The Blue Ridge Breeze

The
Blue Ridge
Breeze
March - 2015
BMWMOA Club #353 & BMWRA Club #339
Schedule of Club Events
3/7
Saturday
10am Social Gathering
Asheville - Eurosport Asheville
30 Bryson Street, Asheville, NC 28803
4/4
Saturday
9am Social Gathering
Asheville - Eurosport Asheville
30 Bryson Street, Asheville, NC 28803
3/15
Sunday
10am Social Gathering
South Asheville – Katuah Market
2 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803
4/19
Sunday
9am Social Gathering
South Asheville – Katuah Market
2 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803
3/17 Tuesday 7:00pm Club Meeting –
Program: MotoMark1
Asheville - Eurosport Asheville
30 Bryson Street, Asheville, NC 28803
4/21 Tuesday 7:00pm Club Meeting –
Program TBD
Asheville - Eurosport Asheville
30 Bryson Street, Asheville, NC 28803
5/2
Saturday
9am Social Gathering
Asheville - Eurosport Asheville
30 Bryson Street, Asheville, NC 28803
5/17
Sunday
9am Social Gathering
South Asheville – Katuah Market
2 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803
The Blue Ridge Breeze
Mark Your Calendars
March 2015 Page | 2
Random Moto Photo
March 26-26, 2015
March Moto Madness
Tellico Plains, TN
Ride to Tellico Plains, TN. Eat some mighty fine
vittles. Explore some of the best dual-sport
anywhere. Take on the adventure track.
www.marchmotomadness.com
April 24-25, 2015
BMW MOA Weekend Getaway
Fontana, North Carolina
The hills of North Carolina are calling! This is one
of our most popular Weekend Getaway events
and usually sells out quickly.
February Social Gatherings
and Meeting
By Gary Cox
The February Social Gatherings and Meeting could be
described as hit and miss. The first Saturday Social
Blue Ridge High Pass Boogie
Gathering and Blue Ridge High Pass Boogie meeting
Asheville, NC (Starting and Ending Location)
were certainly hits. Between 10 and 12 members
Save the date and see the VP-Report for more
arrived early to participate in the BRHPB meeting.
information. This event is a fundraiser for the
Another 6 or 8 members arrived around 10 am for the
Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, held in
usual social
conjunction with Eurosport Asheville.
gathering
July 23-26, 2015
time. The
BRHPB
43rd Annual BMW MOA International Rally
meeting went
Billings, Montana
very well
Billings, Montana will play host to BMW MOA
getting
members July 23 - 25, 2015 at the MetraPark
several items
Fairgrounds. Contact Sue Rihn, Events
Committee Chairperson for the BMW Motorcycle kicked off,
and by 11am the sun provided enough warmth for two
Owners of America.
groups of riders to go off and enjoy what turned into
the nicest day in February. However February’s
October 1-4, 2015
Sunday Social Gathering caught Ole Man Winter’s full
BMW Riders Association 2015 Rally
wrath and just a few brave members arrived for much
Harrison, AR
The rally site is Boone County Fairgrounds. There needed hot coffee. Most members, I think, remained
toasty warm at home. Lastly, the February Tuesday
are hotels nearby and the park has excellent
club meeting was canceled to due snow and ice
space for tent camping and RVs.
thrashing a large portion of our area. We are very
Ride the Serpent--in Arkansas.
happy that MotoMark1will be presenting for our
Save the Dates!
March club meeting. Warmer days are coming.
May 16, 2015
The Blue Ridge Breeze M a r c h
President’s Message
By Jim McMains
February 2015
It is almost Spring and as
you read this I will
probably be sitting in Bali
watching tons of small
bikes and scooters riding
across the countryside.
We came here in March
to celebrate our birthdays
and enjoy some warm weather. I am hoping that
you will have some nice riding weather back
home and have the chance to make a Gathering
and/or meeting.
2015 P a g e | 3
The yahoo group is also there for you to use if
you are looking to get together with others, so
feel free to post your own requests to share a
ride, lunch or some other thing.
[email protected]
We have dropped the Meet-up group as we saw it
as an expense that did not have a great return.
Members on there were already active in our
other social areas so it was a duplication not
needed.
As a club we have all of this social media at our
fingertips to see what is going on and to help us
plan our actions, but nothing will beat getting out
there and interacting. Please take advantage of
everything the club can offer you. Many
friendships have started in this club and more will
As a reminder to everyone, we have a nice
website www.abmwr.org where you can go to
come. Volunteering together is one great way to
see upcoming events, read past newsletters, look start up new friendships and continue old ones.
at club pictures and interact on some forums. We The High Pass Boogie is coming soon, so if you
have some spare time you can offer I am sure
will be trying to gravitate towards using it more if
we can get your cooperation in doing so, and we John can fit you in. Look at it as an opportunity to
will also continue to maintain all of our other great do some good, make some bonds and have a
great time. I will be there working and look
social media.
forward to seeing some new faces along with
those regulars :-).
We have a nice Facebook Page,
AshevilleBMWRiders, where we hope you will
Enjoy your prelude to Spring and I will be thinking
take the time to post to. Go ahead and put up
about the riding I will do when I get back home. I
some pictures, motorcycle related info, or
miss the club and the members already.
anything else you think would interest this fine
bunch. I see many of the same usual suspects on
See you down the road !
there, so how about some new faces?
Jim
Our Yahoo Group serves its function by giving
you those subtle reminders (twice before each
event) that a meeting, gathering, or other event is
Welcome New Members
coming up. With all of our electronic devices,
Brian Summers Butcher – Asheville, NC
calendar books and notices in Newsletters and
website, we all deal with that same problem of
Conrad Leavitt – Burnsville, NC
forgetting things at times. So hopefully while
checking your emails you will see that one single
Brian Paul Mathews – Candler, NC
Yahoo reminder and it will give you the
opportunity to share some quality time with your
Leah Mathews – Candler, NC
fellow club members.
The Blue Ridge Breeze
March 2015 Page | 4
Spring is in the AIR! Here at ESA our business is
growing with the temperature... UP! We hope everyone
is starting to thaw out from winter and beginning to plan
2015's BIG ADVenture rides! With so much saddle time
on the horizon please don't hesitate to contact us with
any of your TWO wheel needs!
Considering that some, if not most, of the gear in the
sale will be used, we will have some requirements
regarding the condition of the gear. We want to make
this as safe and clean as possible. Here is a list of our
requirements and guidelines for any items that you are
interested in putting up for sale.
As the shop grows, our crack research staff continues
to put together great ideas for both the newsletter and
the ABMWR group, none better than this......................
Introducing ESA's First Annual Spring Clearance Sale,
Helmets must:
 Have never been in an accident
 Have never been dropped
 Have all safety mechanisms intact
 Be 5 Years old or newer
 Be clean & odor free (No stinky lids!)
“Spare the COLON this year, opt for a closet
cleaning instead!” HaHa...sorry, you know our
humor by now ;)
The basis of this sale is Clean, Used riders’ apparel.
We all have it, some maybe in boxes, some maybe in
closets, ALL is not being used. Our idea is to put
together any and all Clean used riders’ apparel from the
ABMWR members and offer it to the public for a
“consignment” sale, in a nice organized environment.
This sale will be one day only with items priced at a fair
non-negotiable price. Our fee is FUN and simple, at the
completion of the event, on sold items only, seller
chooses either:
 90% of the sale price of the item (10% fee)
 ESA gift certificate worth 115% of the item's final
sale price
 Donate Portion of sale price to the club (In the
works...)
After speaking with the board of the ABMWR we are
ALL IN and looking forward to putting together this sale
on Saturday, April 4th , 2015 here at ESA.
Items will need to be delivered to the shop between the
dates of March 1st and March 28th. This will give us a
week to organize and label all of the items for the sale.
Upon delivery the item will be inspected and you will
need to fill out a simple form (at the parts counter) with
your name, address, phone, email address, item, item
description, price, and indicate your final payment
method preference.
Jackets, Pants, & Gloves must:
 Have never been in an accident
 Have no rips or tears
 Be washed & odor free
Boots must:
 Have never been in an accident
 Be intact, with no holes in the soles!
 Come with its matching sibling
Some of these may sound excessive, but our goal is to
make sure that everything up for sale will be of a
similar quality. Some of the requirements are also for
obvious safety reasons. Pricing of the items is the sole
responsibility of the owner.
We look forward to working with everyone. We hope
that this will be a fun event for all involved and hope
that is something we can continue to do in the future. If
you have any questions regarding the sale, please email or call us @: [email protected]
(828) 255-6600
The Blue Ridge Breeze M a r c h
VP Report
By John Koenig
Hi Folks,
It seems we look for any
reason to ride. Getting
16 club member
volunteers together for
the 2015 Blue Ridge
High Pass Boogie planning meeting on a nasty
Friday night in February took very little effort on
my part. Why so easy? Because we were
planning the three ride loops for the May 16th
event and I was looking for folks to perform the
“hard work” of discussing, then pre-riding the
roads and trails.
The evening involved a lot of discussion, with the
ultimate goal of showing participating riders
(throughout the Southeast) our favorite little roads
and byways this May. As we roughed out the
three potential loops, I explained how April would
be the best time to ride, fine tune, then re-ride
these endless twists and turns, developing both
GPS and turn-by-turn directions. The discussion
quickly led to one of the volunteers saying “why
not start riding them this Sunday?” Like I said, we
look for any reason to ride.
So here we go… coming into March there are so
many club members itching to ride more. When
the loops are finalized this month, we’ll be looking
for 6 or 8 additional volunteers in April to try out
our “Beta” directions before the official ride date.
We’ll need riders to follow the downloaded GPS
routes and others to follow the turn-by-turn (for
road) or roll chart (for dual sport) directions. After
riding we need feedback on accuracy and user
friendliness. All pre-riding volunteers must swear
to secrecy, as official routes cannot be disclosed
to the participants until the morning of the event.
I know… “hard work”… but it is a reason to ride.
Any more takers for the pre-ride slots?
As always, be safe, and enjoy!
John
2015 P a g e | 5
KEY BOOGIE VOLUNTEERS
STILL NEEDED
As we shift our High Pass Boogie event planning
into high gear, we’re still in need of people to help
out. We’re well covered for general event and ride
planning and day-of-event volunteers. We still
need assistance with promotion and organization.
To get the word out there we need to distribute
flyers, posters, and information; it’s paramount!
To build general awareness additional public
relations work such as press releases to radio,
TV, newspaper, etc., would be very helpful.
Lastly, any connections you may have with
businesses, vendors, or suppliers could help with
needed door prizes.
Please contact John Koenig, Event Director, at
828-606-1092 or [email protected] if
you feel you can make a difference.
For all volunteers, we will have an update
meeting prior to the ABMWR Club
Gathering at Katuah Market that same
morning. If possible, try to be on time so
we can start a short, dedicated Boogie
session at 9:15 am.
The ABMWR
Members of our club share many things
in common, including a love of riding,
being outdoors, a fondness for BMW
motorcycles regardless of type or age,
and the camaraderie of our sport. We
are a social club, focused on riding, and
take full advantage of our area’s
beautiful roads and scenery. Although
our club is based in North Carolina,
membership and participation from all
surrounding areas are encouraged.
For membership information, view our
website at www.abmwr.org or drop us a
line at ABMWR
PO Box 5103
Asheville, NC 28813
The Blue Ridge Breeze
March 2015 Page | 6
The Blue Ridge Breeze M a r c h
2015 P a g e | 7
Editor’s Ramblings
By Gary Cox
Spring Cleaning
Well February’s weather has
put a real damper on my
typical winter riding
schedule, thus forcing me
(us) to stay inside and only
day dream about carving
some mountain curves. Now
this is not entirely true,
because the first few days of February where actually
quite nice and I (we) were able to get out for a couple
short (100 mile plus) rides. I was also lucky enough to
get both of the bikes washed. Looking back, it could
have been my fault for washing both of the bikes on
the same day that caused all of this icy cold nasty
weather. Just think if I had washed both bikes and the
car on the same day we might have had 2 feet of
snow. (Mental note for next year split up the bike
washing.)
I really do enjoy doing a really deep detailed cleaning,
of the ‘GS’ a couple times a year. Cleaning the bikes
gives me a chance to inspect them for loose bolts,
worn brakes, and any leaks that may have been
covered up by grim. Plus having clean bikes really
reminds me how nice these machines are. For
instance once I blasted and scraped all the mud and
junk off the Husky TR650, it really is a pretty cool
looking little bike and has held up well to my dualsport adventures. Then there is our trusty 2004
R1150GS that is still in amazing condition for being 11
years old. I still have some waxing and polishing to do
but both bikes are looking really good.
Now it is time for “Zen and Where Did That Part Come
From?” Yes, it is time to adjust the valves on the 1150
and hoping that I don’t end up with any extra “parts”
this time. This will be the 4th or 5th time that I have
adjusted the valves so I think I have gotten rid of all
those “spare” parts that sometimes show up after
working on a motorcycle (or anything mechanical).
Just kidding!! I have never had any spare parts left
over from the 1150, it’s German and there is
procedure and specific place for every part. I love
German engineering and especially these big boxers.
Here’s to warmer days and good riding,
Gary and Linda
Who’s Who
Board of Directors
Jim McMains, President
John Koenig, Vice President
Chris Stewart, Secretary
Dan Falkenstein, Treasurer
Gary Cox, News Letter Editor
Ursula Skoug, Merchandising Director
Phil Weinmann, Webmaster
Perry Hebard, Club Photographer
Stew Stewart, Special Events
Dan Thompson, Board Member
Sergeant at Arms
Adam Stewart
Ride Captains
Stew Stewart
The Blue Ridge Breeze
March 2015 Page | 8
Club Merchandise
Spring will be here soon! So look sharp by adding
some of this fine clothing and accessories to your
spring wardrobe collection. At a social Gathering
or Tuesday Night Club Meeting, stand out from
Shirts
the crowd by picking up some official Club
Short Sleeve: $15.00
merchandise. We have decals, hats and short
and long sleeved T-shirts. Ursula Skoug has club Long Sleeve: $18.00
items at meetings or keep tabs on the Club
Website: http://www.abmwr.org/ (and purchase
using PayPal).
Decals $1.00
Hats $15.00
Don’t forget to check out the club web site
http://www.abmwr.org/
There are many new photos and updates, including the calendar of events.
You can also join a Conversation Forum
The Blue Ridge Breeze M a r c h
2015 P a g e | 9