My week-end at the :

THE GS-Land

The BMW Enduro park at Hechlingen

The BMW off-road bikes driving school is located in the 22 hectares of an old quarry. They also have an agreement with the German army for riding in a military camp. The school is open to bigger than 500cc 4 strokes enduro bikes and you can rent a F650 or a R1100GS.
NEW, it's now open to the 125cc 2 strokes enduro bikes with catalizer.

At the end of May 1998, I was there with my freind Pascal. It's really fantastic, but the top of the top is to have Andrea Mayer, member of the BMW-Schalber team to the last Paris-Dakar, for teacher.

What We Learned

Picking up a Beemer;
Standing on the pegs;
How to shut off the ABS on a oilhead;
Riding (and stop) uphill;
Riding (and stop) downhill;
Riding through water;
Riding through sand (unfortunately, we don't have time for it).

For more detail about the lessons, visit the Sylvia's "Hechlingen BMW enduro-course" report

Modifications on the Beemers

R1100GS:

The rented oilheads are full options (ABS, heated grip, BMW crash-bar, bags rack,...) with these modifications :

Continental Twinduro tires;
Front rubber mounted indicator same as on the F650 (the rear are "protected" by the bags rack);
TOURATECH protection for the front suspension triangle from the Yellow Line Hard-Part for BMW R1100GS;
Frame reinforcing parts (is it the "Australian Adventure kit"?);
no tool box;
the engine is officially without modification (?) but ...
Pascal Vandevoorde says: Having more experience than Jean with the oilhead, I noticed the engine is smoother at low RPM. This is very pleasant when riding in 1st gear at low speed: you don't need to use the clutch. Another point is the complete absence of surging. While I was riding mine in Germany with unleaded fuel (in Belgium I use leaded fuel 98RON), sometimes it surge around 3500-4000 RPM. Now, after filling up with leaded fuel, the surging is gone. So, I can't understand why the Motronic isn't able to run corectly the engine with unleaded 98 RON? Maybe the mechanics in Hechlingen know the solution?

F650:

Like the oilheads, the rented Funduro are full options (heated grip, BMW crash-bar, bags rack,...) with :

Front rubber mounted indicator (the rear are "protected" by the bags rack). These indicator are exactly the same as the original one but on rubber (why not directly on all F650?? thanks BMW!!!);
Continental Twinduro tires;

My photo album


Welcome at Hechlingen!	The GS are waiting!	Richard Schalber's welcome speach.	Andrea Mayer

Sunday morning gymnastics!	A jump!	Pascal on a "real" GS!	Riding through water

Frog hunting! (me on a oilhead!?!)	How to stop riding downhill	Andrea, Pascal and me!	Pascal receives his diploma!

Click here to visit Sylvia's "Hechlingen BMW enduro-course" report.

Info and contact:

Muenchner Freiheit Motorrad Reisen GmbH
Postfach 440148
D-80750 Munchen (Munich)
Germany
phone: *-49-89/395768, fax: *-49-89/344832
E-mail: info@muenchnerfreiheit.de
URL: Muenchner Freiheit web pages or on the BMW web pages

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Updated 29 March 2004