On Saturday April 27th we held the BMW Club GS Day with Bahnstormer Motorrad at Maidenhead. The day started early at the Ace Cafe for breakfast to see Nigel Richardson leaving for Beijing with Globebusters.
The Globusters trip to Beijing looked to be very well subscribed, watch the video of the bikes leaving the Ace Cafe.
We then set off on a ride to the lunch stop, the Waterfront Cafe at Benson. We fully proved the value of the BMW Club drop off system – by not using it and losing four bikes!
Just to show us what we had been missing, John then led an excellent ride out through the back road of Oxfordshire and Berkshire to arrive at Bahnstormer Maidenhead for the third part of the day (we did use the drop off system this time – no bikes lost!)
We than had a talk by Dr Pat Garrod and his wife Dr Vanessa Garrod: Bearback – The World Overland the story of their 100,000 mile trip around the world lasting more than 4 years.
The journey was an awesome event and Pat gave a very good account of this epic trip. It is difficult to appreciate the scale of the trip but when Pat explained how he had to leave Ness in a cabin in the middle of an isolated area of Argentina for 8 days whilst he hitchhiked more than 1,000 miles to get a spare tyre it gives you some idea. Pat and Ness were able to sign copies of their book ‘Bearback – The World Overland’ and members can order copies online.
We had a very good turnout for the day, probably 40-50 overall and 30 for the Bearback talk at Bahnstormer so thank you to all those members who contributed to an enjoyable event and many thanks to our host at Bahnstormer, Paul Davies. (A special thanks to John Wheeler who ferried a lot of kit to and from Bahnstormer for the event and did a great job sorting things out).
And welcome to those new members who joined on the day!
Despite the weather we had a great day.
Thanks, Steve, for organising it all.
Bob
A LESSON LEARNT !!
Ride out from the Ace Cafe to Benson Waterfront cafe …general opinion was to ‘follow the leader ‘.that’s ME as only a few bikes i.e.8 in total.
” Er OK”. I said Hmmmm.
10 miles down the road only 5 left !!! . The last of these ‘ Frank’ on his Vincent, who had slipped into the pack just as we were leaving .
( The other 4 now on a mission of there own to get to venue. )
We delay ,then continue on eventually to meet up at venue . Now a complete 9 in total thankfully .
My apologies to those who made their own way firstly, as post ride I felt embarrassed about going on to a talk where Pat and Vanessa had covered 100,000 miles on their bike , and here was I losing 4 bikes in the ‘blink of an eye ‘
Oh well, onto round 2 . Our ride to Bahnstormers, offered some redemption. Faultless with the drop off system in place
Motto to self ….ALWAYS USE DROP OFF SYSTEM ON RIDEOUTS.
also to bear in mind the classic versus modern bike mix on the ride re. Pace . Hope I get another chance !!!
John
John, is too modest the ride to Bahnstormer was very good indeed! Steve
I would second the comment from Steve about “part 2” I enjoyed it and it set up a great afternoon of general chatting, joking and education. The presentation from Pat wasn’t boring which it could have been given the “look at my holiday photos” slide show format. I found it engaging and I learnt a few things as well… my only minor criticism was that Ness didn’t get to play a bigger role. Her pillion story would have been equally entertaining. I had a great day and Lillian enjoyed it too (just came into the study with a coffee).
Thanks Steve, John and Mick!