Saturday, April 06, 2013

2013 BMW R1200GS, And That's a Wrap!



I haven't done an episode for Peckhammer TV in more than two years. That last episode, produced in November 2010, was about our first impressions of the new Yamaha Super Tenere. It was a review-style piece I did in collaboration with AltRider, a Seattle based company providing accessories and gear for Adventure Touring motorcycles. And then I got distracted.

I started shooting a short documentary film about Jack White's guitar-maker in January, 2011. I finished the film seven months later, and started screening it at festivals. The film quickly became a festival gem, making its way to thirty-six festivals in seven countries. It collected a few awards along the way, and it kept me incredibly busy. So busy, in fact, that Peckhammer TV was left on the side of the road like an abandoned vehicle.

Well folks, I am not going back to restart that abandoned vehicle. My experience with Peckhammer TV honed my production skills, and I’ve moved on to other projects. So I want to take this moment to extend my gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to the many viewers around the world who have watched Peckhammer TV.

I started producing Peckhammer TV to fill a void resulting from the lack of special interest motorcycle programming on Television. Over its three year history, my Web series grew into a multi-faceted resource for the motorcycling community. Peckhammer TV provided me a rare opportunity to meet many wonderful people involved in the motorcycle industry; Eddie Mulder, Malcolm Smith, Joe Kopp, Jared Meese, Alisa Hensley-Lane, and Brianne Corn, to name but a few. For that I am grateful, and I will never forget the experiences that I had at Pikes Peak, or the Bonneville Salt Flats, or the Digger Helm National.

Peckhammer TV had a great run, and I'd like to leave you with once last episode. See, I got a call from Jeremy Lebreton of AltRider a couple weeks ago. Jeremy wanted to do another collaborative piece about the new water-cooled BMW R1200GS. My initial response was, "I don't do this anymore..." And the next thing I knew I was loading gear into my car. Jeremy can be persuasive, and I was interested in seeing another new bike that is not widely available in the USA.

The BMW R1200GS has set the gold standard in adventure touring, and with a new water-cooled motor, improvements in power, electronics, and ergonomics, the 2013 bike is even more capable than its predecessors. Peckhammer TV and AltRider team up once again to give you our first impressions of the standard bearer in the adventure touring class of motorcycles.

And that's a wrap!