Thüringen Tour, Germany

[audiomick]

A couple of pictures from my weekend. We got lucky, probably the last cry of summer this year. About 30°C, sunshine, just beautiful. It started raining just now (late in the night after I got home today), and is going to be wet for the next 3 or 4 days.

This is the spot. Don't be confused by the exposure, the two pictures were taken from the same spot, one into the sun, one away from it. It is the grounds of a canoe club, mostly slalom kayaks as far as I can tell. The poles are visible in the picture taken towards the river.

Lunch time, half-way through the ride on Saturday. I counted 48 bikes. Two of them were side-car outfits (both Guzzis), and only three were not Guzzis.

I was pleased to finally see this bike. The owner and builder has been reporting his progress for a while now in the German forum. The frame is a late model Tonti California frame. Motor is V11 (with ground off fins to look like an older round motor), but carbies instead of injectors. The rest of it, I don't really know. Suffice to say that absolutely none of it is "standard", neither for the frame nor in relation to any of the other parts. I don't like the Cali 2 look, actually, and the paint job is a matter of taste, but the thing is a work of art.

There were two V11s there. This one, which I didn't like much. It said "Le Mans" on the side covers, and the colour suggests it may have been a Rosso Corsa. So why would one take off the Le Mans fairing and put on that shitty looking fly catcher?

 

The other one was a Greenie.

Not pretty, you might say. I liked it. It belongs to Bob. He bought it in 2005. The bike is loved, and lived, and matches the owner perfectly: a bit tousled and slightly eccentric. Here is Bob on his Greenie, loaded up and about to head off home.

 

I had a great weekend. I hope you all at the Twentieth (XX!) South'n Spine Raid 2024  this last weekend did too.

Edited September 11 by audiomick

[audiomick]

One more photo from my weekend. I know you'll all be stunned by the good looks. To be fair, it was taken by a professional photographer who was there (on his Guzzi), so it's no wonder it is such an amazing picture.

Edited September 10 by audiomick

[docc]

3 minutes ago, audiomick said:

One more photo from my weekend. I know you'll all be stunned at the good looks. To be fair, it was taken by a professional photographer who was there (on his Guzzi), so it's no wonder it is such an amazing picture.

Looks like an amazing cat on an amazing weekend. Don't miss next year's South'n SpineRaid !

[Goofman]

22 minutes ago, audiomick said:

One more photo from my weekend. I know you'll all be stunned by the good looks. To be fair, it was taken by a professional photographer who was there (on his Guzzi), so it's no wonder it is such an amazing picture.

Nice hat.

[audiomick]

1 minute ago, Goofman said:

Nice hat.

Thanks. It used to look like this.

https://akubra.com.au/products/tablelands-brown-olive

[guzzler]

On 9/10/2024 at 10:42 AM, audiomick said:

One more photo from my weekend. I know you'll all be stunned by the good looks. To be fair, it was taken by a professional photographer who was there (on his Guzzi), so it's no wonder it is such an amazing picture.

Mate

I've taken to wearing a Bavarian Alpen hat that I bought in Hahndorf (Sth Oz) about 10 years ago otherwise I'd probably wear one of these too!

Gotta keep the sun off the hole in the back o the head....( aka the bald or thinning spot...)

Cheers 

[audiomick]

I'm annoyed....

I had a lengthy post almost finished about the rally, the location and what have you, and my laptop went off. Now it is gone...

Never mind...

The rally is called the Thüringen Tour. English would be "Thuringia Tour", but please copy and paste the German name, if that would work, and if you do create a seperate thread. I'm not sure if that is worth the trouble, though. I can't imagine that there will be all that much new traffic on the subject.

Anyway, it takes place here

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/854709452

Here is a drone video (taken by the photographer who took that stunning portrait further up...) of the location.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DPn2TEDwLME

As should be obvious from the video, space and facilities are very limited. Accomodation is tents or a (small) camper van. The rally is "invitation only" because of this. However, should an international visitor happen to be in the area on the first weekend of September, I could probably swing a deal.

If this turns into a seperate thread, I could post the route from the ride on the Saturday, I think.

[docc]

Worth a dedicated thread, IMHO.

Easy to add to it each year. Thanks for the images, @audiomick . . .

[audiomick]

Thanks, @docc.  Love your work.

[audiomick]

Since this has taken on a life of its own, here are the routes we took on the ride on Saturday.

The first part, before lunch:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XokZWXVZ-_bhcrEPwsnhVWMQ89_Yzak&ll=50.636958661584266%2C11.189518000000014&z=11

the second part, after lunch on the way back to Rudolstadt

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1PP055kgrUa9ok1tO_la50o2tcmlCcOA&ll=50.623482905204824%2C11.130013999999973&z=11

A good mixture of more open roads and smaller, tighter roads. Steini (orgniser) always manages to get a good ride together. The ride is, after all, the (nominal*) point of the exercise. That is why the rally is called the "Thüringen Tour".

 

I have no idea how long the links will work, but some say that nothing gets lost on the net. We'll see....

 

 

 

 

 

*drinking beer plays a minor part too....

Edited September 11 by audiomick