Friday, February 1, 2013

February 2013 Newsletter

February Club Meeting 

By special arrangement of fellow club members Roy and Carole Dougherty, our next monthly club meeting will be held on Saturday, February 9th, 12 Noon, at the River Landing Country Club in Wallace.

Roy Dougherty has make special arrangements with the River Landing gatehouse -- please tell them you are with the BMW group.

The River Landing Country Club accepts only credit cards -- no cash -- so please come prepared accordingly.

A back road ride from Wilmington to Wallace is being planned, with the details to be announced during the week prior to the club meeting on our Google+ Community page. An email announcement about the ride will be sent to club members.

I hope you will join us for this get-together at the River Landing Country Club.


January "Oyster Roast" Club Meeting 

Join me in thanking club member +JERRY DOCKERY for his hard work in hosting our January club meeting. The oyster roast was a lot of fun for everyone! Also, we could not have asked for better weather. Who would have expected temperatures in the low to mid 60s in January?

Some photos from the event are available in our Google Picasa Web albums. Jerry Docker also has some photos from the event, which Jerry has posted online.


Front Porch Ride-to-Eat 

A few hardy club members joined together on Saturday, January 26th for a ride to the Front Porch Restaurant in Elizabethtown for lunch.  With temperatures around 40 degrees at departure and mid-30s by the time we reached the Front Porch Restaurant, it did make for a very "brisk" ride. The long mileage award went to club member Benton Blalock, who made a 120-mile ride each way, to join us. For those of you who were unable to join the ride, photos of the event are available in this Google Picasa web album.


Welcome a New Member 

Please welcome Ghassan Kharbat as our latest new member to the Coastal Carolina BM Riders Club. Ghassan is the brother of fellow club member Omar Kharbat, and like Omar, he is riding a BMW R1200 GS. Welcome aboard, Ghassan!


IMS Reminder 

Here is another reminder that the International Motorcycle Show is being held February 24-26, 2013, at the Charlotte Convention Center. If you are purchasing your ticket online, be sure to use the promo code BMWRIDERS to receive a discount on the single day price ($10 versus $13).

The Charlotte Convention Center is located at 501 South College Street. The Friday show runs from 4 to 9 p.m., the Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the Sunday show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.


Trip Report - 2012 Tybee Island Rally 

Jill Barcia has written a nice report about their trip to the Tybee Island Rally in December. The Tybee Island Rally is another popular annual BMW event. You can read Jill's trip report, as well as see some great photos, in her post on our Google+ community page.


The History of the BMW Roundel 

The BMW MOA web site has a good article about the history of the BMW Roundel. Contrary to what many believe, the Roundel is not based on spinning propellers.


Cherohala Skyway Closure 

In case you have not heard, in the past week, the North Carolina mountains had a tremendous amount of rain -- some areas reported 10 inches of rain in three days.

It appears the Cherohala Skyway has fallen victim to the elements, with a section of the westbound in Graham County falling into a ravine. An article in the Graham Star newspaper reports that the Skyway will be closed for several months. Let's hope they can have it repaired before the Spring riding season.


BMW RA Rally and UN Rally 2013 

As some of you now know the BMW Riders Association International Rally is being held June 20-23, 2013, and will be held once again at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. For those of you who will not be able to make the cross-country journey to attend this year's BMW MOA International Rally in Bend Rally, this may be your best opportunity to attend a major BMW rally this year. 



Early registration has opened on the BMW RA website (http://www.bmwra.org/rally/terms.html). The advanced registration fee for BMW RA members is $65 ($75 at the gate). The registration fee includes rally admission, 3-nights camping, entertainment, door prize tickets, seminars and a 3-day Biltmore Estate pass for unlimited tours of the house and winery. A BMW RA membership number is required to register for the rally at this rate.

This will be an extremely popular event this year, since it is being held so close to the wonderful riding opportunities of the North Carolina mountains. If you are not planning to camp on the Biltmore Estate, be sure to book local accommodations early.


2013 UN Rally (UN Rally XII) 

During the week following the BMW RA Rally, the 2013 UN Rally is scheduled to be held in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. 



The UN Rally is smaller national event and is arranged by members of the BMWSportTouring.com web forum. Details of this year's UN Rally are available in a UN Rally XII discussion thread on the forum (http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=816751&gonew=1#UNREAD). A registration web page has been opened (http://rallyresources.com/unrally12/).

Make your reservations early. Interest in this year's UN Rally is expected to be extremely high due to its location close to the BMW RA Rally and it's scheduling immediately following the BMW RA Rally.


GPS Tip-of-the-Month 

For this month, I am sharing an article I have written that describes how to use Google Earth to to save location Google Earth place marks, or GPS waypoints or tracks, in a format that can be displayed online in Google Maps. This can be really handy when you are planning a trip and want to share a possible ride route with someone else. Google Earth is also a really neat way to explore areas of the world. I find to be an extremely useful tool for researching places that I am planning to ride -- for instance, for that road that I am planning to ride, is it paved or not.

The article, which is available online as a Google Document, provides step-by-step instructions as well as screenshots. Comments on how to improve the article are always appreciated.


Video-of-the-Month 

The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) is arguably the most prestigious, and most dangerous, motorcycle race in the world. Since 1907, the TT is run each year on an approximately 37.75 mile course of the public streets and roads around the island. The winning average speed is now about 131 miles per hour.

AlJazeeraEnglish has posted an outstanding documentary about the Isle of Man on YouTube.com, and this documentary can be viewed HD-quality stream. If you never had the opportunity to see any television coverage about the TT (there is rarely much coverage devoted to it here in the United States), or if you have never heard about the Isle of Man TT, I hope you to take the time to watch this 40 minute documentary. It will help you understand why some of the world's best riders return, year after year, to challenge the Isle of Man TT course.

The Isle of Man TT is a pilgrimage that every motorcycle racing enthusiast should try to make. Until then, I hope you will enjoy this video.

Google+ Community Page Reminder 

As a reminder, the items in this newsletter are being made available to you, throughout the prior month, on our Google+ Community page. You do not have to be have a Google account to read the items posted to the community page. However, if you want to be able to contribute comments or new posts to the community page, you will need to have a free Google account. Please consider joining our club's Community so you can keep up with the latest news!


That's the news for this month. Until the March newsletter, ride safely and ride far!

No comments:

Post a Comment