European Bike Week - Faak am See 2024 • Thunderbike

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European Bike Week – Faak am See 2024

A week in Faak am See!

We took the European Bike Week at its word for a whole week. Result: moody weather, two trophies at the bike show and 1000 kilometers on the clock!

Monday: Arrival with wooden plank steak

On Monday we are complete. Finally Andreas and Kim arrive at the Baumgartnerhof. That makes 14 bikers and we’re looking forward to a week in Kärnten, which welcomes us with wooden plank steak and beautiful weather.

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Even a CVO has to be able to cope with that. Again and again we are surprised by downpours

Andreas and Kim ride out together

The aged Shovel still wants to be tackled

Tuesday: Across three countries

Kärnten is a border triangle. Italy and Slovenia are on our doorstep, and as long as the weather is right, we’ll head straight for them. All we have to do is conquer the nearest hilltops. The countless hairpin bends on the small roads are treacherous, with constant hairpin turns and cobblestones to boot. You could call that a challenge, if not a test of nerves.

Then Thomas Z.’s Shovel dies, on the uphill of all things. Andreas is not only our boss, he is also the best man to kick-start the bike in this difficult spot. Shortly afterwards, we have to mend the ignition lock on the old Shovel. And then its fender catches a pizza box from the road. Thomas has to stop again with rattling tires.

A good opportunity to wrap armored tape around the forks of the bikes without front fenders. The weather turns bad and we use this old biker trick to keep the spray off.

The rain pours down until our underpants are soaked through. That was a first day with all the activities that make up a biker’s life.

Navi my ass. A real map gives us a better overview

We really drive it. You’ll be seeing more of our CVO excavator soon

The ignition locks of old Harleys. After decades, a lot of evil lurks here

With cobblestones, the hairpin bends are particularly treacherous

The armored tape keeps out splash water, we’ll be getting it off more often these days

The legendary Faak traffic circle. We’ll skip the parade that starts there, we already know it

Since when is chopper riding comfortable? Kim on her Ironhead Sportster with pullback handlebars and new saddle rolls

The winding routes on the first day were particularly challenging

Wednesday: Four wheels are also okay

Thomas and Glatten mount their Shovels and leave us again. Their ride will take them to the Dolomites. For today, we settle for the Nock Mountains in the biosphere park. This costs a toll, but is actually priceless on long curves in this indescribable landscape.

On top of that, we meet a cool group of Opel GT drivers. On the road on four wheels? That’s okay with vehicles like this!

Finally, our photographer Glatzzo shoots the first photo series of our CVO excavator and Carlos’ Personal Fat Boy. We have to work sometime.

Lucky for us, the shoot is still taking place in the dry. Then it starts to drizzle again and we end the day with a visit to the stand of our friends from Rokker.

The Nockalm Road costs a toll, but the route is worth the money

We meet an Opel GT crew. It’s also okay on four wheels with vehicles like this

On a rainy evening, we meet our friends from Rokker

Thursday: We can still manage the Alpine road

Out early, because the weather is forecast to be bad again for the rest of the day. We still manage the Villach-Alpenstraße. We even manage to shoot our Low Rider S and our Chicano. You’ll soon be able to see them all on our website.

Only on the way back do we get caught in the long overdue rain. The Kaiserschmarrn at the Baumgartnerhof makes up for the capricious weather.

Friday: A signature by Bill Davidson

We clean our Chicano before the bike show

Bill Davidson was one of the judges on the bike show

Our Chicano won the trophies for “Best in Class” and “Best of Show”

Never wash again! Bill Davidson signs our Chicano

Weekend. The European Bike Week really gets going today. But not under this pelting rain in the morning. Fortunately, it eases off, because today is also the day of the Ride-In Bike Show in the Harley Village. We just manage to clean our Low Rider S and the Chicano for it.

None other than Bill Davidson is attending the show. And then something happens that nobody dared to dream of: under the eyes of Bill Davidson and Harley Chief Creator Luke Mansfield, our Chicano wins two first prizes: “Best in Class” and “Best of Show”!

Bill shakes our hands, and that’s not all. He also signs our trophy winner. No paint can be too expensive not to include this signature.

Will we schedule a second shoot for our Chicano to immortalize this signature? We won’t get around to it today, too many reasons to celebrate, and to cool live music at the Baumgartnerhof.

Saturday: The last ride out

This time it’s a Knucklehead. Andreas remains our specialist for starting up

The best Kaiserschmarren was served at the Gasthof der Pension Krassnitzer

The most beautiful roads in Austria reveal themselves to us on the last day

If you haven’t been to the European Bike Week yet, you should take in the parade today, the big biker parade through the Carinthian countryside.

We already know it, and after two more bikers have to leave us, the ten of us prefer one last private ride out. Unexpectedly, it turns out to be the most beautiful of all. Why are we only discovering the most beautiful roads in Austria today? Or is it just the melancholy of the impending farewell?

It is sweetened with a Kaiserschmarrn at the Pension Krassnitzer in Hochrindl. The hosts don’t even have their own website, but everything they serve us is homemade.

The landlady recommends a nice route for the way back. These are the last few kilometers on our bikes, because then we have to lash them down for the return journey to Hamminkeln.

We are comforted by the fact that we don’t have to lash our trophies in a luggage roll, where they might get damaged. And we’re even more comforted by the fact that the speedometers on our bikes show the 1000 kilometers we’ve ridden this week.