How to Find a New Tire

So now it is time for a new tire. My old front tire is bald and I am nervous riding at high speed on a front tire like this knowing the Autobahn will eat the rubber quickly. We are just north of Frankfurt/Oder and surely we can find a tire place. I will just ride in to town and ask, somebody will know a BMW shop or a bike shop that has tires. I ask a taxi driver stopped in queue and he tells me he knows of a Honda shop but his driving instructions are difficult to follow. Nevertheless, I find a certified BMW mechanic who services all kinds of bikes. No, it is not the place the cab driver told me about but who cares. Somebody will fix my bike in Frankfurt/Oder and then we are off to go further south.
Or so I thought. It comes down to having a tire in stock. There are so many different tires for bikes now that nobody stocks any tires. The next available Tourance tire is in Zossen, 45 minutes south of Berlin. The guy at the dealership in Frankfort/Oder is friendly and calls BMW Wernecke in Zossen for us and yes they have tires and can do it if we get there in time. It is Friday afternoon by now, no time to lose. Off we go to find Zossen. The GPS helps a lot and we find it right away. The receptionist finds Martin who speaks English well and within 2 hours I have a new tire, the kickstand is fixed and the oil is changed in the motor, transmission and final drive and Carol’s chain is tightened and she has an oil change as well.
We could go on our way now. But….. why? What’s the hurry? Besides, Carol’s bike needs a gizmo (ABS sensor) that fixes her stopped speedometer and ABS. It could be in tomorrow, Saturday, and they will replace it early Monday morning. Can we wait? There is a hotel right down the road and BMW guests get a special discount rate. We could take the train into Berlin. Why not stay the weekend? The hotel has the room, best in the area, for Euro 75/night with breakfast. We could take the train into Berlin as the train station is only a bit more than a mile away and the hotel owner will drive us there in the morning right after breakfast. She will inquire about the train schedule for Saturday and Sunday. We are so close; we just have to see Berlin and get a feel for the town. Wernecke BMW can hold the bikes, helmets, jackets, and stuff we do not need, in storage over the weekend, all secure and locked up. All seems the most natural thing and all seems to fall into place. Is it any wonder we took the weekend off and visited Berlin via train? With all this stuff taken care of, we took a carefree weekend and just visited Berlin. The front tire is changed, oil is changed, kickstand is working and Monday we are off again to go south.