GS Ride - before we started

The idea for the GS Anniversary Ride came about when I noticed some publicity that it was the 30 Year Anniversary of the BMW GS model, which is quite an achievement not only for the bikes but in reality, the GS bikes created a new industry in large adventure touring bikes and what a great industry it is now. 

Most manufactures have now cottoned onto the fact that people want a good dual purpose bike rather than having to own two specialist bikes, especially here in NZ with our oppressive ACC fees.  Even Ducati want a piece of the market and its no surprise that the GS model is BMW's best selling range.

Anyway, after a quick call of various BMW entities in New Zealand I was not too surprised to find that nothing was being organised for here.  You see all marketing for BMW motorbikes is controlled out of Australia and their idea of an adventure ride is to all meet at a venue for a weekend and go for a day ride.  When we approached them about our idea for a New Zealand ride they said 'it just sounds like a bunch of guys going for a ride', which lets face it is what an adventure bike is all about.

Having cycled from Cape Reinga to Bluff last year (straight down SH1) I thought it would be great to do it again but this time see some of the country, and in the spirit of the GS we should keep off the main roads as much as possible.  Great idea I though so I called Garry Williams in Wellington and suggested what I had in mind and his first comment was 'Who would want to do that!', which surprised me a bit coming from Garry who I thought was always up for a bit of an adventure.  As it turned out Garry had other stuff on his plate but luckily over time he warmed to the idea.

So to prove to Garry that it may not be such a dumb ass idea I ran a survey on our local BMWOR Blog site (www.bmworcantab.wordpress.com) to gauge interest and Garry ran an article about the idea in the BMWOR Newsletter.  Well we found there was quite a bit of interest in the idea with replies coming from the US, UK, Australia and Germany, in fact 80 responses.  Bugger eh, so there are more nutters out there we thought so maybe we should look and think a bit further about logistics.

My initial desire was to go South to North (as I had cycled North to South) but with the Burt Munro Challenge happening in Invercargil it made more sense to go finish there so between Garry and I we started thinking about possible routes.  Garry at this point was still not committed to the idea due to work commitments but once the outline of the trip took shape, Garry rang me to say 'he is in' as when will this opportunity come up again.

Garry and John Nick sorted out a route from Cape Reinga to Tauranaga.  Darryl from Mount Motorcycles came up with the rote from Tauranaga Napier but was unable to join us.  Rowan Parkes from Wellington took on the Napier to Wellington.  The it was the South Island's turn and Sam Rowntree helped us from Picton to Glenfalloch.  Garry and I handled the Glenfalloch to Waipiata, I sorted the route from Waipiata to Queenstown.  David Caesar arranged everything from Queenstown to Invercargill (but the last day changed following requests from riders when we got to Te Anau.  So there were quite a few people involved in the planning process which was great as things I had no realization about were:

• 90 Mile Beach was only available provided the tide was right (Thanks Garry)
• You need a permit from DOC to tarvel through Molesworth (Thanks Sam)
• The barge was not licenced to carry more than six people across Lake Wakatipu so we needed a water taxi (Thanks David)

Plus many other small details that had to be sorted.

We then decided that we should make the ride more worthwhile so decided to run it a fund-raiser for the Westpac Helicopter Rescue Service with a goal of raising $20,000 (there is still time if anyone wants to contribute - www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/gsride2010/) and I started contacting companies who might like to support us in some way and in the end we had some great support:

• Bluebridge Ferries gave us a great rate to get bike and rider across the strait
• Touratech gave a special discount for all purchases and a heap of free stuff to give away
• Ezypay helped out with printing and photocopying
• Malcolm Sargant printed all our stickers for us
• Salamanda provided a mount for my SPOT GPS transmitter
• Performance MX Coaching provided a prize
• BMS provided $200 worth of workshop service
• 406 Beacon Hire supplied a EPIRB
• Star Insurance provide free Journey On roadside rescue plans
• Pro Rider provide a days rider training
• Motorcycle Training provided a days rider training
• The BMWOR Register paid for the Lake Wakatipu barge
• Te Waipounamu helped with a prize 
• Printstop printed our Ride Booklet
• Findspace provided some refreshments at our final function

Plus,

• Experience BMW put on a great welcome and/or send off in Auckland
• John Glasswell at BMW HQ provide lunch when we stopped there
• Mount Motorcycles provided a welcome beer and food at Mount Maunganui
• Motomart provided food, drinks and their workshop in Wellington
• Thunderbike provide a very late lunch in Nelson
• Jeff Gray BMW paid supplementary cost of the EPIRB

So without the help of everyone and all the companies listed above the event would not have turned out as well as it did....so a big thank you to all.

Just as an aside, it seems that John Glasswell will have more autonomy in the future to support an event like this as Australia has relented some of its control, which is great news for John and for BMW Motorrad.