Articles, testimonials & reviews: 1972 ~ 1999 

 The only thing Bob Beach forgot to tell us to bring along on our motorcycle tour of the Alps was Contac cold pills. Fortunately he had mentioned that we should bring our own toilet paper (the European version of that particular luxury is definitely not for our "civilized" fannies) and we also had to bring our own soap and washcloths. European hotels do not know about soap and washcloths.

There is one nice thing about European hotels however. They are...

Written by E. GAIL (KITTY) HALL ROAD RIDER April 1975

 On Beach's Alpine Adventure you can ride a BMW through a high pass topped by a brooding granite eagle, picnic in the Alpine meadows, have your tongue wrung by Bitter Campari, enjoy the sensual delights of backcountry Italy and find that verbal mishmash can make sense. If Europe is a land where everything is available, Beach's is a tour which makes it all accessible. It's like hearing, "I'm going to be gone three weeks, kids. Would you mind watching...

Written by Bill Stermer CYCLE Magazine, Nov. 1979

 I don't know how to start.

The whole trip was a kaleidescope of people, events, scenes and things ... until I just became saturated trying to absorb it all. Looking back it's hard to sort it out ... put it into any kind of proper order.

Maybe it's best if I just ramble on and let all the memories and experiences just bubble up and come out any old way.

I remember the first thing that...

Written by Carol Plant Bouson ROAD RIDER Jan. 1979

 As promised last issue, I kept a running diary of our long-awaited 2,000-mile Beach Alpine European Motorcycle Tour in which we participated last year from September 4 through September 22. For the benefit of readers who may be interested in more information relative to riding a motorcycle through some of the most electrifyingly beautiful, historically fascinating scenery in the world, plus of course, total immersion...

Written by Denis Rouse RIDER Jan. 1979

 Combining some of the best riding in the world with some of the
best scenery can be dangerous to one's perspective

Sunday morning was quiet in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, until the bells of a centuries-old church began to summon parishoners. On the previous day, we had arrived in the rain, grateful for the warmth...

Written by Bill Estes RIDER Annual 1982

 THE INTERROGATION

The black police captain's dingy yellow office in Maseru was straight out of an African adventure movie. The plaster was chipped and stained, the creaky wood floor slanted away towards one wall, and a single obnoxious light bulb hung over the ancient desk. The two dirty little windows were secured with thick round iron bars. The beady-eyed fellow who had brought me in for questioning...

Written by David Hough ROAD RIDER Sept. 1985

 Without hesitation, I can say it was the worst weather I'd ever ridden in. It was like being hit in the face with a soggy mop. Sheets of rain driven by gale-force winds had us huddled into the wet-nylon smell of our rainsuits on England's A1 Motorway. Five of us pulled into a petrol station near Doncaster to fill up our BMWs. A guy in a car yelled over, "Having fun, mates?"

"Sure, we're having fun!" Rob Beach shouted back. "We're having a party!" Suddenly, we were arm in arm, hoofing left, right, left like a chorus line of drunken yellow...

Written by Bill Stermer MOTORCYCLIST April 1987

 For some, Motorcycle Heaven might be thundering through the clouds on the endless Alpine back roads of an enchanted faraway place, visiting one charming inn after another, in the company of a variety of other motorcyclists.

For others, it might be gliding down from those clouds over snow capped mountains into the crisp forest air scented of Larch Pine and fern, banking lower to the spring fragrance of mossy green meadows sprayed with a riot of buttercups and wild pansies. Or, it might be inhaling...

Written by James P. Smith, Ph.D. BMWMOA #12333 BMWON March 1989.

 The speedo was nudging 180 and still they flashed past. Up to 190 and the overtaking slowed, but they were still pulling away from us in the outside lane. Determined not to be outdone I pulled into the left lane and latched on to the tail of one of these missiles and poured on some coals. A white BMW 525i and our metallic green K100LT formed a train at a steady 200Kmh, the big LT steady...

Written by Peter Colwell 1991

 Nineteen years ago our good friends, Bill & Lynn Kessler, toured The Alps on a BMW Motorcycle. When they returned they invited us to their home in El Cajon for a slide show and to listen to them rave about their trip. Right then and there, John and I swore that we would do "it" soon! Little did we know that it would so many years later!

Saturday, July 10th

We begin! We arrive in Munich, Germany at 4:45 PM in the rain after a 13 hour flight from Los Angeles on Lufthansa Airlines. The flight was long but Lufthansa was great! They served an...

Written by Ken Shortt 1993

 "Here’s the key to your room, sir," the cheerful woman at the reception desk said." Would you like some nice fresh milk?"

She held out a cold, dripping carton of milk.

Okay. Non-sequitur time. My mind was addled for a moment. Maybe because I'd been on an airplane for 17 hours.

"Uh, thank you," I said, taking the carton. Perhaps it was the custom here to slam down a carton of milk every time you checked into a hotel room. Good health practice. Yet no one else in the lobby seemed to be drinking the stuff.

"It's for your afternoon tea" she said, smiling."There's a tea kettle ...

Written by Peter Egan CYCLE WORLD May 1995

 The words "Think left, look right!," were the first to roll off tour guide Rob Beach's tongue when speaking to the group of eleven of us sitting at the dinner table. After saying it two more times, and telling a short but very mean story (that will stay in my mind for the rest of my life) designed to illustrate his point, I realized that driving/riding on the left side of the road would never be automatic. All your threats come from the right now...

Written by Don Douglass BMWMOA #2519 BMWON Feb. 1995

 At a grand dinner at a round table in Annecy, France, Liz Beach leaned across and said to the group in her husky Bacall voice, "Tomorrow when we stay in Veytaux, Switzerland, you should be aware that your bathroom may be down the hall." Oh. Okay. It had been a great tour so far, the hotels had been fine, so sure, we could put up with one night of inconvenience.

The next evening when we opened our door at the Hotel Bonivard we found a hall. With a bedroom on the left. And a bathroom. And a master bedroom with bath. And at the end of the L-shaped hall was a well-appointed living room with a view of Lake Leman and the Castle of Chillon. Ah, so this was why Liz had had that little sparkle...

Written by Bill Stermer RIDER Feb. 1995.

 John and Martha Ullberg spent from Jan 6 to Jan 27, 1996 riding through New Zealand in the company of 18 other escapees from the "Mid-winter, Three Months 'til the Bike is Out of the Garage, Northern Hemisphere Blues".

This is our story:

To start with let me warn you that I use a lot of superlatives in the description of this trip. Believe every one of them. This trip made my honeymoon seem ho-hum....

Written by John and Martha Ullberg 1996

 I woke up after dreaming about an earthquake. Later that evening I found out that it hadn't been a dream and the earthquake had measured five plus on the Richter Scale. The earth's crust is thin underneath New Zealand and the country gets its share of quakes almost 400 a year. But it wasn't the hope of having the earth shake under my feet that brought me to New Zealand. Rather it was the thought of spending two weeks riding the twist and turns of a country that moves from sheep-grazing pastureland to rain forest...

Written by Chris Creed CANADIAN BIKER Aug. 1996

 "New Zealand is the way life in the United States used to be. Or, perhaps more precisely, the way life was meant to be."

This intriguing statement comes from Beach's Motorcycle Adventures' Maori Meander Tour Book, the bible to their three-week New Zealand motorcycle tour and a critical document in my life at the moment. The reason for this book's importance is that I'm sitting aboard Air New Zealand's Mataatua, a 747-400 that is en route to Auckland and Beach's New Zealand expedition. I'm amazed when I consider that in just under 12 hours this movie theater with wings will transit the 6,500 miles from Los Angeles to the land of the Kiwi, completing my day's climate conversion...

Written by Bill Heald RIDER Aug. 1996

 Why fly all the way to New Zealand to take a motorcycle tour? I guess because it's there down under and somewhat off the beaten track. It also brings to mind a sense of adventure and you hear so many great stories about New Zealand. So, when my friend, John Hermann. (a.k.a. the King of the Alps and author of "Motorcycle Journeys Through the Alps") asked if I was interested in taking the Beach's Maori Meander in February...

Written by Tom Mooney 1996.

 While I sipped champagne in my lofty perch aboard a 747 35,000 feet over the Pacific, a nagging thought kept rolling through my mind: All my life, I had tended to stay to the right, but in a few hours, I would become a Leftist. Rather than contemplating politics, I was thinking about which side of the road I would be riding my motorcycle on. 

The reason for my concern involved my destination, a charming country some folks call the Land Under the Land Down Under. Others just call it New Zealand, and I was intent on using this setting to help cleanse...

Written by Bill Heald ROBB REPORT Oct. 1996

 I didn't realize the article I read in the MOA News would lead to the trip of a lifetime. The article was written by Don Douglas, Editor of the News, about his trip with Beach's Motorcycle Tours to New Zealand. It was a nice article, interesting, and pretty much forgotten at the time. Then I decided to retire from 36 years at Optical Gaging Products. Now, they have a nice habit of sending some of their employees on a vacation trip of their choice. The last couple of choices were a cruise of Alaska's waters and a trip to...

Written by Richard O. Fry 1997

 New Zealand is a very scenic country, with friendly, relaxed people, and a motorcycle tour was a terrific way to experience all of it. We were there from Jan. 30 to Feb. 17, (which is late summer in New Zealand) and spent 12 of those days riding. The tour was organized by Beach's Motorcycle Adventures, an American company that has been in this business for many years, guiding tours of New Zealand and the European Alps.

Our group consisted of 19 people (including two guides) driving 12 motorcycles...

Written by Karen Richardson 1997

 Imagine a country in which the main highways more closely resemble Skyline Blvd. than Interstate 5. Imagine what the secondary roads in such a country must be like. Imagine that they're in a country with a landscape more dramatic than any you've ever seen, an entire country that looks like Yosemite, but with more water, higher cliffs and fewer people. The country is Norway, and it's a street rider's paradise.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Norway in June with Beach's Motorcycle Adventures. The Beach family have been leading motorcyclists to the Alps for over 25 years. They've recently expanded their program to include Norway and New Zealand...

Written by Jackie Jouret CITYBIKE Aug. 1998

 We stepped off the airplane in Christchurch, New Zealand, February 20, 1999, 9,246 miles, 18½ hours flying time, and three airplane changes from Atlanta. We lost a day when we crossed the International Dateline, had gone nearly half way around the world and transitioned from Atlanta winter to New Zealand summer.

In the baggage claim area, we were greeted by a man holding an orange motorcycle helmet over his head. He was our representative and greeter from Beach Motorcycle Tours for the Maori Meander...

Written by Charlie Gay 1999