Back from BMWMOA in West Bend, WI

[nhmaf]

Hi guys and gals,

I just barely got back home from attending the BMW MOA rally.   As it was a long ways out and the little R65 isn't
all back together I took my Kawasaki Concours/GTR instead - MUCH more comfortable for me, too.  Anyhow,
I met up with Suecanada and her group, and we enjoyed beers together and lots of conversation over the course of
the rally.   Also met up with at least one former R65 forum member, R65Guy from Arkansas, who was actually riding
his R1150R.  He still has the R65 and will not part with it.   I saw at least (2) Henna Red R65LS, and one in Polaris Silver, plus
one or two monoshock R65s as well.   Also met Arla Hile while at the bike judging, and visited the airheads tent.  Although we
had a heck of a rainstorm one night, the weather overall was pretty nice, and I had a great time.   The attendance was about 7800,
somewhat less than last year, but it was well organized, with plenty of exhibitors, seminars, food, beer and entertainment (everything
from German Brass Bands and traditional dancers to country/bluegrass, R&B, and the closing finale - a Blues Brothers cover band that
sounded fantastic !)

I gotta commend Stuie on the R65 shirt design - it attracted alot of positive attention and comments, and caused at least 6 people
to come talk to me about their R65s and who hadn't joined out group yet.   I should have printed out some sort of business cards
like Rob did, but I hadn't expected to end up being an ambassador, of sorts.    Anyhow, people liked the shirts, and they worked
very well for Sue and other to identify me, and for total strangers to start talking about R65s and for me to promote our group here.
Maybe if we can get official virtual club approval from BMW with the patch design we could find a way to include that also in a run of T shirts.
Hopefully we'll see an influx of some new members shortly from the shirt and my giving out our web address.

Total mileage for the round trip was just barely over 2500 miles.   I'll try to post some photos later this week.

I missed you guys !
 

[Justin B.]

Cool, glad you had fun.  My wife and I wore our his-n-hers R65 shirts to Wally World and just got stared at...

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Cool, glad you had fun.  My wife and I wore our his-n-hers R65 shirts to Wally World and just got stared at...

You were not wearing the pink one, were you?  

[Justin B.]

Do you even need to ask?  

[Melena]

Pink one?  Ooops.  I wasn't going to ask.  

Glad to hear you had a great time at the rally.  And finally some of this group were able to find each other.  The T-Shirt worked!    Probably better than a flag because it would be always with you....well at least if you're wearing it.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I plan to wear mine at the Vintage races at Mid-Ohio next weekend.  
I hope it is warm enough to run around in short sleeves!    (I had to pull the comforter over me last night!)

[Ed Miller]

The Oregon Airmarshall was trying to give me a hard time at Chief Joseph for not wearing Airhead stuff.  I brought an Airhead shirt, but since he started it I didn't wear it.  The R65 shirt got lots of attention, and I told everybody about the phorum.  I even left the shirt in the bathroom and it found its way back to me.  Yeah, people notice it.  BMW people anyway!

What's weird is when I wear my Airheads shirt to work.  Everybody misunderstands, but they're correct anyway.  How can that be?

[nhmaf]

I have posted some of my photos from the BMWMOA rally in West Bend in photobucket.
Nothing fancy or likely to win any prizes, but there is a photo of me wearing my R65 shirt,
with SueCanada, and my cousin at the tenting site.   There were some very nice hacks there
as well, I only got a few snaps of them.

The champagne-color K100LT with the matching STEIB was nice - we spoke to the lady
who owned it.  She and her husband were from Germany originally and learned to ride
on the single cylinder BMWs and R50 back in the 50s.  They had bought the sidecar and had it shipped
to their "new" home in Canada, and painted it to match.  

There were many bands/entertainers there, and I think my cousin and I ate enough bratwurst and
sour kraut to last at least a year, all in all - a good time was had by many, even though we didn't
win any of the raffles.

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t138/nhmaf/

[Joan]

There were many bands/entertainers there, and I think my cousin and I ate enough bratwurst and
sour kraut to last at least a year, all in all - a good time was had by many, even though we didn't
win any of the raffles.

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t138/nhmaf/

Aw maaaaan... looks like I missed a really good party. Thanks for putting up the pics!

[R65Guy]

Also met up with at least one former R65 forum member, R65Guy from Arkansas, who was actually riding his R1150R.  He still has the R65 and will not part with it.

----

Hey NHMAF, enjoyed chatting with you at West Bend.  I had a great time as well.  Glad you and your cousin made it back home fine.  I finally got reregistered on the new site after being a member of the old forum a few years back.  I have to correct you however - I am from Missouri not Arkansas.  Perhaps you didn't notice that I was wearing shoes   (local joke)

[nhmaf]

Hey !  Welcome back !!

Sorry that I accused you of being from Arkansas - even though you were wearing shoes you never once said "Show Me" !
 (sorry couldn't resist)  

My cousin Dean is determined to get one of those BBQ cookers that you were talking about...

[R65Guy]

Actually I am close enough to Arkansas to regularly enjoy the great roads they have there.  We have some great roads in SW MO too!  Maybe they will have the national rally in our neighborhood again.  Last time was Branson in 1975.  That was one of my inspirations to buy a BMW.  I made the trip to Vermont last year and thoroughly enjoyed New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate NY.  I will post some West Bend pics if I get a chance.  I don't remember if I got a picture of you with your R65 shirt on - I will have to look.

Hopefully the R65 will get a remake this winter.  Off with the Quicksilver fairing and back to semi-naked.  I am thinking about a small shield or cafe/bullet fairing to knock a bit of wind.  The Quicksilver is great for touring but you can really feel the extra weight on the front end when trying to push it in the twisties.  Since I use the 1150 for touring, the R65 will get used exclusively for backroads carving in the future - that is what it does best!

<Neal>

[Ed Miller]

<snip>
Hopefully the R65 will get a remake this winter.  Off with the Quicksilver fairing and back to semi-naked.  I am thinking about a small shield or cafe/bullet fairing to knock a bit of wind.  The Quicksilver is great for touring but you can really feel the extra weight on the front end when trying to push it in the twisties.  snip
<Neal>
 

Especially on downhill curves, right?  I'll be getting some heavy duty springs for my R65 to see if that helps.

[R65Guy]

Yup, it takes all the fun out of those fast downhill sweepers.  I am gonna experiment with longer preload spacers and if that doesn't help I will spring for some new springs.  But first things first, we'll see how it does after the fairing goes back on the shelf in the garage and we get naked. 8-)  It has been several years so I have forgotten how well it handled before.  Hmmm, now where did I put that darned headlight assembly?

<Neal>

[nhmaf]

I can tell you that putting new Progressive fork springs, with their supplied, er, " spacer" (PVC piping) and some 10W fork oil really firmed up the front end of my LS.   Now, I'm around 210 lbs and 6' 2" tall so I am possibly putting more force on the handlebars than some folks here, and this maybe too stiff of a setup for them.  With the new progressive shocks on the back set on their third setting, this bike doesn't wallow and feel fairly solid in turns, especially with those new BT45 tires.

I'd rather have something other than PVC pipe as a front fork spring spacer, but I guess one wouldn't want anything very hard in there, as a hard/sharp edge could gouge the inside of the fork tube and cause other problems.. maybe a softer metal (such as aluminum alloy) would do the trick, but not so soft that it would itself start dropping aluminum bits down into the slider/damper rod assembly.... Hmm, maybe another project for Justin B and his magic lathe?