Unfortunately my plans to spend the day riding through the Alps didn’t quite work out…Light rain in the morning got heavier as the day went on. Between this, ~45degF temps, and not-so-magnificent views of fog, I cut the loop short and headed to Munich.

Munich is another place I’m seeing for the second time, and I enjoyed it as much as the first. It’s a bit more quiet and slowed paced (both in a good way) than Berlin…it feels a bit more traditional.


I had two plans for my time here. Visit a couple friends that my buddy, Grant, and I met in Thailand, and drop my bike off for service and new tires.
On Friday evening I met up with Irina and Tanja, and got to do some touristy and non-touristy things while here…saw a bit of the city center and Englischer Garten, went to a couple bars and a concert.
        
           
I also made a quick trip to BMW Welt…it basically feels like a humongous BMW dealership inside a really crazy building. The highlight there was the enduro demonstration that a guy did on an F800GS. Other than being impressive, it was kinda funny to see this guy riding up and down the stairs in this fancy building.
                          

I can’t let myself get used to this idea of meeting up with friends and having my own personal guide, because after Munich, there’s a good chance I won’t be seeing anyone I know for quite some time.
The thought of that, along with getting to places I’ve never been, and that are a bit less like what I know and am comfortable with is a little bit intimidating, but it’s probably also what got me most excited about this trip.  So the little bit of intimidation is definitely outweighed by the excitement.

**WARNING-if you don’t care about motorcycles, stop reading now or prepare for a moment of boredom**
After 12k miles/20k kms, everything is still checking out fine on the bike. The new tires are Heidenau K60s…a bit more offroad oriented than the stock Michelin Anakees.

I probably could’ve gotten a couple more miles out of the Michelins, but it seemed convenient enough to change them here. Overall, I was really pleased with them…they had decent life and performed well on dry and wet pavement. Though not a proper offroad tire, they did decent on dry gravel, provided the pressure was down to 20/25psi. I didn’t spend any time with them in any worse offroad conditions (thankfully) so I can’t comment on their performance there.
One minor annoyance (though I don’t feel it really affected performance) was that the front tire showed signs of cupping early on. Other than airing down for a couple offroad stints, the pressure was kept to BMW’s spec. The only real effect seemed to be an increase in road noise and a slight increase in vibration. Also it seemed to get better over the last few thousand miles…but maybe I just got used to it.
All in all, I’m happy with them and would probably buy another set if planning to ride primarily on nice paved roads.
With only a little riding done on the K60s, all I can say is that they vibrate a decent amount at very low speeds on the pavement. A-thats not surprising when comparing the tread pattern to the stock tires, B-I’m not interested in low speeds on pavement.