With the Pan America on the car train from Hamburg to Lörrach – Part 1

On a Friday evening in September, we set off on the Pan America 1250 Special, packed our bags and headed to Hamburg Altona, to the Autozug loading point .

First I had to search a little, then I discovered, surprisingly, that you drive parallel to the train station and end up driving through the middle of the train station onto the cars. I took the BTE Autozug, you can find the loading point under the following link on Google Maps . It's actually quite easy once you see how it works. There are 26 other motorcycles registered with me for the car train, I wouldn't have expected that, the bikers come from northern Germany and many from Scandinavian countries.

In the train station in Hamburg Altona

You can actually buy anything at Altona train station if you're still hungry, but you can also get drinks and sweets on the train. It starts a little late, a driver hadn't closed his window, this was discovered during the inspection, it was half an hour before he got to the car, that can happen, but it's not a big deal.

The Harley-Davidson should be set to transport mode

The trestles are lashed down by the staff, you don't need to worry about that, just the alarm system should be deactivated. In some cars it came on straight away when we left, we drove out of the station with disco lights on, some people just don't think about something like that or don't know how to deactivate them.

So far I like it quite a bit, my compartment is big enough, there are four beds in the couchette car, and there is another sleeping car with more comfort. It is ideal for two people if you have a lot of luggage with you. There are two washrooms and an extra toilet in each car. You have to do without WiFi on the train, but at night that shouldn't be a problem.

We stop briefly in Karlsruhe to have breakfast

We will make a short stop in Karlsruhe, then breakfast will come on board. The journey continues and in good time before arriving in Lörrach, there is an announcement and whoever leaves the compartment door open will have breakfast brought to the compartment. Fresh coffee and a roll, in the sleeping car compartments there are two rolls for breakfast.

Then comes the information about how unloading takes place in Lörrach, everything is very relaxed, I was able to drive the Pan America from the car train and then I lashed my panniers in peace and quiet.

Well rested, the journey continues on the Pan America

The trip now continues on the Pan America, unfortunately the open house at K&M Harley World in Allgäu has been canceled, but there will probably be coffee, at least the husband and a friend are waiting for me in Wangen. This will be a journey of around 250 kilometers, I will drive over the Feldberg and take around 3 hours for the tour.

The route over the Feldberg was also recommended to me by the Harleysite community and they were right, a good route and I got my first good impression of the Black Forest.

Unfortunately, due to heavy traffic jams in the Lake Constance area, I arrived at Harley World in Wangen a little late, but that shouldn't be the only thing I'll be annoyed about that day.

I meet a friend at Harley World in Allgäu to continue riding with him

My buddy Frank is already waiting for me at the counter and the good man is fully operational. He was actually supposed to have an open house, but he wasn't allowed to do it because the incidence in the region was too high. Nevertheless, his Harley shop was open as normal and the bikers came to meet up.

You immediately notice that it is a family-run business, you are immediately taken care of, I like that sort of thing. When things calmed down, the topic of Pan America logically went straight to the point.

I would say that the man is one of the absolute Pan America fans, what could be better than a Harley dealer who stands behind his product. He has already worked on various expansions for the Pan America and lets his friend biker Jo explore the wide world on a Pan America. The goal is to ride 100,000 kilometers with one machine within about two years.

I lost a bit of time in a traffic jam

As already mentioned, I was way too late because I wanted to drive with my buddy to Sölden, which was about 200 kilometers away. We took a quick photo with the man and then we set off. We drove along a lot of country roads and along part of the Alpine road to Austria. A North German like me can be impressed with the mountains. We took the 198 via Weißenbach am Lech to Stanzach. There is a Shell gas station there where we wanted to fill up before we reached the mountains, at least that was the plan.

A mishap that changes the whole tour

When I stood in front of the gas pump and wanted to open the gas cap, I realized that I was no longer wearing my Rokker jacket; this jacket contains the gas key for the Pan America. A look at my text messages was sobering, because Manne had already sent me a photo of my jacket. We still had 80 kilometers to go to Sölden and it would be 120 kilometers back to Wangen.

According to the on-board computer, I have enough gas in the tank for 150 kilometers. What to do, that was the question, I can't open the tank, I don't have the key on the fob, or something like that, that was pure stupidity.

So it was clear, we had to go back and the tour to Sölden was history. Just getting the key and going back wouldn't have helped, I had been out all day and so the plan was now to head back towards Wangen and then spend the night in Ravensburg. I bagged my jacket back at Manne's and the good guy gave us two of his cool coffee mugs with spoons, which was a nice gesture.

The Pan America reserve statement has reserves

I got to Ravensburg easily with the Pan America, so the on-board computer was working quite well, that was the good insight. Now it was a matter of finding a suitable hotel where you could have a nightcap, because the day was over long enough now. A look at the weather reports for the next day predicted heavy rain, then we immediately drank one more beer.

Because my friend wasn't from the area either and we were now missing a day, we changed our plans. The plan was that I would just drive a short lap alone over some pass and decide where to go depending on the weather.

The second part of the tour story continues and let's say up front, you can't rely on these weather apps. They'll just ruin your day!

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