September President's Column

Our new meeting location at the Elks club so far seems to be a hit. With a growing membership we have found a place where we can continue to add tables and still not out grow the space for some time. We had 76 members at the first meeting there. The food was good, hot, plentiful and homemade. The coffee was nice and strong, the orange juice and water flowed. The price was reasonable and the management is very flexible and willing to work with us on the menu and layout. The parking lot is nice and flat and has easy access and it is somewhat centrally located. I hope you will join us there for our October meeting the 21st at 9:00.

Officially any ride that is set up by the club or club member in the clubs name is a destination ride. Why? The biggest reason is that we have such a diverse membership, the difference in riding experience, riding styles and types of bikes makes it very hard to make a fun group ride for all involved. Also the fact is when you get more than a few bikes in a group it becomes difficult to pass or stay together. This all became very clear during a few group rides last season and have since decided to make everything a destination ride. By definition a destination ride allows everyone to ride at their own pace, style and level. If people want to ride together that is always an option of your choosing. We generally set the destination as a place to have a meal and socialize. This gives us a chance to interact as a club and yet remain individuals in our riding preferences. We have several destination rides in the works for October.

Speaking of rides and new things to try. We are setting up a poker run September 29th. Instead of going to bars or establishments we will be looking for trivia clues along a route. There will be several routes both dirt and pavement with short and long options. We will be starting and ending the run at the dealership off Powers where we will be treated to dinner after the ride. The proceeds of the poker run will be split between the Ronald McDonald house and the winner of the poker hand. If we get enough participants we may split the pot to have a more winners. Come to the dealership at 9 am to get the route sheets and buy in. The first bike will be leaving at 930. Last bike out will be 10:30. We will begin pulling cards by 3:30, dinner will start at 4:30 and the awards will be handed out at 6. Cost is $10 per poker hand. Should be fun.

Dawn P.

President's Message - June

Diversity,  I am noticing that we are becoming more and more diverse, in membership ages, kinds of bikes we own and our interests. It is such a good thing for us. we have grown to around 130 members now. There needs to be more things suggested for events that are more diverse and interesting to these diverse groups. We can no longer rest on the fact that most of us are at Rallies all summer so we don’t need to plan rides or dinners or an evening mixer at a club. Some of you may be interested in going on a 4 day ride around the state, others just want a day ride and lunch somewhere new. Is dirt your thing? Twisty roads at speeds some of would cringe to try? Do you want to learn something about you bike and maintenance, or become a better rider? Are you just here to mingle with other riders? I really want to hear from our members, as we finish planning events for the year, what do you want from your club? What do you have to offer? Where do you go? Do you have a favorite secret road you want to share or a restaurant that is a great ride to get to? Lets GO! You don’t have to be on a committee to set up an event or attend a planning meeting.

If we continue to do what we have always done, we will always get what we always got. Let us know, or better yet, get involved!

Until the next time, go ride somewhere!

Dawn P.

President's Message - May

When I was asked to serve as club president this year, I was reluctant, not because I did not want to be president, but because I found writing something each month for the newsletter and website daunting. I have been thinking for weeks what to write, something interesting and well, intelligent. There have been lots of new things happening at our dealership in their new location and so I thought I would bring you some of the News. I have no stake in the dealership, although I like the new guys that are working there, I hope you will find them to be a friendly and helpful as I have.

After working for Pikes Peak Motor sports for 7 years in the service department, Larry is retiring from the dealership, Larry has  lots of projects planned for his new found time off. He says he has lots and lots and lots of yard work to catch up on as well as a whole stable full of motorcycles that have been neglected for too long. He has told me that because he spends so many hours at the dealership that the last thing he wants to do on his off time is to ride or have much to do with anything to do with motorcycles, so riding is high on the list for sure. As are his 10 grandchildren and extensive family in the Chicago area. He plans on visiting them often and will enjoying seeing the grandkidskids grow up. 

Taking over the service department is Jim. He has been riding BMWs for 10 years and I have been told that He actually would bleed Silver, White and Blue if you cut him open, he loves the brand that much. Jim moved to Colorado in 2003, he hung around the shop on 21st street a lot and and finally they got him to join the team part time in 2006. When the dealership was sold and moved he went with them, but was laid off in 2010. He continued to hang out when he could and when the dealership moved to its current location he was brought back. Originally he was in the sales department where he considered himself an adventure consultant. He enjoyed the opportunity to talk to perspective new riders, old timers and first time BMW riders alike. He told me he learned a lot from the time on the sales floor but was pleased to be offered the job in service.

I have been hearing all kinds of good things coming from members about the dealership. They are getting busier and getting permission to hire more employees to keep caught up. The gear selection is filling up, although some things are still on back order, more is on the way.

One member, on his way to the dealer late in the day got caught in traffic on Powers. He rolled into the parking lot at 5:58. He was met by a salesman and when seeing the time assumed he would be turned away. He was not. he was taken to the parts department where he and the new parts guy, Tom, proceeded to look up the alternator belt he was looking for. Although Tom is still learning the ropes and the parts system, he was unafraid to have his customer help him find the correct belt. Part number found and belt located on the shelves, our member with new belt in hand was impressed enough with this level of customer service that he relayed this story to me.

SO if you find yourself in need of a part, a service, some tires, new gear, or heck even a new bike, give the guys a chance, let them prove to you that they are willing to go the extra mile to provide you the best service possible. Although there have been missteps and unfortunate customer service blunders in the past by previous staff,  I think that this is a turning point, with a fresh start, new employees, and a new building and a new commitment to true customer service. They are trying hard to make it work.

Larry will be there for the rest of the month, so go and shake his hand and say farewell, introduce yourself to Jim and Tom if you have not met them yet. Ben is the Manager and if you need anything that the others are unable to provide, feel free to find him, his door is always open and he will do what ever he can to make sure you get what you need. Rob is one of the salesman, he seems to always be there, with his friendly smile and willing to show you bikes they have on the floor. There are 2 technicians on staff now so service will be quicker. I have not had the opportunity to talk to them yet, they are always very busy when I have been in the shop.

The coffee is always on, our new bulletin board will be done soon. It will include an electronic frame with pictures of events from the past few years. Awards and certificates. It is our dealership after all. 

Dawn Pastorious

President

President's Message - April

I would like to start this Presidents Column by saying thank you. I am honored that I have the opportunity to be club president this year. For those of you who don’t know me here is a little about me. I am a Colorado Springs Native. Although I was raised around motorcycles, I Have been riding for 4 years and a member of the club for 3, I got involved with helping the club my 2nd year, I served for 2 years as club secretary and have enjoyed helping with the events committee from the very beginning. Organizing events is what I truly love doing for this club. There have been some amazing gatherings in the the past few years and I look forward to working with our new officers to have a great year of events planned. 

The Pikes Peak BMW riders has been a charted club for 37 years. That is a long time for a group to survive. There have been ups and downs in member numbers, there have also been times when not much was going on, but for 37 years this club has kept moving. There are traditions that have been set like our Sunday morning breakfast meetings that seem unmovable and there are few ideas that have not been tried at least once over the years. There are members who have been part of this club from the very beginning, we are lucky enough to still have 3 charter members still with us. Moving forward we must continue to find ways to keep our club alive, thriving and solvent. That requires strong leadership from a dedicated officers council and input from our members at large. Volunteers to make events run smoothly and feedback when they don’t.  One thing that has not changed is that this is our club. It may have a long history with many funny stories to be told.  Whether you have just joined us or have been a member for many years, there is a reason you joined and a reason you have stayed.

I encourage each of you to think about what you want your club to do, be and participate in. We have a pretty open calendar right now and we are going to try and fill some of it at our first officers meeting. We will announce the upcoming events at our next meeting. Please let us know if there is something you want added. Are you willing to help plan an event or volunteer to help with another event your help is always welcome. With any event we plan there may be huge turn out or there may be only a few, but each event adds to our club in some way. Take a picture, write a paragraph or two, send it in, the newsletter and the web site are there for our enjoyment. We really need your participation in both. 

Most of all with the beautiful spring weather upon us, get out and ride often, ride hard and ride safe. See you out there.

Dawn Pastorius 

President

A year is such a short time.

It’s March, club election time!  I’m always a bit shocked, as my year’s advance, of just how short a year seems.  Last March I don’t recall Jay and I had even thought of a U.S. Four Corners Motorcycle Tour, and now that trip last June and July seems so long ago. The club campout in Buena Vista was one of the highlights of my year; I hope it was one of yours too.  I took the train ride, several others took a long Colorado mountain road loop and still others took an extended dirt ride.  We all got back and had a great time around the camp fire telling the tales long into a beautiful Colorado night.

 We did our annual club ride up Pikes Peak, a ride up Mt. Evans, a ride to Bents Fort, the Taos lunch ride, we saw wild Mustangs on the road on that one, and several more group rides.  We’ve eaten German, Mexican, Thai, Pizza, Mid-Eastern, and several others ride to eat evenings.  It always strikes me everyone is smiling and laughing when we get together.  I also notice there are a few more new faces at every event.  This is a great club.

At Novemberfest, on behalf of The International Council of BMW Clubs, Deb presented Matt Parkhouse “The Friend of the Marque,” an International honor for a lifetime of dedicated contributions to the world of BMW.  We celebrated Helene’s birthday at Bex and Lee’s home; no one could possibly be more gracious hosts.  We had an excellent turn out in Castle Rock on a spectacular New Year’s Day and a lunch with the Denver club. And then there was Procrastinators….I never would have believed we could pull off any event with roughly 75% of the total membership in attendance and we managed to have a door prize drawn for each and every person present.  The room was excellent, the Bronco’s on TV weren’t so excellent, and the conversation and friendship was lively.  The organizers made it all appear effortless.  I thank you one and all for making this an outstanding year for the club and an outstanding year for me personally.

We even managed to finally hammer out the new By-Laws and get compliant with BMW Motorrad by completing our new “Official” logo.

Now it’s time to keep moving forward.  I’m starting a new business, and keeping the old one.  I’ve recently been asked, and accepted, to serve a two and a half year term on the BMW MOA Board of Directors.  I’m not running for any PPBMWRR club position this year, there simply isn’t time to properly commit.  Kris Geller is likewise not running again and we all owe him thanks, and possibly a beer, for his service the past few years.  Craig Kloppenberg is also not serving again due to other commitments.  He has done an extraordinary job in serving on the events committee and as you can see above they have done an excellent job.  As for the rest of the officers, including events, we are fortunate to have members willing to serve again.  Dawn, Susanna, Deb, Steve, Jay, and Niel have volunteered for positions in the new club year and we have several people who have contacted the nominating committee offering to serve who did not hold official positions last year.  Please come to the elections on March 11 at Maggie Maes.  It’s important, it’s our club.

Some of our members won’t be at the March meeting as they will be in Daytona at bike week; several more members will leave the week after the meeting to spend a week camping in the Florida Keys.  Ah spring …and it all begins again!  This year both BMW national clubs are holding their national rallies within a day’s ride (OK, maybe a longish day) of Colorado Springs.  In June the BMW RA will hold their national at Copper Mountain, Co. and in July the BMW MOA hosts their national in Sedalia, Mo.  If you’ve never been to a national rally, or even if you have, it’s an event not to be missed. Plan it and do it.

Well….by now you all know what I think ….ride, RIDE, RIDE!!

How to Have Fun in January

Personally, I had a blast at the Procrastinator’s.  It may not however be for the reasons you may assume.  I was sick, just a bad head cold and unrelenting headache.  I missed about 3 day’s work the week before the party and didn’t feel much better on Saturday.  So no, I didn’t have my woo hoo party hat on.  So why did I enjoy the party you may ask?   

Here’s what happened for this year’s party to come about.  We had a change of venue, which entailed about three or four officers/events committee meetings.  One of our members spent dozens, yes dozens, of hours chasing down leads for a restaurant to host the event.  Not too pricy a menu, a room we could privately use without an absurd room charge, a good parking area, a diverse quality menu, no unrealistic minimum, no $40- $50 per head buffet, a room that we could roam around and mingle, a central location.  Not a small order when six people are throwing suggestions at you to contact and scope out. 

The officers/events committee then agreed the White Elephant gift exchange had pretty well run its course.  It seems that the past several years fewer and fewer people were participating and it gets boring fairly quickly if you’re watching someone else open gag gifts.  So if no White Elephant, then what, if anything?  It was decided in about September, to attempt to collect door prizes.  We didn’t know how many we would get, we didn’t know if we would get anything more than two size extra small T-shirts.  We divided up the businesses we normally frequent and who was going to make the contacts.  As it turned out our begging garnered a door prize for everyone attending and allowed everyone back into the drawing for the three grander prized worth over $100 each.  We had numerous door prized valued between $50 and $100.  We even had a gift certificate from South Side Johnnies, the party venue.  Several of our members personally donated prizes of significant value.  These weren’t cheap junk they had laying around the house and these members aren’t business people hyping their business.  These are simply members wanting to give something back to the club.  Two of the three top prized were obtained by one of our newest members, for the good of the club.

There were untold phone calls and e-mails to coordinate RSVPs, collect the door prizes, notify the membership through multiple media of the where and when of the party, design and purchase the custom cake, get permission to bring our own food (cake) into a restaurant (that sells desert.)  There are more details than any one person will ever know.

The day of the party, several people were on site hours before the party and several people stayed long after most  went home.  It takes quite an effort to organize and distribute nearly 80 door prizes; the room was set up with about 55 seats when we arrived, not nearly enough.  I counted more than 15 people helping in one way or another during the party.  We realized that we didn’t have a plan of how to cut and serve 80 pieces of cake.   A relaxing evening like this involves hundreds of details and one can only hope most have been thought of and planned in advance.   We got to watch our glorious Bronco’s end their season on the big screen if we chose.  All and all the party ran like it was coordinated by a professional planner.  No stress, no forced structure, no one commanding.  

We had 74 people attend Procrastinators, a record number from anyone I talked with.  Our local BMW dealership had a representative in attendance, a welcome addition.  We had teamwork; we had numerous members offer heartfelt thanks for a well hosted party.  We had an incredible number of members involved in the planning and execution.  I have named no one as I don’t want to leave even one name out.  You know who you are and most of our members know who worked so hard to create this event.  I thank you one and all.  All who attended and all who made it possible.  And that, my fellow members, is why I had a blast at Procrastinators. 

Ride, RIDE, RIDE,

Stan            

Our Little Town

Let’s take a look at our motorcycle club in our little town of Colorado Springs. I do not intend for this article to exclude anyone nor sound arrogant but I believe many of our members are not aware of the extraordinary composition of our membership.  The background and accomplishments of our combination of members are so far outside of the laws of averages it’s truly remarkable.  Our club is not only the “Highest BMW Club in the USA” we have many other distinctions that I believe no other club can match, and it means something as to the very nature of what our club is.  I’ll return to explain that a bit later. 

Yesterday (Saturday, November 12^th) at our Novemberfest party, Matthew Parkhouse received an award recognizing a lifetime of volunteer service to the worldwide BMW community.  Matt received the “Friend of the Marque.”  In my opinion, and many others, this is the highest distinction a volunteer can have bestowed upon them in the BMW community. The award is given by the BMW Clubs International Council; this is the umbrella club of all the BMW automobile and motorcycle clubs worldwide. They bestow this honor on less than ten individuals, worldwide, per year.  Less than a dozen living and deceased in the USA have ever been awarded.  We have two in our little town.  The largest membership BMW motorcycle enthusiast club in the world is the BMW MOA.  Within the BMW MOA is a group called “Ambassadors.” This group represents volunteers that for various reasons have distinguished themselves as leading volunteers of the BMW MOA. The MOA has about 35,000 members and about 180 Ambassadors.  In our little town we have six Ambassadors.  Each year the BMW MOA holds a national rally for BMW enthusiasts, there have been 39 MOA National Rallies, and our little town has four National Rally Chairs, one of which has chaired 3 National Rallies.  We have a member that successfully lobbied the MOA to hold the National Rally in Colorado Springs.  That member is an Ambassador, in part because of that effort. 

To just hit the highlights of some of our members; we have a member who races at the Bonneville Salt Flats attempting to set motorcycle world speed records, we have active motorcycle drag racers, we have retired vintage motorcycle racers, successful Iron Butt Rally finishers, other long distance riders of some note, international motorcycle tour guides, members who have toured the far corners of the earth by motorcycle, highly accomplished off road riders, two world class airhead mechanics, sidecar experts, motorcycle collectors, tuners, tire installers, motorcycle authors and regularly contributing motorcycle columnists in national magazines. I’m comfortable in saying most any one of these afore mentioned people will gladly share their time and experience to enhance your enjoyment of your motorcycle. 

These are the same people you see filling many of the volunteer positions in the Pikes Peak BMW Riders currently and in the past.  At various times members of our club disagree, we are a club of individuals, but I sincerely thank all the individuals who have served as volunteers to move this club forward through their efforts.  Depending on the volunteer position it can take a little or a lot of your time.  Often times these are thankless jobs and sometimes members are far quicker to criticize than to get involved and try to implement the suggestions they so easily offer for someone else to accomplish.  Please volunteer, this is your club and there are positions available from volunteering to help a few hours to help plan or execute an event to holding a position as a club officer.  Elections are not that far off and many of our officers, me included, are not seeking re-election.  We are burning out our volunteers, as has been my recollection every year in the past several years, and it really isn’t necessary.  If a couple of dozen people would step forward to take on a small part of our annual schedule no one would be overburdened.  Please help us make our club a better club for us all to enjoy.  Ask any officer which includes Events Committee members, how to get involved and what you may be interested in and I’m sure you will be accommodated. 

ride, RIDE, RIDE!!

Stan

It's Fall! Ride! Don't Fall!

It’s fall.  Let that soak in a bit, fall is here (the equinox may disagree slightly.)  The inside of my house in Pueblo West cooled down to 70* for the first time since spring.  I no longer run the air conditioner at night and enjoy sleeping with the windows open again.  Yep it’s fall.  Are you recalling all the wonderful rides you took during the summer?  Did you wear out a few sets of tires this year?  Or…are you once again regretting rides not taken and places not visited?  There is still time.  Some of the most beautiful rides of the year are just around the corner.  The Colorado high country during the fall is some of the most spectacular riding to be had anywhere on the continent at any time and it is right outside your door.  Please don’t park your bike for the winter until you treat yourself to at least one more day/weekend/week of riding.  Fall is a wonderful time to slow the pace a bit.  Maybe stop a little more frequently just to look around and soak in the scenery.  Life is extremely short and precious, get out and do those things you’ve been meaning to do this summer.  I know for all those reading this, for at least some part of your life that means pushing the start button, listening to the sewing machine engine and starting just one more ride. As Billy Joel says, “Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two.” When will you realize your Beemer waits for you?

ride, RIDE, RIDE,

Stan        

Jay and Stan’s Excellent Adventure.

You may or may not be aware Jay Kuhns and I recently completed a US Four Corners Tour.  The event is sponsored by the Southern California Motorcycle Association.

The rules are simple, stop in each of the four extreme corner US cities of the lower 48 States, shoot a picture, do a little paperwork, and complete the ride within 21 days.  The event requires participants visit Madawaska, Maine, Key West, Florida, San Ysidro, California, and Blain, Washington. They may be visited in any order and a rider does not need to return to the starting corner.  The rider can start at anytime they like, it is not a group ride.

Jay and I left on June the 16^th and returned home on the 4^th of July (19 days).  It took us 12 ½ days to do the actual event, 4 days to get to Maine and 48 hours to get home from 100 miles North of Seattle. Total trip was right at 11K with about 6.5K on the actual event.  We averaged almost exactly 600 miles per day while taking one riding day off to tour the Pensacola, Fla. Naval Aviation Museum.  It is a spectacular museum which I highly recommend to anyone interested in planes, space, US history, or the US Navy.  

I wish I could tell tales of daring do but actually we experienced very few problems of any kind.  We hit some really severe thunderstorms in Kansas and the panhandle of Florida.  We also had to take about a 30 mile detour around forest (swamp actually) fires near Saint Augustine, Fla.  Once we got west of about San Antonio it remained well over 100 degrees until we hit the California costal mountains.  The hottest spot was between Gila Bend and Yuma Az. where it showed 112 on both our bike thermometers.  Jay had a minor wiring gremlin affecting all his aftermarket electronics.  It turned out to be a connector that Jay had fabricated shorted out.  I used my kill switch to turn off my bike one evening and forgot to turn off the ignition for about 5 hours which required a jump start.  The point I’m trying to make is the BMW products, as manufactured, were flawless. We both did the trip on one set of tires and one tune up.  We both have some wear left in our tires.

There could be several ways to participate in this event.  If you were to ride every day and do one of the shorter routes available, it would only require riding less than 350 miles per day if using the full 21 days.  So one could do the ride, do some site seeing, do some visiting, but couldn’t do too much of any of those.  Jay and I agreed before we started that we had both seen most all of the tourist spots around the country and have both ridden the vast majority of the nice twisty roads on or near our route.  That would not need to be your plan if you were to do the ride; it’s simply the method we choose.  It was amazing the number of roads and towns we went through that either one or both of us had visited and knew about restaurants or motels.

I set out with a goal to find out how many consecutive days or how many miles I would need to ride before I was tired of riding and wanted to do something else besides ride for a few days.   I failed.

Ride, RIDE, RIDE,

Stan

President's Column

A few short weeks ago the Pikes Peak BMW Riders went “camping” in the far flung wilds (5 highway miles out from the liquor store in Bwaynee) …. Well OK some of us (read yours truly) stayed in cabins, sort of like KOA Kampin’ Kabins and well yeah they did have beds with mattresses, indoor loos, microwave and sink BUT they didn’t have showers or heat!!!  It was almost like being in the Donner Party in those cabins.  There were other intrepid PPBMWRR members who took their Bruce Springsteen tour bus quality “Motor coaches” and actually parked them on GRAVEL pull through spots …..the horror   the horror.  Oh yeah and a few of our heartiest, though by no definition our youngest, members actually slept in the dirt, in tents!!!!   Who are these hard core people??????

Well that’s just the set up, if you weren’t there you missed it.  I mean you really missed it.  We hung around the campfire Friday and Saturday night until late, we had so’mores, we talked, we laughed ..a lot, I think it’s called camaraderie.  We had a wennie/brat/burger fry Friday night before the campfire, we all went to Bwaaynee Saturday night, to an awesome bistro before the campfire.  The site provided us a full meal deal for breakfast on Sunday mourning and no one had to cook and do KP before heading home.  Sweeeet deal.

On Saturday we split into groups, the dirty dozen well …. they went and got dirty, for about a hundred miles, out of Buena Vista, Colorado, USA!!  People pay thousands of dollars for a once in a lifetime vacation for an experience like that.

Another impromptu group of about a half dozen went long.  They did an extensive tour of the high country and the western slope.  I swear it was another loop (asphalt this time) European visitors would pay thousands to participate in.  They burned every hour of daylight and came back tired but beaming from ear to ear.

A third group of about a half dozen or so took the short ride up to Leadville, had a lovely lunch at a local diner and then took a train ride uphill from Leadville and back for a few hours.  It was an incredibly relaxing way to spend the warm spring day in the high country still surrounded by feet of snow, or at least that’s what I thought of all the parts I stayed awake through.  There is something mesmerizing about the rhythm of a train.

I’ve finally arrived at the focus of this months Presidents column.  PLEASE, if you are not participating in our club functions, strongly consider doing so, because the camping trip was MAGNIFICIENT.  Almost everyone was at the campfires, swapin’ lies, tellin’ tales of daring do, laughing till sides aches.  AND everyone stayed well into the night.  We have an extraordinary group of people.  Join us in our lives, we aren’t, nor claim to be, “perfect” but we certainly seem to know how to enjoy life in many varied ways.

All of us who attended owe a special thanks and maybe a small token of our appreciation to Randy, Craig, George, and Niel.   Dawn, what can I say, you’re a peach.  You just keep setting up home run event after home run event.  THANKS equally to all of you and all who participated.  If any individual would have been absent the entire event would have changed.  Wow, what a crew! 

Man, if you weren’t there, you really missed it.

Ride, RIDE, RIDE,

Stan

Club building made easy: President's Column

New members, do we want them? Do we need them?  I’m not so sure “need” applies.  We have about 100 members and money in the bank.  We have events planned and seem to be holding our own on stability more or less.  Let me explain why I think we may always desire new blood whether we desperately need it or not.

With new members we get different talents, backgrounds, connections, and personalities.  Some newer members are willing to step up and take on key roles and have proven to do an outstanding job in handling those roles.  The old dogs all grow weary eventually and we usually have too few volunteers, seldom, if ever, too many.   

So if you are willing to agree with me that new members are not a bad thing, allow me to explain a very painless way to recruit.  Every member of the club can easily become a recruiter and bring in new talent to share our passion for BMWs and riding.  I can’t imagine any PPBMWR member I’ve met that can’t start a conversation about BMW motorcycles, especially when they are looking at one they do not own.  It’s that simple, if you see a BMW, at a restaurant, at a gas station, at the grocery store, heck at the dealership, ask the person about their bike.  The owner will likely be the person wearing all the gear and not in black fringed leather.  Recently Deb and I saw a 12GS Adventure outside a shoe store in Deb’s neighborhood.  We walked over and were walking around the bike when the owner came out of the store.  We talked and kicked tires for 10 minutes or so and learned he had been a member of PPBMWR at one time.  Part of the conversation was that his tires were pretty worn.  About a week later he e-mailed me asking how to get in touch with Jay for new rubber and thanked Deb and I at length for talking with him.  There were no losers in this exchange.  He saved a considerable amount on a tire install, Jay made some gas money, and Deb and I had an interesting conversation with a BMW enthusiast who was a stranger to us before that casual meeting.  He may rejoin the club, he may not.  It’s not really critical either way.  He was however reminded that we exist and has a favorable view of the club that he may pass on to others he meets. 

There are people out there who ride alone and would rather be part of something bigger than themselves but really don’t know how to go about finding others who share some of their views about motorcycles.  You need to remember we are only about 5% of the motorcycling public.  We are all already members of a very unique club by our choice of what we ride.  You have a lot more in common with that stranger on a BMW than you know. 

Ride, RIDE, RIDE

Stan