Elephant ralley - 2012

Wed, Feb 15 2012 01:15 | Permalink

From Susl and Mac,

Stuttgart area, Germany.

Elephant meeting in Loh Thurmansbang Bavaria Germany last weekend in January.

Hi Mal,

want to make envious and tell you a bit about the elephant meeting last weekend in Bavaria. Everything was covered in snow, the hills, the tents, the motorbikes. Ideal weather, sunny and quite cold….which was good, because no mood.

A good idea was to arrive there on the Wednesday before the weekend in order to get one of the popular flat pieces of campground because the area is very steep. We took Macs good old Eastgerman twostroke MZ bikes, a single ETZ 251 and a sidecar ETZ 250 towing a trailer made in 1949. We had loads of luggage, especially Mac,  because he wanted to make my first trip there as cosy as possible. For him, it was the 14^th time since 1985. Beside the ordinary camping stuff we took a chainsaw, a snowshovel and a 3feet- barbeque. Gascookers don’t work properly at a temperature of 10 degrees below zero. It’s always good to have a little bottle of snaps, because normally most other drinks freeze…..but not in our tent, because as well we had the world greatest gas heating.

You can buy wood and straw there, so you don’t have to sleep on the frozen ground and we could warm up feet and beers at our fires. Also little snacks were offered, but most people did there own cooking.

Everything was very well organized, but without any party tents, bands or such stuff. Maybe the toilet situation could be improved…… But prizes were given to for example the farest visitor. So: British bikers could have a chance for getting famous. People from whole Europe were there, from Russia to Spain.

50% were sidecars. An interesting point was the technical customizing. Snowchains, Skis under the tyres, handwarmers, threewheelers with mobile loos.

Hey, it was really great fun! It was my first, but not my last time. Hope to see you British folks there next year….especially other women……

Mal

Comments

Music

Sun, Feb 12 2012 02:57 | Permalink

The Black Keys. Retro-Groove-Rock. All we seem to be listening to at the moment

Mal

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Shows

Tue, Feb 7 2012 12:01 | Permalink

Telford Twin Shock, Classic & Road Racing Show.
8th - 9th February.
Highly recommended in a first class venue.
Classic bikes for competition use - stripped down no nonsense, can't get much purer than these.

Mal

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Music

Mon, Jan 30 2012 10:37 | Permalink

Was given the c.d. "Nine types of light" by my lads for a Xmas present. The band are TV on the Radio - a black art rock band from New York. They mix a fusion of jazz, funk, soul and disco into some great rock tunes. Check them out on You Tube.

Mal

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Books

Mon, Jan 30 2012 10:24 | Permalink

Went to a talk by Simon Gandolfi last week, he was a guest speaker organised by S Shrop's vintage motorcycle club. He wrote the book "Old Man on a Motorcycle" in which he rode from Central America down to the tip of Argentina on a Honda 125. He was in his mid 70's but still had a boyish enthusiasm for life. And rather than just observing he was a participant, and speaking Spanish he would naturally converse with just about anyone.
A 125? 120 mpg, a tank range of 300 ml's and spares he could get anywhere. Dropping it wasn't an issue and it can cruise at 55 - 60 mph all day. Makes a lot of sense.
He has since rode back up to New York, around India and now aims to ride around the world - he's 80 next birthday. As he says "it's never too late"
The venue was The Inn on the Green, Wentnor, S Shropshire. A really friendly bustling pub, offering accomodation and a campsite next to a small river All under the Long Mynd with some of the best biking roads in the country. Highly recommended!

Mal

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