March 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the March 2011 edition of Beemer Ramblings.

March 2011 Club Meeting

Our next club meeting is another lunch gathering and is scheduled for Saturday, March 12th (weather permitting), at the Dale's Seafood in Tabor City, NC. This Google Maps link will show you the location, if you are not familiar with Dale's Seafood (GPS Coordinates: N34.75692 W77.94810]. We will meet there at approximately 12 Noon.

If you are planning to attend, please send me an RSVP, via email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com, so I can call ahead and "warn" the restaurant. I would appreciate receiving every one's RSVP by Thursday, March 10th.

Per our normal pracice for winter meetings, if the weather forecast for the meeting date looks questionable, watch your email for a last-minute postponement notification. You are also welcome to contact me to confirm whether the meeting is going forward as planned, or is being postponed.

If you missed our February meeting at The Mad Boar, we enjoyed some great weather and an excellent turn-out. A few pictures from our meeting are available on our club's Google Picasa web album.

Although my annual plant outage period will have started at work by the time we hold our club meeting, I am still planning for a back road ride to and from Dale's Seafood. If you are interested in joining me, send me an email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com and I will ensure you are kept up-to-date on the plans.  The departure location will be the Maco Depot Mart (Mobil Station) located at the intersection of Highways 87 and 74/76.  We will be leaving the Maco Mobil Mart around 10 A.M.   If you use the Google Earth network link discussed in the "2011 Rallies and Events" article below, you will see several options for ride routes that I have planned from the Maco Mobil to Dale's Seafood, and from Dale's back to Wilmington.

If you are already planning ahead for our April meeting, it is posted on the CCBMW Riders Club calendar on our web site.

K1600GT/GTL Pricing Announcement

BMW Motorrad USA has announced pricing for the 2012 model year K1600GT and K1600GTL tourers. The K1600GT will have a base Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $20,900, while the K1600GTL will have a base MSRP of $23,200.  There is an additional destination charge of $495. Both new models will be available this Spring.

Both Base models come equipped with:

• Xenon headlight with dynamic leveling
• Heated seat
• Heated grips
• Cruise control
• Multifunction display, on-board computer and multi-controller
• Integral ABS
• Luggage rack
• E-Gas throttle with three power modes
• White LED turn signals
• Power adjustable windshield

The Base Model K 1600 GTL also includes:

• Bluetooth
• Audio system with tuner, Sirius satellite radio with one-year complimentary subscription, iPod/USB integration, 3.5mm Aux input, GPS preparation
• Top case in body color
• Comfort backrest for top case
• Third stop light for top case
• Comfort windshield
• Comfort footrests
• Chrome body kit

SpeedTV Television Coverage for Daytona Bike Week

Daytona Bike Week is here and SpeedTV is going to be providing great coverage for those of us who cannot make the trip there. Here are the broadcast dates and times for some of the events being covered by SpeedTV:

AMA Supercross (March 5, 8 p.m. ET, LIVE)
The Daytona 200 (March 12, 1 p.m. ET, LIVE)
AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike (March 12, 11 p.m. ET, SDD)
AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship (March 13, 3 p.m. ET)

SPEED2, the network’s broadband channel, will be offering live coverage of AMA Supersport from Daytona on March 11 at 2:15 p.m. ET and March 12 at 10 a.m. ET.

SpeedTV World Superbike Television Coverage

In addition to the Daytona Bike Week Coverage, the SpeedTV channel will begin their broadcast coverage of the 2011 World Superbike season.  The first event of the season in this weekend, with the Phillip Island, Australia.  Here are the broadcast dates and times:

Phillip Island Race 1 (February 27, 5 p.m. ET)
Phillip Island Race 2 (February 27, 6 p.m. ET)

Phillip Island Race 1 (February 28, 3 a.m. ET)

Phillip Island Race 2 (February 28, 4 a.m. ET)

Phillip Island Race 1 (March 1, 3 a.m. ET)

Phillip Island Race 2 (March 1, 4 a.m. ET)

Phillip Island Supersport Race (March 1, 2:30 p.m. ET)

Phillip Island Supersport Race (March 3, 4 a.m. ET)

You can get up to speed on 2011 WSBK (I could not resist the pun) at the SpeedTV's World Superbike web page.  Troy Corser will be back as a member of the BMW Motorrad Motorsports factory team, and he will be joined this year my a new team member, Leon Haslam.  The full 2011 WSBK season schedule is  available on the SpeedTV web site.

Garmin nüMaps Update

Garmin has issued a new quarterly update to their map sets (the latest is version 2011.40). If you are a nüMaps Lifetime subscriber, you can download them from Garmin.com. Visit the Garmin Map Updates web page for more information on the nüMaps product.

2011 Rallies and Events

If you are interested in knowing when and where some of this year's motorcycling events, rallies, and races are being held, and are a Google Earth user, then I have developed a great tool for you.  This link is a file that you can add to your current list of places in Google Earth.  The file contains a link to a file on our web site that I will be periodically revising with more up-to-date information.  Currently, I have the IMS events (most of which have unfortunately now been held), a few racing events (more will be coming), and many of the east coast BMW-related rallies (and a few more around other areas of the country).  It takes  some time to maintain this information, so I welcome your feedback on the usefulness of this tool.

Wrap-Up

Thanks for staying in touch.  I will see on the roadways.  Until then, ride safe and ride far!