EXPERIENCE FAAK AM SEE ON A DIFFERENT TOUR

Our Harley tour to Lake Faaker See 2020

You can plan a tour well in advance, or you can get a call from your friend the evening before. I'm coming with you, we'll meet at the rest stop in Neustadt/Holst at eight tomorrow morning. and it starts.

That's how it went this year, at first I wanted to go alone, then I wasn't really in the mood because there wasn't really anything special to expect at Lake Faaker See. My buddy Hermann actually didn't have any time at work; work usually always comes first.

The weekend before the tour we went together and raved about our experiences so far and actually we both always say that nothing should be postponed and this year we haven't done a big tour together yet. It all worked somehow in my head and so it started on Wednesday morning. I actually didn't expect it at all, so I had to start packing in the evening and suddenly I was in travel mode.

We had no plan, just go and drive.

At 8 a.m. we met in Neustadt on the motorway, where the tanks of both Harleys were filled so that we had roughly the same fuel cycle on the tour. 

The goal is to head south, as far as we can get.

Hermann's weather report predicted bad weather for us in the south, mine spoke of a second summer, which sounded much better.

No matter, we were prepared for any weather and have our experience in this area.

We took the A20 / A24 and then the A10 via Berlin towards Leipzig. At some point it became clear to us that we would drive east via Linz to Lake Faak. So we took the A93 towards Regensburg.

At the Mitterteich rest stop I received a message from Volker Gegenfurtner Deluxe Motorcycles , who has a custom bike workshop in the Bavarian forest. I know him from a few events where he won with his Mexican bike and I once sent him photos of it.

He invited us to his workshop and after thinking about it for a while, it was clear that we were going there now. 

The first evening alone was worth the tour.

When we arrived at Tanja and Volker Gegenfurtner in Bernried, we couldn't help but be amazed. The workshop is a dream and if you look behind the facade, I would say that someone did everything right. At some point you get out of the stressful everyday life and start building Harleys on your own, no employees, you only accept what you can do and, most importantly, don't lose the fun in the process.

The great thing is the converted Deluxe, it is now called “The Rise of the Mexican” and is really a very unusual Chicano style conversion. He has already won money with her in the bike shows at the big events, which is why we even know each other.

“The Rise of the Mexican”

Best Paint Job Custombike Show 2016 – 1st place HD Stock Class Swiss Custom – 1st place Big Twin and 1st Paint Best Airbrush Hamburg Harley Days 2017 – 1st place Best Paint Pullman City.

The eye-catching paint job was done by Marcus Pfeil, who completed the work exactly according to Tanja and Volker's specifications.

That's where it actually starts, Marcus Pfeil is really a number internationally as an airbrusher, but in the end he has to understand his customer completely so that he can conjure up the project as expected. Because both of them have a very good idea of ​​what they expect from Marcus in the project. It also seems to have been an important project for Marcus, as the work is featured prominently on his website.

And so the thread continues: the saddle, the rims, individual elements and even the exhaust system have to be pleasing. The typical Chicano chain/cord that prefers to hang on the handlebars cannot be seen in the photos. All around you can see the absolute detail work, although of course you first look at the paint work, but that is only part of the whole thing! Unfortunately, there aren't that many individual mechanics in the custom bike scene anymore who work in this way, but it is precisely those who characterize the special individuality in the custom bike scene!

We had really good accommodation in the Landhotel Winterl in the village, great breakfast and right next to it a well-stocked bar to quench your thirst in the early morning :)

The next morning we go to Austria

After a great evening with the two of them, we headed back towards Linz the next morning, at least that was the plan. Along the Chiemsee we headed more towards Salzburg. We cross the border into Austria without any problems after sticking the stickers on the Harleys before the border.

There is a vignette especially for motorcycles, at the first gas station they didn't have any left for motorcycles, it wasn't the first time that happened to me.

We are off the motorway directly behind the border. We drove without a navigation system and just wanted to let ourselves drift. However, it wasn't really worth it, the route really didn't have anything special to offer. Just a lot of traffic, tractors and everyone crawling around, they're not even driving at the permitted speed there. We had really good weather and in this case you are happy about every breeze that doesn't really come up at 60km/h.

We won't let ourselves be disturbed

We were totally relaxed, we somehow drove past Salzburg and then ended up in the small town of Puch. Here we immediately suspected that the town of Puch could have something to do with Austrian Puch works I used to have a Puch moped myself, unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case, at least there's no connection to it on Wikipedia. Nevertheless, apparently a place with a long tradition. Disappointed that we didn't find out anything about it, we continued further and later ended up on the A10. Now we had to slowly see that we were making progress, because we hadn't found accommodation yet.

At 5:00 p.m. we were at the Golling rest stop, now it was time to see where we wanted to spend the night. According to previous information, it was clear that nothing special was to be expected at Lake Faak, so we looked for accommodation in Velden on Booking com. We made our boundaries very optimistically, a maximum of 500 meters into the town and stories like that. Don't believe it, we were actually lucky and later only had to walk 300 meters.

We booked the accommodation for the whole weekend so that we could start our tours into the mountains from Velden.

Our arrival at Lake Faak

At 6:00 p.m. in the early evening, despite our dilly-dallying, we still arrived at Lake Faak. This is where we went first to see if there really wasn't anything going on at Lake Faak.

We slowly passed the train station where the MC has his clubhouse, everything there was green and partying, but the rest was really a very sad thing.

It sends a chill down your spine

It's a really stupid feeling when you're standing at the event site and there's nothing there.

The pictures were now facts!

You only believe it when you see it for yourself, even on the Arneitz there was nothing special set up, there was only a bit of a party on the covered area and the bike show took place outside sitting on the wall, where you looked at the bikes passing by.

It has to be said that there were a lot of Harleys on the road, nothing like previous years, but there was still always movement on the road.

We continue sadly to Velden

Of course you feel sadness, but you still have to say that Harley-Davidson certainly made the right decision. If the event had become a hotspot for the C, there should be responsibility for that afterwards.

We moved into our lovely accommodation in Velden and went straight into the city. We were a bit surprised when we arrived at the casino. Velden was well filled, the bars were all busy, that's the advantage, everything is stationary here and the restaurateurs all have their hygiene concepts. But Corona wasn't really an issue here, people occasionally wore masks, and masks were only mandatory on the sidewalks from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at night.

There were many options to sit outside

In any case, we were a bit surprised, we decided to only eat and sit where there were outside tables, it's always best in the fresh air. The weather was perfect the whole time, it's hard to imagine what would have happened in Carinthia this year.

On the first day we drive to Nockalmstrasse

We started the day relaxed and walked into town for breakfast. We chose Café Sternad near Lake Wörthersee; we had breakfast in the café every morning.

The Nockalmstrasse also costs tolls for motorcyclists

I've been at Lake Faak for so many years and haven't even been on the Nockalmstrasse. The Nockalmstrasse is one of the so-called adventure streets and is open from the beginning of May to the end of October. However, there is a special restriction for motorcyclists, as there is a ban on motorcycling from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.

While the day ticket for cars costs €19.50, you pay €13 for a motorcycle. The Nockalmstrasse lies between Innerkrems and the town of Reichenau in Carinthia and is 34 kilometers long. The route has 52 bends, many of which are long curves and around 5 of which are slightly narrower curves, which can certainly be mastered by inexperienced motorcyclists.

There are no gas stations in the toll area on Nockalmstrasse; there is only one in Reichenau. There are several options for a stopover, quite far up there is a small hut where you can buy souvenirs and coffee.

The tour to the Nockalm isn't particularly spectacular, but you're welcome to do it. We also had a very good view of the mountain peaks.

Sometimes cows run around on the route, you should pay attention to that, they are usually used to traffic. The tour is a good route to get used to, especially for us northern Germans. The beautiful landscape is impressive and the altitude of around 2000 meters is quite good to begin with. Our highest elevation in Schleswig-Holstein is the Bungsberg, at 168 meters it even has a ski lift.

Motodrom Harley-Davidson Klagenfurt

We would do the tour again at any time, we really enjoyed it. But the day isn't over yet, so we're now driving to the Harley dealer in Klagenfurt , we've heard there's a lot going on there.

And really, the yard was well filled and it seemed like it had been like that all week. The event T-shirts weren't for us, the one-sided print somehow didn't have anything. It's just a matter of taste, you can sometimes leave the store without a sovenir T-shirt if you don't like it. But otherwise everything was taken care of, live bands and a delicious house cake were served to the bikers.

The Hollywood Bar on Lake Wörthersee rocked on the street

Now we're done for the day, we're back in Velden to our accommodation and in the evening in the city. That evening we sank into the Hollywood Bar .

The place was somehow tough, there was live music playing in front of the bar and we sat more by the Wörthersee than at the bar. The service always ran across the street because it ran right in front of the bar and so someone always drove through our concert :-).

This was too tempting for some bikers, so one of them stopped for a burnout.

We were able to sit outside and listen to the live music, the Wörthersee roared behind us on a warm summer evening and there was a well-tapped beer in front of us.

We did everything right and the next day the Malta-Hochalmstrasse is on the agenda, which you can read about in the second part.

PODCAST – Faaker See Tour Part 1