Just returned from the BMWRA rally!

[SCJJR65]

Well, we got home this afternoon from the BMW Rider's Association 2007 national rally, and it was a good one!

The official attendance according to BMWRA was 3,009 attendees, a new record!

LOTS of Beemers, more than you could look at!  Didn't see all that many R65s, maybe 6 total (never found Sue's "LRB", or Aida, sadly), and surprisingly, there were a lot of "other brands" there as well.

There was a nice "vintage" display there, and two large vendor's tents, selling anything and everything a bike rider could possibly want!

My lovely wife Pattimarie even won one of the major door prizes, a Olympia three-season touring jacket, valued at $250!  (Unfortunately, it's a men's size small, so we may end up having to sell it.)

I took a lot of mediocre photos, and would like to post them in case anyone wants to see them.  I thought I could use PhotoBucket, but after posting only 10 of them I got a message telling me I had reached the maximum number of photos for the "free" slideshow I was allowed, but I could "upgrade" and pay for a "deluxe" level slide show.  I think not.  Does anyone know of another free web photo posting service that lets you put up more than 10 lousy pics?

Anyway, the whole rally was great, and you can't beat the Biltmore House for a backdrop!  First rate, all the way!  Here's at least one photo, of me and Pattimarie in front of the BMWRA booth at the rally.

[NC Steve]

Welcome back John, and glad to hear a good time was had by all. I'm looking forward to hearing others' impressions of the rally too, and seeing lots of pics.
But Photobucket cut you off at 10 pics?? That doesn't sound right, at all. I've got several hundred loaded into my "free account", if fact I moved my entire iPhoto file over in case the 'puter ever crashes, and it hasn't even slowed down (not that it's all that speedy). Might want to double-check that, or try pushing some more buttons, something. :-?

Meanwhile, though, there's always the Kodak sites, plus Yahoo, MSN, Flikr (I think it's free), etc.
Hope you can get it straight soon, and we'll look forward to the full report! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

ps: Just checked my Photobucket info, in the Account Options file, and it says I have 374 images, which is only 4% (40 MB) of my allowable Free Album size, or 1 GB. Something definitely ain't right down there.

[msbuck]

Welcome back, John.  Glad you had a great time.  Sadly, you missed me because I wasn't there.    Stuff at work...
Although we were at Willville on Wednesday night and the campground was full of Beemers headed south for the RAlly.  Looking forward to more pics!  [smiley=camera_sm.jpg]

I'm wondering about your limit at photobucket...might have something to do with the slideshow aspect of it.  I created a free acount and downloaded my pics,  never tried to create a slideshow.  I know I have more that 10 pics as well...Hope you figure it out so we can see more !!

The guys at the campground were talking about the camping being out in the sun (no shade) and being a long way from the house.  How was the camping, etc?  Give us a good write-up of the whole event.  CONGRATS to Pattimarie for winning that prize!  She might be able to take it to a local store and exchange it.  Worth a try at least.  Which jacket was it?  We carry Olympia at Capitol,  really nice jackets!   [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[SCJJR65]

OK, I'll give the PhotoBucket another try.  Is there a way to "rearrange" the photos in my album somehow to put them in some semblance of order?  I just kind of put them up as they cam off the camera before I realized that they weren't in any sort of order.

[NC Steve]

Uuuuuhh, I missed that the 10-pic-limit was a slideshow deal. I've never tried one of those myself, so...

But, I've always just copy & pasted the URL links here in whatever order I wanted them to be in, which works fine.
Besides, what's needed most right now is quantity  

[SCJJR65]

Well, damnit, I can't figure out how to "rearrange" the photos in the album for the rally to make any sense, so I guess I'll just have to give you what I hope is the link to the album so it can be viewed.  I'm sorry it's not like I wanted it to be!

The rally (from my point of view) was great, as I said earlier.  Now, PM and I didn't camp out there, so I can't comment on how good the shower facilities were.  There appeared to be plenty of restrooms (well, port-a-potties) on the grounds that were regularly serviced.  There was a food/drink tent and beer booth right smack dab in the middle of the vendor area (with inflated prices, to no one's surprise) and a large tent for the music concerts that were offered each evening.  Hell, there was even a tent that sold "premium cigars"!

The rally was held in one of the many expansive cow pastures a few miles away from the Biltmore House itself.  The area where the tent camping was located was pretty flat and mostly devoid of trees, and fairly dusty.  A truck sprinkling water on the road made rounds on a regular basis to keep the level of dust down.  (There was a second campsite about a half mile away from the main campsite and located beside a river, which was designated the "quiet" campground, in the midst of many trees and grass.  That's where I would have camped if we had opted to rough it")

Plenty of vendors as well, selling damn near everything under the sun for the bike or rider.  I bought a couple of small reflective "Moto-Man" stickers to put on the back of my luggage on Britta.

I enjoyed checking out the various sites occupied by clubs, with their banners flying for all to see where they hailed from.  I saw BMW clubs from Cleveland, Minneapolis, Tampa, New York, Kansas City and Denver, to name a few.  Saw lots and lots of really cool club T-shirts, too!  (BTW, our club finally got in our new T-shirts just before the rally.  I'll try to post a couple of pics of them, if anyone is interested.)

I'd have to say the most common Beemer at the rally would have to be the R1200GS.  Seemed like about every other bike I saw parked or rumbling by was one of them!  Also lots of the R1150RTs and the newer '06 and '07 models as well.  I only saw one LS, a silver one.  (I'm guessing Sue had to be there, but just didn't see it.)  

I didn't do any riding the area roads while at the rally.  I wanted to hang with Pattimarie, since it was her first rally.  She was intent on taking a tour of the Biltmore Estate Winery, which we did Saturday afternoon.  It was really interesting, too!  We got to sample several of the wines produced there as well, and even found a wine that I would drink!  (I'm basically a beer man, myself.)   We bought a bottle of their "American Reisling" to enjoy after we got back home.

The Vintage tent had several nice Beemers, though I didn't see any bike older than 1950.  My favorite was a 1966 R27 single.  I think if I ever find myself in a position to "acquire" a vintage BMW, this would be it!  Riding around on a 250cc single would have to be a hoot!!  

Well, that's all I can think of for now.  Here's the link that I hope will take you to the photos:

http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w145/SCJGJanssen/

[Melena]

Great rally report John!   [smiley=thumbsup.gif]  

You must have figured out the Photobucket thing as I see you had way more than 10 pictures on there.    I love seeing all the different bikes and especially the vintage ones.  Those are so cool.  I really like the old side car rigs.  Great pictures!  

I'm glad you had such a good time.   So Pattimarie must have had a good time too, then.    Nice to have a picture of you guys.  Now I know who I'm talking to.    I had it in my mind that I was going to call you on your cell phone Saturday at some point.  But noooooooooooo!  I forgot all about it.     I remembered about 7:00 last night which would have made it about 10:00 there.  That's too late.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.  

[SCJJR65]

Yeah, I think she enjoyed herself, although her knee gave her some trouble by the end of the day on Saturday.  Winning the jacket sure perked her up a bit!  

It will be interesting to see where the RA will hold their national rally next year, since it was agreed upon by most in attendance that Asheville will be hard to top.

I'm hoping that by next year that Pattimarie will either be riding her own bike again or at least will want to ride two-up with me!  

[suecanada]

Wow am I ever slow here! Yup I was at the RA camping in the hot dusty field and I enjoyed evrything...except the showers as it's too hot to shower and get your clothes back on without a lot of dancing around and tugging over a wet body. Showers did have a tendency to get grimy and plugged up as hair would accunultate in the drains. Other than that it was a swell place to hang out. Boy, Pattimarie won an Olympic jacket??!!!!! I bought the ladies AST high Viz jacket at Acme Motorcycles which was the main bike shop for the Rally. I thought I was to get a "rally deal" but not so...no deal..full price. I bet I could have done better at capitol in Raleigh. Even missed seeing Aïda in Cary on the next weekend. I was pooping out and hung exclusively with my friend there and didn't ride at all in Cary. I didn't even take the bike to see his former owner!  Soryy I missed everyone. Now I did cellphone John J. 2 times and Aida once but no reply so I may have blown the call although I was able to leave messages.

I had to ride the F650GS down there as LRB needs a valve job I guess and I would not want to place him under undue stress until the operation is completed.  Good thing too as the going gets pretty hot and LRB would have hated it.  Got a bRown Sidestand from matt at Boxerworks and managed to get a replacement latch for David's R1100RT luggage which got broken. We had a time getting away what with a broken headlight on David's RT and lost brake caliper bolts and smashed luggage mounting on his bike. We rode the I-75 on the way down then dave left after the rally for home. I stayed down and rode all the great roads in the smokies and then headed off to Cary NC on the Friday after the rally. I think I'd like to go to the Gathering of the Clans next year. I ran into a few riders heading there. maybe LRB will be fixed by then. Although, when the going gets tough I do like to know I have ABS and heated grips and extra driving lights etc.etc... LRB is basic but then again I would probably be more careful about where and when I am riding. I stayed way too long in the saddle on the Tuesday I came home...14.5 hours is way too long for me and I knew it...too dumb to stop. I knew my brain was frying when I got on the HY Thruway in a thunderstorm..no way off. and 18 wheelers around..now that's dumb in retrospect.

I didn't take many photos this time. Really sorry I missed John and PM.  I am going to the smokies again in late August and early sept.....any chance to meet again???

[SCJJR65]

Well, Sue, if you do find yourself riding down south again in the near future, gimme a shout before you head out and I'll try to meet you and your party somewhere in NC or northern GA. It's been a few years since I rode in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The last time I was around there, it was bumper to bumper traffic!

Yeah, PM was shocked at winning the Olympia jacket, to say the least!  Everyone was joking at her being a "rally virgin" and winning something as nice as the jacket.  Of course, neither of us can wear the damn thing, since it's a mens size small and as far as me being able to zip it up, that ship has long since sailed!  

Sounds like your F650GS performed admirably on your trip!  I test rode one like you bought last summer, and really liked it a lot!  It was just as fast (if not faster) than Britta, and really flickable in the turns.

 I feel awful that I didn't catch your phone calls while at the rally, too.  I am glad you did make it down to my neck of the woods, though!  Hope you and David had a good time!  One of these days, I intend to ride across Canada to Alaska!   8-)

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Nice pictures and report, John.  I'm glad to see Pattimarie is doing as well as she is.  My shoulder is with me everyday now, and it was nothing compared to what she experienced.

The R26 was neat.  It looks like they hauled their camping gear to the rally on it, from the board and the protective measures taken on the bungee fastening points.  Kinda different without pinstrips.  I have to have my pinstrips.

I really liked the Triumph with the sidecar.  I may have to steal that one from you!  (If money were no object) I would almost consider that as an outfit, except for the chain drive.

Now the /2 conversion rig on the trailer, that could come right home with me.

[dewjantim]

Wow am I ever slow here! Yup I was at the RA camping in the hot dusty field and I enjoyed evrything...except the showers as it's too hot to shower and get your clothes back on without a lot of dancing around and tugging over a wet body. Showers did have a tendency to get grimy and plugged up as hair would accunultate in the drains. Other than that it was a swell place to hang out. Boy, Pattimarie won an Olympic jacket??!!!!! I bought the ladies AST high Viz jacket at Acme Motorcycles which was the main bike shop for the Rally. I thought I was to get a "rally deal" but not so...no deal..full price. I bet I could have done better at capitol in Raleigh. Even missed seeing Aïda in Cary on the next weekend. I was pooping out and hung exclusively with my friend there and didn't ride at all in Cary. I didn't even take the bike to see his former owner!  Soryy I missed everyone. Now I did cellphone John J. 2 times and Aida once but no reply so I may have blown the call although I was able to leave messages.

I had to ride the F650GS down there as LRB needs a valve job I guess and I would not want to place him under undue stress until the operation is completed.  Good thing too as the going gets pretty hot and LRB would have hated it.  Got a bRown Sidestand from matt at Boxerworks and managed to get a replacement latch for David's R1100RT luggage which got broken. We had a time getting away what with a broken headlight on David's RT and lost brake caliper bolts and smashed luggage mounting on his bike. We rode the I-75 on the way down then dave left after the rally for home. I stayed down and rode all the great roads in the smokies and then headed off to Cary NC on the Friday after the rally. I think I'd like to go to the Gathering of the Clans next year. I ran into a few riders heading there. maybe LRB will be fixed by then. Although, when the going gets tough I do like to know I have ABS and heated grips and extra driving lights etc.etc... LRB is basic but then again I would probably be more careful about where and when I am riding. I stayed way too long in the saddle on the Tuesday I came home...14.5 hours is way too long for me and I knew it...too dumb to stop. I knew my brain was frying when I got on the HY Thruway in a thunderstorm..no way off. and 18 wheelers around..now that's dumb in retrospect.

I didn't take many photos this time. Really sorry I missed John and PM.  I am going to the smokies again in late August and early sept.....any chance to meet again???

I have been to many rallies over the years and the "Gathering of the Clans" rally is consistently the best. Charlie Smith always does an excellent job of putting on the rally and the "High Country Campground" is the best I ever stayed in. If you go to only one rally a year, make it this one. Beautiful scenery, roads, campground, and those crazy airheads with their unlimited supply of beer and hospitality. Nothing like it......Dew.

[Joan]

http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w145/SCJGJanssen/

 

W000t! They had a CIGAR TENT! How cool is that!

Thanks for snapping and sharing so many photos! With a nice frosty homebrew in hand it's almost like being there.  [smiley=1drink.gif]