That was the European Bike Week 2021
That was the European Bike Week 2021
In the run-up to the European Bike Week, The debate was heated, from fake news to a counterstatement from Harley-Davidson, as the Milwaukee-based company was keen to return to the Lake Faak be present in Carinthia. In the run-up to the event, many discussions were held with the authorities, where the actual scope of the event was agreed in line with the current situation.
Die Gemeinde wollte Harley-Davidson 2021 wieder auf der Veranstaltungsfläche sehen und die Tourismusbranche brachte sich ebenfalls mit ein, denn die European Bike Week ist ein wichtiger Wirtschaftsfaktor in der Region.
If only it weren't for Corona, things would have turned out the way they had to! If Harley-Davidson had been back in its usual manner, it could have sent out a signal that everything was back to normal. This was not the case this year, so Harley-Davidson had to call off its authorized dealers, many of whom had already made their preparations and then had to learn that they could not exhibit at the event this year.
This caused a lot of resentment, the Harley-Davidson dealers naturally wanted to present themselves again and the Harley fans were also in a bad mood because it was not immediately understandable why there were exhibitors at other event areas and not at the Harley Village.
Und es gab jetzt Öffnungszeiten, das war ebenfalls neu, um 18:00 Uhr viel der Hammer. Aber trotz der ganzen Umstände und einem völlig anderem Konzept, war das Resume bei Harley-Davidson sehr positiv. Harley-Davidson hat sich darauf konzentriert, das Unternehmen und seine Produkte zu präsentieren. Anfassen, draufsitzen und besonders die Probefahrten sind gut eingeschlagen. Die Teams rund um die Probefahrten hatten mächtig zu tun, denn die Fahrten waren ausgiebig. Besonders die großen Tourer, die Pan America und die Sportster S waren sehr gefragt, was am Ende der Bike Week zu einem Probefahrten Rekord geführt hat.
H.O.G. Carinthia Chapter Exit-Soul Recovery Tour - Motodrom Harley-Davidson Didi Kulmer
This year, the bikers were mainly on the road to discover Carinthia and neighboring countries. I even had the impression that many Harley fans had already arrived on the weekend before the actual European Bike Week. There was already a lot of biker movement on the roads on Monday. The police had a similar impression and there was nothing to complain about in their follow-up report.
Only one Harley-Davidson was stolen and the thefts from campsites known from previous years did not take place at all. It has to be said that the police were very present, especially in the evening you could see them everywhere, but I could see that the controls also related to cars and vans. But we are used to that and the noise measurements that were carried out at some checkpoints found relatively few motorcycles that were too loud this year.
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 of 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 internally to authorized dealers in Germany and Austria, and no. 455 made it to the EXPO on Lake Faak out of turn. This was definitely a good idea, as it gave everyone the opportunity to take a closer look at this rarity. The special feature of this model is the elaborately handcrafted paintwork, and the intricate 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
Besonders großen Zuspruch hatten das Alpe Adria Chapter und das H.O.G. Kärnten Chapter, beide Chapter haben den Bikern jeweils drei großartige Touren kostenlos angeboten. Die waren recht zügig ausgebucht, der Tourentipp auf der Harleysite hat dem ganzen wohl etwas Schub geben, ihr hattet euch danach wohl zahlreich angemeldet. Das ist ja auch gut so, wenn sich die Chapter die Mühe machen, euch schöne Touren anzubieten, sollte man das gerne annehmen. Die Bilder von den Ausfahrten vom H.O.G. Kärnten Chapter, findet ihr in der Picture gallery of the European Bike Week 2021.
Of course, there was also a Harley-Davidson merchandise stand and even a course 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, more was not possible there.
Of course, there was also a lot going on in the Arneitz area and in Velden. There were more free dealers in the Arneitz and a party atmosphere was the order of the day under the canopy. This year there was no one-way traffic regulation, there was a brief consideration to set one up between the Harley Village and the Arneitz area, but this was abandoned. From Thursday onwards, the area around the bend became noticeably more crowded, but there was no comparison with previous years.
In Velden it was different, the popular seats in the restaurant around the casino were always well occupied, the action on the main street in Velden was mixed. It was empty at times and then suddenly turned again. But in general, Velden was well attended and attracted numerous bikers again this year.
To sum up, there was more going on than last year and Harley-Davidson made the best of it, the party crowd was pretty disappointed, they'll have to hope for 2022 to get going again next year. The touring riders were thrilled, we have rarely had such consistently beautiful weather at Lake Faak, I liked it, finally I was 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 a normal event year ahead of us again in 2022.
