The spirit of adventure was all over the motorcycle show in Cologne from October 5-9, 2016. Standing next to so many artfully designed, powerful machines, some of them ready to jump on and go touring, I was thrilled to share the story of our Sand to Snow adventure with both, the motorcycle and the pedelec audience. The Western USA is still new in the e-bike context but long discovered in the motorbike world.
Using this connection, I had the chance to spontaneously fill a slot at the Customized Stage in one of the motorcycle halls on Friday and was curious to see how motorbikers would react to e-bikes. What I found was an open-minded audience who listened to the Sand to Snow story and the benefits of pedelecs in short 15 minutes with great interest.
Near the stage I found the motorbike that's just custom made for me, with my name already printed on - only with a small typo ;-)
Saturday and Sunday were open to consumers and the bi-annual trade show was packed with people of all ages who marveled at the latest innovations of the motorbike industry, took test rides and listened to travel reports - Scotland, Iceland, many places where Pedelec Adventures has traveled on pedelecs.
Except for the BMW e-volution electric scooter (top photo) and a few others, most electric two-wheelers were presented in the E-Mobility Hall 5.2. Here, about 15 brands provided their bikes for test rides on the spacious test track by ExtraEnergy.
My venue for the Sand to Snow presentations in this hall was the Rad Club stage in the super truck you see below. Where the editorial team of the German aktivRadfahren & ElektroRad magazines gave lectures on various electric bike topics, I had a morning and an afternoon session on Saturday sharing my favorite pictures and stories and the video of the latest Pedelec Adventure – in German language for the first time. And I figured – there are so many stories to tell that I could have talked the whole day! To be continued in Cologne in 2018!
Meanwhile, check out the current edition of the ElektroRad magazine (4/2016) for their story of the Sand to Snow tour. It is now available at all magazine kiosks.
The editorial team of both, aktivRadfahren and ElektroRad has been a long-standing media partner of mine from the very beginning of my career as a journalist in the electric bike world in 1999. Time to say thank you!
