Upside-down at 5000 feet above planet earth, I watch the corners of my world bend and distort as they come into focus through the camera's fish-eye lens. With the blood thumping through my brain audible above the roar of the six-cylinder engine, BMW designer David Robb's calm voice comes across the intercom: "Wanna head over the lake?" As I stammer back an affirmative, the horizon rolls lazily through 90 degrees, accompanied by a slight rise of pitch from the engine. As the plane swings the opposite way again, the engine settles back to 2500 rpm as we fly inverted over the shimmering water. Remembering to breathe at last, I snap furiously, the experience so surreal I let out an insane scream as the bright-red Pitts S2B rolls upright and we aim the nose for the airstrip a few miles away. Bringing my heartbeat back to sub-cardiac-arrest zone, I gaze out at the German countryside below and cast my mind back over the last few days. Traveling with Dave's brother, Hoobastank front man Doug Robb, plus drummer Chris Hesse, made for one of the wildest weeks of my life, and I was desperately trying to remember how it all began.
Sipping a Coke while fending questions from Chris and Doug about how close I'd come to tossing my cookies, I remembered. An assignment to test sportbikes and interview Hoobastank's drummer introduced me to a passionate motorcycle enthusiast. Chris and I started a friendship that has involved us in numerous motorcycle adventures, leading to a discussion with Doug about visiting his brother Dave in Germany. A whole lot of E-mails and phone calls later, we found ourselves poring over maps in the beer garden of a small hotel in Munich.
 Brother Dave at the command...  Brother Dave at the command center of his studio. Though he started on the car side, Robb is now the face of BMW motorcycle design, and works in the FIZ Building. |  BMW chief designer David Robb...  BMW chief designer David Robb (left) and Hoobastank frontman Doug Robb (right) are half-brothers. Seated with them at the table is drummer Chris Hesse (center) and BMW PR maven Roy Oliemuller. |  Doug and Chris ride the escalator...  Doug and Chris ride the escalator in the BMW Museum. The recently remodeled facility documents company history on two and four wheels. |
Before hitting the road, Dave suggested we visit him at the BMW design studio, located in a wing of the world-famous FIZ (a German acronym for Center for Research & Development) Building. As a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Having been with BMW since 1984, it wasn't until '93 that Dave moved over to motorcycle design. At that time the two departments were kept very separate, until the intervention of a gentleman named Chris Bangle. Chief of Design at BMW, Bangle wanted someone who was "the real deal." With motorcycles running through Dave's veins, he was the logical choice. The motorcycle division was moved into the main building, and Dave inherited the R1100GS project. At the time BMW was producing 30,000 bikes per year. Compare that to more than 100,000 units in 2007 and a much wider model range, and the success of this marriage is clear.
After scaling 15 mountain...
After scaling 15 mountain passes in one day, the boys were spent.
City riding doesn't usually excite me, but ducking, weaving and diving through the Munich traffic while trying to keep Dave's taillight in sight changes my mind the following morning. Still, German drivers are respectful of motorcycles and we make good progress through the early-morning congestion. Doug and Chris are fired up, and we make a colorful procession as we hit the autobahn for our first experience running triple-digit speeds for an extended period. Heading into Austria, we exit the autobahn onto smaller secondary roads as we climb up into the Alps. The weather is kind as bright sunshine, warm temperatures and enough white clouds to make for pretty pictures stay with us all day. At times traffic holds us back, but mostly we are able to fly.
Much has been written about Dave's designs, innovations and contributions to motorcycling, so it's humbling to be listening to his living history with BMW. And it doesn't take long until his sketchpad is out, and we are inside his head as he talks about his concept for the S1000RR Superbike. "It needed to be very slippery, not like a snowplow shoving this thing in front of you," he tells us, his hands dancing and swirling, the twinkle in his eyes growing brighter. At this point Doug tells us how their father's place used to be filled with Dave's old models. And Dave moves his thoughts into a musical realm, talking about finding the soundtrack and the right beat, where each motorcycle design has a song for which he must find the right lyrics. As Dave talks about the process, his memories of riding a K1200LT prototype with his son Tim and his wife Bibs raving about the heated seats in his 5-series inspiring him to put them on the K-bikes, my connection to his designs becomes infinitely more intimate.
 Doug and Chris keep a sharp...  Doug and Chris keep a sharp eye out for Heidi atop the Dolomites. |  Lunch breaks typically consisted...  Lunch breaks typically consisted of 5000-calorie pasta dishes. You have to try really hard to find bad food in Europe. |  Hairpins? Switchbacks? How...  Hairpins? Switchbacks? How many do you want?! Doug bends it into yet another corner on the R1200R we borrowed from BMW's test fleet at the Almhoff Hotel. |
After lunch with Chris Bangle, we head to the BMW museum, where we spend a couple of hours learning the history of the brand on two and four wheels. Doug gets recognized by a bunch of German school kids and does the autograph thing as Chris and I watch from a safe distance. "They never notice the drummer," Chris says in a thankful tone. The lower level comprises seven independent exhibition houses, each with its own theme. The motorcycle room is small but packed with significant models, and there is also a huge glass wall with more machines on display.
Great stuff, but we've come to Europe to ride. Leaving the museum, we find Dave and our loaner bikes: three K1200GTs and one R1200RT. Dave's eldest son, Dan, is a well-known freestyle rapper and has an event in town, so our evening is planned. As fiercely passionate as Dave is about motorcycles, his intensity rises and his body gets even more animated as he talks about his son's music. Hitting the club, Dan takes the stage and proceeds to rap in German and English as Chris and Doug get to be part of the audience for a change.