Sunday, July 1, 2012

July 2012 Newletter

Apologies to everyone for not getting a June newsletter published for you. As many of you know, I left on May 20th for a multi-week trip to Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and simply ran out of time to get everything done before the trip. I wish to extend a big "thank you" to Jill and Tony Barcia for hosting the June club meeting in my absence.

July Club Meeting

Yes, it's time to mark your calendar with our next club meeting date. The next club meeting will be on Monday, July 9th, 6:30 p.m., at the Moe's Southwest Grill located at 4401 Oleander Drive in Wilmington.  



This is a great opportunity to talk with your fellow club members, some of whom may be heading to the BMW MOA International Rally in Sedalia, Missouri the following week.

New Garmin GPS

Garmin has introduced a new GPS model for motorcyclists – the Garmin 350LM.  



The unit comes preloaded with the City Navigator NT North America maps, Lifetime maps, and a motorcycle mount.  The Zumo 350LM lacks XM radio and music (MP3) support found on some other Garmin units such as the Zumo 550, 600, and 665 models.

Based on initial user reactions in some of the motorcycling online forums, the suggested retail price of $699 seems a bit excessive when the unit is compared to comparable Garmin automotive GPS units.  However, if you are in the market for a new motorcycle-specific GPS, at least you now have another option.

2013 BMW RA Rally

The BMW Riders Association has announced that the RA National Rally will be returning to the Biltmore Estates in 2013.  The rally is scheduled for June 20-23, 2013, and the admission will include self-guided tours of the Biltmore house and gardens, and the Antler Village including the winery.

This will be a great opportunity for those of us living in the Carolinas, so mark your calendars and start making your travel plans for next year's BMW RA Rally.

Trip Reports

Are you attending any rallies or taking any motorcycle trips this summer?  Did you attend the BMW RA National Rally in Copper Canyon, Colorado?  Are you planning to attend the BMW MOA International Rally in Sedalia, MO?  If so, please think about sharing a brief report or a few photos about your adventures.

As many of you know, I recently finished a three-week trip to Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, and am working on posting a trip report along with some of my better photos from the ride.

Speaking of trips, CCBMW club member Bill Hummel just attended the Vespa Club of America's 2012 National Rally in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  Bill sent some photos from his trip to the Vespa rally, and you can see these in an album on our club's online Picasaweb page.

GPS Tip-of-the-Month

We have another GPS tip-of-the-month.  This one is for those of you who are using a GPS receiver that can display tracks for your planned rides. This idea came from a forum post on ADVRider.com.

Have you thought about the colors you use for displaying the tracks on your GPS screen?  Try using green for displaying the tracks you create where you plan to ride.  Set your GPS receiver to display a red track where you have just ridden (i.e., your current track).  This way, if you stop, the red/green color scheme will help you think about where you just came from and where you are riding to.  You can continue to use the default Magenta color for routes that are being displayed on the GPS screen.

A simple tip!

Video-of-the-Month

And we conclude with the usual video-of-the-month link (YouTube).  For this month, we have a BMW Motorrad video showing the Berlin assembly line for the new BMW C 600 Sport and C 650 GT maxi-scooters.