The 2024 motorcycle world event was held in Poland. It was very well organised by Damian Dargiewicz and the whole KMW Rotor team!
This is how passenger, Marta Wyrozumialska, saw the event.
“About 100 people, from 16 countries, took part in the rally - I was amazed by the age range, attitude, openness and level of commitment to every detail to convey the spirit of time and tribute to history. With great respect, I watched the struggles of individual participants, both with the challenges posed by their machines and the high temperatures. For the first time I had the opportunity to see over 100-year-old vehicles being fired at a crank, with the help of pedals, or running alongside them. The start of the first, "oldest" group aroused both excitement and a great respect for determination.
The rally lasted for 3 days. We conquered routes of successive length: 136km, 164km, 121km, on roads of different rank. Each group was led by two guides - experienced motorcyclists, which gave us a great sense of security and comfort while getting us on the move.
During the rally we visited: The Wolf’s Liar (Hitler’s base and site of the 1944 assassination attempt), the Boyen fortress, the (superb) Bogdan Romanowski Motorcycle Museum, the Shrine in Saint Lipka with an organ concert (the instrument produces 40 heads and uses 4 thousand whistles!) ), a Museum of Military Equipment (with a display of tanks and truck speeding through a cloud of sand!) plus a biker’s (Wiraz) Pub!.
People from the rally staff were always waiting in the parking lots to streamline and optimize its management. The stops were quite long, they provided rest and regeneration, and they also facilitated the organization. After returning to the castle, we had a moment to refresh ourselves and take advantage of the hotel's SPA offer. At 19:30 (each evening), the organizers invited us to a summary of the day and dinner. Then changes were also made - which I observed with pleasure, because the organizers were alert and suggested corrections to their plans, adjusting to the abilities of the participants.
The organizers collected a lot of praises (on the last night), which I am also happy to join - a great effort was put in! The event was very well thought out, detail planned, show routes, attractions very representative of the region and our country (including food and presented music), the organisers were attentive, responsive to needs and made us feel cared for. Thank you very much!”
Extracted and edited from her Facebook article.
The longest distance ridden was awarded to Panagiotis Tsourounaki, who rode from Crete on a 1951 BMW R67, some 2,900km. He dedicated his ride to his friend and long term FIVA Motorcycle Commission member, Takis, who is currently recovering from a stroke.
The FIVA steward was Lazslo Tomcsanyi, who provided exemplary support to the event.
The FIM attendee was Neils Hansen from Denmark, he is a great source of “crazy ideas” and we look forward to working with him on next year’s joint FIM/FIVA event planned for Lillehammer in Norway.
FIVA President Tiddo Bresters attended and amongst other things, at the last evening led everyone in singing happy (50th) birthday to the organising KMW ROTOR club.
Also a special thanks to Zbig (Zbigniew Wolodko), a specialist in French Gnome Rhone outfits from WW2, who provided special support to the FIVA team.
A video and pictures can seen via the links below:
Text by Keith Gibbins
Pictures by Tiddo Bresters