Volume 25, Issue 3
Editor=s Notes
Dr. Gregory Frazier has written an interesting two-part article
about the R80GS, published in the last couple of issues of Motorcycle Consumer
News. He discusses his own modifications of the original adventure tourer, and
makes many useful recommendations. Of
interest to me is the history of the cost of the bike itself. Frazier notes that at one time the wholesale
price for the R80GS had fallen to just
under $1000. Today, the bike is
usually $4500 or more, at any rate
higher than the original purchase cost.
He further notes the obvious, that prices for the new R1150GS are targeting
an increasingly higher-income-segment consumer with taxes and delivery...
easily equal the price of a new, well-equipped small car.
None of this is news to anyone
in the club who has recently purchased a new BMW. Teutonic exclusivity comes at a price, especially when
maintenance and insurance get factored in.
For those of us further down the economic ladder, it may be impossible
to justify an $18K purchase on what is, ultimately, a luxury item. Factor in the recent stock market gloom, and
one wonders if new BMW sales will be quite as robust this year. Certainly there will remain a segment
wealthy enough to buy a new red toy regardless of the price (or the overall
economy), but will the less well-heeled enthusiast shell out the big bucks for
the latest variant of the two-wheeled Land Rover? Or for a painfully impractical sport bike? Used bikes are looking good, so good that I
followed through with my philosophy of the Airhead and bought another one, a
1990 R100GS/PD. The Triumph apostasy is
ending (bike for sale), long live the
old Boxer!
Assuming we have a spring one day, I look forward to
getting the old GS ready for another summer of rallies and adventure. A final irony to this story is that I am
buying the bike from a good man who is selling it in order to purchase a used
Honda ST1100, so as to be more competitive in endurance rallies, I
presume. Ironic, in that I hope to have
the opportunity to compete against this good man and have him eat the (figurative)
dust of his old GS in such a rally one fine day. Now there’s some arrogant stupidity for you.
Check out the club web site
at www.bmwmocm.com.
April,
2001
President=s
Column
So who=s
to say there are no benefits from working in a small town? As some of you know, but most of you don=t, I work 51 miles away from my house, or 1 hour
door-to-door (at 80 mph), in Faribault, MN., at a small, private boarding
school. I love the job, not the commuteCunless, of course, it is a gorgeous, 70 degree day and I
make the time to take all the back roads there on my /2, which makes it an hour
and 20 minute commute. Also at 80. But I digress... So the buzz around town is that
the national headquarters for Royal Enfield motorcycles is located right in the
lovely town of Faribault, MN.!
Huh? I mean, I KNOW there=s a Harley dealer here, but Royal Enfield? How cool is that?! So I mean to take a lunch hour and stroll on in, but never quite
get the lunch hour to do it, until one day I=m
in the local bagel shop getting myself a bitchin=
au lait (yes, you CAN get a decent au lait in Faribault, depending on who=s working), when I see the back of a t-shirt blaring the
dealership itself! Of course I approachCturns out he=s the parts manager and they are moving,
to a bigger and better location in town as we speak. I give him my card, ask him to tell the owner I=m askin= fer >im,and
that I=ll stop by to make my acquaintance soon
(see; this is how these here small towns work). S=ho >nuff, I strolled on in yesterday. Not only was one of the owners in, but he
has the memory of a detective. He
recognized me from waaaay back in the early 80=s
when he was a lead singer in a favorite band of mine, the Urban Guerillas. Between the Wallets, the Suburbs & the
Guerrillas, you could not go WRONG in this town! Ah, those were the days; but now I=m
starting to sound like a typical beemer rider, aren=t I? So, yeah! Larry
Sahagian is working with Royal Enfield motorcycles, as head of dealer
development! We talked about his passion for his new boat - it=s called a ACadillac@ -
lots of chrome with fenders n= stuff - and hey! he can fit a dog AND other people in
it! We tried figuring out how he might
be able to help us spread the word about our club, but since he=s the national distributor, he really doesn=t have much individual contact - it=s mostly with dealers.
But he offered to stop by our meeting some nightCmaybe bring a couple bikes and who knows? There might be some free stuff in there
someday! (Phone number for Royal Enfield is 1.800.201.7472.) Yes, I must be
getting older. My former rock gods are
now in legitimate businesses. And I
guess I cleaned up pretty good, too. In
fact, you=d barely recognize me now if you knew me
back then. Larry was good thoughCway too good. Let=s hear it for the local motorcycle community and all those
who are dedicating their time and efforts to keep it just thatCa community. What a
small, small world it can be.
The
next club meeting will be at Leo=s
in Lakeville, on April 12th, at 7:30 p.m.
Secretary=s
Report
The March meeting of the BMWMOCM was called to order
by President Molly Gilbert at 7:35 p.m. at Motor Oil Café. First item was a discussion of club communications
and promotion. The newsletter was
discussed (and available), and Steffen was thanked for work on the web
site. A new club brochure is available
(on the web site as well) and Awelcome packets@ are now available for new members. Contact Dale Peterson if you need one.
The treasurer=s
report was given and approved. The club
has $1,635.08 in the regular account ant $4,034.12 in the rally fund.
The Ride Calendar was discussed. We need members who are willing to plan a
ride. Contact Kevin Kocur if you are
interested, or sign up at at regular club meeting. It was decided to rotate the weekly AMeet to Eats@ -
the newsletter and (especially) the web site will be updated with current
information.
We still need to get membership renewals in. (Ray Nielsen attended the meeting and
renewed his membership!) Board meetings
will be changed from the first Thursday of the month to the first Tuesday of
the month.
We still need volunteers for the Hiawatha Rally! Please sign up if you haven=t already done so.
If you work two or more shifts, you receive your next year=s membership FREE.
We still need two-way radios, and the rally pin design is finished.
The April club meeting is at Leo=s in Lakeville.
Free door prize, and Karol Patzer will give a motorcycle safety
presentation.
The Spring Qualifier has been announced for May
2nd-6th, to Branson, Missouri. Contact Darrell Penning for information - $100
room deposit required.
The Club Mileage Contest begins April 14th,
so why not start it at Motor Oil, noon til 6 p.m.! Have your mileage verified for the club and MOA contest. Contact Kevin Kocur about a possible dinner
run at 6 p.m.
[There are numerous other upcoming events - see the
events calendar for details.]
Respectfully submitted by Deb Westberg
Swap
Meet in Pecatonica, IL
The 16th annual BMW motorcycle flea market,
sponsored by the Blackhawk Region BMW Association, will be held Sunday, April
29th at the Winnebago Co. Fairgrounds, 15 miles west of Rockford, IL
on US 20. Billed as the largest indoor
BMW flea market, the event promises door prizes every hour, all for a $3.00
donation. Saturday night camping is
available (it can be a little cold, as I found out), and biscuits & gravy
are ready for the hungry traveler starting at 8 a.m. For exhibitors, electricity is available in many of the
booths. For more information call Earve
Brauer at 815.962.8911 or e-mail, 105300.3110@CompuServe.com.
Burnin=
Rubber
The
Aerostich Trip. 3/ 24/ 2001
The
single digit reading on the bank thermometer as I made my way to the Motor Oil
Café this morning evidenced that it’s still winter here today in the North Star
state. Great. Nobody will be tempted to ride up to Duluth in this, and everyone
will enjoy a guilt-free bus ride up to Aerostich. The first person to prove me wrong was our esteemed club
president who made the sterling 10 block ride to see us off. Two words, Molly - Electric Vest. Well,
Clockwork Vest, I guess on something as old as that /2.
El Presidenté, who was
prevented from attending the full trip by a work related commitment, bade us
goodbye in style, and we were off - myself and the 22 other wimps who had all
driven our cages to the Café. The trip
was spectacularly problem free until we reached Roseville. It seems that the famous Minnesota winter
had taken it’s toll on the bus’ suspension, and we were listing to starboard B
causing the tire to periodically rub on the wheel trim and filling the cabin
with a pungent aroma of essence de drag strip, I think it was. Bob Ekeberg mentioned that his
custom-wheeled Mustang used to do the same thing, but that didn’t really seem
to make anyone feel better.
After the driver checked
things out we decided to press on, after reorganizing the seating arrangements
and stopping periodically to let the tires cool. Hmmm. We made it to
Tobies in Hinckley for the stop that every Twin Citian is required by law to
make on their way up to Duluth. As we arrived at the factory, I was humbled
again by the achievements of another rider.
Mark Kiecker’s VFR proudly sat in the street outside the front
door. He had been there about 20 minutes
and already apparently was starting to get some feeling back in his toes.
The group let out of the bus like school kids on the
last day of the year, and descended like a swarm of locusts on the sales
room. Club members gorged themselves on
numerous Aerostich accessories and gadgets and even a couple of the company’s
famous suits. And all that before the
wonderful buffet lunch provided by Sally and her hard working crew. The factory tour was as popular as ever, and
as usual, the company had arranged to have extra sewers on staff to demonstrate
and explain how world-class motorcycle garments are put together.
After the mandatory group
photo and thanks all round we were back on the bus. Well, most of us were. I am not sure how long we had to wait
before Pat O’Keefe finally got his act together and got back out there, but it
must have been at least an hour or less.
Anyway, we bounced our way back to Hinckley with the bus running
straight and level. It was now
bottoming out on both sides, producing double the rubber smell. Fortunately we were used to it by that
point, and the dubious odor produced by the White Castle burgers helped cover
it up.
So
we all made it back to the Motor Oil by 5 pm, and although some of us had
significantly lighter wallets, I like to think that we are all a little more
anxious for spring to arrive; if that were possible. Now, someone get out there and give that damn bank thermometer a
kick. There’s ridin’ to be done.
Steffan Fay
Firsts
Steffan
Fay 3/19/01
I
took my first ride of the season this weekend.
Aside from the requisite melt-water and left over winter sand and gravel
it was a very pleasurable, albeit cautiously enjoyed experience. There must be enough loose aggregate on the
streets around here to start a small concrete operation, but I managed to avoid
most of it. As the cool pre-Spring air
passed through my helmet I was moved to recall other personal motorcycling
firsts, and since Bart=s been bugging me to write an article I will entertain/bore
you with them here.
There was, of course, the first ride. For me it was a Suzuki ER 50. Picture a two-stroke air-cooled single
surrounded by a fake dirt bike frame.
At least it was red. In keeping
with the law of the land in my native England the bike came from the factory
with a 50cc motor. Displaying the
obligatory rebelliousness of a 15 year-old I had fitted an illegal Abig bore@
kit, punching the displacement up to 65cc, and the horsepower to an asphalt
shredding 3. Come the evening of my
sixteenth birthday I was on the bike and down the pub, hanging out with my
pimple-laden brethren. As usual someone
suggested going out for a Aflicker@ B going for a Aburn@ required a
real bike, of at least 80 or 125cc. As
we sailed out of the village, throttles pinned against the stop, making a
steady 35 mph, my father=s words to me as I left home that evening rung in my
ears B Ajust don=t go outside of town.@
Exactly one year later the mode of transport that had
been the essence of sixteen-year-old cool became so pitifully embarrassing that
I could no longer bring myself to ride it.
No self-respecting seventeen-year-old would be seen dead on a Afifty.@ It was nigh on
impossible to resist the siren=s call of the
cars and 125 cc race replicas. Alas, I
couldn=t afford either.
But, it didn=t take long to find my first real bike. Research by way of back issues of AWhich Bike@
magazine, and some asking around revealed that there could only be one for
me. It was the bike that changed the
pre-license, Alearner@
limit from 250cc to 125cc and 12 hp. In
the more passionate European countries it was known as AThe Widowmaker.@ It was the Yamaha RD-LC. In the desirable 350cc version it made 45
hp; staggering performance for 1982.
Since she only weighed a couple hundred pounds and I weighed half that,
I had no trouble pushing AElsie@ to a
ton-twenty, and did so far too often.
My first really memorable ride took place shortly
after I had fitted the old LC out with a few trick parts B steering damper, wider tires; the usual boy racer
stuff. It was one of those prefect
rides that one never forgets. It was
early on Sunday morning, but I was on my way in to work. The sun hung low in a clear sky, softened at
it=s interface with the rolling countryside by a light
fog; the crisp air tasted of late summer dew.
I saw only one car in the 11 rural miles between my home and work, and I
dispensed with that easily, hardly altering my line as I exited a fast
left-handed sweeper. Turn after turn of
the familiar A-road sped beneath the wheels as I worked the transmission to
stay in the two-stroke=s power band.
By the end of that trip I was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat,
and hooked on biking for life.
The
next summer I was looking for work again, and wanted out of the factory. In the 70s young men and women made good
money delivering small parcels around London by motorcycle. The traffic was bad enough that the
traditional method of using a taxi when you had a rush delivery was getting
less efficient; on two wheels lane-splitting made all the difference, letting
you make progress through the worst gridlock. Unfortunately, this was the late
80s. The fax machine had stolen a huge
chunk of the business, and competition had bought the money making potential
down. So started my first experience
earning money on my motorcycle. The
tool for the job was a Honda VT500, decked out in the company color scheme B orange. It
used almost as much oil as my old two-stroke, and handled like a swine on a
staff. There was the gray color that my
face took on from the diesel soot, which never seemed to get wash fully out at
the end of the day and the extra aggressiveness displayed towards one by the
taxi drivers and truckers. This was
full contact sport, and my courier=s
hard bags had the tire marks to prove it, courtesy of the moving semi I got
wedged against lane-splitting a gap I had no business being in. Then there was the time I got a boot full of
searing hot exhaust when I caught it on the tailpipe of a grid-locked cage as
filtered too closely around back of it.
There were some bright spots B making home deliveries to minor rock stars and
celebrities, midday snoozes at the iron butt motel in Trafalgar Square and Hyde
Park. I was moved to quit one morning
when I found out that one of my colleagues had run into a kid on a pedestrian
crossing. Neither one of them came out
of it very well. I was now officially
the only one accident-free on the team, and I didn=t like those odds.
Which brings me to my first BMW. My first Asensible@ bike. If you
would have told me 15 years ago that I would be riding one of those
sit-up-and-beg codger-mobiles, favored by the rozzers and old gits sporting
disgusting old Belstaffs, open faced lids and goggles, I would have laughed in
your face. But over the years BMW and I
have grown towards each other. The
machines have improved their power to weight ratio, sport top shelf brakes and
suspension, while keeping that legendary reliability. I actually now care about that reliability, of maintenance and
tire wear. My oilhead roadster carried
me over almost 20,000 trouble free miles last year, including 2400 over the
weekend of the Minnesota 2000. I hope
to keep it long after I have become one of those old gits in a Belstaff, poking
around the swap table at some rally, waxing lyrical about how great the old
Telelever suspension of the late 90s is.
By then I should have reached another first, when the odometer on the
Roadster clocks its first million miles.
New
Board meeting time announced
In order to avoid a conflict with the traditional
First Thursday/Norton Owner=s Club meeting,
the BMWMOCM board meeting has been moved to the first Tuesday of the month,
starting with the April 3rd meeting, at Motor Oil Café, at 7:30 p.m.
FYI : There is a
Two Stroke owner=s club that meets second Thursdays at the Triple Rock
Social Club on the West Bank (Cedar @I-94).
Events Calendar
April 3rd: board meeting at Motor
Oil Café, 7:30 p.m.
April 12th: club meeting at Leo=s, Cty. Rd. 46 at I-35
south in Lakeville, 7:30 p.m.
April 14th: club and MOA mileage
contests begin. Verification
available at Motor Oil Café, from noon to 6 p.m.
April 17th: Wild Goose Run, noon
Sunday at the Pyramid Restaurant, near Horicon, WI.
April 29th: BMW flea market in
Pecatonica, IL.
May
2nd-6th:
Spring Qualifier to Branson, MO.
Deposit required, 4 rooms
left as of 3/29/01! Contact
Darrell Penning.
May
18th-21st:
27th Great River Road Rally, sponsored by the Madison BMW club,
just south of Prairie du Chien, WI.
June
1st-3rd:
Hiawatha Rally, Money Creek Haven.
Yes, volunteers are still needed!
Contact Nate Birkholz (birkholz@visi.com) or Molly to do your part.
|
|
Sheldon Moe is our Activities
Coordinator. You can reach him @
763.323.4932 or sandmmoe@webtv.net.
Steffan Fay is our web meister. Contact
him at sfay@odbs.com,
and please visit the club website at www.bmwmocm.com.
Deadline for newsletter ads
or submissions is the 21st of the month. Really, it is. Contact
Bart at blbakker@isd.net or phone
651.645.7796.
Club Officers
Molly Gilbert, President 612.712.0045
Kevin kocur, Vice-president 763.566.0243
Jeff Oden, Treasurer 612.922.8258
Michelle Moe, Secretary 763.323.4932
Larry Stern, board member 651.223.3743
Deb Westberg, Board member 763.754.1614
Mike Donohue, Board member 651.633.2262
Bob Ekberg, Board member 651.690.5968
Dale Peterson, past President 651.739.4623
Midwest Cycle Supply
For all your accessory needs.
4300 Nicollet Ave., Mpls. 612.825.9774.
Dick=s Porting
Flow porting, valve grinding,
polishing and boring.
Richard P. Snyder
16445 Valley Dr. NW
Anoka, MN 55304
763.427.7195
Leo=s South AWe Sell Fun@
BMW/Suzuki/Kawasaki
County road 46 & i-35 in
Lakeville
95..435.5371
www.leossouth.com
Judson Cycle Sales
BMW/Moto Guzzi
Peacefully located west of Mankato
on Hwy. 68. Your hosts, Ron and
Carolyn.
Phone/fax 507.947.3852.
For Sale: 1984 R80ST, 19,000 miles, light and nimble, great
riding position, $3495.
For Sale: 1964 BMW R69S.
This /2 has about 25,000 miles, original paint, a great classic, $4,500.
For Sale: 1976 BMW R90/6, black, large tank, 25,000 miles,
5 speed, very sweet, $3,495.
For Sale: Nolan and Shoei flip-up helmets, $50 each.
Contact Bob Cox at 651.489.6467.
For Sale: FirstGear Kilimanjaro jacket, size XL, like new,
$165. John Bleifuss at 952.975.9746.
Wanted: a Honda CT70 or similar small motorcycle suitable
for a ten year old. Prefer something
mechanically sound, cosmetics less important.
Bart at 651.645.779
For Sale: 1998 Triumph Tiger 900. 30,000 miles, tank bag,
Corbin seat, Givi top case, ScottOiler, other extras. $5,800. Bart Bakker at
651.645.7796.
For Sale: Leather jacket, black size 40-42, insulated,
nylon lining, $110.
Aerostich Gloves ATriple
Digit@ rain covers,
new size L, $33.
Aerostich Ultrasuede triangle, new, blue, $20.
Radar detector ear piece, $3.
System 2 helmet screw, $3.
Cargo net, $2.
Battery cover shock cord, $1.
Contact Darrell Penning at 952.445.7343 (evenings).
BMW Motorcycle Owner=s
Club of Minnesota
155 Faye Street
St. Paul, MN 55119
