the old Eastern Bloc

I have a few good stories of that trip and others

That scrapes you get into riding bikes in a foreign country and some of the camaraderie too
 
It was and you could experience local culture first hand and on the Hungarian edition we signed up for a day’s ride out to the east side of the country in the Romania border

A father and son of the Hungarian club had a shoe factory in this wee town and organised it - to a bike and car museum in their town
Unfortunately they got their kilometres and miles mixed up and the notice board said 500k’s and not 500 miles :blast

It was actually a round trip of 800 kilometres (or 500 miles) FFS

So, being stupid Brits we thought a 500 km (300 mile) day trip would be fine:rolleyes:

So 20 Brits went, 1 old boy from Portugal on a demo new F650 Funduro and borrowed riding gear (we lent him some gloves and a jacket and BMW’s Hungarian importer lent him an open face helmet for a 500 mile jaunt ) and a few dour Germans went in this day trip

Up at 6 am with Breakfast was 7am & a departure of 8.15am ( it was supposed to be a holiday )

The Hungarian BMW club had organised a 4 bike police escort on K1100 police bikes - 2 up front and 2 at the back and the drop-off system was deployed
Fuck me it was like a cannonball run, we never stopped at any lights/road junction or roundabout for 250 miles, as the Police riders would block every bit of traffic so this 30 bike procession could thunder through at 60-80 mph everywhere

At the 125 mile point we stopped at a pre arranged fuel station with a cafe for a breather

Arriving at this wee town at about noon after a 250 mile high speed ride - the whole town was decked out in bunting and all the folk were lining the streets for this motorcycle cavalcade, cheering us and clapping - like something else and all the roads were dirt and gravel, no tarmac
We went to the shoe factory and try had a canteen with a sports centre, the father/son duo did us proud with a 3 course meal and then a game of 10 pin AML bowling afterwards in the firm’s own sports arena (remember the town was poor and had dirt roads and no street lights or amenities)

After lunch we went to a smarter residential street with American style houses with long grassed front gardens
Pulling up outside this house and parking the bikes, this father & son duo met the owner and we were shown into the massive farm size shed behind the house
The shed housed all manner of old bikes like HD’s and Indian-plus old Eastern European bikes and some cars/steam engines etc
Fascinating couple of hours

At about 3.30 pm we were off again, with the Police escort for the 250 mile return journey, again all on A&B roads with the odd dirt road thrown in - no motorway at all (there weren’t any)

Now the Portuguese rider wasn’t the best and he found the trip an ordeal - being Brits we stuck him
In the middle of our group & told him to follow the lines of the rider in front of him and we’d mop up any issues behind him (bends weren’t his strong point)

After about 100 miles into the return trip, we were crossing some fenland type land with open land and dykes
The old fella failed to make a bend and he was in the grass and gently heading for the deep ditch
He rode into the ditch on this brand new borrowed Funduro and lent it against the ditch side without crashing and stepped off it
We stopped and got off our bikes and went to his aid
The new bike was covered in pond weeds and about 10-15’ lower the the road and bank side

We managed to get the bike out, with me riding it and 4 other Brits manhandling it out, whilst the Germans stood by tutting at being held up
No damage done we got him back on the bike and the Police riders set us off again at 80 mph

We got back at 8pm, after a 500 mile day ride

Some holiday that was

Sounds like a cracking day :thumb :beerjug:
 
Is it likely to be in July ?

See BMW Motorrad Berlin 2021 webpage for dates and booking details.

If you go to the itinerary page, you could make your own version of the jaunt and not pay their rip-off prices.
 
That enterprise was forced to close.
The free-flow gin evenings were uneconomical....

Probably not a bad thing. Taking the owner out for meals and buying some of the shopping more than made up for the free gin. ;)
 


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