BMW Riders of Knoxville
March 2008 Newsletter
by Phil Daulton, wearer of many hats this month
29 March 2008
Greetings ROK'ers,
Here is another Newsletter dispatch for what's going on in the world of ROK.
APRIL MEETING NEWS – PAY ATTENTION HERE!!
We have had to change the location of the ROK Monthly Meeting for April. Bob Winter's friend is not open for business yet. So, the April meeting will be held at Destination Motorcycles, concurrent with their April “Bike Night for the Rest of Us” on Monday, April 7, 2008. Ride, if you can, the parking lot is small.
Now if you don't happen to know where this place is located, it is at Dixie Lee Junction, on the fur side of Farragut, which is at the split of US 11 and US 70. Fast way there: Take Exit 369 of I-40, which is Watt Road. Turn left at the ramp red light signal, then follow Watt Road to its terminus at US 11/70, also known as Kingston Pike. Turn right, then take the left fork (US 11) of Dixie Lee Junction towards Lenior City. Destination Motorcycles is on your immediate left.
They kick this event off at about 5:30 PM. Come by and slobber over the fine selection of BMW, Triumph, Ducati, KTM, Moto Guzzi, Vespa and Piaggio motorcycles
and scooters. Ed McNeil is just itching to sell you one!
Milton is going to give us some space to have our meeting at 7 PM. Come broke and hungry, because Destination is providing the grub for this event. I believe grilled hot dogs outside under the canopy were mentioned. See you there! And I hope it is a Large Crowd.
That being said, now we will shoot for May to have our meeting at the location Bob Winter is sorting out with his friend. Keep your fingers crossed.
Lately, The Dragon Pit, south of Maryville on US 411 was suggested as a potential site for a monthly meeting. I, Your Humble Servant, was dispatched there recently to check out the place for suitability. I sampled the cheese steak sammich on the advice of a certain MOA member. It was purty tasty, and the pile of fries with it would have sunk the Bismarck, had the Bismarck still been floating. It sunk me like a three foot putt... Anyway, I found that the inside has no meeting room, and the place is hardly big enough to swing a cat inside, much less seat the 30 or so folks that might show up for an ROK meeting. The place seats
around 40, but it would be awkward to try and have a meeting in amongst other patrons. However, they do have a rather sizable outside canopy, which at the moment holds only four picnic tables. The management said they had more tables coming. Conclusion: This
place would only be suitable for a mid-summer meeting, during fair weather and summer lighting conditions. If we schedule a meeting here, it will be July or later. I will let you know. From a restaurant standpoint, it is not a bad location, and they are open for breakfast, too. A handy stopping point if you are doing the Cherohala/Deals Gap loop ride.
More meeting confusion: At the March meeting, some one, and I cannot recall whom, said that they thought The Cafe Mozart, our location for the Annual Eastsider's Meeting, was closed. I asked Dave Erny if he would check that out, since he had booked the place. Dave reports that they are, indeed still open, since he and Sharon are in there every week or so.
They just have weird days and hours, and they will be open for our June meeting. We will give you location info as the date grows closer.
Looking for something to do tomorrow? Swing by the Time Warp Tea Room, located at 1209 North Central Street in Knoxville on Sunday, March 30, for the First Annual Time Warp Vintage Motorcycle Club Swap Meet. This event will occur from 1 PM to 4 PM, and Dan will have the big screen TV going with the tape delay of the Jerez, Spain round of Moto GP. Special menu for the event is two hot dogs any way you want them, chips, cookie and a canned drink or water for $5.
The rain date for this event is April 6.
Speaking of the Vintage Club, our own Geoffrey Greene was recently awarded the “Frosted Balls” award for the second year in a row. He is recognized for riding in all kinds of weather. As we well know... Congrats, Geoffrey!
Things I Get in the Mail: I recently received info in the mail about a worthy function by Bob's BMW of Jessup, Maryland. They are offering the Ultimate Bike Raffle, to support the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation's Ride For Kids. For a $40 raffle ticket, or three for $100, you get entered for the Grand Prize of your choice of the following new BMW motorcycles:
the F800S, the F800ST or the F800GS. Also part of the grand prize is $1500 of apparel; $1500 in accessories; a two-day on the road rider school; transportation, hotels and meals for four days; free fuel for the first 600 miles; and free first 600 mile service, with personal tech time. Seeing how the GS has been held up on release by BMW NA, I wonder how they will deliver on that promise. Maybe it's the one BMW has been showing at events. There will also be other prizes awarded. To get your lucky tickee: Call 1-301-497-8949, or visit
their website at www.bobsbmw.com. Or drive by there; Geoffrey Green can provide you a good route, and you can get that IBA Saddlesore 1000 trip out of the way while you are at it.
Work on your own stuff? Here is something else I got in the mail last week: There is a business out there that fabricates special tools for working on BMW motorcycles, The Ed Group. They sent me an ad for a tool they have made for setting the swing arm bearing
preload and torquing the nut, while installing the Paralever swing arm. This nifty widget costs $97.50 and can be had by calling DonFinke of The Ed Group at 1-704-799-6456.
March ROK Meeting minutes: I was without a club secretary again during the March meeting and had to take my own notes while also running the meeting. Here is how I remember it. Disclaimer: This happened three weeks ago and I have slept since then. I also have had the input of approximately 112 NCAA men's and women's basketball games since then, so some things I remember may not be accurate. Your mileage may vary. Batteries
not included.
We met on March 10, at Puleo's Grille. Since I had very little response from the e mailed meeting notice, I booked us for the Patio, which strangely resembles a garage, and is about the same, acoustics-wise. We had attendance of 25 folks and two youngsters.
I had no secretary, treasurer, or rally guy there, so I was pretty much winging it as far as information services go.
We had a couple visiting, Walter and Shari Bukowski, from Dandridge, who will be joining the club. Welcome, Walter and Shari! They ride BMW models R90S and R1150RS.
Another visitor was Brad Henson, from Destination BMW Motorcycles. Brad works in Sales at Destination.
Monthly Ride: Yahoo! We will be having a ride for April. Bob Winter and Gunter Tillman will be reprising their event from last year, a ride with an endpoint BBQ at the Tillman residence. This is set for – oops – I didn't write down a date!! Maybe it's not set yet!?
We will bring this up at the April meeting.
Rally News: I have sent the ads to MOA and RA for our event to be listed in the respective magazines and web sites. That leaves the print ad to be sent to MOA later this year, and the handbill ads I still need to do for local shops and to give out at the GA Mountain Rally.
Alternate Meeting Sites: See earlier paragraphs in this letter. Presently, the April meeting is at
Destination Motorcycles on April 7.
Lube Tech: We originally set this event for 12 April at the Erny Garage in Motown. However, I was recently told that Destination Motorcycles offered to have us
hold this event at their location. THIS WILL BE A POINT OF CONTENTION AT THE APRIL MEETING, so please read what follows here. I visited the folks at Destination today to set up the April meeting and also to see what they had to offer for Lube Tech. This
conversation was between Milton, Ed McNeil and me. They have their side canopy (about 10 x 16 feet max) to offer as workspace, and it was mentioned that they would provide a lift. However, when I mentioned that Lube Tech is a Saturday event, this was met with a
frown by Mr. McNally. Saturday being one of their busiest days, he does not favor holding our event on that day, so it was suggested that Sunday would be better. There would not be more than one or two folks willing to come out on Sunday and open the business to work with us. There would not be as much tooling and logistics with which to work on the bikes as Dave's facility has to offer. My Humble Opinion: This is a Bad Idea. The only advantage here might be location for some, but to me this is little better than fixing a flat on the side of the road. Persuasive Argument: I would much rather have the event at the Erny household
as we originally scheduled, as Dave has much more workspace under roof, tools and TWO LIFTS. And not to mention all the cooking out we were going to do. And a nice country ride to get there, not contending with Knoxville traffic. This will be put to a vote at the
April meeting, because I am the club president, not the club dictator. Freedom for all and all that stuff. Make your decision and cast your vote.
Camp Out At TWO Creeks: The Dobrianskis were also not in attendance at the March meeting, but I am assuming that the camp out event is still on for June 7. Details as we get them.
I was able to renew our club charter with the BMW Riders Association for zero bucks, thanks to all the RA members we have on board. Thanks to all of you that provided me with yours numbers so I could get this task accomplished. MOA renewals will be due in June.
Dickie Anderson had some news on an event that he is working. Franklin Graham will be in Knoxville on April 25/26/27 for the East Tennessee Franklin Graham Festival, a ministry rally at the Thompson Bowling Arena. Part of the action will be a 1000 bike ride to the arena on Saturday April 26. The ride will start from several locations and converge on the arena.
There will be some big name entertainment at the event, including Ricky Skaggs on Sunday. To get involved with this ride, contact Dickie Anderson at 865-257-1467.
Geoffrey Green is looking for all kinds of volunteers to work the Ride For Kids event that is set for June 21 at Chilhowee Park. This event is concurrent with the Honda Hoot. Please contact Geoffrey at 865-922-9887, or you can e mail him at gigreene@aol.com if you would like to get involved in this event. We needs lots of help, please consider it.
Tom McCoig told us of an event coming up on Memorial Day weekend (May 24, I think). It benefits GATE, a special needs adult foundation. Please consider doing this ride. It will be coordinated with Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson in Maryville. I am not sure what the
suggested donation is for the ride.
Tom also told us about his son Jared's participation in the recent CCS races in Daytona Beach. Jared races a Ducati 749S, and Tom is his wrench. They had lots of fun racing action at the event. Jared raced several events and finished as high as 10th, I believe.
Herman Thompson has some friends in the cabin rental business, Brad and Ginger Clayton, doing business as High Frontier Cabins. They have two cabins available for rent located somewhere 4.5 miles off the Cherohala Skyway, on West Buffalo Creek. The cabins sleep about ten people, so if you want to do that big riding weekend of strafing the Cherohala with nine or so of your friends, check these folks out.
Call 828-479-5121, or visit www.highfrontiercabins.com.
Well, that about rolls it up for the March edition of the ROK Newsletter. Be sure to check out the April meeting at Destination Motorcycles on Monday April 7. Be there. “Aloha”, As Steve McGarrett says.
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Old Business –
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Ride Report –
I do not have any formal reports for the last 2 club rides, so if anyone would like to send me something we can get that posted.
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Rally News –
It is still a bit early to say too much about the 2008 ROk" On CLassic Rally. However, we will look into it and make a decision on how we can best facilitate our loyal guests and give them the best time we can whether it is in 2008 or 2009. Look here soon for pictures from the 2007 rally.
Rally Postscript: I would like to take this time to thank all these great friends that make this Rally what it is. And we DO get some great comments from our rally guests; they just love our low key, comfy event. Thanks folks: Dave and Sharon Erny (wouldn't be a rally without ya!), Jack and Mary Ann Alltop, Jerry and Cindy Dobrianski, Bob Winter, Dickie Anderson, Steve and Janet Lange, Doug York, Jason and Gretchen Hinton (all the way from Birmingham AL!!), and anyone else that pinch hit for us here and there. There may not be a 2008 ROK' On Classic. Our core group of stalwarts are planning a tour of the Czech Republic in 2008 that just happens to fall on the same time slot as the rally. Major volunteerism is going to have to happen if we decide to do this rally again for '08. We may have to give it a year off.
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New Business –
See Phil's newsleeter abov for new business.
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Of Interest –
AMA Superbike Races at barber Motorsports Park
Up-Coming Rallies and Events
Coming Soon!
January:
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March 31, 2008
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