July 2013 Newsletter

Welcome to the July 2013 edition of Beemer Ramblings. As a remainder, we are posting much of this information on our Google+ Community page throughout the prior month and you do not have to be a Google+ member to read it. You only have to join if you wish to post new information or comment on the existing posts.

Club Meeting 

Our next club meeting will be held on Monday, July 8th, 6:30 p.m., at Jackson's Big Oak BBQ, 920 South Kerr Avenue, in Wilmington [GPS coordinates N34.218092 W77.887211]. It has been more than a year since we last visited Jackson's.

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Come early to share stories about your recent trips, or to relax in the shade of the big oak tree in the Jackson's parking lot. We'll see you there!

June Club Meeting 

We held our June 10th Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club meeting at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Unfortunately, the stormy weather eventually chased everyone home, but not before we were able to enjoy some time together for dinner. You can view a few photos from our get-together here. Thanks to everyone who braved the somewhat uncertain weather.

New Club Members 

We have some folks who have recently joined our club, so I want to take a moment to introduce and welcome Ron Perez and Dan Leonard, both who joined our club in April, and Michael VanVeKoven (Mike Van), who just joined the club. Ron lives in New Bern and rides an R1200RT. Ron was able to join us for our ride to Wilber's BBQ in May. Dan rides a 2009 BMW R1200GS. Mike is working on restoring a 1968 BMW R60/2. Welcome, all of you, to the club!

BMW Riders Association National Rally at the Biltmore 

Club member Jill Barcia has published a great report of their trip to the BMW Riders Association National Rally, which was held at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville on July 20-23, 2013. Jill's trip report includes some great photos from the visit. You can read all about the event on Jill's blog. I know that a number of our club members were able to attend and enjoy the RA Rally, including Tony and Jill Barcia, Omar and Nora Kharbat, Dick and Maria Williams, Jerry and Barb Dockery, and Paul Winter and Becky Hucks.

Also, club member Omar Kharbat has provided this collection of photos from the Biltmore rally, as well as this video of the "best" adventure ride from the RA Rally. 

Thanks for the contributions, Jill and Omar.

Un Rally XII 

Jill Barcia has also published another great trip report for Un Rally XII, which was held June 24-28, 2013, in Blowing Rock, NC. The Un Rally is an annual event that is organized by members of the BMW SportTouring.com web forum. The event alternates each year between and "east" and "west" location. This year, club members attending included Tony and Jill Barcia, and Paul Winter and Becky Hucks. You can read Jill's trip report here and see a few of my photos from the event here.

2013 Iron Butt Rally 

The 2013 Iron Butt Rally began July 1st. If you are not familiar with the Iron Butt Rally, it is an event in which the best long-distance endurance riders compete for eleven days, with the winner typically riding more than 11,000 miles during that period.

If you are interested in keeping up with the daily action, be sure to visit the rally web page at http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2013.cfm. Bob Higdon has returned to provide daily reports about the event. Even if you do not aspire to this type of riding, these events are interesting to follow and I encourage you to do so.

Cape Fear 1000 Rally 

Club member Jim Bain has announced the 100 Days of Summer Grand Tour.

What it is:
The 100 Days of Summer Grand Tour is an opportunity to win a guaranteed, paid entry into the 2014 Cape Fear 1000 Rally by submitting photos of libraries and bookstores you may come across during your travels this summer.

What does it cost and who benefits:
There is not a traditional entry fee for this event. However, before your registration will be complete, you will need to show us you have made a donation of at least $5.00 to the Marion County Animal Shelter – Paws to the Rescue. All donations go directly to the Shelter so there will not be a bunch of stuff to go along with this tour.

What do I do?
Begin the registration process with the Ride Master program (https://rides.jasonjonas.com/index.php) select the Cape Fear 1000 Rally – 100 Days of Summer Grand Tour and complete the registration questionnaire. Ride Master will send us a copy of the registration request and confirmation you receive.
Next, make a donation of at least $5.00 to the Marion County Animal Shelter – Paws to the Rescue, 123 Dog & Cat Court, Mullins, SC 29574 and send us confirmation of your donation (a copy of your confirmation email, a copy of the check you sent, etc. – we will be pretty lenient on how you confirm the donation) to rallymaster@capefear1000.com – if you need a snail mail address, send us an email and we will provide one for you.

We will then assign you a rider #, you will create your own Rally Flag (be creative – style points will count) and then you can begin taking and submitting photos of the libraries and bookstores you come across during your travels this summer.

Submitting Photos:
You may submit photos by either “tagging” the Cape Fear Rally Facebook page when you post a photo, or, you may email the photos to Rallymaster@capefear1000.com and we (read, Ronda) will post them for you.

Special Award:
Even if you don’t have the most photos of libraries and bookstores, you may still be in the running to receive a guaranteed entry to the 2014 CF1K – there will be a “Style” award for the person with the most creative flag, photos, locations, number of family members you can con into posing for one or more of the photos, etc. – let your imagination run wild! Ronda says dressing up is good!

Neale Bayly Rides TV Show 

During the month of June, an interesting new adventure-riding TV show called Neale Bayly Rides was shown on the SpeedTV cable channel. The show featured motorcycle journalist and traveler Neale Bayly (who lives in Charlotte) traveling across Peru with several other "average" riders (two men and one woman). Their ride was done using BMW F800GS bikes (and BMW appears to have been a major sponsor of the show since it featured several BMW motorcycling ads during each episode).

If you missed seeing this adventure motorcycling travel stories, hopefully it will be rebroadcast again sometime on SpeedTV.  More information of the shows can be found at http://nealebaylyrides.com. We will let you know if some rebroadcasts are announced.

New Water Repellent Product 

Back in May, club member +Omar Kharbat shared a video about an amazing product called Ultra-Ever Dry. This was a coating, applied in two parts, that is superhydrophobic (repels water).

Well there is now another similar product being sold by Rustoleum called NeverWet. It is also a two part application, applied using two separate spray cans. This video provides some demonstrations. NeverWet is currently available for purchase through the Home Depot web site.

Let us know if you decide to try NeverWet on your motorcycle gear or camping equipment.

Motorcycle Trailer for Sale 

Club member Tony Barcia is helping a friend sell a practically new motorcycle trailer in a bag. It has been used only six times to trailer a Harley Road King. See attached link for details. http://trailerinabag.com/index.htmlils The asking price is $500. Call Tom at 516-606-3460.

BMW Apparel Sale 

I have just received a promotional email from BMW announcing 15% off the price on new BMW summer riding gear. This promotion runs through August 31. If you are in need of some new summer riding gear, be sure to check out the promotion through a BMW Motorrad apparel dealer.

Custom Motorcycle Painting 

A few weeks ago, I received an email announcing the grand opening of Noble Custom Coatings and the reappearance of motorcycle painter Shane Noble. Shane said that he looks forward to serving the needs of our Cape Fear BMW riders. He invites you to stop in and check out his brand new shop and spray booth at 2925 Boundary Street in the North Kerr Industrial Park. You can find more information about Noble Custom Coatings through their web site at www.noblecustomcoatings.com.

New Garmin BaseCamp Version 

Okay, GPS geeks. A new version of Garmin's BaseCamp mapping software (version 4.2.1) is now available for download. Garmin's posted list of changes includes many interesting changes. The most interesting of these changes include:

• Added a Trip Planner as an easy way to plan multi-day trips, including round trip support
• Printing a trip itinerary
• Flying support (airport and flight number look-up)
• Supports traveling between different time zones
• Can add Adventures that you'd like to take as part of your trip
• Adding support for different route profiles for different legs of a route
• Adding RV and Truck routing profiles with special route options
• Added support for Yelp search
• Added quick search (hover over the map to invoke it)
• Added support for changing the location of BaseCamp's database

You can download the installer from http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4435 or update from within BaseCamp.

Video-of-the-Month 

This month's video is a double-header Part 2 and Part 3 installments of the YouTube ride documentary from the Nutnfancy Project. This father-and-son team have posted a couple of interesting motorcycle ride videos. These videos continue the story from last month's video with the second and third day of their ride from San Francisco to Monterrey and Yosemite on a pair of Ducatis. These videos are well done motorcycle travel videos.

Part 2


Part 3



That's the news for this month's "short" newsletter. Remember, we are posting much of this information on our Google+ Community page throughout each month and that is the best way to keep up-to-date. Until next month, ride safely and ride far!

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.

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.

2012 Blue Ridge Parkway Ride

On October 10-12, 2012, I enjoyed another trip to the North Carolina mountains with my regular riding buddies, and fellow club members, Ed O'Neil and Dick Williams, to enjoy the Fall colors.  This trip came on the heels of a four-day trip to attend the Fall Appalachian Riding Tour (FART) Rally in Maggie Valley on October 4-7, 2012.

Prior to the trip, at our October club meeting, Bob Thomson mentioned that he had a back road route for riding from Wilmington to the Meadows of Dan area in Virginia, which was close to our destination for the first day of the trip.  Bob shared a GPS file with me, and it turned to be a great route for the ride.  We used U.S. 421, along with some back roads, to ride to Greensboro.  There, we stopped at Carolina BMW to say hello to the owner, Jason Emmert.

Afterwards, we headed northwestward on Highways 68, 65, 89, and 8, stopping along the way at Hanging Rock State Park to collect a photo for the club's NC State Park Challenge Ride.

As we closed in on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we passed a field that full of ripe pumpkins.  We had to stop for a couple of photos.

Our final destination for the day was Grassy Creek Cabooses.  Grassy Creek Cabooses is located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway about five miles north of Fancy Gap, Virginia.  The owner has set up three railroad cabooses as cabins.  

The accommodations were cute and comfortable.  

We made a quick trip down the Parkway to eat dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant at Fancy Gap, and then headed back to the cabooses for the night.

The second day started out as brisk 34 degree morning.  We stopped for breakfast at the Lakeview Restaurant at Fancy Gap, before continuing our ride along the Parkway.

The Fall colors were amazing, especially in the area around Boone and the Lynn Cove viaduct.

We stopped for lunch at the Little Switzerland Café .

Afterwards, we took a quick detour to ride "The Diamondback," a triangle formed by Highways 226A, 226, and the Parkway.  Highway 226A, in particular, is an especially twisty series of switchbacks.  It's a road worthy of a side trip, if you are in the area.

Of course, there were more stops along the parkway, to enjoy the Fall scenery.

We continued our ride along the Parkway, stopping at BMW Asheville late in the afternoon.  This dealership opened about one and half years ago, and the showroom looks outstanding.

Afterwards, we returned to the Parkway, riding down to Highway 276 and our staying the second evening in Brevard, NC.

On the morning of the third and final day of our trip, we rode Highway 276 through Caesars Head State Park in South Carolina, on our way to visit Touring Sport BMW in Greenville, SC.  The section of Highway 276 through Caesars Head State Park is another fine series of twisting switchbacks that is worth a visit (the park is beautiful too).

Touring Sport BMW is another motorcycling enthusiast's destination that is worth stopping for a visit.

After visiting Touring Sport BMW, we made our way back to Wilmington, mainly using Highway 9 across South Carolina.  It was a great 950 mile trip with Ed O'Neil and Dick Williams.

Additional pictures from our trip, and maps showing our ride route, can be viewed in my Picasa web album.

Trip Report: FART 2012

FART 2012 (the Fall Appalachian Riding Tour) was held on October 4-7, 2012, in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.  FART 2012 (the first FART) is the Fall counterpart to the Spring HeleN Back event, both organized by Ken Insley, a member of the BMWSportTouring.com web discussion board.

I shared the ride to and from FART with fellow club members Paul Winter and Becky Hucks.  After meeting Paul and Becky at the Highway 211/74 overpass, we rode Highway 74 to Polkton and used Highway 218 to bypass the usual traffic slow-down in Monroe.  Then we used I-285 around Charlotte, I-85 and US 64 westward, and then I-26 north to Asheville.  At Hendersonville, we headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway via Highway 276 and enjoyed riding the parkway to Maggie Valley.

The Fall 2012 FART was held at the Jonathan Creek Inn.  When we arrived, we were greeted with a festive, fall display.

Based on my casual count of bikes in the parking lot, I would estimate that FART was attended by sixty riders (more or less,).  A few FART attendees stayed in other nearby hotels and/or campgrounds.

During FART, I was able to share some riding time with riding companions from Florida whom I had met at past Blue Ridge Rendezvous and and El Paseo events (the predecessors to FART and HeleN Back).  This riding group included some of my riding companions from my summer ride in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.

The riding during FART was spectacular, especially the leaves, which were beginning to change color.  

The weather was wonderful and afforded us two days of "vigorous" riding.

The first day's ride included a stop at the General Store at Deal's Gap.

The second day's ride included a stop in Hot Springs, where we saw a group of adventure riders preparing to head out into the wilderness.

The weekend's weather was great, the Fall colors were beautiful, and the views along the Blue Ridge Parkway were spectacular.

Early Sunday morning, we had T-storms pass through Maggie Valley.  Fortunately, by the time Paul, Beck, and I departed, the rain had stopped and all we had to contend with was road spray.  We were fortunate enough to arrive home about an hour before T-storms developed in Wilmington.

FART, and it's Spring counterpart, HeleN Back, are great events and encourage you to try to attend one of these at some point.  Watch the BMWSportTouring.com web forum for announcements of these future events.

You can enjoy more of my photos from FART via two Google Picasa albums (my group riding album and some general FART event photos).

East Coast Timing Association Event in Maxton

October 29, 2011
By Dick Williams

I made it to Maxton this past Saturday on what turned out to be a cold, blustery day, where the wind chill factor keep the temperature “feel” in the 40’s for most of the day (despite the cloud cover lifting in the afternoon). My conclusion, after spending about four hours (divided between the start line, the finishing line and circulating among the waiting racers) is that, although watching was fun, participating would have been much more fun.

Since the only racing that I have personally witnessed has been at large, professionally run facilities, I was not prepared for the quaint, almost folksy feel to the event. Access off a secondary highway (about like NC 133) was via a dirt/gravel road that connected to some partially paved areas that looked like the streets of an abandoned housing subdivision. Scattered here and there were people with trailers, campers and RV’s. A badly decomposed secondary runway ran in parallel to the “track”, a longer runway of about 2 miles in length no longer used to support airplanes. Along the secondary runway were arrayed the dizzying variety of vehicles and their drivers, all lined up and creeping towards the start line. This line up of vehicles was at least ¼ mile in length, representing an average wait time of 1 hour or so.

To keep things in perspective, the East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) does in fact have rigid safety rules that are strictly enforced (I found this out the hard way when I got too close to the starting area on my K12GT). Starts were done professionally, and only one vehicle was allowed on the runway at a time (they were properly spaced). All of this spit and polish when it came to safety just seemed a little odd when juxtaposed against the semi-abandoned airfield with muddy, decaying roads and unpicked cotton fields on all sides. It was a far cry from the pristine conditions at VIR or Daytona. So, too , were the riders and drivers who wore all manner of racing “get ups” (evidently all ECTA sanctioned). Although leathers were required for the bike riders, which gave them somewhat of a uniform appearance), the auto vehicle drivers at one extreme looked ready to step into a NASCAR (full flame retardant suit, head sock, helmet, driving boots, etc.) while those with much slower production vehicles were wearing almost ordinary clothing (with a helmet being their only really distinguishing characteristic).

The key to land speed racing is that all vehicles, in a sense, can qualify to do it. The question is simply how fast can you make the vehicle (with a given engine displacement, state of tune, etc.) go from a standing stop to the one mile mark. I did not study the rule book carefully, but there are literally dozens and dozens of racing classifications for all manner of vehicles. By way of illustration, I saw everything from showroom stock vehicles of all vintages to airplane-like vehicles with aft-mounted parachutes that are always pictured on the Bonneville Salt Flats (200 + MPH).

During my time at the track, the fastest motorcycles (most stock, or slightly modified, versions of the Suzuki Hayabusa) averaged in the 180’s. However, the fastest vehicle that I saw run that day was a specially modified race bike that cleared the traps at 226 MPH. Watching these machines pass by at those speeds had an air of unreality to it, as if one were watching special effects in a movie (most commercial jets are not traveling that fast, either on takeoff or landing).

One special treat of the day for me was watching a number of members of a vintage motorcycle club racing their 100cc to 200cc machines. While a few of these were roughhewn vintage race bikes, some (like a his-and-her pair of BMW R27’s) were beautifully restored with flawless paint and detailing. At one point, I stood at the starting line and watched with a certain amount of bemusement a vintage race bike rider (who must have been at least 70 years old) crouch expectedly at the starting line on a tiny 175cc race prepared Honda, blipping his throttle in anticipation of the start. I remember thinking that he could not possibly go more than 70 MPH on a single cylinder machine like that. To my absolute amazement, his terminal speed was announced as 104 MPH!

It was indeed an historic occasion, given that Maxton field is being turned into a special area for training antiterrorist units of the military, and ECTA racing there will evidently be ended forever. The transformation had already begun to take place with dirt roads named (“Baghdad Avenue”), artificially created earth embankments, and what appeared to be fortifications of some kind. In the future, all ECTA events are being moved to Wilmington, Ohio. I cannot believe what I missed out on for the last 10 years, or that I will have to journey 600 miles to see the next one of these.

Beemers and Biplanes Rally

October 7-9, 2011
by Jill and Tony Barcia

The Beemers and Biplanes is held in Virginia Beach and sponsored by BMW of Hampton Roads. It is about 300 miles to Virginia Beach and we were able to do a loop there and back which included visiting two Historic Sites on the Coastal Carolina BMW challenge. They were Historic Edenton and Historic Bath. Also very close to the route would be Roanoke Island Festival Park and Tryon Palace. We took Route 40 up to the Mad Boar and headed toward Kinston, Greensville, Elizabeth City and the horseshoe route to Virginia (avoiding the Currituck ferry). The way back was basically Route 17.

The rally included two dinners, coffee all weekend and camping for 3 nights. Both dinners were filling and delicious, the one on Saturday night was catered with crab cakes, chicken, shrimp, baked potatoes and lots more. The poker run on Saturday was to benefit Wounded Warriors and included admission to the air show at the Virginia Beach Aviation Museum.

The campground is located right across the North Carolina Border near Currituck. In addition to the tent camping there are economy cabins, luxury cabins and RV sites. Both cabins had air conditioning and the luxury had bathrooms. On the grounds are hot and cold showers and indoor bathrooms as well as a camp store with ice, drinks and food. The 110 attendees had no problem finding tent spaces within walking distance of the beautiful beach where there were spectacular sunsets. The permanent structure pavilion was ideal for watching the Friday night movie (Fly Boys) before going to the Air Museum the following day. It also was the central location for registration, dinners and closing ceremonies. Breakfast was provided by a church group on Saturday morning next to the pavilion and coffee and donuts for Sunday morning.

The two hour poker run crisscrossed the North Carolina/Virginia border and took us through many of the low lying coastal roads, many quaint villages and seaside estates. The ride ended at the Aviation Museum where a WWI airshow was happening. This airshow included reenactments with soldiers from Germany, Italy and America camping in tents. During the show they rode out on a 1918 Harley Davidson with a side car, set up anti-aircraft weapons and proceeded to shoot down the biplanes and triplanes flying over the field.

The museum is privately owned by one man and contains 40 to 50 restored aircraft all in flying condition. This included WWII planes which are flown at other events. Aside from the show there is a large museum with several unique historical pieces from the wars (motorcycle in a can). There was also a fully restored WWII military BMW motorcycle with sidecar and utility trailer. Upstairs there is a history of the lives of these aviators. The museum is open daily with airshows scheduled on various weekends.

Return to Shiloh BMW Rally

September 30 through October 2
by Jill and Tony Barcia

Return to Shiloh in western Tennessee is hosted by BMW RAMS based in Memphis (Rider Association of the Mid South) is held by the Tennessee River at Pickwick Dam in the TVA campground.

We trailered our R75/5 "toaster" along with our dog stopping in Murfreesboro, TN on Thursday night and arrived at the campground on Friday morning. For those who don't want to camp there are motel rooms in Savannah, TN about 12 miles away and in a Comfort Inn 5 miles away in Mississippi.

On Friday afternoon we rode the motorcycle to Shiloh National Military Park about 15 miles from the campground. Expect to spend 3 to 4 hours driving the 12 mile tour through the battlefield where 23,000 civil war soldiers died during the two day battle at Shiloh. Along the tour route are many monuments erected by the states and 20 strategic tour stops and a 35 minute movie at the visitor center.

There are many local restaurants (good food, inexpensive) in Counce a small town five miles from camp, a restaurant at Pickwick State Park and a hotel/restaurant "Botel" right on the river within walking distance of your tent. The Botel had draft beers for $2 all weekend for rally attendees. Both mornings there was a $5 pancake breakfast provided by the boy scouts.

Saturday there was a motorcycle show. The Vintage, over 40 years category winner was a 1941 R12 which had been ridden 200 miles to the rally and beat out several R26 and R27's (one in immaculate condition). The Vintage 20 to 40 year winner was a 1983 R100RT, beating out the three Toasters (one of which was ours). Other categories were classic, modern, side car, rat and "other" brands.

Saturday evening was the award ceremony, prizes, a live band and included in the registration fee, a delicious BBQ dinner. Thoughtful extras such as hot, fresh coffee all day (wonderful on crisp cool mornings and afternoons) and a long power strip for electronic devices.

It was a great rally, well organized (265 attendees) and everyone got a plastic mug and rally pin.

Greenville, SC International Motorcycle Show

The International Motorcycle Show (IMS) is coming to the Carolina First Center in Greenville, South Carolina next weekend (February 25-27, 2011).  Several club members have been asking about who from the club is planning to attend.  To assist, I have set up this post to list any club members who have plans to attend.  Her is who is currently planning to attend:

• Jim Bain (Attending on Saturday only)
• Tony and Jill Barcia (Attending on Saturday and heading home on Sunday)
• Jerry Dockery (Spending Friday night in Columbia, SC and heading to the show early Saturday. Staying at the Days Inn Greenville,60 Roper Mountain Road, I-385 Exit 37, Greenville, SC.  Cell: 910-262-2843.)
• Jeff Mense (Jeff and a couple others may head up to Clinton, SC Friday evening, then into the show Saturday morning and back to the beach by Saturday evening.)
• Bill Pennington and wife (driving to Greenville Saturday and staying until Sunday)
• Lee Shreve (Attending with a group from VA and NC)

If you need a little encouragement, check out these Picasa web album photos from this year's New York City IMS.