1975 January

This month marks the start of the second year for the European Corner. The first year has been a good one and I feel that this year will be better still. Last January I mentioned that we had 23 members here in Europe. Well, we still have 23 members, which doesn’t seem impressive until one counts the approximate 17 members who have rotated back to the States during the year. Nor does it take into consideration the five members who rotated back to the States within a month or two of joining. Thus, I think our batting average is not too bad.

The distribution of our members here in Europe is as follows: three in England, one each in Italy, Spain, and Turkey, and 16 in Germany with the concentration being in Mannheim. While most of our activities center around the members from Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Worms, Kaiserslautern, and Ramstein areas, Ed Johnson in Italy is hoping to get something started in and around the Naples area. We wish him the best of luck.

This year I think we’ll find more member interest in events and happenings here in Europe. This month is the Elephanten Treffen held in the Eiffel mountains and a lot of preparatory planning for this trek has been accomplished at the time of this writing. Some members are trying to encourage a group of us to ride to the Isle of Man in June for the famous TT races. August or September should see the second Annual BMWMOA Schmittburg Treffen which has already stirred a lot of interest. And in late September or early October the Krauser Olang Touring Rally will be held, in which I hope to see more participation by the European members, as I think that it can’t be missed if you’re looking for outright beautiful scenery and the pleasure of riding with 275 other cyclists.

We have three or four members rotating back to the States in spring, and they are all making plans to attend the third National Rally in Missouri this June. So look for them. In fact, my wife, son, and I hope to attend as well as we are planning to visit the States this summer. Hope to see you there!

A tip from Paul Lewis in Heidelberg. For those of you that have Cycle Cards (and there are quite a few of us), you cannot get the required Mallory Duracell batteries from your post or base exchange in Europe. Paul has found after much experimentation that Saft Leclanche’, which are available on the economy, are just as good as the Mallory and cost about the same.

Mandatory helmet laws come to the military in Europe! USAREUR announced in November that all military personnel are required to wear approved-type (?) helmets and eye protective devices (?) while operating or riding motorcycles either on or off post. No comment!

For those of you interested in safety riding tips, read the monthly “Driver” magazine, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force and distributed free throughout USAREUR. I have not failed to find at least one and more often two well written safety related motorcycle articles in any issue.

Happy New Year!

Auf Wiedersehen