Last Inspection before the trip

Today, my Black Betty got a new TÜV stamp, which is the two-year inspection for fitness. The old stamp was valid until March 2023, when we would have just been in Marrakech. Now my licence is valid until 09 2024. 

The keyless drive is one of BMW's less reliable inventions. There is nothing but trouble with it. Inside the key is a CR2032 battery, which you should only buy from BMW. Internal sources said that it was a VARTA battery. The no name batteries sometimes don't last 4 weeks. So I got the VARTA. But today, also after about 4 weeks, the BMW onboard electronics showed the yellow triangle with exclamation mark in the display. The key could not be found. Bugger! I'm not in the mood for such annoying problems when I'm on the road. So I then had the supposedly original BMW battery installed at Wilhelmsen (BMW dealer in Oeversee). I am curious. Don't hold your breath. In the event that the key does go on strike at an inopportune moment, I had someone show me how to start the bike even if the battery in the key is flat. There is a recess in the middle above the rear wheel in the mud flap where you hold the key. Then you can press the keyless starter with the other hand and the machine's electrics come to life. I tried it out, it works.

On the way back home from Wilhelmsen, my mobile phone went into power-saving mode. The Google Maps Navigator had already consumed a lot of power on the outward journey. Of course I didn't have the charging plug and the charging cable with me, and of course today of all days there was an eternally long diversions due to a full closure on the route. I was lucky, the iPhone battery lasted just long enough to get back on the route I knew. My conclusion: I now put the bag with all my collected charging cables, plugs and adapters in my tank bag so that I always have the stuff with me. I'll also put a second USB adapter plug and a cable in the top case in case the tank bag gets stolen.

I also plan to take my second mobile with me, a cheap but very good A22 5G. The mobile phones with the traffic apps and Google Maps replace the old road atlas, which is useless for biking anyway. But if a mobile phone is lost or stolen, you're really in the woods and can't even make an emergency call. So I take the second mobile phone with me.

And for Spain, I got a mobile phone cradle for my Samsung A22 5G there and installed it today. In Germany, I use an iPhone XSmax, for which I installed a waterproof cover on the bracket that normally holds the BMW Garmin navi mount. From my point of view, the Garmin is more of a nuisance than a help. The menu navigation is outdated and cumbersome, the navi itself is sluggish and often misleading, and current traffic jams and detours are not displayed either. Nothing beats Google Maps. I have therefore turned the Garmin mount around so that it faces the windscreen, so that I have room for my iPhone. Unfortunately, the Samsung A22 is not waterproof, but it rarely rains in Spain, so a normal clamp mount smells. It's much less cumbersome than the waterproof iphone mount, and it was also quite easy to install.

Another disadvantage of the otherwise very good waterproof iPhone holder is the fact that it is black and that it protects the iPhone in an additional rubber shell for shocks. This was well intended, but it causes a build-up of heat. The clamp holder, which by the way can hold both the A22 and the iPhone XSMax, accommodates the phones with their white protective cover. This keeps the sunlight out and the phone is wind-cooled. In addition, the phone can be removed quickly and easily if you want to take a photo.

Preview to the journey

 I just returned from a week-long trip to the Metzingen area. I taught one of my leadership classes there. This time I travelled by car because I was fed up with the unreliability of the airlines. On the last two trips, my return flight had been cancelled just an hour before the scheduled departure and I had to drive 10 to 12 hours by rental car after a long day at work.

So this time I went by car. The drive from Garding to Plietzhausen was rainy, with some sunny sections and a few traffic jams along the way, 12 hours of driving in total. For part of the journey, a 1200cc GS rode in front of me, and I matched my speed for a momentary feeling of togetherness. The driver had obviously switched on the cruise control, he was doing a constant 130 km/h. That pleased me, because that's exactly how I want to ride on my way to Los Montesinos. He was dressed thickly, with a rain suit over his suit, and a neon-coloured high-visibility waistcoat on top. It rained a few times during our time together, which was just for me and secretly together. The driver was not impressed by the rain, he bravely drove on at his 130 km/h.  I would have liked to wave encouragingly at him, but that would probably have irritated him more than pleased him.

On the return journey today, 23 September, the weather was kind to me and the bikers. Blue sky, sun, no wind, no traffic jams, little traffic, except for the small stretch before the Hamburg Elbe Tunnel. Again I saw a few GS, all fully packed, on a grand journey.  

Why writing a blog?

I wondered if I should produce a blog, a sort of journal of my trip from Garding to Los Montesinos on my BMW 1200 GS. 

And then there's Instagram and Facebook and Tictoc and all these forums of self-promotion, with questionable content value, that often serve one's own ego more than fellow human beings (with exceptions, of course, as fellow human beings tell me).

Do I now want to add another piece of content to this inflationary global pile of content? - Probably not. Why then nevertheless have a blog of my own? Because I have found that in this way I can describe my soul life in a wonderful way and look at it as if from the outside, without anyone knowing anything about my transcripts. I tried it out with my blog http://peters-eigenarten.blogspot.com/. Nobody knows about it, nobody looks, nobody searches for it. It's my treasure, invisible. It's almost like H.G. Wells' Invisible Man. Human maturation and growth needs discipline. With this blog I invite myself to this discipline, without judging when things don't work out, or don't always work out on time. I invite myself to conscious awareness. Only with a conscious perception of what is happening around me and within me can I write this diary of my journey. For me, this is a kind of therapy, a meditation, a humble process of getting to know myself more and more. I am sixty-nine years old, the journey is not over yet.

Here she is, still in our carport. This summer was kind to us, there were quite a few sunny days and I drove her daily on my way to the gym or shopping, daily small trips that make riding a bike just a normal, day to day affair. Its like life, life is a daily affair. We can look back to it, and we can consciously experiencing it, here and now.