In early February 2022 I drove to Pennsylvania to sightsee in Philadelphia and attend the BMW motorcycle Airhead Super Tech Day. I had read about this for many years, but always thought it was too far to go to, about 800 miles (1,288 kilometres). But, with Covid, I wanted to go somewhere - anywhere! So, this was going to be the year since they were holding the event again.
The BMW motorcycle Airhead Super Tech Day is held in Boyertown, Pennsylvania which is not that far from Philadelphia. I decided to get there a little early and go to Philadelphia for some sightseeing. For February, I had an incredibly warm, sunny, beautiful day in Philadelphia. Many of the historic places you hear about in Philadelphia are very close to each other, many around the Independence Mall in what they call the Old City. I parked near there and started my adventure.
The most obvious landmark is the world-famous Liberty Bell. I was amazed that it was in a small building that simply had some informational plaques about the bell. As you walk through the building, you read the information, and the next thing you know it is just there. Snap your picture, and Bob's your uncle, check it off your list. Across the street and at the one end of the Independence Mall is Independence Hall, built in 1753 (although at that time it was called the Pennsylvania State House). Next door is the Congress Hall building, which at one time served as the Capital of the United States. Both of these buildings are rather small, I guess politics was a lot simpler back then. I took a nice walking tour of both the Congress Hall and the Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted.
A short walk away is the amazing Philadelphia City Hall. It was built in 1901, but I think it rivals most of the grand city halls in Europe for beauty. A little further away, along the banks of the Schuylkill River, is the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I know, I know, art. But the good news, you don't have to go inside to see why I went there. This building has the famous steps in the original Rocky movie. Surprisingly, there are only 72 steps, so he probably wasn't in that good of shape. Because of this association to Rocky, there is also a statue of Rocky nearby, perfect for a selfie.
The remainder of the long weekend was spent enjoying the BMW Airhead Super Tech Day. There's a limited number of attendees that can join since it's held in the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. The museum itself has a large collection of antique vehicles you can stroll through between seminars during the Tech Day.
One of the items they had on display were cutaways of the various components of the BMW Airhead motorcycles, such as the gearbox, forks, alternator, starter, and lots more. They even had a working cutaway display of an entire BMW Airhead motorcycle. Everything on it actually rotated as if it was running, it even included a little LED light to indicate spark. Could watch that all day...
But the seminars are the highlight of the weekend, although the provided meals are nice too. Lots of camaraderie among all the people that attend. Because of conflicts with overlapping seminars, you can only attend 1 seminar of the 3 presented at the same time. I'd like to see if they could do something about that. Regardless, I got a lot of information out of the seminars. Some of the seminars I attended included push rod seals, electronic ignitions, general Q&A with an expert, and fuel system maintenance. At the end of the Tech Day, they had a raffle of prizes and I walked away with several prizes. Had a great time and will likely go back in the future...
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