A small town with global appeal: Hechlingen am See, with around 600 inhabitants, may be a tiny spot on the map. Nevertheless, the district of the Heidenheim market is known beyond its Middle Franconian borders all over the world. At least among the community of GS riders. Because the Enduro Park Hechlingen promotes great things. Where once stones, sand and gravel were mined, certified instructors have been bringing the enthusiastic “Homo Enduro” the necessary riding skills for off-road riding all over the world for a quarter of a century.
Hechlingen globally.
The Enduro Park in Hechlingen is unique, attracts people from all over the world and has a global impact. It is a role model for more “enduro playgrounds”; after all, the GS fever is going around. Meanwhile, there are nine offshoots in Spain, Russia, Thailand, Poland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Romania and South Africa. All over the world, the mother of all Enduro Parks has her offspring, all of whom are unique in their design and nature.
Going new ways means courage, will and passion.
What started in July 1993 with the first official training in the former quarry can be formulated retrospectively as the beginning of a great success story. Naturally, it took freethinkers who are breaking new ground – driven by courage, will and passion. The Enduro Park Hechlingen was born out of an idea that represents BMW Motorrad, both then and now: Make Life a Ride! Specifically: make motorcycling as an overall experience tangible and above experienceable. “No other motorcycle manufacturer can offer such an experience to its riders,” says Franz Geisenhofer, who worked for BMW Motorrad’s Product Publicity department at the time.
Careful treatment of the environment and nature.
However: the way to the first official training sessions would appear to have insurmountable obstacles. The Federal Association for Bird Conservation and the Federation of Nature Conservation objected to the permit. In reply, BMW Motorrad commissioned an ecological evidence-securing expert report – with the result that the municipality of Hechlingen was then able to issue the permit. There are no problems with environmentalists: several times, an updated ecological preservation of evidence confirmed that the operation of the park has no negative impact on flora and fauna. In fact, the Enduro Park Hechlingen was awarded the environmental prize from the Federal Ministry for the Environment by Angela Merkel in 1999 – because the park is in harmony with nature and is the ecological home of numerous animal and plant species, such as eagle owls. “With precisely prescribed actions, we even get habitats for animals and plants worthy of protection or even create them,” says Hansjürgen Carl, head of the Product Publicity department at the time.
Purist past, representative present.
At the beginning, only a few beer table sets were available to the team on the 26 hectare site. No water. No changing facilities. The old hangar of the quarry was converted into a shelter and workshop for the former fleet. Since then, enduro riders from all over the world have found their personal challenge – from beginners to professionals. In the meantime, a distinguished reception building with a visitor’s terrace has been built, as has the centre’s own motorbike hall with workshop and vehicle fleet. On several occasions, the park has expanded or adapted the circuit with various obstacles, steep slopes, gravel roads, single trails, rooted forest trails and small and large ascents and descents. Today, the BMW Motorrad Enduro Park Hechlingen is one of the leading off-road training centres in Europe with around 250 training courses and 3650 participants per year – that’s more than 40,000 participants since the park’s inception.
ENDURO PARK HECHLINGEN IN FIGURES
• more than 26. ha. of floor space
• approx. 45 km of trails
• more than 40,000 participants (1993 – 2018)
• approx. 250 training sessions per year
• more than 50 employees master training sessions and workshops
• about 420 tyres per year
• more than 400 broken clutch/brake levers per season
Legend
1. Reception hall
2. Workshop & motorcycle hall
3. Visitor terrace
4. Training ground; basic exercises (beginners)
5. Training ground, basic exercises (intermediate group)
6. Training ground, basic exercises (intermediate group)
7. Training ground Basic exercises (advanced)
8. Camel hump, track bar, jump hill
9. Driveways
10. Border trail
11. Ho-Chi-Minh-Trail
12. Fence path
13. Sand (Sahara)
14. Steep curve
15. Canyon
16. Swiss variant
17. Trial area
18. Diamond field
19. Cuddle meadow
20. Franconian view
21. Asekrem
22. Blood groove
23. Golf course
24. Helipad
Coming soon: 25. Former community forest, 26. Sauwald
Original Source[ BMW ]