Attending the biggest BMW motorcycle event in the world: Motorrad Days

I’m at the undisputed mecca for Beemer enthusiasts — a massive annual festival called BMW Motorrad Days. Cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to coronavirus concerns, BMW decided to bring the event back for 2022, and two years of pent-up excitement converges here in Berlin for the first time. The event’s usual home is south of Munich in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but for 2022, BMW moved the event to a massive venue called Messe Berlin, not far from the Spandau factory. (Read about my tour of BMW’s factory.)

Having worked with event planning and marketing at some previous jobs, I can’t imagine the logistics behind an event of this scale, which also includes the custom motorcycle/lifestyle-oriented Pure & Crafted festival. Even more impressive were the logistics many folks had to figure out in order to attend. Motorrad Days brings riders from around the world, and lots of clubs ride to the event from their respective countries. I cheated by taking a short shuttle ride from my downtown hotel, but one group rode their R 1250 GSes all the way from South Korea to get there. (I don’t know which route they took, exactly, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy!) I saw lots of club patches from all over Europe on jackets, hats, and T-shirts as people lined up for Motorrad Days on Saturday morning. Some Germans in line ahead of me complained loudly that the doors weren’t open yet — it was 10:02 and “the website says it starts at 10!” Can't make this stuff up.

Rather than beating down the doors with the crowd, I headed over to the demo rides area to take a spin on the all-new CE 04 electric scooter. (Read my first ride mini-review of this funky machine.) I applaud BMW for making demo rides such a large part of the festival. The event organizers had just about every bike in BMW’s current lineup available for test rides, and these rides were not guided.

I was free to cruise around Berlin and test the CE 04 at my own pace. Well, mostly my own pace… I had to slow down and take a few detours when I encountered a parade of traditional barrel organs, also called crank organs or monkey organs. Berliners in old-timey clothing pulled countless musical organs, all playing at the same time, and most inexplicably featuring toy monkeys or teddy bears. I pulled over to see what was going on, thinking I’d stick around to maybe see the end of the parade, but there were so many of them that eventually I just gave up and left. That whole experience still feels like a hallucination of some kind. It turns out that Berlin was hosting an international barrel organ festival as well as Motorrad Days that weekend. Go figure.

Back in Messe Berlin’s parking area, BMWs were lined up handlebar to handlebar as far as the eye could see, spilling out into the street in some places. I couldn’t help walking around the lot to see what people were riding even though I was supposed to be, uh, at the actual event with everyone else. R 1200 GSes and R 1250 GSes were so common that they got boring before the end of the first row. Vehicles of note: more R 1200 Cs than I’ve ever seen (sadly, no spider-faced CLs), lots of sidecar rigs, a fair number of streetfighters, and a few pre-airhead bikes proudly showing their age. The most used and abused models seemed to be the K100s and K75s, sporting more dirt and damage than most of the GSes! I also noticed at least a dozen CE 04s. I think the much-maligned Rockster was the only post-airhead model I didn’t see.

Inside, the first hall was dedicated to world-class custom BMW motorcycles. The R 18 seemed to be a popular build base, probably due to a) the fact that it is the newest ICE drivetrain in BMW’s lineup, b) it’s a pretty unique engine to build around, and c) BMW has been encouraging R 18 customization since before the production version was even available. The customs heavily favored boxers in general, mostly R nineTs and airheads. 

Remember how there were so many GSes in the parking lot that they stopped being interesting? That effect only got stronger in the aftermarket parts hall, which was almost entirely dedicated to farkling out BMW’s adventure models. Just about every ADV stand seemed to be doing a brisk business in crash bars, luggage, auxiliary lights, and touring gear. The line for SW-Motech stretched all the way into the neighboring vintage parts booth’s turf. I came away thinking a GS-only festival would draw almost the same size crowd as the standard Motorrad Days event. For many riders, BMW Motorrad is the GS line. Just look at BMW’s sales last year. The brand sold nearly 200,000 motorcycles in 2021, and 60,000 of them were R 1250 GSes. Then factor in sales of F 750 GS, F 850 GS, and G 310 GS models, and you start to understand the lay of the Gelande.

Sports and cruiser models seemed to have the least aftermarket representation. There were quite a few vendors showing off new parts for R nineT models, like retro gas tanks, cafe racer tail sections, titanium exhausts, and entire bodywork kits in large boxes. Others had upgrades for airheads, K bikes, and even some antique models. One vintage racebike in particular caught my eye with its build quality that surpassed some of the pro customs at the show’s entrance. Somebody likes linkages!

Another hall had dozens of 2023 BMWs on sturdy stands so people could try sitting on different models. The G 310s seemed to be the most popular, especially with kids who just wanted to climb on a motorcycle and play with the controls. I watched a man pick up a very short woman (presumably his wife or significant other) and put her on an S 1000 XR. She seemed very distressed about not being able to get down, and he seemed to think this was the funniest thing that had ever happened.

Other good stuff in this room included one of Ernst Henne’s supercharged land speed record bikes and the new BMW M3 Touring wagon. I know this is Common Tread, a place where we talk about motorcycles, but that M3 Touring... BMW will sell every one they can build. 

A short walk through a sort of lifestyle marketplace area led to the festival grounds, ringed with food vendors and more motorcycles. At the center was a large stage where music would start that evening. The Pixies were supposed to play, but they had to bail last-minute due to a coronavirus exposure. So it goes. There were plenty of other sideshows to check out until the concert got going, like an old school “wall of death” show, a walkthrough display of historic BMW models, and pro stunt riders doing backflips over an M4 coupe.

For me, the best part of the festival was meeting other people who love motorcycles, like swapping airhead tuning ideas with a Brit who owns an R100/7 like mine. Then there was a hilarious Scottish motorcycle journalist who somehow acquired a huge pile of free beer tokens. An aftermarket lighting vendor with some great ideas for my next dirt bike project. A WorldSBK pit crew member ahead of me in the lunch line. A motorcycle TV show host who seemed to know everyone. Two Indian motorcycle journalists who traded stories about motorcycles not sold in the United States. I saw some familiar faces, too: Peter Nettesheim of the Nettesheim Museum in Long Island, his daughter Kate, and Vinny Morello, who wrote one of the funniest articles ever on Common Tread. 

Did I return home with any new parts or appreciation for my BMW? Nope, and I think that's okay. The best part of a festival like this isn’t the music, or the demo fleet, or the custom motorcycle show, or the cold beer under a shady tree. It’s hanging around with people who are roughly the same kind of nutty that you are, making friends you’ll probably never see again in person, and experiencing the energy of enthusiasts at a world-class scale.

You know who probably had the best time at BMW Motorrad Days? It had to be the ride-or-die clubs who used this event as the inspiration for a group ride. After the last food truck taco is served, and the last tank bag is sold, those riders have the long ride home to enjoy. While getting there by airplane might not have quite the same appeal, Motorrad Days is the last word in BMW events for the brand's most hardcore fans, and the plane tickets are likely worth the money if that sounds like you. Godspeed, South Korean GS riders!