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“The first part of my journey from Moscow to Cape Town taught me a lot. The 23,000 kilometers across the dark continent quickly dispelled the illusion that an off-road bike could easily cope with a cross country trip through Africa. It took me a great deal of effort to learn to ride on stones and sand. The journey also proved that all my travel gear was a mistake. Workers from travel equipment stores and Internet users were shown to be equally mistaken. So, while preparing my bike for the return journey, I decided to use the help of South African specialists. As an upside, prices are more agreeable in South Africa, even far more agreeable.
“With the oldest desert in the world to cover (the Namib Desert), the bike was fitted out with various protection gear from sand and stones. They used Continental tires, and although these tires are good for short journeys, they did not last for the second time (the first time I tried them was between Kenya and South Africa). In short, my preparations were more thorough this time around than before my departure from Moscow.
“After the repairs were complete, it was recommended that I make short trips around to test-ride the bike. I decided to use the time to satisfy my curiosity, since any place of interest in South Africa is, in my estimation, within a day’s drive. You can come face to face with a real rhinoceros just 400 kilometers off Cape Town. I even got a chance to meet an Olympic record in short distance running (with photographic equipment on my back, no less) after my iPhone woke up a sleeping tigress that I was trying to take a picture of on a safari.
“Cape Agulhas – the southern tip of Africa – was my next destination. Although many people, myself included, tend to confuse Cape Point and Cape Agulhas, the latter is the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Vladimir Chaikovsky, who is responsible for sales and marketing at BMW Motorrad Russia, has agreed to a question-and-answer session with Motonews.ru to fill us in on the latest developments in the BMW motorcycle business in Russia.
Vladimir, when we spoke in April 2010, you said that BMW planned to sell 600 motorcycles in Russia that year. Did you reach that target? And what are your expectations for this year? How many bikes did you sell, and how many are you planning to sell in 2011?
Artyom, it is a real pleasure for me to answer this question. We fulfilled our plans last year, and this year, it seems that the overall number of buyers of BMW motorcycles is much bigger than we imagined. Truth be told, we're already looking at a four-digit number. A few hundred motorcycles a year, after all, is an overly modest figure for a country as big as Russia.
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