Thursday, April 14, 2011

April 2011 Newsletter

April Club Meeting

Spring is finally here! Now that we have Daylight Savings Time once again, along with the warming weather, we can return to our normal schedule of meeting on the second Monday evening of each month.  Our next club meeting will be held on Monday, April 11th, 6:30 p.m., at PTs Olde Fashioned Grille, 1035 Grandiflora Drive in Leland.  This PT's is the location at the entrance into Magnolia Greens.


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April Eat-to-Ride

Even though the Monday evening meetings are resuming, I have heard from a few members that they have enjoyed our monthly ride-to-lunch during the Winter and would like to see these continue. Mark your calendars – our next ride-to-eat, weather and my work schedule permitting, will be held on Saturday, April 16th Sunday, April 17th (rescheduled due to the weather forecast for Saturday). We will be heading to the Front Porch Restaurant in Elizabethtown for lunch.


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 If you are planning to join us for lunch, please let me know a few days in advance, so I can ensure the restaurant has enough seating to accommodate us. For the ride to The Front Porch, we will meet at at the Scotchman Shell Station that is located on the corner of Highway 421 and Highway 133 (Isabelle Holmes Bridge), just north of the U.S.S. North Carolina site.  We will depart around 10:30 a.m.

The planned route for the back road ride to The Front Porch Restaurant will be posted soon to the club's Google Earth Network Link file.  Instructions on how to set up the club's Google Earth Network Link can be found here on our Beemer Ramblings blog.

For last minutes changes due to weather, check your email. As long as there is interest, we will try to continue scheduling a ride-to-eat event every month or so.


Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club on Twitter

Twitter seems to offer a good way to disseminate fast-breaking news to our club members, so I have recently opened a Twitter account for our club. If you are a Twitter user (I am only recently a Twitter adopter), you can follow the club's updates via our Twitter user name -- @ccbmwridersclub. Currently, I envision using this as another way to remind everyone about upcoming club meetings; announce last minute changes to club ride plans or postponements of club meetings; and forward very limited time offers from vendors (for example, a one-day sale on Garmin nuMaps subscriptions). I am not planning to bombard everyone with daily tweets. If you decide to follow us on Twitter, let me know if you find this to be a useful method of communication with you. And if you are not a Twitter user, don't worry – I plan to continue using our normal method of notifications using emails and our online club newsletter.


New Event Links

The club's Google Earth Network Link now includes the following new events/locations:
  • 4th Annual Motorcycle Mountain Retreat
  • 10th KY Shinefest Rally
  • Cass Rally
  • Square Route Rally
  • 19th Gathering of the Clans
  • 4th Klassic K Lampout
  • 9th Annual BMW Riders Campout
  • STAR 2011 Ntional Rally
  • 11th and Last R90S Rally
  • 34th Dan'l Boone Rally & Vintage/Classic Ride-in

Instructions on how to load the network link as a permanent feature of your Google Earth program can be found here on our Beemer Ramblings blog.  Enjoy!



5th Annual International Female Ride Day

International Female Ride Day occurs every year on the first Friday of May. This year's event will be May 6th. It is a synchronized day for women motorcyclists, worldwide, to join together on their motorcycles, no matter the type, size or style and ride. For more information about International Female Ride Day, and to see this year's image icon, head to http://www.motoress.com/readarticle.asp?articleid=551&c=femalerideday.


Ride to Work Day 2011

The annual Ride to Work Day event is now being held on the third Monday in June, with the 2011 event being scheduled for June 20th. The purpose of these Ride to Work Day events is to advocate and support the use of motorcycles for transportation, and to provide information about transportation riding to motorcyclists and to the public. If you are interested in knowing more about the Ride to Work Day event, or want to obtain promotional materials for the event, head to http://www.ridetowork.org/.


BMW MOA Mileage Contest

It's April -- and that means the start of the 2011 BMW MOA Mileage Contest.  The 2011 contest starts on April 9th (be sure to bring your contest starting from to the club meeting on April 12th for signing by me (your club officer) or by two fellow BWM MOA members.  You can print the front side and back side of the contest form using these links, or use the form in your issue of the BMW Owners News magazine.  Watch for the 2010 contest result sin the April issue of the BMW Owners News.


 


Mobile Apps Released For AMA Superbike and Flat Track

The AMA Pro Racing organization has released new mobile smartphone Pro Road Racing and Pro Flat Track apps for the Android and iPhone platforms. Two versions of these apps are available for both series -- Lite and Pro.

Lite apps are free and provide basic live timing and scoring data that updates every eight seconds. The apps display the track name, session name, session time remaining, current flag status, current running order, gaps between riders, each rider's best lap time, each rider's last lap time, color highlighting of a rider's best lap time, and more.

The Pro apps cost .99 cents and include all the features of the Lite versions, with the addition of detailed event schedules, session results, series schedules, points standings, and links to recent news. Facebook and Twitter account integration are slated to be added later.

Direct links to AMA Pro Racing's iPhone Apps are as follows:

AMA Pro Road Racing Pro App: 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ama-pro-flat-track-lite/id421407123?mt=8

Direct links to AMA Pro Racing's Droid Apps are as follows:

AMA Pro Road Racing Pro: 


GPS Tip-of-the-Month

Are you looking for a good compilation of mapping and GPS –related resources on the web?  If so, here is one that is worth adding to your favorite web browser's bookmarks.

The folks at AdvRider.com have a permanent web forum post that provides a very good list of web sites and web resources relating to GPS units and mapping.  The list, which can be found at http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13981993&postcount=1, includes resources like:

  • Conversion tools
  • Address-to-coordinate converters
  • Points of Interest converters
  • Tutorials
  • Google Map Mashups
  • and much more.

If you are interesting getting more out of your GPS unit, visiting this link will be worth your time -- I am confident that you will find something new and useful to you!


Britt Motorsports Change

Britt Motorsports has announced they are now an independent pre-owner dealership.  It appears that Britt Motorsports has given up their franchises for Kawasaki and Suzuki.  You can read Scott Britt's personal message about the change on their web site.  I am sure many of you will find this development  disappointing for all motorcycling enthusiasts in our area.  Thank you to club member Jim Villa for passing along this information.


Interesting Product

After his trip to this year's Daytona Bike Week in Daytona, club member Jim Villa sent me information about a very interesting product that he saw.  e-Tint Products is now offering liquid crystal visor insert for motorcyclists.  The e-Tint visor insert provides electronic tinting of your helmet's faceshield.  The visor insert is available both as a manual and an automatic units.  You can obtain more information about the e-Tint visor insert at their web site.  If a club member decides to purchase and try the product, please send us a product review so we can share your experience with your fellow club members.  Thanks, Jim Villa, for send this item to us.


Newsletter Comments

These newsletters are intended to be a two-way communication tool. If you have news or information you would like to share with your fellow club members, you have two different ways to do so -- you can end your information to the editor by email, care of ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com, or you can leave comments using the link found at the bottom of each newsletter posting.  It's simple, easy, and it's fun too!


Ride safe and ride far.  And HaPPy ApRiL FooLs DaY everyone!

Bill Murray
April 1, 2011

3 comments:

  1. I ride my bike to work and I have found a huge increase in enforcement efforts here. My route includes running River Road from Snow's Cut to Front Street. Prior to this past month, the sighting of any police was rare. Now I am regularly seeing state, county and city patrols and quite a few hidden radar units. My suspicion is that this is being fueled by a need to increase revenues. Whatever the reason, I am upgrading my radar detector and riding more in the "shadow" of larger vehicles.

    Jerry Dockery
    Kure Beach

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  2. Hi to all. I'm enjoying my 5-6 week ride out west---currently in Phoenix. I've learned a lot about gear for touring and GPS usage (thanks to Bill Murray for his indispensable help!) The Zumo 665 has been working beautifully in concert with my iPhone and an Autocomm wired communication system. Some folks asked me at the last meeting I attended for lunch to comment on the Motoport kevlar touring suit I had made. I realize with so little experience that I cannot compare with any degree of confidence. I can tell you, though, that I've worn it in temperatures ranging from 34 degrees (with a liner and my Frogg Toggs rain suit over for wind shear (which works well)) to 100 degrees (in TX). At higher temps, it is still comfortable to me as long as I am moving. It is a bit stiff and also a bit heavy, but I like the secure feeling all of that gives me.

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  3. River Rd enforcement probably due more to recent bicycle fatalities by drunk and stoned individuals than revenue driven.

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