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From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: net.travel
Subject: Re: Transportation in Europe
Message-ID: <550@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 18:47:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.550
Posted: Fri Jul 12 18:47:56 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 04:04:53 EDT
References: <62800001@hpfclr.UUCP> <36600004@ISM780.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 66
Summary: 

In article <36600004@ISM780.UUCP> darryl@ISM780.UUCP writes:
>I've been to Europe twice and both times rented a motorcycle.  If you
>aren't interested, well...  But the scenic backroads of Europe are best
>enjoyed from the saddle, I believe.  The people you meet tend to be more
>friendly also, perhaps because you don't look like the typical Amercian
>tourist.

About 12 years ago I set out to live  a  long  standing  dream  of  touring
Europe on a motorcycle.  I purchased a BMW R75/5 through a local dealer and
made arrangements to pick it up at the factory delivery  point  in  Munich.
Things  went  pretty  much  as planned and I picked up the bike on schedule
with no problems.  The people at BMW were very helpful and even found me  a
hotel in Munich.

The next day, things started to fall apart.  I noticed a  slight  looseness
in the clutch lever and made arrangements with the local BMW dealer to have
a look at it.  I brought the bike in for what I thought would  be  a  minor
adjustment  and  went to have lunch.  An hour later the dealer told me they
had the bike taken apart all over the shop and wouldn't  have  it  together
again for at least three days.  I took a train back to Munich.

This inauspicious beginning was the start of a nightmare that  lasted  most
of  a  year.  During  that  time,  I  never once got on the bike when there
wasn't something wrong with it.  In 10K miles of driving I went  through  a
drive  shaft, a differential, a rear wheel, _two_ transmissions, and that's
just the big stuff.  All of the work was done under warranty (i.e.: it  was
a new bike and I wasn't abusing it).  In a year of ownership the bike spent
at least 6 months in the shop or waiting for parts to arrive.

Some other things I learned the hard way:

Although the BMW was  supposed  to  be  a  touring  bike,  the  saddle  was
incredibly  uncomfortable.  After  about four hours it would grow teeth.  I
coverd a lot of miles standing on the foot pegs.

It rains a lot in Europe.  Water-proof riding gear  is  essential.  If  you
refuse to ride in the rain, you won't ride much at all.

There are very few places you can take a bike that size that you can't take
a  car.  The  savings  in  parking  expense  are trivial.  The BMW side and
center stands were very unstable anyway, which made parking a real  problem
on anything other than a hard, level surface.

After a year of frustration and ruined plans, the smartest thing I did  was
to sell the bike (at considerable loss) and buy a 20 year old Morris Minor.
If I had it to do over again, I'd probably start out  in  a  VW  camper  or
equivalent.

On the plus side:

People were friendlier, I think.  The bike made a good  conversation  piece
since  big  iron like that wasn't very common in Europe at the time.  I had
some remarkable sign-language conversations with locals who spoke  none  of
the languages I knew.

In fairness to BMW, the bike never failed to get me where I wanted  to  go.
It  did die on arrival one time (the cause was repaired under warranty even
though I'd had an accident along the way).
--
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
Citicorp TTI                         Common Sense is what tells you that a ten
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.                pound weight falls ten times as fast as a
Santa Monica, CA  90405              one pound weight.
(213) 450-9111, ext. 2483
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