Motorcycle Tour of Germany with an Aviation Theme 2024

This is an adapted version of the write up for a motorcycle club tour that I organised in 2024. We visited aviation museums across northern Germany and ate cake where possible. Aviation Themed Tour of Germany / Secret Seven on a mission The original idea of this 8-night tour was to visit diverse and interesting locations in north and east Germany touching on aviation themes with visits a variety of tea rooms and museums and locations of historical significance. A secondary consideration was to come away with a complete understanding of why the Germans mounted their V12 engines upside down. We came together on Monday at the Lower Saxon city of Oldenburg with its historic harbour area and spent a pleasant evening at the Hotel Heide. Motorcycles spanning 4 decades adorned the car park. Lee and Lynn came by car and they were extending their tour to visit relations and more museums!.

Next morning, we departed bright and early to visit the Aeronauticum, Nordholz near Cuxhaven Following an uneventful tunnel crossing of the River Wese, the routeleader decided to include a tour of the seemingly never ending construction zone with phased red 100m spaced traffic lights, known otherwise as Bremerhaven. Aeronauticum is the official German maritime aircraft museum adjacent to a live airfield and former airship base. A wide variety of exhibits are on show spanning German Naval aviation from Airships to Cold war.

Following sustenance at the adequate on-site café, we made a ferry crossing of the River Elbe dodging massive container ships and conducted in reverse gear. We subsequently, avoiding horrendous road works, made a relaxed arrival in a leafy suburb of Hamburg at the spacious Hotel Engel for a two night stop.

The next day David and Nick visited the Airbus factory at Finkelwerde (photography forbidden and bike parking innovative), and the others went to the extensive Hamburg maritime museum.

A last-minute discovery by Lee of a museum at Rechlin was adopted for an enroute stop on our journey out east the next day to the eastern Baltic coast. This route was further south and longer than originally planned. The diversion was worth it as this museum is on the site of the wartime German equivalent of Boscombe Down, the main testing airfield for new aircraft. The museum café consisted of a vending machine but ice creams were available at the gate house.

We passed through flat but otherwise scenic countryside with the only drama being Nick picking up a bee in the helmet. We, including a deceased bee, arrived without further incident at the beautiful Baltic coast at Karlshagen for a two night stop at the Usedom Suites, a stone’s throw away from the ample sandy beach and traditional baskets.

The next morning, we travelled through the forests surrounding Peenemünde airfield to the fascinating Technical Museum built into the old power station. Peenemünde is famous for the development of the German vengeance weapons V1 and V2. Luckily Dr R V Jones, one of Churchill´s scientific advisor spotted some rockets and we bombed it. The only disappointment was the lack of a decent café but we managed to find one near the harbour which served adequate Currywurst.

That afternoon a contingent sneaked into Poland whilst Eddie and Nick chilled out with a stroll around the harbour and a view of the nice scenery on the beach.

After a second night at the Usedom suites, and the delightful service provided by the lovely Marina and her Ukranian compatriots in the first rate gourmet restaurant, we departed Usedom island across the busy draw bridge towards Spandau and Berlin.

Further to leaving Eddie in the tender care and comfort of a private room in the DRK-Kranken Haus Mecklenburg Strelitz, following a medical incident and an "off: on route, David and Nick arrived at the Hotel Lindenufer Berlin Spandau just after sunset and immediately joined the group for a first rate dinner in a private room to the sounds of Rolling Stones.

We departed Berlin on a slightly murky morning heading south west towards the Harz . As we cleared the last suburbs and began traversing the Grunewald we were all diverted into a perilous unmade gravel surfaced car park by the Polizei: For some of us, this was our second encounter with them in two days but thankfully no BMWs were damaged this time. As we pulled in a couple of clearly angry looking local riders departed, probably several hundred Euros lighter in pocket (A Polizei Sprinter van had been set up to one side as a mobile office and payment collection centre). A dreaded technical and document inspection was initiated in the traditional efficient manner. It’s probably true to say that, due to their innate love of the English, they gave us an easy time and were surely impressed that I had managed to brandish a 20 page operating permit for my Wunderlich aftermarket windscreen. As for my illegal headlight guard, this was brushed over with a finger wagging. Bob was extremely lucky that his very loud decatted exhaust was overlooked (or under heard) and I noted that he exited the car park with ultimate dispatch but at low throttle setting. Further to this brush with the authorities we negotiated some Autobahn Stau (traffic jam) and some of us adopted British Standard Filtering procedures to arrive at the understated Technikmuseum Hugo Junkers at Dessau-Roßlau.

We learnt that Hugo did not support the Nazi war effort and the museum was totally devoid of weapons, albeit the corrugated flying beauties of the early aircraft and the JU52 3 engine transport were displayed, alongside the other Junkers products of period domestic appliances.

Time was running short, and due to the lack of a decent museum café, we made the final stretch to Festenberg, our Harz night stop, foregoing the Luftfahrtmuseum at Wernigerode (Lee and Lynn went there). An Umleitung (diversion) took us across a dam and following a magnificent unplanned Harz tour we eventually arrived at the extensive BSW-Erlebnishotel in anticipation of good spirits. The hotel was in the form of a giant chalet with extensive shared facilities and was reminiscent of a youth Hostel albeit with a decent bar, good buffet food, and in a superb location. This is billed as an adventure hotel and was extremely good value for money.

The final day was museum free (for some of us) with a leisurely cross country route planned with visits to the Edersee for lunch and on to Möhnesee with a night stop at Soest ( a bouncing mines throw from the Möhne).

A big thanks to all who came on the tour and contributed to its success: David Tomlinson Eddie Barnes Lee and Lynn Fisher Bob (apple strudel) Southgate (guest) Hestor Hopkins (guest) Nick Laskaris (Organiser)

Controlling the Machine.

 The following post is adapted from an article published in the PEMC magazine.

Controlling the Machine: Two days of i2i training.

We meet Tom the instructor at the airfield cafeteria for early morning craic.

I completed my Advanced Motorcycling test with a local IAM group some years ago and became confident that in the cases of shoulder checks, road positioning and frequent debriefing stops for coffee I had mastered this motorcycling thing. However lingering doubts remained that I was actually in full control of the machine, these doubts being fuelled by almost obsessional interest in internet self help with such topics as push steering, U turning a Harley on a dime, counter weighting, trail braking and necessary knee down techniques. It was therefore with much relief that I stumbled across the i2i Motorcycle Academy with promises such as the transformation of my riding and the mastering of U turns even two up.

Rufforth airfield is an active microlight and gyrocopter centre.

I booked on two consecutive events held over a weekend at Rufforth Airfield near York last August, Machine Control 1 and 2 (MC1 and MC2). Other venues were available.

Admission to the airfield is through the crash gate....

On a sunny Saturday in August a diverse group of riders on machines ranging from Sports bikes through to Pan Europeans bikes gatherered at the Gyrocopter Experience control tower cafe at Rufforth Airfield. Tom, our instructor greeted us, invited us for a free coffee, told us to preorder lunch and took us through the crash gate (aviation jargon, sorry) on a ride across the airfield to the training area where his van was set up.

Tom explains gyroscopes and stability and how the average rider messes it all up.

The day was broken up with a series of progressive sections comprising a briefing by Tom, followed by a demonstration given on his Street Triple and then our exercises. Tom, an Irishman whose craic is characteristicly and variously stimulating and witty, explains the neccessary physics simply, and majors on debunking common misconceptions and has us all in stitches. He then hops on his Street Triple and shows us that the bike is steered neither by looking where you want to go, nor by weighting a peg or pushing down on the bars.

Tom travels past at 30mph and demos that you cannot steer by looking.

Many of the exercises were carried out one handed, a key point being to engage the „core“, Pilates fashion. Tom points out that the bike has at least two gyroscopes built in and without rider intervention performs brilliantly straight and in banked turns and does not fall over.

The Man on two gyroscopes not precessing at all at all.

It´s not all about Tom...We are given exercises to perform, and here we are waiting our turn.

The day of MC1 is completed when we U turn at full lock without touching the brakes, throttle or clutch. We do however look where we want to go.

Pee break.

I elected to do MC 2 directly after MC1, but on Sunday quite a few new riders appeared having completed MC1 some time previously.

Demonstration of how useless the rear brake can be.

The emphasis in MC2 was on braking without drama including in bends, including back braking with power on....good for pillions apparently because the rear jacks up. Bad for the brakes which could catch fire.

Another cosy chat and a view of the practice area.

The Sunday contained more drama: One of the sports bikes ended up in the adjacent corn field and Tom rides the (rather elderly) Pan European at extreme angles because the rider complained about the handling. Shot front wheel bearings and uneven tyre wear were diagnosed. The Pan had never been ridden like that before...

The mobile office and the end of the weekend. I´m on my way the ferry port.

All in all a worthwhile and confidence giving weekend for all levels of experience. The next step is MC3 Knee Down , but as I have difficuty in getting my leg over I´ll pass on that one. The i2i academy is owned managed and run by the husband and wife team of Tom and Emma Killeen. Tom is developing some YouTube material this year and this should give you some idea of his style. Check it out!

Action scene! 

Braking and cornering:

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Balkan Bumblings 2018

May 2018 - a road trip through Serbia to Greece and back through Albania and Italy.

Serbia, Danube River Novi Sad taken from Petrovaradin where we stayed in the majestic Hotel Leopold along with a badminton team from Istanbul

Danube by day 

Novi Sad 

Statue of Jaša Tomic, politician, publicist, journalist,with notorious itchy nose on Dunavska street

Someone else is doing the driving....south to Thessaloniki

 Now in Greece.

Greek Merperson, our friend painted this.

Nice in May, the dandelions are about to spawn

Down at Astros harbour

A revisit to Spetses Island some decades on...I wish we hadn't

Old mansion in Spetses town - only nice bit.

Mountains near Astros - Grom and BMW overland adventures - we ride through a monastery

 Due to a strike by Greek border officials we had to leave 2 days earlier than planned and so our stop in Albania was prolonged.

Homeward bound in Albania - I didn't milk our friends cow.

Durres port - ferry to Bari, Italy - looks like a giant tank landing craft: Adria Line A/F Marina.

Near Bari we visit a castello.

Hexagonal structure built during the 1240s by Frederick ll

Further to an overnight stop at Belinzona we get stuck at Gt. St Bernard Tunnel ...

...so we went over the pass instead.