To summarise, I've long thought it worth linking this bunch of mates with others, at least in Europe, to promote the TDM, help each other out, advise on tours and have a bit more fun with other cultures. I know some individuals (dandywarhol, dapleb and others) have European contacts, but I've been thinking about the masses, and particularly newcomers who might not yet have appreciated the opportunities out there and support for touring etc. So to the limits of my schoolroom language memory I contacted the German and French groups (albeit that JBX and others are joint members of the latter) as a friendly Carpe rep. to see if there was any interest in linking. Hanno and his mates from Germany have been the first to respond, and out of that came a trip to their "Megatreff" (RTT equivalent) last year and a minor repeat (go Sagalout!) this year. Others have had a good time in the Dordogne, though sadly we told the French forum of the visit too late to allow any of them to arrange to drop in.
The French group is another good and friendly one, though, and they were disappointed to miss out, so they sent me a suggestion re. a September meeting which unfortunately threatened to clash with the Scottish G2G. Nothing daunted, though, one or two of them were very interested in joining that, but have called off for cost and other reasons. But they were seriously considering a 2500 km round trip for a weekend with you guys!
Along the way, it turned out that the French group had already tried and failed to hook up with the German one, so our initiatives sparked interest in a collective get-together (NB this has left out, for the minute, groups in Italy, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands....)
So we get to the point that the French and Germans are keen to drive for an international meeting in Europe - either next year or (better suggestion?) 2011 - the 20th anniversary of the TDM. It would take some organising and most of all willingness from all parties, which we could start to review and forum reps could meet next year to firm things up. Is anybody up for it? Wouldn't it be great?
There's been talk of tappng Yamaha for sponsorship, and maybe we could help as there seems to be a problem in France - dapleb and others have long-established relationships with Yamaha UK?
Anyhoo, enough from me - back to you guys for comment before anybody takes this any further. And btw, I do realise that I'm not Carpe PR, lest anybody be concerned that I'm muscling in. On the face of it I'll not be around anyway, as my riding days are on the way out but I'd like to see Carpe take part.
Edited by Pict, 07 February 2010 - 12:51 pm.