That was the European Bike Week 2021
In the run-up to European Bike Week , things were getting hot, from fake news to rebuttals from Harley-Davidson , because the Milwaukee company really wanted to be present at Lake Faaker See in Carinthia again this year. There were many discussions with the authorities in advance, where they agreed on the actual scope of the event in accordance with the current situation.
The community wanted to see Harley-Davidson back on the event floor in 2021 and the tourism industry also got involved, as European Bike Week is an important economic factor in the region.
If only it weren't for Corona, it happened the way it had to happen! If Harley-Davidson had acted in the usual manner, it could have sent a signal that everything was back to normal. That wasn't the case this year, so Harley-Davidson had to call back its authorized dealers, many of whom had already made their preparations and then found out that they would not be able to exhibit at the event this year.
This caused a lot of dissatisfaction, the Harley-Davidson dealers naturally wanted to finally present themselves again and the Harley fans also had a bad mood because it was not immediately understandable why there were exhibitors at other event areas and not at the Harley Village .
And there were now opening times, which was also new, at 6:00 p.m. it was great. But despite all the circumstances and a completely different concept, the response at Harley-Davidson was very positive. Harley-Davidson has focused on showcasing the company and its products. Touching it, sitting on it and especially the test drives went well. The teams involved in the test drives had a lot to do because the trips were extensive. The large tourers, the Pan America and the Sportster S , were particularly in demand, which led to a test ride record at the end of Bike Week.
HOG Carinthia Chapter Exit-Soul Recovery Tour – Motodrom Harley-Davidson Didi Kulmer
This year the bikers were mainly out and about to discover Carinthia and neighboring countries. I even had the impression that a lot of Harley fans had already arrived for the weekend before the actual European Bike Week. There was already a lot of biker movement on the streets on Monday. The police had a similar feeling and there was nothing to complain about in their follow-up report.
Only a Harley-Davidson was stolen and the sneak-in thefts in campsites known over the years did not even take place. It has to be said that the police were very present, especially in the evening you could see them everywhere, although I could observe that the checks also applied to cars and vans. But we're used to that and the noise measurements that were carried out at some checkpoints this year found relatively few motorcycles that were too loud.
This Police Pan America from Harley-Davidson is intended for the police school in Austria.
The Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special in the Arctic Blast version was the star in the EXPO area.
The highlight in the EXPO area was the Street Glide Special in the Arctic Blast version. There are only 500 versions of this model worldwide. Sixteen of these limited versions were raffled off online to the authorized dealers in Germany and Austria and No. 455 made it to the EXPO at Lake Faak out of turn. That was definitely a good idea, so everyone had the opportunity to take a close look at this rarity. The special thing about this model is the elaborately handcrafted paintwork, and the elaborate honeycomb pattern on the batwing fairing is outstanding. We know something similar from the Harley-Davidson Mayhem version, which was even more exclusive.
The chapter tours were extremely popular
The Alpe Adria Chapter and the HOG Kärnten Chapter were particularly popular; both chapters each offered bikers three great tours free of charge. They were booked up pretty quickly, the tour tip on the Harley site probably gave the whole thing a bit of a boost, and a lot of you probably registered afterwards. That's a good thing, if the chapters make the effort to offer you nice tours, you should be happy to accept it. You can find the pictures from the HOG Kärnten Chapter's trips in the picture gallery for European Bike Week 2021 .
Of course, a Harley-Davidson merchandise stand was a must and there was even a course set up for the Serial 1 e-bikes. The benches in the so-called café area were always well occupied, you didn't have to starve or die of thirst, everything was fine so far, nothing more was possible there.
Of course there was also something going on in the Arneitz area and in Velden. There were more independent traders in the Arneitz and there was a party mood under the canopy. The one-way street regulation was dispensed with this year; there was short-term consideration of setting up one between the Harley Village and the Arneitz site, but this was decided against. From Thursday onwards it became noticeably more crowded in the area of the curve, but nothing compared to previous years.
In Velden it was different, the popular restaurant seats around the casino were always well occupied, the action on Main Street in Velden was mixed. Empty for a while and then suddenly it turned again. But in general Velden was well attended and once again attracted numerous bikers this year.
To come to the conclusion, there was more going on than last year and Harley-Davidson made the best of it, the party crowd was pretty disappointed, they have to hope for 2022 that it will get going again next year. The tour riders were thrilled, we have rarely had such beautiful weather at Lake Faaker See, I liked it, I was finally able to photograph Harleys on the road again, you can find the pictures in the Harleysite picture gallery. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we have another normal event year ahead of us in 2022.
