BMW Berlin Tour

[garry_kramer]

Well tonight we leave for Europe. I have a tour booked at the BMW motorcycle plant in Berlin. No cameras allowed, but I will give a report we we get home.

Garry & Esther

[Woolly]

Well tonight we leave for Europe. I have a tour booked at the BMW motorcycle plant in Berlin. No cameras allowed, but I will give a report we we get home.

Garry & Esther

Hi Gary, have a good trip - the Mercedes factory in Bremen does not allow cameras either, but when I had a tour of the factory in Nov 2004 when I picked my car up, I took my (camera)phone in with me :):)

[ronk1200lt]

Hey Gary! See if you can find out anything about the new K1200LT which is rumored to be launched in 2009.

[starky]

hi gary:

hope you have a great trip.
I'm off to see the wizard tonight get the new rear installed.
his tiny shop is bursting with Beemer projects.
Budds quoted almost $2450 for a new clutch on a '95 RT . He is doing it for $1250.

Stay in touch.
JS

[DentalFlossTycoon]

Who is this masked man? ;) And where is his tiny shop?

George

hi gary:

hope you have a great trip.
I'm off to see the wizard tonight get the new rear installed.
his tiny shop is bursting with Beemer projects.
Budds quoted almost $2450 for a new clutch on a '95 RT . He is doing it for $1250.

Stay in touch.
JS

[starky]

Who is this masked man? ;) And where is his tiny shop?

George

Hi George:

Just got back from the new tire installation and a lot of alking and meeting some guys coming in to have a few things done at tomas's shop in Burlington.
Here's what I found:

Really nice guy with a LOT of experience on BMW's and Harleys. He rides an RT and we met him in the parking lot after the Niagara BMW breakfast meeting that you attended. He's a Microsoft tech and does the bike repair and build in the evening at a small shop opposite Burlington Honda.

He installed new rear Metzler, changed oil and filter, changed rear drive oil, lubed centre stand and side stand, adjusted lower tupperware on left side because he "noticed" that the rear-most flange was behind where it was supposed to be, cleaned both wheels, checked rear drive boot, checked play in rear brake/axle, drive assembly. Total price: $350.00

Rear tire $225, istall, $25, oil and filter change $60, rear drive oil and change and all other stuff: $35. + tax on the tire.

He was very personable and knowledgeable and seems to go out of his way to ensure things are right. Check out his web ste: fknenterprises.com or fkn.com

Cheers
Joel

[DentalFlossTycoon]

Hi George:

Just got back from the new tire installation and a lot of alking and meeting some guys coming in to have a few things done at tomas's shop in Burlington.
Here's what I found:

Really nice guy with a LOT of experience on BMW's and Harleys. He rides an RT and we met him in the parking lot after the Niagara BMW breakfast meeting that you attended. He's a Microsoft tech and does the bike repair and build in the evening at a small shop opposite Burlington Honda.

He installed new rear Metzler, changed oil and filter, changed rear drive oil, lubed centre stand and side stand, adjusted lower tupperware on left side because he "noticed" that the rear-most flange was behind where it was supposed to be, cleaned both wheels, checked rear drive boot, checked play in rear brake/axle, drive assembly. Total price: $350.00

Rear tire $225, istall, $25, oil and filter change $60, rear drive oil and change and all other stuff: $35. + tax on the tire.

That's incredible :thumb:

He was very personable and knowledgeable and seems to go out of his way to ensure things are right. Check out his web ste: fknenterprises.com or fkn.com

Cheers
Joel

Checked out the web addresses. The first one doesn't exist and the second one is a kid's cartoon network. www.fkn.ca works though. Looks like an awsome place, must check it out. Thanks!

George

[garry_kramer]

Well tonight we leave for Europe. I have a tour booked at the BMW motorcycle plant in Berlin. No cameras allowed, but I will give a report we we get home.

Garry & Esther

Well, I drove the 3 hours from Chemnitz to Berlin Friday morning for our 9:00 am tour. The tour was in German as there were no English tours for the time that I was in Germany, no problem, my wifes cousin translated for us. Started out in the machining area. Saw the forgings and castings come into the plant and get machined. Very little automation (my job) mostly hand loaded and unloaded. Next was the engine assembly area and testing of the engine. They build both the K and R engine on the same line. They build 300 engines a week. Winter and Spring they work 6 days a week, summer and fall they work 4 days a week. 2100 employees in the plant. Next was to the bike assembly area where they build the bike. Next was the engine test and Dyno and ABS testing of the brakes. This lasts about 10 minutes for each bike. That's all, no new bikes for us to see. The tour was about 2-1/2 hours long. No cameras allowed inside the plant. All BMW bikes are made in the plant. They build 100 bikes a week. I got a few "BMW Motorrad Werk Berlin" neck straps as gifts. You can only get them if you take the tour.
After the tour we went to "Hard Rock Cafe" in Berlin then to the Berlin Motorrad dealer. The dealers in Germany will only sell official BMW equipment, I was looking for a T-Shirt that said BMW Berlin on it, No luck.
Then the 4 hour drive home. Berlin Rush hour.... 3 km in 1 hour.

[ronk1200lt]

It sounds like the tour is a pretty stiff and formal affair. The German's don't seem to have much of a sense of humor, do they?

[Geraldh]

The German's don't seem to have much of a sense of humor, do they?

Don't think they ever did.