I purchased a 2007 Sprinter the week before last. It’s got some sort of sheep’s head on the front and back. I’ll need to get rid of that in preference to the Benz tri-star. I do a lot of motorcycle stuff – vintage racing, dirt bike, rally-moto, adventure touring. I’ve wanted a Sprinter for a really long time as my friendly BMW dealer has several Sprinter vans for bike transport. I was competing in a rally-moto event in South Carolina earlier this year. One of the other racers had his new Sprinter. That thing looked really nice and the perfect setup for this kind of event (travel and race).
Sal’s Sprinter in SC.
I must say, I became a little obsessed with the Sprinter idea. I had been driving a Toyota Tacoma for five years. Sure, it carried a bike in the back; it was reliable; it was comfortable. But it wasn’t a van. I also had an enclosed trailer. Do you want to talk about heavy when I moved it in the yard at home? When towing the trailer, the Tacoma would achieve about 12 miles per gallon.
On my way to Pike’s Peak to race the hill climb in 2010.
Well, I couldn’t get the idea of a Sprinter out of my head. I started scheming of ways to get one. I thought if I could sell the Tacoma, the trailer, and the ’66 BMW motorcycle, I’d be close to the price of a new Sprinter. But wait! What?! Sell the ’66 BMW? No way. When I posted the for sale ad, it made me realize that I would really miss that thing. It was something Jen and I bought together and had restored together. Jen even wrote a children’s book about it. I can’t sell that!
So, I started to look around for a used Sprinter. What eventually popped up was a van at the local Mercedes Benz dealer. I had already contacted the dealer about getting a new one. So I got back in touch with the salesman to find out more on this used one. I took it for a drive and the rest is history.
It’s a lot of fun to drive, actually. I’m enjoying it. The high vantage point is great in traffic. The windscreen is HUGE.
I have installed a wheel chock for transporting a motorcycle. This was the quickest and easiest solution to get something in there. There are other solutions available that I may investigate further.
I went up north in the van last weekend for some hiking. It was super convenient to be able to put on boots, jacket, and backpack while inside the vehicle and out of the weather. It was even better to get inside after hiking.
Many more adventures and bike events to come!