If I had a Million Dollars...

Germany has been hit with the warmest weather since... ever. We are currently enduring temperatures beyond 40°C (104°F) which is very unusual for our neck of the woods. Thankfully humidity is low, so it is still somewhat bearable but to be honest, it is way too hot to ride (even if you'd skip gearing up). Hence, most activities are bound to be indoors (where it has still 28°C/82°F), or being conducted in the wee hours of the day. Such was our morning run.

Henceforth, the hot time of the day is being spent in front of my laptop, and while surfing the net I found something I'd really like to buy... that is, if I had said million bucks:

It seems that BMW is also trying to get their market share in the scrambler department, should this concept bike called Path22 (named after a surf spot on the Atlantic coast somewhere in southern France) ever evolve. It's done quite nicely, but I could certainly do without the surfboard brackets. If this bike would ever make it into serial production... Be still my heart!

And there was this one:

Doesn't this Vespa look like having been steam-punked? Obviously this extravagant design has been the work of Armani, a brand I couldn't care less for, however this 946 dressed up in a suit is a beautiful piece of art.

Not sure, this Vespa should be ridden though, it is a collector's bike, a showroom exhibit, and not one to be taken for the daily commute. But my garage would be big enough to house this scooter... if I had a million Dollars... (Disclaimer: The bike pics are blatantly ripped off the web, because it would be a pity not to share these with you.)

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Wenn ich eine Million hätte...

Puh, den deutschen LeserInnen brauche ich ja nichts über das Wetter zu erzählen... es ist heiß in Deutschland. In unserer Region ist die Luftfeuchtigkeit dankenswerterweise sehr gering, was die Sache etwas erträglicher macht. Allerdings verbringen wir die meiste Zeit drinnen (wo es immerhin auch noch 28°C hat), oder erledigen das, was wir draußen machen wollen (wie unseren morgendlichen Lauf) in den frühen Morgenstunden. Und so verbringe ich die heiße Tageszeit am Laptop und stöbere im Netz nach - wie könnte es anders sein - Motorrad-Themen.

Wenn ich also besagte Million hätte... würde ich mir vielleicht die oben abgebildete Scrambler Studie von BMW leisten. Path22 heißt das gute Stück, benannt nach einem Strandabschnitt am Atlantik in Südfrankreich, an dem es sich gut surfen lassen soll. Nun, auf die Surfbrett-Befestigung könnte ich verzichten, aber wenn das Bike jemals in Serie gehen sollte... seufz! Haben will!

Und dann ist da noch diese Vespa im gemäßigten Steam-Punk Look. Dieses extravagante Design stammt aus der Feder von Armani, eine Marke, die mich ansonsten kalt lässt. Aber dieser Roller im Designer-Outfit hat schon was, auch wenn es kein Mopped zum Fahren ist, sondern eher ein Sammlungs- und Ausstellungsstück. Jedenfalls wäre es mir für den täglichen Weg zur Arbeit zu schade.

Little Men on TV

This will likely be something, that Germans understand without saying:

A Mainzelmännchen on a Can-Am Spider

The Six little men from Mainz are a short cartoon issued between commercials on ZDF, one of the main German public broadcasting channels. Born in April 1963, they entertained several generations and continue to do so. Young (and old) viewers came to love the funny little guys, namely Anton, Berti, Conni, Det, Edi and Fritzchen. I was pretty impressed how far they have come since: Kudos to riding a Can-Am Spider.

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Kleine Männer im Fernsehen
Na, den deutschen Mitlesern brauche ich ja die Mainzelmännchen nicht erklären... ich staunte nicht schlecht, als ich kurz vor den Heute-Nachrichten einen der kleinen Kerle auf eine Can-Am Spider aufsteigen sah. Cool!

Online Petition: Legalize Lane Splitting in Germany!

Lane splitting or traffic filtering although widely tolerated, is NOT legal in Germany. An online petition is aiming at changing this. I am all for it!

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Online Petition: Stau-Durchfahrung für Motorräder
Liebe LeserInnen, Mopped-FahrerInnen, MitfahrerInnen und Zweirad-Fans... bitte tragt Euch bei dieser Online-Petition ein, damit wir eine Legalisierung der Stau-Durchfahrung erreichen. Jede(r), der mal kochend in seiner Lederpelle im Stau verbracht hat, weiß warum... 

HIER ist der Link. Ach ja, bitte weiter sagen...

Motorcycle Haiku

Not long ago I stumbled across the work of Matsuo Bashō, a 17th century Japanese poet, most famous for his haiku poems.

Of course this made me google for some contemporary motorcycle themed haikus, and indeed there are. This one by one Michele Carlton spoke to my heart:

Michele Carlton on December 12th, 2011 4:23 pm 

Two wheels on the road

And miles of highway ahead

Life is beyond good!

Somewhere in Interior Oregon 2012

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Motorrad Haiku

Vor kurzem stieß ich auf die Werke von Matsuo Bashō, einem japanischem Dichter des 17. Jahrhunderts, welcher als Mitbegründer der Haiku-Gedichtform gilt. Natürlich musste ich direkt mal googlen, ob es auch mehr zeitgemäße (Motorrad-)Haikus gibt. Das von Michele Carlton sprach mich ganz besonders an (die deutsche Übersetzung wird hier zwar etwas holprig, wenn man sich an die Haiku Regeln hält, ich finde es aber trotzdem schön und treffend):

Zweirad und Straße

noch Meilen entfernt das Ziel

das Leben ist gut!

A Striking Resemblance

My 2014 Townie Cycle

1905 Harley Davidson

Photo Source: here

Maybe I should simply strap a motor to the cycle frame and I would be good to run up the hills.

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Verwandschaft?

Vielleicht sollte ich einfach einen Motor an den Fahrradrahmen schnallen, dann klappt's bestimmt auch mit dem Bergauf-Radeln.

Happy New Riding Year!

For those young at heart...

Sex Sells!

For those who are sick of bikini babes: MotoCorsa's tonque-in-cheek promotion of the Ducati Panigale 1199 ---> here's more.

Land of the Free?

Do the right thing. 

The bills must not pass.

The Internet must remain free!

Virtual Factory Tour

In my line of profession I have had a lot of opportunity (and obligation) to attend factory and facility tours. Actually it has always been the most fun part of my job as I find assembly lines and production logistics strangely intriguing.

Just recently BMW has started in Berlin with the production of the new scooter line. I had expected a fully automatized production facility (something along the line of German efficiency etc.), and was surprised how much manpower is being put into assembling those bikes. They build about 80 of those per day in two shifts with no more than fifteen people per shift. Fascinating.


One different kind of a tour is being presented by Dougie Lampkin, British trial world champion at Renthal. Hmmm, nobody ever offered my to bring my own vehicle...

Dougie Lampkin tours Renthal Ltd from Renthal Ltd on Vimeo.

It is good to see that not everything gets off-shored to cheap labour countries, and some pretty good stuff is still getting manufactured in good ole Europe.

Got mugged

The other day at a popular coffee chain the spousal unit picked up cups featuring a Lambretta silhouette. On the receipt it states however: Vespa Mug. Ah well, close enough.

Should have gone to SpecSavers!

An Australian Advertising!
Source: Adsoftheworld.com

Travel Pod

When it comes to motorcycling I am usually very low tech. I hate carrying around the weight of items that might or might not be needed, and my interest in gadgets is very limited.  I barely even use a GPS although I have a RAM mount for it. My emergency kit for day trips merely consists of cell phone, camera and credit card.

Since I am riding solo quite often the only thing that kept bugging me was if I wanted to take the occasional picture with myself in it. I have a travel tripod, but it is too bulky and heavy to carry on a motorcycle.

Today I found a thing called Gorillapod in the friendly neighbourhood camera shop, and took it home.

The pod in its natural habitat. It opens up a whole new world of awkward camera positions that one never thought of before. I am pretty sure this accessory will be fun to travel with.

One more reason to ride

While surfing the net I recently came across this posting: riding-motorcycle-can-burn-calories! Well, if that isn't good news. Just go ride, and lose weight! The blogger explains the weight loss potential with using more muscles, being exposed to wind and weather, and not being able to snack. So far, so good. In theory that is. One caveat is my (and probably that of many other riders) motto: Ride to eat! To boldly dine where nobody has dined before. I often remember a place by the food I had there, good or bad. If you hear me talking about a location being nice, but... it usually has something to do with a not so exciting culinary encounter.

 Picture taken from here

I have had good meals pretty much everywhere. But one of my most memorable meals happened back in April 1994 at a small restaurant in Colle di Val D'Elsa, Tuscany, Italy. An eight course dinner with eight different wines. Ever since I associate Italian cuisine with positive culinary experience.

Of course there were plenty of average and bad food, too. Quite constant in their low quality standards was British pub food in the Manchester/Liverpool area. They really master the art on how to murder a meal and destroy their guest's taste buds. I will not tell any names but is was close to Alsager, where I almost went vegetarian. On the plus side, I learned to appreciate the Eastern Indian cuisine.

However, coming back to the point of my story: Riding and losing weight! Doesn't work for me. I want to go places and eat there, too! And what is it with people's obsession to lose weight anyway. Food should be joy and pleasure just like riding.

With this in mind I say: Mahlzeit!

Using some muscle to straighten up fully loaded Nella (photo courtesy of bobskoot). Does the bike make my ass look fat? NO! It's my ass that makes my ass look like I enjoy good food ;-)

I want donuts!

I am not talking Krispy Kreme or Tim Horton's. We have heavy snowfall warning in the Vancouver area. For a change the weather forecast is correct, and the flurries have indeed already begun to cover the roads. So, no more riding for Sonja & Nella until the white stuff goes away.

Meanwhile Charlie6 a.k.a. Dom from redlegsrides and Chris from everydayriding have a blast with their winter escapades and spin said donuts on frozen lakes or even in front of the house with under age passengers on board. After enjoying their videos I did the next best thing and googled... THIS!

The Kendrick Family's BMW F650GS with Sputnik Sidecar as featured in the 2005 Issue of the BMW Owner's News Magazine! A Sputnik sidecar, and it comes in yellow! Ah, this would be the perfect winter ride. Alas this model doesn't seem no longer available. But wouldn't that be something? One can dream...

Happy Hallowe'en

The little monsters, vampires, ghosts, super heros and princesses in pink tricking or treating the city are an all present reminder what time of the year it is: scary time!

Browsing the net for a suitable motive for today's posting I came across Pamela Shanteau's website featuring a Jack-o-lantern/skull airbrush artwork on a Harley Davidson. Thanks to Pamela who allowed me to spice up my blog with her artwork!

Although not the biggest fan of this specific motorcycle brand, I have to admit that Harley's are probably the coolest motorcycles for airbrush, or can you imagine such an awesome picture on my Nella, and besides where the heck would I put it?

Look how far I am gone, I am thinking about Harley's now... Nella I miss you very dearly. Please come back soon...

Mission possible

I didn't do anything! My fellow traveler wanted to 'window-shop' for motorcycles, and we went to the two obvious places that had drawn his attention before: The beemer store and the Harley Davidson shop. His obvious choice was the R1200GS, and the bike fits him very well, it doesn't fit our budget yet though.

A lot of bling bling in the Harley Store, but none of the models was nearly as interesting as the 30 years anniversary GS before.

Supersize me: Only available at Harley Davidson: a 5XL T-Shirt, or is it a tent?

The good thing: my fellow traveler really wants to get back on a motorcycle, and soon. And where there's a will there's a way. Maybe I should get him this for his birthday to start with:

Don't wash your bike!

Some things get smaller as a result of being immersed in water... it that what happened to this bike? It is certainly not a toy with its kick-starter and all.

Find(s) of the week

Exhibit A: bumper sticker

I would certainly like to see this sticker more often around town, especially on pick-up trucks whose drivers are usually the least considerate participants in traffic.

Exhibit B: kick stand support

Found this accessory while shopping for equipment: The Flattened Frog from KickstandKritters. A funny alternative to simple rubber or metal plates to stabilize the bike on uneven or soft ground. Me likey! Also available in Plastered Poodle or Splattered Squirrel version.

This is one cool bike!

Source: custom-design by Daniel Delfour

What is it with me and the cafe racers? Only one quick glance, and my BMW plans get wiped out, and all I can think of is British bikes. This time it happened on Gary's Motorcycle Blog, where I discovered a pic of a TRITON. A Norton and Triumph combo, best of breed motorcycles combined.

Our vintage bike still looks pretty, and so can you

While window-shopping in Palo Alto I discovered a fully restored 1946 Indian Chief in a very specific 'body shop'. I was so fascinated by the bike on display that I only noticed afterwards that the store was actually selling cosmetics and skin care products. To the sales lady's disappointment I was only interested in the motorcycle, not in their product line.