NEW! Members Only Area

Some of you may have noticed that www.bmwnef.wildapricot.org has a Members Only area. When you login with your user ID and password a Members Only area becomes available. Currently it will take you to a page with access to the Executive Committee Minutes and Agenda. Soon, we will be adding a BMWNEF Merchandise Store. Also coming will be special offers for BMW services, parts, clothing and supplies. All this and more exclusively for current BMWNEF members only.

Beginning February The Shop Rag welcomes David Sturgis as our new Editor

WHAT'S COMING UP

BMWNEF Winter Rally January 13 – 15, 2012PDetails

2012 Executive Committee Members and links to their email address

 

Get Well Soon       If you know of any member who is injured, ill or hospitalized please let us know Dianna Boland and Sherry Potter are our New Joint Benevolence Chairs REMEMBER, IF YOU DON'T TELL THEM, THEY MAY NOT KNOW!   Dianna Boland will send flowers or care baskets from the club to members or associate members who are hospitalized as an in-patient for more than one day.  She will also send flowers or make a donation to a charity when someone in a member's immediate family dies. Dianna Boland                diannaboland@gmail.com    904-287-3459      Sherry Potter, will send get well or sympathy cards to members/ associate members for serious illnesses or deaths in their immediate families.  Listed below are the e-mail and phone numbers for Dianna & Sherry.  Please be sure and notify them so they can provide this important support to our members and families.                                   Sherry Potter                      Potters2FL@aol.com   904-223-4418

January 13 – 15, 2012

The BMWNEF Winter Rally is only 6 weeks away, and if you haven’t registered yet - what are you waiting for!?! We can only accommodate 500 registrants at our rally site at Camp Blanding Training Center in Starke. Once we reach our maximum, registration will shut down and you will be left out in the cold!

* * *Don’t wait! * * *

Click on the 2012 BMWNEF WINTER RALLY REGISTRATION section at the top of the BMWNEF website home page (www.BMWNEF.org) to get started.

Here’s what we have on tap so far:

The popular Camp Blanding On-Base ride set for both days (a shortened version on Friday), other ride opportunities, 4 seminars each day, a variety of vendors, our famous swap meet, good food (dinner both nights is included in your registration), the ever popular door prizes, and a 50/50 drawing each day with great people and beautiful Camp Blanding on Kingsley Lake. Camping is free with your registration ($45), and there are RV sites still available for rent. In addition the Post Exchange is open for anyone’s shopping needs – from an extra neck warmer, to libations to keep you warm around the campfire. No military ID required.

You MUST register by January 9th, so don’t wait another minute. Go to our website and get started on another great Winter Rally experience!

"Another R80RT" photo by Michael Lamond 

In 1968 I visited a snow machine (as we called them in Alaska) dealer in Anchorage. While waiting for the parts person, I noticed a motorcycle in the back corner standing bolt upright and proud all by itself. It was covered with a thin even layer of dust but I could see right though that to the deep Black paint with tasteful white pin-striping on the fenders and tank. Its twin opposed cylinders located out in the cool air. A drive shaft instead of a chain. Turn signals on the ends of the handle bars. 
Note to self: if I ever buy a motorcycle this is what it will be.
I spent most of my adult life as a sailor. After 30 years at sea in the Navy, I retired to my second career and spent 6 more years as a Merchant Seaman. During many of those sleepless nights standing lonely watches, I sometimes dreamed of one day owning a BMW motorcycle like the one I saw in Anchorage years before. 
Fast forward to 2002. I was home for good. Now was the time for a Black Beauty. After completing an MSF-course and joining the BMWNEF #42 club, I started my search for a used BMW motorcycle. I soon came to the realization that a bike like Black Beauty had become a collector's item and was far from financial reach. I was pleased, however, to find younger used BMW models on the market that made just as much sense for my desired application. In Feb. 2003, after responding to an online ad from Blue Moon BMW, I drove to Norcross, Georgia and although I didn't know it at the time, met the second love of my life. She was a "Classic Black" 1985 R80RT with 12,000 miles on the clock. Because I was a total novice to the world of motorcycling, the dealer's owner personally spent the better half of an afternoon answering my three pages of questions. He even took me for a ride, a practice I found out late that was unheard of, if not against a very discreet unwritten rule in the Deep South. 
I came home with the bike and started to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Alone and on club rides, 'we' covered most of Northeast Florida. I gave my new love much TLC, as Norm Nelson, then owner of Daytona BMW, had warned me it would require. Over the next three years I completed solitary trips, first to Birmingham for a Rally, then to Spokane, Washington. With a friend to Lima, Ohio, exploring the Triple Nickel and Deals Gap. 
I completed the MSF advanced rider course, trained with the club on Jennings GP race track, and rode to my new shore job almost ever day. 
In July of 2006 I headed for Burlington, Vermont the long way, through the Appalachians. Near Ronceverte, WV on Highway 219, the driver of an aging Camero got "overly impatient", swerved out from behind a truck and hit me fully head on. 
With the help of my EMT qualified riding partner, a local nurse and the Med-o-vac helicopter crew I survived. My R 80 RT didn't.
I was flown to a hospital in Roanoke, VA some 70 miles away by air. I have no memory of the accident, probably for the best. About three weeks into my stay at the Roanoke hospital I was brought out of medically induced unconsciousness. When I finally became coherent I started thinking of what kind of motorcycle I was going to buy.
By mid 2007 I had graduated from a wheelchair to a walker. My wife found a 1997 BMW F650 for sale by a fellow club member. Hobbling out the door to go look at it, she said in her loving way, " Don't come home without it!" I didn't and two years later, after many attempts to fabricate a shifter I could use, I finely rode it for the first time. With help from a friend and new riding partner I rode to the MOA rally at Junction City, Tenn. I love my little thumper and have since ridden it the Pacific Coast and the Redmond, OR Rally and have plans to ride it to my old home in Alaska next summer. 
I have always had this gnawing ache in my gut to own another R 80 RT. Being able to ride though the rain without getting wet. The pure enjoyment of carving though some lonely canyon and feeling that this type of riding must have been on the minds of this bike's designers. Even blowing the saddlebags off my friends large American V twin was not beyond it's capability.
Paging though the Flea Market section of a recent copy of Owner New, my eyes stopped as they always do any time I see R and 80 on the same line. "86, R 80 RT. Excellent condition, 30K miles. $$$$ Michigan". My heart started to thump. There were weeks of friendly emails and phone calls with the owner. Short pointed discussions with my loving financial adviser and debates about, among other things, way I needed a second Motorcycle. After a road trip though the fall-colors of the Northeast for our 43 anniversary, the final approval came through. 
In November I returned to Florida from Alma, Michigan with, "Another R 80 RT".

Greg Kibble USN Ret. 

SWEET HOME ALABAMA by Ellen Wilder

Nine motorcycles and two cars pulled out of Macclenny Friday morning under threatening skies. We were looking for Southern Comfort in the form of great roads, food, accomodations and even better company. Some of us prefer riding alone, others prefer groups whether large or small and some actually prefer the comfort of four wheels and a roof. This trip incorporated all of these. We arrived at our destination to meet up with four more motorcycles and two more cars. No matter how everyone chose to travel we all came together in a beautiful setting to enjoy each other’s company and take in a little local flavor. Saturday morning some of the group headed off to Barber to take in the Vintage Days celebration, others went to Callaway to enjoy the Gardens and the rest of us (except Dennis Smith who stayed at the Resort to watch football) headed into downtown Eufaula to tour the beautiful Shorter Mansion and wander around the open air Fall Festival going on in the historical district. After lunch I decided to go exploring some back roads on my own and ran across a group returning from the Little Grand Canyon in Lumpkin,Ga.

It’s hard to beat a beautiful sunset over Lake Eufaula especially when you add in good wine and great friends. I want to thank everyone who joined in and made my first attempt at an overnight group ride as much fun and way easier than I could have imagined. I am including some great photos courtesy of Rose Redwine for those of us who went to reminisce over and to make those that didn’t go jealous enough to join us next time.

My 2004 GSA ready for a Brake Flush

BMWNEF Tech Day 12/17 by Don Sipler

Definition: A successful Tech Day is when every bike runs at the end of the day and everybody rides safely home. Being the last one remaining in the Ton-Up garage area with a few more bolts to tighten were not my favorite moments in a long day of wrenching. Riding away having accomplished some serious bike maintenance though felt pretty good.

Thanks to the expertise of John Greenwood and Larry Meeker both Larry and I performed a flush of the brake fluid on our 2004 GS’s with power assist ABS, a maintenance that should be done every 2 years. This is not a simple task as I found out in the six hours it took us to do both our bikes.

Under normal circumstances this is not a maintenance procedure anyone without a high degree of mechanical ability should attempt on their own. It takes some special tools, following a specific procedure and an experienced hand to do it right.

Fortunately for us among our club members there is a wealth of knowledge and a willingness to share it with others. Big thank you to John Greenwood for his expert guidance and Peter Hampton for the use of his Ton-Up facility.

The Safety Minute by David Sturgis

The New Year will start with a BANG, and I want to be ready to ride as much and as often as possible! I am planning my riding calendar, checking out the new gear and getting in shape for the challenges ahead.

This is a great time to think about the places we would like to visit or revisit in the New Year. The MOA rally will be in Sedalia, MO in July and the RA rally will be in Copper Mountain, CO in June. Both events sound exciting and many from BMWNEF will be attending them. I am also planning on visiting Eureka Springs, AR this year. I hear the riding is fantastic, much like the NC Mountains though not as crowded. There will be many club rides plus regional rallies to keep us busy.

With all this riding, I am going over my riding gear and seeing what I can upgrade to handle riding long distances in all kinds of weather. There is so much on the market in new gear, and I am looking into a riding suit or an all-weather suit. With a new BMW motorcycle dealer coming to Jacksonville, we will have plenty of choices for the riding season.

I will have plenty of items to sell at the Winter Rally Swap Shop. This is a great place to buy and sell used gear and parts for BMW and other motorcycles. There are lots of deals and this gives us a chance to recycle our used but not abused riding gear.

With the New Year comes the opportunity to improve our health and fitness. I encourage you to think of ways to maintain your health and improve in 2012. I decided to have surgery over the holidays to resolve a nagging problem I’ve dealt with for several years. I am also taking my doctor’s advice seriously when we have "the talk" about my lab report. We all have a vested interest in doing what we can to stay healthy.

Best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2012! Let’s ride through it safely.

Steib S-350 Sidecar for sale. Excellent condition, was attached to a 1967 BMW R50/2. Motorcycle has been sold. Sidecar is located in St. Augustine. Asking $8500 or best offer. Mike 904-402-2774 or email : r985mike@yahoo.com

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