• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Mid-South ride, eat, and meet

Well I missed Bikes on Beale last Wendesday night. Storming all around, didn't want to get soaked on a 20 mile ride. Missed the Old Bike Club meeting Thursday night, couldn't seem to get going. Seems like most of the Rams have ridden over to the Georgia Mountain Rally and I'll be home this weekend. Maybe I'll ride over to the Winery this weekend, a good bottle of wine to change the attitude. :drink
 
Gotta freight run, Tuesday night and run it over to Smyrna, Tn. . Wendesday mourning went back to Nashville and went to Bloodworth BMW. Looked around at the nice new bikes. Nothing I could afford. Bought 4 screws to hold down the brake fluid resorvoir top, my '94 R1100Rs. Parts guy, got my name and saw I was from Marion, Ar.. Kinda far to get 4 little screws? Yep, I replied, Gotta do what I gotta do; smiled and left. I'd missed the last couple of Beale Street Bike Nites , so I headed home. Got several calls headin back, are ya gonna be at Bike Nite? Yes. Are you Coming? Yes. Got home, got the R50 out and headed to bike night. Usual big cool crowd. Got my usual spot in front of Superior BBQ. We allways have the coolest collection of bikes. The Coolest of the Cool last nite was a early 80's Honda 450 twin. Met the owner. He had heavily modified the bike into a cafe bobber. Hand made aluminum tank, tail section, seat. endless neat little custom touches all fabricated by him. It was over the top and was stopping passersby who came over to check it out. I heard more than a few people say that this little section of Beale allways had the neatest stretch of best bikes to see. I totally agree.
 
I need to work. I need a freight run. Just sittin here waitin for a load offer. I want to ride over to Morrilton, Ar. To the Natural State Rally. Just low on funds. :violin
Well If I don't get a load offer, maybe I can do the scooter ride tomorrow in Shelby County. It's allways a hoot. Gotta enough dough to ride local. :thumb
 
Gotta a load offer to Dayton, Tn. No Ar.. Rally or even the scooter ride this weekend. Maybe ride over to the BMW dealer in Chattanooga, Pandora's after I deliver the load. Don Quales just called and said he was in Morrilton at the rally. Said about 40 had signed in, sure hate to miss it. Maybe next year.
 
Just got in and I did go by Pandora's BMW in Chattanooga. Really enjoyed my visit. Seemed like a happy place to hang around. They had a lunch buffet going on. They had the K1600GTL they accessorized for the BMW MOA rally give a way this summer on display. Somebodies going to win a heck of a bike. Saw thousands of bike on the road. Need to get something out and ride right now.
 
When your on that site you can see the 2nd video. I think there will be a 3rd video. If you scholl down you can see a video of Lin Neal riding dirt bike at Loretta Lynn's.
 
Just got thru watching the 3rd installment of the scooter ride. Sure hated that I missed the run. Fixin to get the R50 out and ride over to Beale St. for the weekly Bikes on Beale. Will get to talk to some of those that were on the scooter ride.
 
Spencer called and they were at the hanger with a Beemer project.
I was at a good stopping point in yard work and jumped on the R50 and headed over. The project was a '94 K1100RS that had been sitting for some time. Spencer's son had bought it cheap. The resurrection was in process. The usual problems were in the process of being addressed. Fuel and tank problems. Leaking fork seal, Im sure more will appear as the process progresses. He'll have a nice bike when it's all over.
 
Sorry about that. Two rides planned to day in the area. The Old Bike Club rode this mourning to Holly Springs, Ms. for lunch at Phillips's Grocery.. I couldn't make that ride, sure wanted to. Holly Springs is such a beautiful antebellum town. I stayed home and fixed a lunch for my mother. Grilled out hamburger steaks, backed beans, corn on the cobb, etc., all good. Going for the 2nd ride. The Memphis Mummies are meeting at Young Av. Deli. for the Memphis in May Poker Run 2:30. I think 5 stops. Marion Barry's my name and pokers's my game. :dance Yea Right.
 
Studied up on the Mummies secret 5 stop poker ride. Figured out that Kudzi's was the last stop and that most of the stops were beer joints. Showed up at Kudzu's just ahead of the poker riders. Got to talking with Dennis at the bar. He was complaining that there was a lot of bar stops and little riding. I just smiled and agreed. It was nice to see some cool bikes. May head out to the winery this afternoon.
 
My old bud Ron Wigington finally got his R90 up and running and wanted me to meet him and go for a ride. we agreed to meet at the Old Millington Winery yesterday. I rode the R50 and got there first. Went in and got a bottle of Delta Blush. Perry the owner came out and visited with me, he likes it when I come over and stop in. Wanted to know about groups of bike clubs and cars that come to the winery. He said some were causing trouble, due to attitudes and their actions. Scooter groups and the BMW River City Bimmers, the local BMW car club were some of the offenders. Very demanding and cheap. Wanted to free taste all the wine varieties and never buy any wine. Kinda embarrassed me. I feel like an ambassador of the BMW brand, even though I don't own a BMW auto. I was on a vintage car racing team for many years and got to be around quite a few of the Euro vintage car crowd. Most were as nice as could be, but their were allways a few who had the superior attitude. Those that had that mind set were usually arrogant with just about everything. I have never understood it. Ron showed up and we finished the wine and took off riding. As with a lot of Memphians, he was totally lost for most of the ride. Their boundries are the city limits. Took him along the River Bluffs, very much like being in the Ar. Ozarks. My R50 ran flawlessly and his R90 ran good, it's a work in progress. Great day for a ride. Excellent!
 
RAms June Meeting Grassroots Bike Show

BMWRAMS will be having their June meeting in Cape Giradeau this weekend. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Vintage Bike Show June 9 sponsored by Grassroots. Grassroots has more details on their website. Rams will be camping out at the Thebes RV Campground in Thebes Il. :thumb
 
Fixen to get the R50 and ride to downtown Memphis and watch the 150 year Civil War surrender of Memphis, Tn. to the Union Navy. The naval battle was fought June 6, 1862.
 
Very nice and fitting ceremony to honer the Battle of Memphis and it's surrender to Union fores in June 1862. After the Civil War Memphis had a battery of real Civil War cannon on display in Confederate Park. In !942 due to WWII those pieces were donated to the war drive for metal. After the war they were replaced with WWII artillery pieces, not really appropiate for a Civil War era park. The WWII pieces have been removed and 2 replica Civil War pieces were unvailed and dedicated at the event. Both pieces were fired several times and were quite impressive. A fine tribute to our Civil War vets.
 
Bikes on Beale again.

Road back over to Memphis last night for Bikes on Beale, perfect weather, nice crowd. We had a usual spot with our classic and vintage bikes. Got a pleasant surprise when I spotted Steve Hitt and his wife walking down the street admiring all the bikes. Steve is the current president of The Naturally Beemers of Arkansas. He said he never saw such a site and was quite impressed with the show of bikes. I laughingly told him that most of the members of the Ar. club didn't like riding across flat east Ar. and eating all the bugs. I suggested he write a story about his trip across east Ar. and the good time he and his wife had at Bikes on Beale in Memphis. I told him if I wrote it , it would be taken as East Ar. propganda and not to be believed. :laugh. Excellent night on Beale, the weather is cooperating.
 
As usual last Wendesday nite was Bikes on Beale. I've been after my buddy Ron to bring his '75 R90 down. He works about 2 blocks away on Union Av. across from Redbird Stadium. He finally showed up last Wendesday night and was quite impressed. We saw another R90 go down the street. It was loaded down like a pack mule, reminded me of me 20 years ago on my R90. We went down the street and found him. He was a new college grad from Chicago, chemical engineering, headed to a new job in Houston. Same story, he was amazed with Beale St. Ron was impressed with the pack mule. I'd been telling Ron his bike was good to go on long runs when fully sorted out. It's an amazing world. :brow
 
Just got back from a freight run to Marysville, Mich. ; Marysville is just south of Port Huron. After that went back to Detroit and went to BMW of Detroit. Just hung out awhile. They had nice 20 year anniversary BMW of D. t-shirt. They had every size but x-large, my size. Augh! Oh well saved me about 20 bucks, got way to many BMW t's allready. Can you have too many? One of their customers showed up on a nice pristeen '70 R75/5 and a German model. It had kilo/hour instead of mph. He said he had since late '70. Picked up a load in Warren and took it to Angola Ind., migrated down to Indianapolis. Went to BMW of Indy. Looked around, a newer used Indian Chief was on display for sell. Those bikes are a real eyefull. Didn't find any bling to buy. Headed south to Louisville and stopped in at BMW/HD Louisville. They had a nice '66 Shovelhead HD on sell, $19 thousand plus. A buddy of mine is restoring one, so I called him to pump him up about his. A couple of H/D lookin dudes were lookin at some used K1200LT's. They seemed really interested so I told him what I knew about them. Gave them the name of a local BMW rider's club president and told them to call him to get more info. I saw a lot of bikes on the road and a few BMW's. Good to get home.
 
While I was gone on this trip I was informed of the death of a riding buddy. Ed Zaharia was riding in west Tn. and had a wreck involving a deer, Saturday June 19. Funeral service was held yesterday, June 19. I didn't get back in time. Ed was a Harley rider and he usually rode 40 to 50 thousand miles a year; a real rider. I'll miss him.
 
Back
Top