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.

February 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to the February 2011 edition of Beemer Ramblings.


February 2011 Club Meeting

Our next club meeting is another lunch gathering and is scheduled for Saturday, February 12th (weather permitting), at the Mad Boar Restaurant in Wallace, NC.  This Google Maps link will show you the location, if you are not familiar with The Mad Boar (GPS Coordinates: N34.75692 W77.94810].  We will meet at approximately 12 Noon.

If you are planning to attend, please send me an RSVP, via email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com, so I can set up a reservation and arrange enough seating together for our group.  I would appreciate receiving every one's RSVP by Thursday, February 10th.

Per our normal procedure 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 January meeting at The Boundary House Restaurant in Calabash, I hope you will have time to join us at The Mad Boar in February.  Pictures from our January meeting are now available on our Google Picasa web album.

Once again, I am planning a 75-mile back road ride from Wilmington to Wallace for the meeting, and anyone who is interested is welcome to join me.  The starting location for the ride will be the Buy & Go Exxon Station located at 808 North College Road (about one-half mile north of the Corning Plant).  If you are interested in joining the ride, please let me know via email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com and I will confirm the departure time for the ride.  Currently, I am planning on a 10:30 a.m. departure to support arriving at The Mad Boar by 11:45 a.m.

If you are already planning ahead for our March meeting, it is posted on the CCBMW Riders Club calendar on our web site.  Please note the change in meeting location.

CycleGadgets.com

I have some disheartening news ‑  I learned a few days ago that CycleGadgets.com has closed effective Friday, January 14th.  Since 2000, CycleGadgets had been a great source for many motorcycling accessories.  They have also been represented at many BMW MOA National Rallies.  I have been one of CycleGadget's customers, and if you were too, I am sure you will agree that they will be missed.  Their closure notice is posted online at cyclegadgets.com.

New York International Motorcycle Show

Through a special package offered by Bob's BMW Motorcycles of Jessup, Maryland, club member Ed O'Neil and I attended the International Motorcycle Show (IMS) in New York City on Saturday, January 22nd.  The NYC IMS event was the second of two shows that BMW North America was officially attending and displaying their new K1600GLT model (the other show that BMW NA attended was the IMS show held in Long Beach, CA).  Our trip was done through a special package offered by Bob's BMW.  The $50 package provided round-trip chartered bus transportation from Bob's BMW to the IMS location in NYC, including a box lunch on the trip to NYC, a snack on the return trip, and your IMS show ticket.  The bus package tickets sold out quickly!

There were a total of 58 dedicated enthusiasts enjoying this year's trip to the NYC IMS event.  Everyone was very interested in seeing the new K1600GTL model – especially the four or five individuals who had already pre-ordered the K1600, sight unseen.  The Bob's BMW representative said they have already taken six or seven pre-orders for the bike, and that there are currently approximately 180 K1600 pre-orders nationwide, with the total expected to reach around 300 to 350 by the March-April delivery date.

We had about four hours to enjoy the show, which was more than enough time considering how crowded it became as the day progressed.  The K1600GTL attracted a large group of people to view the bike and waiting for the opportunity to sit on the display motorcycle.  Also on display was BMW's Concept C scooter, recently described in the BMW Owners News magazine and on the BMW MOA web site.  A BMW representative indicated a gas-powered version of the scooter will be released at some future date.

Also on display was the new R1200R classic limited-edition.  The bike has a "classic" black with white pin stripe paint scheme (not clear in my photos) and has the classic spoke wheels.

You can all my pictures from the IMS trip in my Picasa web album.

Greenville, SC IMS

The closest remaining International Motorcycle Show scheduled near us will be the IMS event being held in the Carolina First Center in Greenville, SC on the weekend of February 25-27.  Since you have already missed the opportunity to see the IMS in Washington, DC (held earlier in January), the Greenville show is closest show to attend this year.  The IMS also visits Daytona during Bike Week.  The Google Map below shows you the location of the Carolina First Center in Greenville.

Greenville, SC IMS Location

If you have never visited an IMS, they are a great way to see (and often sit on) many of the motorcycle models offered by almost all of the major manufacturers.  In addition, many national accessory vendors such as Arai, Gerbings, the Service Pavilion (a great Arai helmet dealer that I will talk about at our club meeting), Twisted Throttle, and many more will also be represented.

Wunderlich Catalog

Wunderlich is a German source for many terrific accessories for our BMW motorcycles.  In case you have not heard, their new catalog is now available and can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat PDF files from the Wunderlich web site.  The catalog may provide you with some new ideas on how to improve your BMW motorcycle, so check it out.

CCBMW Riders Club Calendar

More 2011 rallies and events are being announced every week, and as I hear about these, I am adding them to the CCBMW Riders Club calendar on our web site.  I encourage everyone to visit the calendar and browse the upcoming months to see whether there is an upcoming rally or event that you may be interested in attending.  You can click on the event entries to see additional information about the event.  New entries include the 2011 Curve Cowboy Reunion (CCR), the SC Sandblast Rally, the 2011 UnRally, the Spring Blue Ridge Rendezvous (BRR), National Ride-to-Work Day, and more.


Vintage Motorcycles

I recently received an interesting PowerPoint slide show from club member Tony Barcia.  The slide show contains pictures of 42 classic, vintage motorcycles.  Tony Barcia later made a great suggestion -- start a "registry" where our club members can list the vintage motorcycles they have previously owned and/or currently own.  Based on Tony's suggestion, I have set up the CCBMW Rider Club Vintage Bike Registry.  The registry is a Google Document in which you can identify your self and list any vintage motorcycles you have had the pleasure of owning.  To inspire you, take a look at the Vintage Motorcycle Slide Show, which is also available as a Google Document.  Thanks for the suggestion, Tony!


Garmin nuMaps Update Offer

Post-Publication Notice:  Here is a great offer that I discovered after this newsletter was published online.  If you have not purchased a update for your Garmin GPS unit's maps, now is a great time.  From February 1 until February 7, you can purchase a one-time nuMaps update for your Garmin GPS for $39.99 from Newegg.com.  To obtain this special price, you must use the coupon code EMCKHKJ75.


BMW in 2011 AMA Superbike Series

It looks like BMW enthusiasts will be able to once again cheer for the marquee in AMA Superbike racing.  According to this SpeedTV article, Larry Pegram is planning to be riding a BMW S1000RR for the 2011 racing season.

Wrap-up


The new format for our newsletter (this blog) allows you to leave comments, so I invite you to do so.  You will find the Comments link at the end of each Beemer Ramblings post.  In addition, if you should see an item in Beemer Ramblings that needs to be updated or corrected, please send me an email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com and I will make the change.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at The Mad Boar for our February club meeting.  Until then, ride safe and ride far.
Bill Murray

January 2011 Newsletter

Happy New Year

I want to wish all our Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club members a Happy New Year!  I hope you enjoy safe travels and many new riding adventures in 2011.


January Meeting Reminder

Our next club meeting is scheduled for Saturday, January 8th (weather permitting), at the Boundary House Restaurant, which is located at 1045 River Road in Calabash, NC [GPS coordinates:N33.88965 W78.56796].  Use this Google Maps link if you are not familiar with the location.  We will meet at the Boundary House Restaurant around 11:45 a.m., with lunch starting at 12 Noon.

An RSVP is requested, so I can make a reservation for group seating. If you are planning to come, by Thursday, January 6th, please send me an email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com.

As usual, if the weather looks uncertain (possible rain, etc.), please check your email on Friday evening and/or Saturday morning for a meeting postponement notice.

For anyone interested in riding together from Wilmington to the Boundary House, the group will depart at 10:45 a.m. from the B-P/C-Store located at the corner of Highway 17 and Grandiflora Drive (i.e., at the entrance to Magnolia Greens in Leland).

December 2010 Club Meeting

After having to postpone and relocate our December club meeting due to poor weather, we were finally able to get the meeting scheduled at The Harp Irish Restaurant.  Despite the shortened notice, we had a great turnout!  In case you missed the meeting, here are some pictures taken by club member Jerry Dockery and I.

2011 Rallies and Events

There are many terrific rallies and events already announced for 2011, and it's not too early to start looking ahead and making your plans for which events you want to attend this year. In the past week, more rallies have been added to the club's Google calendar.

Coming up soon at the International Motorcycle Shows , with the the Washington, DC show scheduled for January 14-16 and Greenville, SC show scheduled for February 25-27.

The 2011 BMW Motorcycle Owners of America International Rally is scheduled for July 21-24 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and the 2011 BMW Riders Association National Rally is being held June 30 - July 3 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and browse the club calendar to familiarize yourself with some of the BMW rallies scheduled for this Spring and Summer.  (You will also find the planned dates for the February and March club meetings too!)


2011 Rallies and Events for Google Earth

For those of you who use Google Earth, I want to provide you a link to a new file that will allow you to see where many of the 2011 rallies and events are being held.  Use the link shown below and to download the 2011 Rallies and Events KML file to your computer.

http://sites.google.com/site/ccbmwridersclub/download-files/2011RalliesandEventsNetworkLink.kml

If you save this KML file in your personal collection of places in Google Earth, it will always update with the latest additions that I make showing new rallies and events in 2011.  Check it out and let me know if you find it useful.

If you are not currently a Google Earth user, I encourage you to download the software, which is free, and try it out.  I am currently working on a series of articles explaining how you can exchange information between Google Maps, Google Earth, and your GPS unit and mapping software.  Watch for an announcement soon.

BMW MOA Superstakes Contest

I want to remind our BMW MOA members again about the BMW MOA's 2011 Superstakes II Contest. The BMW MOA is selling tickets to provide a chance to win a very special R1200GS bike as a grand prize. For every 10,000 tickets sold, another R1200GS will be added to the prize pot. And, for each additional 1,000 tickets sold, an additional $1,000 shopping spree will be included. The contest is only open to BMW MOA members. For more information, check the BMW MOA's 2011 Superstakes web page.

Tip-of-the-Month

If you are a GPS user, you probably have struggled, from time to time, with converting the format of GPS coordinates you have been given.  For example, the web site for a club's rally may give you the coordinates in a format like N29°58.893 W081°59.045 or like N29°58'53.58" W81°59'2.7", whereas your GPS unit only accepts coordinates in a format like N12.34567 W87.65432, whereas .  Good news -- there is a web site that makes it easy to convert GPS coordinates between formats.  The GPSVisualizer web site offers a geo calculator function that makes these conversions easy.  Just enter the coordintaes in the Latitude and Longitude input boxes, click the Convert button, and you have your convertered cordinates.

Coordinate conversion is just one of the many useful features you will find at the GPS Visualizer web site.  You can find GPS Visualizer at http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/.

December 2010 Newsletter

New Newsletter Format

Welcome, Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club members. Going forward, I plan to start "publishing" our member newsletters here as a blog. The blog format should allow including more graphics (photos, maps, etc.). I welcome everyone's feedback on the new format. If there are things your especially like, please let me know. If there are things you would like to see added or changed, let me know that as well.

Meeting Reminder

Our next club is scheduled for Saturday, December 11th (weather permitting), at the Boundary House Restaurant, which is located at 1045 River Road in Calabash, NC [GPS coordinates:N33.88965 W78.56796]. See this Google Maps link if you are not familiar with the location. Some of you may remember we enjoyed some great food at the Boundary House Restaurant last February. We are planning to meet there starting around 11:30 a.m.

An RSVP is requested, so I can make a reservation for group seating. If you are plannign to come, by Thursday, December 9th, please send me an email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com.

Remember -- we have shifted to our winter meeting schedule, which means we will be trying to hold our monthly get-togethers as lunch meetings, on either a Saturday or Sunday, for the months of December through March.

Upcoming Events

Winter may have finally arrived and be slowing your riding, at present, but it's not too early to start planning your rides for 2011. We are already adding rallies and events that have been announced for 2011 to the club's Google calendar. The calendar already includes the upcoming International Motorcycle Shows (the closest being in Washington, DC and Greenville, SC), the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America International Rally scheduled this July in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, the BMW Riders Association National Rally in Chippewa Falls,Wisconsin, a new Spring rally being sponsored by Morton's BMW, the 2011 BMW SportTouring-sponsored UnRally being here in North Carolina, and more. I invite you to spend a few minutes browsing the calendar to start planning your 2011 riding season.

Club Challenge Rides

In 2010, we provided two challenge rides for our club members -- the North Carolina Four Corners Challenge Ride and the North Carolina State Historic Sites Challenge Ride. One club member -- Jerry McCumby -- successfully completed the North Carolina Four Corners Challenge Ride . Please join me in congratulating Jerry on this accomplishment.

These challenge ride were begun to give everyone a destination to seek out, or a place to stop and visit while travelling throughout the state. For 2011, we will be continuing several of our challenge rides. In addition, we are going to provide some of you a little recognition for your efforts. For 2011, the first three members who complete either the County Courthouse Challenge Ride, the North Carolina State Parks Challenge Ride, or the North Carolina State Historic Sites Challenge Ride will receive a copy of the BMW MOA's 35th Anniversary Book. The BMW MOA has graciously made a few copies of these books available to our club as recognition awards and I thought awarding these for a few 2011 challenge ride finishers would be a great way to reward their efforts.

To remind everyone, the County Courthouse Challenge Ride involves visiting each county courthouse in the state, stopping to take a picture of your bike and the courthouse in the photo. Some of you may recall that club members John and Joan Bower completed this challenge ride on their K1200LT back in 2008. The North Carolina State Parks Challenge Ride involves visiting each of the North Carolina State Parks and Recreational Areas, taking a picture of your motorcycle and the state park sign. The North Carolina State Historic Sites Challenge Ride involves visiting each of the twenty-seven state historic sites and, you guessed it, taking a picture of your motorcycle and the site's sign. Visiting some of these locations provides an opportunity to see some interesting locations and enjoy some nice roads along the way. I look forward to seeing some of you add to the challenge ride destinations you have already visited.

Trip Report

We have a new trip posted on the club web site. Club members Paul Winter and Jerry Dockery attended the Savannah 2010 Rally during the weekend of December 3-5. Paul has written a great trip report, including some photos. You can find Paul's write-up under the Ride Reports page. Thank you, Paul, for the write-up and photos!

BMW MOA Superstakes Contest

If you are a BMW MOA member (something I highly recommend), you hopefully know about the BMW MOA's 2011 Superstakes II Contest. The BMW MOA is selling tickets to provide a chance to win a very special R1200GS bike as a grand prize. For every 10,000 tickets sold, another R1200GS will be added to the prize pot. And, for each additional 1,000 tickets sold, an additional $1,000 shopping spree will be included. The contest is only open to BMW MOA members. For more information, check the BMW MOA's 2011 Superstakes web page.

Upcoming Club Rides

Keep your eyes on your email inbox during the next few weeks. If my time and the weather permit, you may see one or two short-notice announcements of club rides during the holiday season. I hope to be able to enjoy some time off from work during the next few weeks and, if the weather cooperates, may send out an invitation for a lunch ride or two to anyone who is interested in joining me.

Acknowledgment

Finally, I want to thank everyone for their interest in the club this past year. I have really enjoyed seeing everyone who has had time to attend our club meetings and ride, and staying in touch with those of you who have not been able to join us in person. I am looking forward to sharing new adventures with you in 2011, and I want to wish you and your families a great holiday.

Ride safe and ride far!

November 2010 Newsletter

Hello, CCBMW Riders Club Members.

I hope you and your family have been enjoying a good Thanksgiving holiday. Although it looks like the weather has cooled a bit, we still have some great riding opportunities, and I hope you have time to enjoy a ride this weekend to "work off" a bit of the Thanksgiving over-eating.

Meeting Reminder

I thought that it was time to remind everyone that we have shifted to our winter meeting schedule, which means we will be trying to hold our monthly get-togethers as lunch meetings, on either a Saturday or Sunday, for the months of December through March. Our next club is scheduled for Saturday, December 11th (weather permitting), at the Boundary House Restaurant, which is located at 1045 River Road in Calabash, NC [GPS coordinates:N33.88965 W78.56796]. See this Google Maps link if you are not familiar with the location. Some of you may remember we enjoyed some great food at the Boundary House Restaurant last February. We are planning to meet there starting around 11:30 a.m.

RSVP Requested. I am planning to call the Boundary House and try to arrange for a group seating area for us. To ensure they can support this, I am requesting everyone who is planning to attend to please send me an email at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com. Please provide your confirmation no later than Thursday, December 9th (but earlier is better!).

As usual, for our winter meetings, watch your email inbox for a postponement notice, in case the weather should not cooperate with us.

Black Friday Deal for GPS Users

If you use a Garmin GPS for your motorcycle, like the Zumo-series, there is a good "Black Friday" deal on the Garmin Lifetime nuMaps update for North America available through GPSCity.com until the end of this weekend. The Lifetime Update card is available for $79.99 plus $2.49 shipping. If you are not familiar with the Lifetime Update, you can download from Garmin, up to four times a year, the latest maps for the GPS receiver. These maps will also update all the Points of Interest (gas stations, restaurants, attractions, etc.) along with any highway and road changes that have occurred. You can check out this deal at the GPSCity.com web site. (I have ordered GPS accessory parts from these folks before, thus how I heard about this deal.)

Rallies and Events

It's not too early to start planning your motorcycling trips for next year. I have already been receiving updates from members (thank you!) about motorcycle-related rallies and events that are being scheduled for 2011. The BMW MOA and BMW RA national rallies have already been announced for next year, we have the upcoming International Motorcycle Shows are scheduled in Washington, DC and Greenville, SC in January and February, respectively, and Morton's BMW has announced a new Spring rally in Virginia. We are anxiously awaiting an announcement about next year's UnRally (sponsored by BMWSportTouring), which is reportedly being held in North Carolina or Tennessee.

You can find these events, and more (including the planned dates for our next few club meetings), on our club web site calendar (a Google Calendar located at http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ccbmwridersclub%40gmail.com&ctz=America/New_York). Watch the calendar for additional events, as I receive updates from everyone. As always, if you know of an event that we should add to the calendar, please send the information to me at ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com.

Product Announcement

I have recently received an email from a BMW MOA member, Gale Young, is who is now making motorcycle bags. She asked that I pass this along to our club members.

Hi,

I am writing to you as the contact for your BMW MOA chapter and ask you pass this information along to your members as a post to your forum or an email. I'm a BMW rider and started making bags to make packing for trips easier. I now have a line of fleece bags in BMW colors and other colors and also make custom bags to solve particular issues a rider may have. If a chapter has particular colors and would like bags in those colors for the members, please contact me. The link to my web site is http://www.motorcycle-journeys.com/shop/shop.html. Thanks in advance for sending this along to your members and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Gale Smith
BMW MOA #138662

I look forward to seeing you at our December 11th club meeting. Until then, ride safe and ride far.

Welcome

Welcome to Beemer Ramblings, the online newsletter of the Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club. You will soon be able to find our irregularly published newsletters here. Instead of receiving those newsletters in your email, you will start receiving a short email notification to let you know that a new post has been made here.

The Coastal Carolina BMW Riders Club is a chartered club of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMW MOA). If you have stumbled upon our site and are not yet a member of our club, please send us an email care of ccbmwridersclub@gmail.com and we will add you to our email distribution list. You can learn more about our club via our website at http://sites.google.com/site/ccbmwridersclub/.