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One week Faak on the lake!
Faak am See is not the only place to be when you are there. We spent a week exploring the area, on our bikes of course!
At the beautiful Trollenhof
Day 1. Sunday: Those who grew up with black and white TV will be amazed: Our accommodation is really called “Forellenhof”, as in the family series from the sixties. But our Forellenhof is in colour and is in Carinthia, not the Black Forest. It is rustic in the truest sense of the word, with five-bed rooms and a lounge. A bit like a school dormitory.
But so is our mood. We are 20 bikers with 22 bikes on two seven and a half ton trucks, two vans and two cars. This could be a party if the weather wasn’t so good. So get out of the hut, get on the bikes, every day! We are also expecting celebrity guests.
The spark plugs again
Day 2, Monday: The air in the mountains is good for you. But is it good for our boss’s old knucklehead? It stutters and bucks for the first few metres because we are coming from the lowlands. Once again it’s the spark plugs that Andreas Bergerforth has to unscrew. Is the heat value right? Then he pulls the wire brush over the contacts, screws them in, starts the engine and the old Knuckle rumbles like it did on the first day.
Our first ride was like a church service. From beautiful Carinthia we thunder into no less beautiful Slovenia, to a dream lake near Bled. It is not until we have rolled into the trout farm that Andreas has to wash his hands.
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Again the spark plugs!
Andreas needs to check the ignition
The small cutlery will do
After brushing the knuckle runs smoothly again
A trip to the Karavanke mountains
Day 3, Tuesday: They are called the Karavanke: The mountains are on our doorstep, Slovenia just behind. Just a tunnel and we are in another country with another language. Bend, bend, bend, up and down we roar on our Harleys. Everyone understands the language, but the roads are not always as smooth as butter. We’ll find out on Thursday when we rumble over the old-fashioned cobbles. It will be a challenge with the rigid frames.
Slovenia: One tunnel and we are in another country!
Mountain roads: Up and down on our Harleys
Curves, curves, curves
A real mountain hike
Day 4, Wednesday: The Villach Alpine Road is perhaps the most beautiful stretch of the week. As if we hadn’t had enough fresh air, we’re now preparing for a real mountain hike! We are led over the Baumgartnerhöhe via ferrata on the Finkenstein, with karabiners and ropes, and even here we have to comply with the helmet law. The conflict caps are at least a bit more airy than the standard helmets required on motorcycles.
Posing with the “35th Anniversary” on the Villach Alpine Road
The 35th anniversary also had a taste of mountain air
We go on a mountain hike
Here too, helmets are compulsory
A bit like a school hostel
We ended the day with a table football tournament
Celebrity guests
For the first time, Miriam Höller gets on her new bike
Day 5, Thursday: In front of the Forellenhof we present Miriam Höller with the bike we built. It is finally finished and we ride off together. We gave Miriam a single room. But after the ride out we get together: The former stuntwoman is wonderfully uncomplicated and can even ride a Harley.
The tour with her to White Lake is delightful, with the rigid frames it becomes a challenge as we rumble over the old cobblestones.
Cobbles. This was quite a challenge for our custom bikes
Miriam on her first ride on her new bike
We are gentlemen…
…Miriam is refueled by the boss himself
Lance David Arnold can still drive. The man is a presenter for motorsport shows, a racing driver and a test driver for Porsche. The LDA 86 we built for him two years ago speaks a clear language with its sporty layout.
Lance David Arnold…
……drives his LDA 86 through Kärnten
Lance checks out his LDA 86
At the European Bike Week
Day 6, Friday: Oh yes, there’s the European Bike Week. We visit it, stroll around the grounds and check out the bikes. Andreas and Miriam philosophise about the custom trend of the season, the baggers in club and racing style.
It’s a thing: we actually win a trophy with the LDA 86!
We also took Lance’s FXDR with us and cleaned it up thoroughly. With a single-sided swingarm and a 21-inch rear wheel, it’s a show bike worth seeing. At the Harley-Davidson Bike Show we let it rip. We entered the LDA 86 – and ended up taking home the Judges Choice trophy.
Just in: club and racing style excavators
We can do that too. Our photographer Glatzzo…
…with his Club Styler from the Thunderbike forge
The final ride
Miriam’s bike was the subject of a photo shoot on Slovenia’s highest mountain
Day 7, Saturday: Kalle from the workshop is a constant passenger on our trips. He’s a stubborn guy who won’t be sent to the doctor. He prefers to invest the prescription fee in another tank of petrol.
On Thursday he was stung in the eye by a wasp. Or did he hit it? And maybe we’d better close our helmet visors and not wear open helmets under any circumstances?
Our photographer Glatzzo managed to pull the sting out of his face. It was no use. On this last day, Kalle’s face swells to the size of an Austrian pastry. The sight is less appetising, but Kalle knows no pain.
And duty calls. We split up, some of us going to Velden, the others back to Slovenia and its highest mountain, the Mangart. There we shot Miriam’s bike for an extra photo stretch.
Kalle after the wasp sting. Don’t worry, it’s swollen up again. Kalle prefers to spend his money on filling up the tank rather than paying for prescriptions
Balance on the way home
Day 8, Sunday: All the bikes are loaded and moored again. On the way home we take stock: Twenty-two bikes, two celebrities, one wasp sting and good weather throughout. It was just up to us to make something of it. We made something of it, our speedometers show 800 unrolled kilometres. Not on standard touring bikes, but on custom bikes and rigid-frame museum pieces like the Knucklehead or the 35th Anniversary Panhead Chopper. Not just straight ahead on flat roads, but corners, corners and more corners. With the balance we can be seen. You can also see Kalle again, his face is long since swollen and maybe next year he will wear his helmet closed. But we don’t think so.
So much for production machines. We rode the 800 kilometres on real iron
No more fear of wasps: Here Kalle is wearing a helmet with a visor
Mountains. Depends on what you make of it
All trips to Faak
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