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Rally was great!

I really enjoyed volunteering at the Country Store.

I had not done a stint at the Country Store before, as I'm frankly nervous about money handling.
But WOW! The merchandise was all organized and clearly labelled, the prices were posted so we
and the potential buyers could clearly see, and there were lots of calculators available.
There were very competent point people handling the actual cashiering and card transactions.
I guess they've done this a few times before...

Entirely stupidproof!! Even I could do it, and I had a wikkid pissah good time to boot. :dance
 
Only my 4th rally, and the facilities were first rate.

I liked the grid layout of the campsites. For the first time for me, we didn't have to ride our bikes through makeshift trails through tents and bikes.

(Anyone remember scaling the "hill of wet hay" to get to your campsite after it rained in Johnson City? hoofa!)

Everyone literally had an "address", and parked their bikes right on their "street".
It was a fantabulous setup.

That, and the potable water located a few feet from every campsite. I don't remember that in camping areas before. It eventually became a life saver.

Well done rally. really well done.
 
what I LIKED!

*nice compact fairgrounds, easy to cover all areas of interest
*lots of pavement from the road into the fairgrounds (not a dirt/dust guy)
*adequate shade in the form of tents/indoor vendor areas
*plenty of water hose stations/thougtful spray spots
*INCREDIBLE VOLUNTEERS EVERYWHERE!
*every MOA Rally is like drinking from a firehose, so much to do!
*best food vendors/variety in my 5 MOA Rallies
*great music INSIDE the fence (no comment outside the fence)
*met lots of nice people, especially all with the #1 buttons
*I was preregistered, and went right to the front on Thurs. AM, amazing!
*proximity to town was great
*did not hear ONE complaint from anyone about anything, even the heat, really!
*did not hear of even one tipover or accident or crash of any kind
*the big screens at the CC were great
*location East of the Mississippi
*did I mention the VOLUNTEERS?
 
*nice compact fairgrounds, easy to cover all areas of interest
*lots of pavement from the road into the fairgrounds (not a dirt/dust guy)
*adequate shade in the form of tents/indoor vendor areas
*plenty of water hose stations/thougtful spray spots
*incredible volunteers everywhere!
*every moa rally is like drinking from a firehose, so much to do!
*best food vendors/variety in my 5 moa rallies
*great music inside the fence (no comment outside the fence)
*met lots of nice people, especially all with the #1 buttons
*i was preregistered, and went right to the front on thurs. Am, amazing!
*proximity to town was great
*did not hear one complaint from anyone about anything, even the heat, really!
*did not hear of even one tipover or accident or crash of any kind
*the big screens at the cc were great
*location east of the mississippi
*did i mention the volunteers?

+1
 
Suzuki Rally

Wow this reminded me so much like the Suzuki and Yamaha Rally..:ha

When I think about it, I will always have to have a BMW just to play at real rally's. In Florida we have bike week in Daytona, but it is nothing like a BMW Rally. I had a great time as usual. However, this time I got my wife to go too on her bike. This was her first rally and now she is planning with me for next year. Yes we did camp in the heat. So I am here to tell all you volunteers that all the work and what you did was a huge success. :dance

Great Job!

Cheers from Florida
 
This was my first Rally...and it far exceeded my expectations...GREAT!!!
I enjoyed getting to see and get my hands on products in the vendors area that I had been looking at on-line for some time now...though I purchased more than I probably should have...and having the UPS store to ship home....
Everyone was friendly and made you feel welcome...
Food Vendors had great food and reasonable prices....
Great Entertainment...!!! especially David Jacobs-Strain and Paul Thorn.....loved it!!!!
I enjoyed the living history...myself being a WW2 buff...
Getting to see all the beautiful BMW motorcycles....
Special thanks to all the commitee chairs, and volunteers...Job Well Done!!!!!!!!
Meeting New Friends!!
I'll be back...............!
 
Things I liked:

  • The Fairgrounds. Flat, water and electricity just about everywhere, and plenty of camping space.
  • Demo rides. I would have preferred to ride something other than the K1600 GT but I got to flog a nice ride for 45 minutes without getting badgered to buy it.
  • Beer choices. Something for everyone.
  • Musical entertainment. Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds was one helluva last-minute replacement band. And Paul Thorn lived up to my expectations.
  • Volunteers. From the Registration tent to the pairs working the gate behind the horse barns (and everyone in between), all of them did a tremendous job. :thumb
  • MOA Members. I got the chance to have extended conversations with a bunch of folks that I had never met. What a great bunch of people!
  • Commercial Vendors. I came. I saw. I bought. I'll pay next month.
  • Volunteers. Did I mention them already? :thumb :thumb
There were a few of the food vendors that were leery about joining us at this rally - they just didn't know what to expect. By Saturday, they were asking if it would be possible to work next year at the Sedalia Rally. EVERY vendor was complimentary on how friendly and polite MOA members were to them. Heck... they didn't even lock up their supplies at night because they trusted us. That is a tribute to the kind of people in the MOA.
 
Fauster, great job on food wrangling! There were plenty of choices and I was happy to see they were all reasonably priced. In fact, I saw no reason to venture outside the rally grounds to eat. I'm sorry i never got to try the chicken and waffles - it sounded good but just too heavy a meal in the heat.

I'm glad it was such a positive experience for the vendors as well as their patrons.
 
In fact, I saw no reason to venture outside the rally grounds to eat.

Air conditioning! Most of the air conditioned eating establishments downtown had very reasonably priced food that was good. I ate two good meals at the rally but the shuttle bus made downtown restaurants very convenient.
 
I enjoyed:

First rally, enjoyed it, will be back.

Sam, thanks for organizing and leading Gettysburg tour.

All the friendly people.
 
Awesome experience. Everything about the gs gypsy tour and rally were first class.
Thoroughly enjoyed myself and learned a lot with the gypsy tour.
Thanks to everyone involved that made this such a great rally.

Jim Purves
 
GS Giant was GREAT!!

The Gypse Tour and Contest was the highlight of my Bloomsburg Rally experience. It was the best value I have ever had with a motorcycle. This was my first BMW Rally but I have been to other brands and this was far better than any I have ever attended.

The planning and communication for the Gypse Tour was excellent.
The food was perfect.
The commaraderie and riding amoung the participants created a wonderful long term memory.
I feel that that pre-rally events like the Gypse Tour contibute to overall satisfaction of the rally and we should do it again.

I plan to be in Sedalia.
 
GS Gaints Rule

The GS Giant and Gypsy Tour was great. It was by far the best part of the rally.

Great Epic Rides, Great Food, Cold Beer, Great Planning and communication, Great weather (it could have been worse), and best of all GREAT PEOPLE. I met alot of fun riders with the same interests. The GS Giant week was the best rally experience for me to date.

Thanks again to Tracey and Ian and all the other volunteers, riders and route planners who made this happen.

A speical Thanks and Shout Out to Revzilla and Twisted Throttle and Altrider (great ride and lunch on Wed):wave

Roy Hedman
BigRig
 
GS Giant was GRRRRRRRRREAT !!!!

What a great rally !!!

First things first , THANK YOU to all that contributed to the great time had by all. Not my first rally and it won't be the last.

Secondly, THANK YOU to the folks that created the GS GIANT funfest. It was great to see the GS'ers riding their bikes the way they were intended. The track was phenomenal. The prizes were top notch!! ( Thank you to the sponsors, Twisted Throttle, Altrider,Revzilla and any i may have missed )
I realize that this took a tremendous amount of work planning and executing this event , but I hope that the decision makers see the benefit of making this a regular event. After all, GS's are a large part of the BMW community. What better way to celebrate that fact and spread the fever than to let them show off their bikes and skills at the rally. Keep up the hard work, it just keeps getting better ....:bow
 
sharing my adventure with other's

Please post what you liked about the rally so we can continue to build on your positive feedback!

Most of the time I ride by myself, I ride off the beaten path lot having the GS Giant brings these people together to share the dirt with. Most of the giant's that I met at the rally share a common intrest and that's in this video i'v put to getter of my GS Giant Ride. http://web.me.com/riverriders/1dzmotard/GS_Giant/Entries/2011/7/27.html
 
GS tops the event

What a great rally !!!

First things first , THANK YOU to all that contributed to the great time had by all. Not my first rally and it won't be the last.

Secondly, THANK YOU to the folks that created the GS GIANT funfest. It was great to see the GS'ers riding their bikes the way they were intended. The track was phenomenal. The prizes were top notch!! ( Thank you to the sponsors, Twisted Throttle, Altrider,Revzilla and any i may have missed )
I realize that this took a tremendous amount of work planning and executing this event , but I hope that the decision makers see the benefit of making this a regular event. After all, GS's are a large part of the BMW community. What better way to celebrate that fact and spread the fever than to let them show off their bikes and skills at the rally. Keep up the hard work, it just keeps getting better ....:bow

I could not agree more. Anyone who has a GS really should consider joining in next year on this aspect of the Rally. My assumption was that you needed to be some sort of hot off road dirt biker to enjoy these events. That turned out to not be the case. I did however learn a lot and so did the 2 other GS riders I dragged along to their 1st rally. We all learned alot from Bill Conger from the BMW Performance school. It was so great that all three of us are signing up to the BMW School in Spartenburg. Also Jim Hyde from Rawhyde schools was great with all of his folks helping out too, we want to do his course too. Can you tell we got the bug? Can't say enough about all the opportunities to learn how to ride safely off road that was present at the Rally through all of the GS events. This was definately targeted towards helping those new to off road riding and enjoying their GS's in the way we all envisioned when we purchased our bikes. I would really encourage all of you to join in on the GS fun next year. See you then. :dance
 
Great Rally...even better GS Giant!

After nearly 20 Nationals over the past 30 years, I must comment that this one really hit the mark. Being hot and humid is a given for any mid-July rally and must be taken in stride. This was my first go in the GS Giant event and intended to just participate in the Gypsy Tour portion leading up to the Rally itself. This was without a doubt THE highlight of my experience, great organization (thanks Tracy, Matt, Ian, et al), great roads, great food and plenty of ice cold draft at the end of the day which provided a gathering point for everyone to get to know each other after a dusty day on the trails. We made lots of new friends from all over. The camaraderie on the trails in fixing flats, pulling bikes up out of ditches and swamps was excellent. In the end I wish I would have participated in the skills challenge on the infield on Saturday, everyone had a blast. This event is a definite must for next year and adds a whole new element to the overall Rally experience. The best $100 I ever spent! Look out Josh, plenty of people will be chasing your title down next year. :beer

Another great ride was had during the AltRider day, seven PA mountains in one day, great trails, great hosts at the farm, great food, another top notch event from Jeremy, Briane and the SMCC hosts. Giant and Altrider events...two great events that everyone should consider participating in to round out the Rally experience.

I entered to basically confirm the setup of my GS for my ride to Patagonia next month, next year I will hopefully be able to do the whole event, my vote is to make this a annual event in the future.

Thanks for the good times!

Bill
 
Best week of adventure riding ever! GS Giants Rule!

As everyone else has said, THANKS!! To all that made this happen you know who yu are. This was my first MOA rally and won't be my last. The GS Gypsy tour was the best $100 I've ever spent. The rides \ routes that were planned were EPIC! The after ride camping, food and beer was awesome. The only thing better was the people who participated. Many new friends were made hanging out at camp at the end of the day while drinking beer and telling stories. It was great to flog my GS with other like minded individuals. Not every GS rider likes a shiny bike. There were rides for all levels and no one was dissapointed. If you didn't do the GS Gypsy tour this year then you missed out on an awesome week of adventure. The challenge course was a total hoot! Once again there were things for every level. You didn't have to be crazy, it was purely by choice. Rule # 1 was followed, Have Fun.
The fairgrounds were great I thought. Vendors of parts and food were aplenty and as others have said were excellent. I know I happily spent a few dollars. The music was really, really good too. Hymn for her being one of my favs.
Airhead Central was amazing with comy couches and fans. We got a private concert from Dallas on his guitar and Bob on the harmonica that went till 4am Thur. They stopped after someone tenting nearby complained. Many bikes were repaired and tuned and as always the Airheads came through providing valuable knowledge for those of us who like the old school bikes.
The best thing to come out of the whole week of riding Nirvana was my 6 yr old son Michael overcoming his fears of his PW 50 and finally ridng it when we got home. Seeing dad out on the GS Giant competition course was the perfect motivator. A future GS Giant for sure.
The Gypsy Tour will hopefully continue for many years and should, as its a total blast and the best bang for your buck.
Thanks again to all who made all this happen. Its a ton of work but, immensly appreciated.
 
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