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GCBMWCSeptember 2015 NEWSLETTER

charter#220 Charter#18

Should we add this one??

Upcoming Events

Sept 1-4 Curve Cowboy Reunion Coeur d’ Alene, ID

Sept 11,12,13 Beemers in the Bluegrass Frankfort, KY

Sept 13 British Bike Rally Boone Cty Fairground

Sept 4,18,26 Lawrenceburg Speedway Lawrenceburg, IN

Sept 25,26 Burr Oak Weekend Glouster, OH

Oct 1-4 National Annual RA Rally Harrison, AR

Oct 2,3,4 Motoberfest various

Oct 3-4 Baby Burr Dual Sport McArthur, OH

Meeting Schedule January 10……….. Brazenhead Irish Pub, Mason, OH

February 14…... …..Joni & Tom Raybuck, West Chester, OH March 14 ………… George Nyktas & Mary Tholking, Clarksville, OH April 11 …………...Ken & Becky Francois, West Chester, OH May 9 ……………..Neil Jones & Marsha O’Connor, Kettering, OH June 13 ……………Larry & Gail’s July 11…………….Mike & Kim LaBar’s August 8…………..Joe & Chris Berry’s

September 26...…..At Burr Oak Outing,October 17………. Merrill & Di Glos, Blue Ash, OHNovember 14…….Jim Osbun & Rosemary Haddad, West ChesterDecember……..... Holiday Party

Minutes of the GCBMWC Meeting August 8, 2015Held at the annual Berry Brothers Smoke-Off

At the home of Chris & Joe Berry

Winners of the Smoke off taste test. Award certificates were presented for:

Best Beef Mike LaBar Second Dave BerryBest Pork Joe Berry Second Bill BerryBest Poultry Tom Raybuck Second Joe BerryBest Other Meat Mike LaBar Second Eric Ratterman for Smoked SalmonBest Overall Mike LaBar Second Tom RaybuckBest Dessert Peach Cobbler Chris BerryBest Salad Fried Corn Joe BerryBest Homemade Ice Cream – Ginger Peach

Meeting was called to order at 7:08 PM.

Guests were introduced, Tim Burke from Cincinnati Café Racers and Justin Tabas fromMeat Week.

Treasurer’s Report, Cheryl Ritter reported an Opening Balance $4209.16, income of$31 and expenses of $750 (deposit for Holiday Party), Closing Balance $3490.16.

Old Business:Burr Oak is coming up soon, and there might still be a possibility to reserve a spot. TheHocking Hills event is scheduled for September 25-26. Contact Joe DeLuca with anyquestions.

Joni Raybuck reported that she and Bill Wright have entered an agreement for ourHoliday Party to be held December 12 at Kolping Center. The cost will be $35 perperson. More news as the event date nears.

Announcements:Tim Burke, representing Cincinnati Café Racers, introduced his club to our club andinvited us to participate in their events, particularly Motoberfest, which is held at Over-the-Rhine on the first weekend of October. This event raises money for 3 charities.Formerly called ‘Cincinnati Mods & Rockers’, the 3 day event includes bike displays,

group rides, food and vendors. Our club was asked to staff a table and to introduceourselves to participants. More details are at www.CincinnatiCafeRacer.comand on their Facebook page.

Their club also hosts “Garage Brewed” in February at the Rheingeist Brewery wherevintage and custom bikes are displayed inside the brewery. Eric Ratterman’s racingbike won an award last February.

RA National Rally, “Thrills in the Hills,” will be held October 1-4 at HarrisonArkansas. George Nyktas announced that Garmin will hold a seminar on using theirBase Camp mapping program at the rally. GS Giants will have a large presence. Pre-registration continues until September 5.

Cheryl Ritter announced that she is completing her final term as Club Treasurer,making the position open for a new person next year. If you have basic financial skillsand exhibit a reasonable amount of honesty, please consider this opportunity to servethe club.

Tom Raybuck reported that the Sunday Club Ride was a success and introducedmembers to new road obstacles including horse pies, turkeys and other excitement.

Guest Justin Tabas introduced Meat Week, held in February and invited us tojoin in the festivities. Check out photos of the 2015 event athttps://www.meatweek.com/cities/cincinnati

Bill Berry introduced a motion to adjourn at 7:30. After adjournment, Kim LaBar wonthe 50/50 drawing.

Notes for the Minutes were recorded by Jim SmithAnd typed up by President Jones

Editor’s favorite

Attention to detail

Smoke off meeting

Photos courtesy of Tom Ritter

The real winners

Tom Ritter photos

Would you believe thesame day I read Tom'sarticle that I had to try toone up him. I thought ofmy three year oldK1600GTL with only27K miles on it as stillnew. Now it has someminor scratches and abroken shift lever.

I was going up hill on agravel road/drive that Ihad been on twicebefore without incident.The surface used to bewell beat down withmany holes and rutswashed out by erosionand had loose gravel ontop. On this day thesurface looked like theyhad improved the drive.It was now flat and hadbeen oiled to keep thedust down. I soon foundout the changes wereonly cosmetic withhidden traps for a two-wheeler. What they hadcovered up was the olderosion snakes 4" deepand 10" wide, and twice

the length of amotorcycle withoutrepairing them. Insteadof filling the ruts withcrushed gravel, theyused loose river gravel.When the wheels hit it,they sank into the deeploose gravel and it wasall over before I knew ithad started (I could notfollow the rut or ride upout of it). I turned off thebike, moved myself tothe grass and laid therein order to evaluate myankle. Two women sawme and came over tosee if I was okay. I saidthat I had hurt my anklea little but otherwise wasokay. They ask if Iwanted them to help getthe bike up. I said okaybecause with my hurtankle I knew I wasunstable and could notright it myself. I had oneof them on the far sideand the other one helpme lift the bike and getthe kickstand down.

The bike is now up right,but what's next. I lookeddown at the gravel andsaw something that wasnot gravel. I picked it upand recognize it as theend of the shift lever.Can I shift with a bumankle and a broken shiftlever? How do I get thebike out of that rut with abum ankle (and shortlegs)?  Soon twocampground workerscome by and ask if theycould help. So I got backon the bike. With one ofthem on each side of thebike, I started it. Afterseveral tries, we werefinely able to move thelength of the rut and upand out. Once in astable position I tried todetermine if I could ridehome. The workers saidI could go back downthe hill and put the bikein the garage and get itlater that day or week.That sounded like agood idea to me so Isaid thanks. They told

Hidden Hazards 101 Glenn Williams

me to keep left of theedge because therewas another filled in rutgoing down. What theyshould have said wasstay in the center of thedrive or one of themshould have gone downand stood on thehidden rut. Youguessed it, down again(other side of course),but no additional injuryto me. Pick up bikeagain, ride to garageand park!!

I had come to thecampground to help myparents stain their deck,so one of the workerstook me up there intheir golf cart. I told myparents why I wasdelayed and we stained

their deck.

Now should I ride homeor not? I decided to trya test ride and go onhome if it worked. Withthe sore ankle it washarder getting on thebike but I found theinjured ankle was ableto shift even with thebroken shift lever. Iarrived home withoutincident, unloaded andremoved the side bagsso I could get the bikein without moving a car.Good, I'm home, now Ican rest my ankle.

My ankle was still badlyswollen the next day(Sat., 1 Aug); so Idecided to get itchecked. After about

four hours in the ER Icame home withcrutches. Diagnoses:clean brake of fibula atthe ankle and somejoint separation.Prognosis: with leg insplint/cast, keep ankleabove heart, and seeorthopedist on Wed.The orthopediststressed the anklewhile x-raying it andsaw some jointseparation he wasconcerned about. Hewill look at it again in aweek when swelling isdown and make asurgery or no surgerydecision at that time. Ihope I will be ridingagain by the Burr Oakdate.

It was a brutally cold Thursday, February19th when we set out for Midland, TX. inMerrill's Tacoma, his SuperTenere in thetruck's bed. Todd's brand new KTM 1190ADV and my R1200GS were on Todd 'strailer towing behind.

Friday afternoon we arrived at the rentalstorage place which Todd had arranged for usin Midland where the truck and trailer wouldstay about three weeks. Saturday morning wewere off for a nice 250 mile cruise down toBig Bend N.P. at the border with Mexico. Ourluck was on a high note considering howextremely cold it still was in Ohio and that thefollowing day it was down below freezingeven at Midland. We sure started off on theright foot as they say because our ride to BigBend was just about perfect.

I had one small problem. The rear shockon my GS (^$ Ohlins) had a loud squeak andit concerned me as I was wondering if it mightseize up. We were at the beginning of a 4000mile ride so I decided to remove the shock andsquirt some of Todd's chain lube whereMerrill suggested. It seemed like a good ideato me. We let the shock rest upside down for a

half

hour 'soak' time then re-installed it but thesqueak persisted. Oh well, at least now I'mpretty good at shock removal and re-install.

After a little R&R at our cabin wemoseyed down to the lodge for dinner. Therewere three people there talking about ridingthe back roads down by the Rio Grande River.When someone mentioned the big northwardbend in the Rio Grande I added ...just like theOhio River at North Bend, OH. That made

Rick Pope from Lawrenceburg, IN. speak up.It turned out that he is the brother of Ray Popefrom Sport Tour Ltd. We had a good chatabout the people we knew in common. Rickwas down there on a spur of the moment rideduring his off-season as a farmer. Small world.

Sunday morning Merrill led us down tothe Santa Elena Canyon Trail and we hiked upfor some neat views of the border - not a fenceor guard in site. Like a lot of the places wesaw on this trip, Merrill had seen it before, ontrips with Diane or Neil. I kept repeating howgood it was to have a great tour guide -"butyou're not going to get paid for it". Wereturned to the lodge via the Old Maverick

Mexico 2015 John Fischer

Road and Panther Junction. An interesting"house" (Luna's jakal) on that road hadsupported a very large family. The ownerreportedly lived to be 108. I cannot understandhow someone could scratch out a living in

those conditions.

Monday's ride from the Lodge toChihuahua, MEX. was marked by frosted faceshields. Descending the 7000' elevation we hitan ice cold cloud (fog) partway down to the1800' Rio Grande valley. Before that day I'dnever experienced it warm on top and bottombut freezing in the middle. A very interestingride along U.S. side of the river got us toPresidio, TX and after about 30 minutes at theborder station, across to Ojinaga, MEX.

We had spent significant time doingtouristy type things and it was getting laterthan desirable for travel. I will not report onthe speeds we hit, but I've never covered 100miles so quickly. Our arrival at the Ibis Hotelin downtown Chihuahua (pop .800,000+) wasa welcome relief for me.

Tuesday's ride from Chihuahua to Creelwas only about 170 miles and Merrill wasconsidering a side trip to see the BaluarteBridge, which, until recently, was the world'shighest bridge. As it turned out we were gladwe skipped that and went directly on to Creel.We had enough time after settling in to rideover to the northwest rim of the CopperCanyon. That night at dinner in the hotel wemet Kurt who was touring on a 650 V-Strom.He was a pilot for Southwest Airlines on a twoweek break. We also shared a table with Kurtthe next two nights in Botapilas.

Wednesday's 85 mile ride down into theCanyon to Botapilas was marked by ruggedbeauty and a challenging road. They hadrecently converted most of it from dirt topavement. Parts looked perfect, parts were inbad shape, and there were big rock slides ontothe road in a great many places. We werestopped for about 45 minutes at one spot whileheavy equipment cleared one slide which hadcompletely covered the road. We had to crosstwo wooden plank bridges which caused mesignificant pucker. I prefer bridges with siderails!

I found Botapilas a very interesting place.I suppose it saw better days when the silvermines were active. We ate in three differentrestaurants, none of which were easy to findbecause they were located in someone's house.I don't remember seeing a cash register in anyof them. Our hotel had an interestingcollection of pictures and correspondence

from the early 1900's. That kind of stuffusually doesn't interest me but for some reasonI really enjoyed it. The only drawback I canremember of our two nights there were thebarking dogs in the distance. Our visit to theSatevo Mission just south of Batopilas washighlighted by two geezers displaying theirsuperior coordination. The young girl hadopened the church for us to tour. She had very

good taste inmotorcycles. Itwas a goodday. We hitthe sack earlyin preparationfor the nextday's ride toDurango.

Friday morning we were out of townbefore the sun was up. It was a picture perfectcrisp morning for riding as we worked ourway back up out of the canyon. The first 250or so miles were great; the remaining, not sogreat. As the day warmed we found ourselvesin a big city traffic jam and a little too warmfor comfort. Wait a minute! It was a high of23 degrees in Cincinnati that day. Not toowarm now that I reconsider.

Durango is a large (500,000 pop.) city.We stayed in central old downtown in hotel-Posada San Jorge. We spent the day after ourarrival touring on foot around the cathedralsand museums. The citizens sure seemed tohave a great time listening to the musicians

play at the square. I really enjoyed it myselfand didn't have a clue about the words. Itseemed like one big crowd of happiness to me.

Sunday 's 350 mile ride to Zacatecas wentwell except for the traffic in the city as wearrived. We checked in at the hotel Condesa,and after a good late alfresco lunch took adouble deck bus tour up to the city's overlook.The huge bronze statues of Panfero Natera,Felipe Angeles, and Poncho Villa wereimpressive and our tour guide had interestinghistory on them and everything up there. Itwas a great place to view the city. He hadspent a lot of his life in the US. After the bustour we walked to the remains of an aqueductwhich was functional until 1910. Zacatecaswas a really interesting city.

Monday's ride to Guanajuato was only185 miles but it sure got interesting when wehit the city. I was beginning to have doubtsabout our lead rider after we got in the tunnels.It seemed like we were in a subway system butsure enough, there were cars weaving throughthat underground maze too. I was surprisedwhen Merrill came up out of the system andsaid our reserved bed and breakfast was justtwo blocks up the hill. He even saw a placereserved just for motos where all could fit. Itwas a short walk up to Pita's B&B. We gotseparate rooms and I got the room that Neilhad back in 2006. The owner (Pita) apparentlydid a good business. Our breakfast table wasfilled to capacity the next two mornings. Wedid a little walking that afternoon and Todd

Glos photo

and I got a haircut ($4.00). That evening afterdinner we listened to the Mariachi singers inthe square. It was another happy place.

Tuesday morning started on a bad note assomeone had tried to steal my tank bag fromthe motorcycle which was parked where weleft them Monday. They couldn't get the bagbut it was almost emptied of gloves and such.To add insult to injury the bike got pushedover sometime also, but no significant damagewas done. Todd and I rode the cable incline upto the overlook and we did some more foottouring. Merrill was thinking of makingreservations for our ferry and tried callingBaja Ferries but was having communicationdifficulties. A nice young lady came alongwhile he was on the phone and asked if shecould help. Brittany was from Chicago andteaching English . She spoke fluent Spanishand was able to communicate with BajaFerries and got us set up to transfer money forour passage the following week. Pita hadarranged for us to move our bikes from streetparking up to her daughter's gated condocommunity. She had to go with us to show theway. I may have suffered a tinge of jealousywhen she chose Todd to ride her: >) Fordinner that night we treated Brittany and herfriend Alice (from London) to dinner. It wasanother good day.

Wednesday's ride to Morelia was only110 miles but we got a later start than normaland had the fun of escaping the tunnels ofGuanajuato again. And leaving Morelia

turned out to be an adventure also as wefrequently were misdirected but we finally gotto Guadalajara just in time for the traffic jam.That is a huge metropolitan area (4.5 millionpeople). Merrill seemed relieved that the GPSefficiently directed us to our destination, thehistoric Morales Hotel. That was quite a place.Our bike parking was inside the building onthe second floor with elevator service. Aftermuseum and cathedral walking we took a bustour. I was surprised to see quite a number offamiliar corporate names.

We left Guadalajara early Friday forSayulita. It was mostly very pretty countrywith great roads for riding. We had two nightsin Sayulita at the Bungalow's Jaqueline. Toddand I tried surfing and I'm glad I did in spite ofnot being able to get up even once. I wasexhausted after about a half hour and gave up.

Sunday's 250 miles to Mazatlan waswarm and less scenic but it wasn't 35 degreeslike Cincinnati. We had paid for passage fromMazatlan to La Paz on Monday's 4 PM ferry.It's about a 16 hour trip and doesn't run everyday so you don't want to miss it. We went tothe ferry terminal Monday morning to makesure everything was in order then had time tokill. We killed the time comfortably - sippingdrinks in the air conditioned McDonalds. Toddand I were anxious to get back to the ferry atthe 2:30 time we were advised. Merrill wantedto delay. He was right. Our long wait in lineto board the ferry out in the hot sun (whoops -there I go again) could have been avoided had

we stayed in McDonalds longer before goingto the ferry. The crossing to La Paz took about17 hours. We headed south to San Hose delCabo and met Merrill's friend Doug Lear.Doug had ridden down from El Centro, CAon his DRZ 400 to join us on the way backnorth.

On our way north we stopped at the"Hotel California" in Todos Santos for brunch.I located the men's room restroom without

knowing "bano de los hombres". We motoredon to Puerto San Carlos to do some whalewatching. On a previous trip Merrill was ableto reach out and touch whales but this year theclosest we got was about 30' before the whaleswould dive away. I was happy as I think thosewhales could have easily capsized the boat wewere in. We stayed two nights in the HotelBrennan.

We departed northward using the easternbranch of MEX. Rte. 1 without a certaindestination. There were some great viewsalong the Sea of Cortez. We went roughly300 miles and stayed in a nice motel in San

Ignacio. That was a very small but pretty oasiscity on the river. San Felipe was our nextdestination.

Gasoline was a concern. We all wouldhave been very low or worse by the time wewould get to San Felipe . When we cameacross a man selling gas out of the back of hisold pickup truck we all jumped on it; goodthing too as the gas station we finally came towas closed. On our way north to San Felipewe stopped at Coco's Corner, a popular reststop for adventure travelers which someonerecommended to us. Arriving in San Felipe Ihad gone 15 miles since my fuel gage hadshown 0 miles of fuel remaining. I was happywith the instrument 's inaccuracy. We left SanFelipe fairly early Sunday morning for theborder at Mexicali.

The border crossing was a nightmare.The line of cars was long and we didn't knowfor a while that there was a motorcycle bypassline. After finding that bypass and gettingpartway through, we had to turn around andgo back. On our entry into Mexico threeweeks prior we each had to pay about $400.00as a deposit (to be refunded when leaving) .Well, the first border crossing station wetried to exit didn't deal with the same bank thathad taken our deposit. We had to go about 6miles east to the next border station to do thepaperwork. The line at that crossing was evenlonger and had no motorcycle bypass line, sowe returned to the first station. Whew! We got

across. Doug returned to California the rest ofus made it to Tucson, AZ that evening.

After a stop at the aircraft bone yard weheaded for home - Todd and I back to the trailerin Midland. Merrill rode his Tenere all the wayhome - just to see yet a little more on a scenicroute.

This was the longest bike trip I've been onand I am so glad to have done it. Thanks toMerrill for having done almost all of thereservations and planning work; and also forsupplying some memory for me. He's still "notgoing to get paid for it".

Fall Weekend at Burr Oak State Park near Glouster, Ohio

Friday-Sunday, September 25-27, 2015 The GCBMWClub Hold on accommodations is now expired. Call pronto to reserve.

King Standard Rooms @ $99 per night plus tax

King Executive Suites @ $99 per night plus tax (same as the standard rooms)

Two Bedroom Cottages @ $120 per night plus tax

Pet Friendly Two Bedroom Cottage @ $120 per night plus tax

All of the lodge rooms are lake view (or so it reads on our group rooms agreement).

Cottages 25, 26, and 27 overlook the lake. Cottage 29 also has a good lake view and is party H.Q.because of its big yard and fire ring. PLEASE SPECIFY ONE OF THESE COTTAGENUMBERS WHEN MAKING YOUR RESERVATION. All of the cottages have two smallbedrooms although one of the beds is a bunk with a full size bed on the bottom. They're in easywalking distance to the lodge. Like last time, we'll have to bring or purchase firewood.

The Pet Friendly cottage may again be in a nearby loop which may work for a couple with asidecar and a dog who's name begins with R.

Everything is remodeled and very nice, please check the lodging website for more details aboutthe rooms and cottages. The dining room in the lodge is available for all meals. It also has a bar.

Rooms and cottages were being held under our group name "Greater Cincinnati BMW Club." Adeposit is not required but the rooms and cottages will be released to others on August 11. Makeyour individual reservation now as they are likely to fill up by then.

The management has requested that any cancellations be made at least 30 days in advance,notwithstanding emergencies or unforeseen last minute changes.

Reservation desk phone number: 740-767-2112

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Phone 801-663-7436

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Trust your legal affairs to a BMW rider and past President ofthe GCBMWCOffice Location: 5294 Madison Pike, Suite 201Independence, KY 41051Want Justice? Call Collins. Phone: 859-356-3100CollinsLaw@fuse.net(Official Attorney of the GCBMWC)

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