Thursday, November 1, 2012

November 2012 Newsletter

With the pleasant temperatures and beautiful fall colors, October is one of our best months of the year for motorcycle riding in this area.  I hope all of you getting a chance to enjoy some time in the saddle.  There is a lot to cover in this edition of our newsletter, so without further ado:


Winter Meeting Schedule

Starting with November, we are switching to our "Winter meeting schedule."  We make this change so everyone can enjoy riding to our club meetings during daylight hours, and hopefully when the weather is bit warmer.  We will make an exception to the winter schedule for our December club meeting, which you can read about later in this newsletter.


November Club Meeting 

The November club meeting will be held on Saturday, November 10th, 12 Noon, at Ducati's Pizzeria & Trattoria, 960 Cipriana Dr. in Myrtle Beach, SC.  GPS coordinates for Ducati's Pizzeria are N33.76089 W78.81461.



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For a long time, we have wanted to schedule a club meeting near Myrtle Beach, to accomodate our loyal members who frequently make the ride to Wilmington for our meetings.  Club member Marty Schmitz offered us the suggestion for using Ducati's Pizzeria in Myrtle Beach, and it provides a great excuse for our Wilmington members to enjoy a ride this month.

If the weather forecast is not favorable, please monitor your email, in case it becomes necessary to postpone the meeting (hopefully not!).

For those interested in riding together to Myrtle Beach, we will meet at BP/Convenience Store located at the entrance to Magnolia Greens in Leland.  We will depart at 10:30 a.m.




October Meeting

Well, Mother Nature did not cooperate with us for our October club member.  Nevertheless, a few hardy riders braved the rain to join us for dinner at PT's Olde Fashion Grill.  About a dozen of us enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, and catching up on things for more than an hour.  Thanks to all of you who came, despite the weather!


December Club Meeting 

Please mark your calendars now for our annual Christmas meeting get-together, which we will hold once again at The Harp Restaurant in Wilmington.  This is tentatively planned for Monday, December 10th (subject to arranging for our group reservation).


Club Ride Re-Scheduled

Hurricane Sandy caused us to postpone our October 28th club ride for brunch at Southern Exposure Restaurant in Faison, North Carolina.  We will try once again to hold the ride, this time on Sunday, November 4th.

We will leave from the Buy & Go Exxon, 8080 North College Road (located about one-half mile north of the Corning Plant) in Wilmington, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.  (Do not forget to adjust your clocks when we leave Daylight Saving Time this weekend.)  Our plan will be to arrive at Southern Exposure by approximately 11:30 a.m., so we be there before the after-church crowd arrives. Be sure to arrive early and fuel up at the Buy & Go Exxon for the approximately 78 mile ride. If you need to return home quickly after brunch, you can use I-40. Otherwise, you are also invited to join a different, 90-mile back road ride to Wilmington.


Oktoberfest Party 

On October 20th, an Oktoberfest Party was hosted by Becky Hucks, Paul Winter, Jill Barcia, and Tony Barcia at Becky's home. The two dozen club members and some their spouses/guests enjoyed genuine German brats (German Nurnbergs, weiswurt, and beer brats -- all of which were grilled by Tony Barcia and Jerry Dockery), spaetzle, sauerkraut, German potato salad, deserts, and more. If you were unable to join us, you can enjoy some pictures of the event on our Google Picasa web page. Thank you to Becky, Paul, Jill, Tony, and Jerry for everyone's hard work and staging a great Oktoberfest event!




Trip Report - Two Rallies, Two Weeks 

Jill and Tony Barcia recently attended two rallies in two weeks.  First they attended the 3rd annual Ride With the Knobbies Rally in Morganton, North Carolina.  This rally was sponsored by the Knob Mountain NC Motorcycle Club and the City of Morganton.

Their second event was attending the Beemers and Warplanes Rally, which was held at the North Landing Beach Campground in Virginia Beach.  The Beemers and Warplanes Rally was sponsored by the BMW Motorcycle Club of Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Jill Barcia has written a terrific trip report (a Google Document) covering both rallies.  Her trip report also includes some great photos.  Thanks, Jill, for the contribution.


Trip Report - F.A.R.T.

October 4-7, the Fall Appalachian Riding Tour (FART) rally was held in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.  FART is the Fall counterpart to HeleN Back.  Both events are organized by a member of the BMWSportTouring.com web forum.  A trip report is available in a trip report published earlier this month on this blog.  Additional photos, not shown in the trip report, are available through a Picasa web album.





Trip Report - Blue Ridge Parkway Ride

On October 10-12, club members Ed O'Neil, Dick Williams, and I enjoyed a day-long ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Fancy Gap, Virginia to Brevard, North Carolina.  A trip report, and more photos, is available in a trip report published earlier this month on this blog.




New Members

Please join me in welcoming Bob Arvidson, and Omar and Nora Kharbat, as new members to our club.


BMW MOA Mileage Contest 

For those of you who are members of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMW MOA), this is another reminder that the 2012 BMW MOA Mileage Contest ended on Sunday, October 14th.  If you are participating in the mileage contest, your Ending Form must be submitted (postmarked) by November 14, 2012. The Ending Form was included in the October 2012 issue of the BMW Owners News. You can also download a copy of the Ending Form from the BMW MOA web site.

Your form must be signed by two BMW MOA members in good standing, or by your BMW MOA club officer. Be sure to bring your Ending Form to our next club ride event, or to the November 10th club meeting. If you will be unable to attend either of these, contact me at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com to arrange for sending your form to me for signing and mailing.


Old North State Motorcycles 

Backroads Motorcycles in Jacksonville has a new name -- Old North State Motorcycles.  Club member Mark Bisnette is still there, so stop by to say "hello" and see what changes they have planned.


Scala Rider G9 Update 

If you are a Cardo Scala Rider G9 headset user, a new software update is now available to you.  This update includes enhancements such as new voice commands, audio feedback for radio station frequencies, improved cross language voice recognition and a new VOX setting mode.  The full details and release notes on the new software version 1.3 can be viewed here.  Note that this software update does not apply to Scala Rider G4 users.


GPS Corner 

This month's tip may help those of you who have made the switch to using Garmin's BaseCamp software (and perhaps show the rest of you another reason to start making the switch from Mapsource to BaseCamp).

A past criticism of Garmin's mapping software has been the lack of trip planning capability.  By trip planning, I am referring to the ability to set starting times for your daily travel plan, so you can see when you will arrive at locations along your route.  With recent versions of BaseCamp, Garmin is finally addressing this.

If you are using the latest BaseCamp version (Version 4.0.2, as of when this is written), you now have the ability to set a start date and time for the initial location of your route.

Right-click on your route to show the Properties window.  Then select the first point in your route.  Toward the right-hand side of the Properties window, you may notice a small clock symbol.


Clicking that clock symbol will open another window to adjust the departure time for that location.


Click the departure time check box and set your date/time.  It's that simple!  Now the other points you use in your day's route will show you the estimated arrival time for that location.


Wrap-up 

That's it for the November newsletter.  I hope all of you will be able to join for our meeting at Ducati's Pizzeria.  Until next month, ride safely and ride far!


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