MOTORREADS: 19 February 2009

[mika]

hemmings.com Ga-ga for Guzzi


Bikes in the Fast Lane: Custom painted motorcycles


Bikes in the Fast Lane: Running your motorcycle on Bio-Fuel maybe not so cool


cmgonline.com: Yamaha forecasting loss


dealernews.com: 2009 Dealernews Top 100


fasterandfaster.net: 2009 Piaggio MP 3 HyS hybrid inches closer to production


businesswire.com: Motorcycle Industry Council and Specialty Vehicle Institute of America generate thousands of letters against ban on youth ATV and Motorcycles


1s5ive.com: Horry County joins Myrtle Beach in giving their middle finger to bikers


2009 KTM 450XC-W Bike Test
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Aprilia Shiver vs Ducati Monster 696
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Airbag motorcycle jacket crash tested
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BENCHRACING:

WorldSBK

WEC

MotoGP

caradisiac.com: MotoGP, FIM and Dorna in unison: “ Important measure to ensure the future of the MotoGP”

bikeholic.com: Casey Stoner to quit 2009 MotoGP season?

worldofbmw.com[/rul]: Success in South Africa for G450X

BMW MANUFACTURING LAUNCHES WIND POWER STUDY
02/18/2009

Spartanburg, S.C. - February 17, 2009... BMW Manufacturing Co. today announced that it has begun a study into the feasibility of using wind energy on the plant site. BMW will partner with Gold Ring Power, LLC to conduct an energy audit to gather data on wind speed and patterns throughout the site. The results of the test will reveal the viability for BMW to add wind to the list of alternative energy resources used to power the facility.
Duncan Seaman, Facilities Manager for BMW, explains that "globally, wind power is growing at a rate of about 30% annually and is widely used in several European countries. This assessment is an ongoing commitment by BMW to investigate renewable energy options."

To begin this test, two 50-foot towers have been installed on the plant site. Anemometers, similar to measuring devices used by meteorologists, will be attached to each tower to collect data on wind speed and direction. One tower will be located in front of the BMW Zentrum Visitors Center and will be visible from Interstate 85. The towers will stay in place for two weeks and will then be moved to other strategic locations on the plant site to gather additional wind data. After several weeks, the data will be analyzed by Gold Ring Power, LLC and provided to BMW for further evaluation.

"Alternative energy projects such as this are essential to the sustainability of this plant. Following the success of the methane gas project, we continue to look for ways to harness the natural resources available to us. BMW is already a global leader in automotive technology and innovation, so projects like these are a natural outgrowth of our commitment to managing alternative energy resources," said Robert Hitt, manager for Corporate Communications.

Currently 63% of the BMW plant in Spartanburg is powered through recycled methane gas from the local landfill. This Landfill Gas to Energy Project, launched in 2003, has saved the company over $1 million per year in energy costs.

Gold Ring Power, LLC is a California-based company that specializes in efficiently integrating renewable energy systems into manufacturing facilities and industrial plants.

I am so proud of myself for not making any jokes about the title of this article being redundant, BMW – wind power – press release all in the same place.

Oops I did it didn’t I





[url=http://londonbikers.com/news/10794/cruztools-road-tech-b1-kit-for-bmw]Londonbikers.com: CruzTOOLS Road Tech B1 kit for BMW

autobloggreen.com: Let controversy reign – study says biofuels will speed up global warming


hydrogencarsnow.com: The big buy strategy for Minnesota needs your input


leftlanenews.com: More details surface on Bentley’s biofuel supercar


motorauthority.com: Ferrari recalls 1,900 F430 Spiders at risk of going up in flames


autospies.com: 2009 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GTS – first drive


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WOOT.com

Knjmoto.com:

xkcd.com:

Bike Candy

Comments:

 

[mika]

February 18, 2009 is a day that will go down, hard, in the history of the BMW MOA . It is the day the heart of a growing living element of the Association was strangled to death and replaced by forces beyond memberÔÇÖs control .

Member reaction was swift. In thread after thread comments were made.

Some pointed out the errors made in this cataclysmic process only to see the results of the hidden draconian forces at work after snuffing out the legacy of their mistakes without returning the beloved life to our once living forum, yeah even to our foundation of our total web presence.

Many heroically spoke in the voice urged in our founding documents in an effort to promote camaraderie among motorcycle enthusiasts in the face of such trauma. In their effort let us find the strength to go on as members in the face of the changes that day, short passed, has wrought on our Forum, the Home Page our face to the world and the promise that internet presence promised for the very life of the BMW MOA.

The sun has inexorably made another journey across the skies and has brought us the dawn of a new day . The ruble of our past has been swept away. We cling to it in our minds as a memory and as a promise left unfulfilled in our actions. Lurker and poster, be they noob and 1000 plus poster, are finding their way in this new and desolate land that has been given us by those apocalyptic horsemen of the internet. Let the sunÔÇÖs bright light and our individual efforts with each ensuing post cleanse this place as we reclaim it as ours .

As I join you in this quest for the future I raise my pen to urge our leadership, our venerable BOD, to delay in their journey with us and deal with those involved with this historic incident. In the coming days they will be called upon to deal with new issues presented in this now strange land we call our website as we work member and BOD together, to reclaim it. However; before then they must, no matter how distasteful to them it may be, deal with the issues surrounding this past day.

To secure our future from fear of errors in the past our leadership must interrogate the perpetrators. Extreme methods may be required .

First the BOD must find out what obstacles these scurrilous actors encountered. These issues must be planned for as part of our plans for future actions. Did they have enough resources? As we go forward will we be able to, as we have in the past, use only BMW MOA staff and volunteers to do the work needed to correct this in the future; or would it be appropriate to hire outside contractors to do some of the work when we restore our fatherland in the next iteration.

The promotion of camaraderie must remain a core and inviolable principle as we deal with staff and members that participated in this deed. Yet with those core beliefs in hand we must deal with them as justice demands.

Staff members must be interrogated and their roles clearly identified and documented. In some cases this will mean making their complicit acts part of their personnel record so that we may be reminded of them when they come up for their regular reviews. Unfortunately, I fear for the BODÔÇÖs tender sensibilities in this, in some cases it may not so simple an act to dispense what justice requires. We, my gentle fellow members, may need to understand in this quest for justice extreme measures may be required. In addition to letters of commendation placed into the personnel files there may be the need to strike with the hard hand of bonus or in extreme circumstances merit increases.

Fellow members will undoubtedly be uncovered as participants in the cabal that has delivered us into this new and sterile land. The BOD must rise to deal with them as they would any such conspirator while as fellow members we must work to bring them back into the community with at-a-boys and other phrases heart felt from the camaraderie we have shared with them lo these many years before they helped to take us down this uncharted path.

The conventions which govern the handling of staff in cases such as this do not apply to these participants . The normal tools of letters of commendation, certificates or rally dinners may not be enough to properly bring the swift justice they deserve. While we all cling to the sentiments outlined in our founding documents we must realize that this was an extraordinary incident and may well call for extraordinary responses to properly deal with these members as we keep and welcome them back in the fold of membership with the their fellow website members.

My fellow members, with the dawn of this new day in his new website we will call our internet home we are confronted with a new challenge. It is greater than the challenges faced by the BOD outlined in the words above. In the shocking work done by those destroyers of old new opportunities have been laid at our feet. In concert with the same people that have wrenched the old heart of our beloved website out from our very midst we must cease this flickering opportunity, nurture it and cause it to grow. In this challenge our clarion call is

CONTENT!

In this new place we are all noobs . Content and its management will be part of the reconciliation expected from those that have brought us to this new place. Yet there are new opportunities for content from all who are willing to take up the challenge. What new tools are at our fingertips? How may we work with those that brought this change in form and process to bring the content we long discussed in those days and forum posts now consigned to history after that fateful February day. What new opportunities unthought-of lay ahead?

Thank you my fellow members.

Now ÔÇô Pass the Mustard and UP THE REVOLUTION!

This post is very tongue in cheek (and foot in mouth) and should include all sorts of end notes but I am not able to properly transfer them

 

[snakepilot]

Topic

HUH?

 

[mika]

HUH?

Welcome to the forum.

Topic, you don't need no stinking topic to post on this forum.