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BMW Owners Club or riding group in Central Florida?

Central Florida Riders

I am sure there are plenty of riders in Central Florida to make up a good club. The fine folks in Jacksonville do a great job. It will take local riders with leadership initiative to get the ball rolling. I participate in 4 to 6 rally's each year and if you look around you will meet a number of Central Floridians. Count me in if you get something going!:thumb
 
According to eurotrashriders.com, they meet at City Diner on Livingston in downtown Orlando on Sunday morning between 8:00 and 9:00. I'm going to go check it out tomorrow and see if anyone shows up.

MB

I'm wondering what you found yesterday, Mike?

For the record, my wife and I will be planning a short ride next Sunday (23rd). We are thinking about doing a counter-clockwise circuit around Lake Apopka (from the Orlando area) that will take us over some decent motorcycle roads. Given the heat and the weather, we'll probably do breakfast around 9:00, then hit the road for the 1-1/2 - 2 hour ride. Of course, our plans will depend on what Bill and Anna decide to do (the big storms our in the Atlantic now heading east). If anyone is interested in joining in, I'll email/post up a meeting place and planned route and we can go from there.

:bikes
 
Another Orlando-area LT rider here

Vector,

Wife and I officially moved from PA down to the NE Orlando-area around the beginning of the year. We have done a couple of Saturday or Sunday breakfast RTE's with the Spacecoast crew. Takes us about an hour to get down to Melbourne where they meet (around 8 AM).

I usually frequent more the BMWLT web site. They have a few BMW members down here in Flatland but the SE US residents (really the local Floridians) have not done an RTE since last December.

We are often looking for someplace in FL to explore since we're relatively new the state. We are more-or-less limited to weekend rides, and morning to early afternoon rides as it gets kind of warm and stormy (lightning = bad) during the afternoons. We prefer rides that are out of the city, or don't go through the city due to too much traffic/construction. We've explored the east coast more than the west coast.

Last year, we did a 6K mile trip out west and many 1+K trips over extended weekends. This year our mileage has been hardly anything!

Jon
 
Jon Here is a good ride suggestion. Get out of Orlando southbound through Kissimmee to St. Cloud. Pick up 523 south to 441 south. This is all rural road once you get through St Cloud. When you get to the town of Okeechobee you can continue south on 441 and go around the lake either clockwise or counterclockwise. Either way, it is a good days ride. When you get back to Okeechobee there is a place at about 11pm on the lake called OkeeTante Resort. They have a good restaurant..Lightseys. Or there are a lot of other places to eat in the town. At the south end of the lake is the Clewiston Inn. A great place for lunch--an old fashioned 30s style inn.

If you really want to get a weekend ride, take 27 South at South Bay. This will connect with Krome Avenue, then on to Homestead. From there it is another 100 or so miles to Key West.
 
Jon, there are plenty of good roads and small towns north of Orlando. You have the area between Deland, Howey-on-the-Hills, Ocala, Gainesville and Palatka.
Then there is the horse farm country which is nice rolling hills. Look at roads that go east -west and not north-south. There are nice little towns , like Micanopy, Williston, Citra, Mount Dora, Clermont, or Astor Park. Have you ever gone to George Town. There is a very nice and curvy road that goes from US 17 to Denver and continues to George Town, there you can go north to Welaka and then circle back around to US 17. The state of FL hands out free maps and if that does not help, send me a PM and I e-mail you some GPS files , to keep you busy for a while, or longer. Of course do not let them Northerns know. After all there are no curves in FL. :nyah
 
Jon I'll post up a decent ride out of Orlando for you. As a matter of fact, it'll probably be the route we take on Sunday (weather permitting). The route I'm thinking of takes some nice two lane curvy roads from Orlando up to Plymoth, then up to Eustis, down through Howy-in-the-Hills, down to Groveland, the south of Clermont, and back up into south Ocoee (south west Orlando). If I recall, tt's about a 60 - 80 mile ride which can easily be done in 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I haven't figured out where we'll go for breakfast, but I'll post that up as well and anyone interested is certainly welcome to come join us.

:bikes
 
Southern Florida rides

Jon Here is a good ride suggestion. Get out of Orlando southbound through Kissimmee to St. Cloud. Pick up 523 south to 441 south. This is all rural road once you get through St Cloud. When you get to the town of Okeechobee you can continue south on 441 and go around the lake either clockwise or counterclockwise. Either way, it is a good days ride. When you get back to Okeechobee there is a place at about 11pm on the lake called OkeeTante Resort. They have a good restaurant..Lightseys. Or there are a lot of other places to eat in the town. At the south end of the lake is the Clewiston Inn. A great place for lunch--an old fashioned 30s style inn.

If you really want to get a weekend ride, take 27 South at South Bay. This will connect with Krome Avenue, then on to Homestead. From there it is another 100 or so miles to Key West.

Hi Tom,

PERFECT! Thanks for this route idea! Sounds like a fine trip.

We've taken 520 south to 192 and then 441 (at Holopaw) and down a few miles to some camp place that has Ecotours. (Nice riding - felt like being out in Nebraska...) We had a RTE for breakfast there. But have not ventured further south. I want to check out the Okeechobee Lake area. (Saw it mentioned in a Weather Channel storm story - I think - about when a hurricane came through 100+ years ago???)

And thanks for the restaurant tips. - PERFECT 2!

Yikes! It's been 26 years since I've been to Key West. Wife never has. We want to take a few days and ride down there (and stop in the Everglades NP. We were thinking fall/winter time frame???

Jon

:bikes 2!
 
Jon, there are plenty of good roads and small towns north of Orlando. You have the area between Deland, Howey-on-the-Hills, Ocala, Gainesville and Palatka.
Then there is the horse farm country which is nice rolling hills. Look at roads that go east -west and not north-south. There are nice little towns , like Micanopy, Williston, Citra, Mount Dora, Clermont, or Astor Park. Have you ever gone to George Town. There is a very nice and curvy road that goes from US 17 to Denver and continues to George Town, there you can go north to Welaka and then circle back around to US 17. The state of FL hands out free maps and if that does not help, send me a PM and I e-mail you some GPS files , to keep you busy for a while, or longer. Of course do not let them Northerns know. After all there are no curves in FL. :nyah

Bernie,

Susan and I rode up through Ocala NF at the end of Bike Week. We took I-4 north to 44, then 42, and up along 19. Lot's of bikes all over. I really liked it through the forest. We had stopped for lunch in Palatka (busy town - least on the weekend!)
Then we came down 17.

I would like to go up there some more. Looked like a fishing capital (of sorts) along 17!


We have not yet been to George Town area. Wife LOVES the Gulf side so a visit should is on the lists to do (or is it the Honey-Do list?).

Thanks for the post!! :clap

(Have a zumo 550 - hint hint)

Jon
 
We have the need - for a RTE! (or even just a ride)

Jon I'll post up a decent ride out of Orlando for you. As a matter of fact, it'll probably be the route we take on Sunday (weather permitting). The route I'm thinking of takes some nice two lane curvy roads from Orlando up to Plymoth, then up to Eustis, down through Howy-in-the-Hills, down to Groveland, the south of Clermont, and back up into south Ocoee (south west Orlando). If I recall, tt's about a 60 - 80 mile ride which can easily be done in 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I haven't figured out where we'll go for breakfast, but I'll post that up as well and anyone interested is certainly welcome to come join us.

:bikes

We are interested in coming along! After this week, I REALLY need a ride. :banghead

We are over in Oviedo. So we would skip breakfast to ride over to meet and be ready to eat somewhere!

Jon
 
Sunday Ride....

Okay, assuming Mother Nature cooperates and we have a decent chance of getting a ride in before the rain hits on Sunday, here is our gameplan for anyone interested in joining us:

We'll meet up at the Deny's in Ocoee (west of Orlando on Hwy. 50). The address is:

Denys
11261 W Colonial Dr.
Ocoee FL 34761
United States
(407) 877-8105

This will be our starting spot, and should be easy to get to for everyone. We'll be there for breakfast at 8:00am, with the goal of hitting the road around 8:45 - 9:00 or so.

From Deny's, we'll take a ride north through old Ocoee, along a nice curvy road that winds along the east side of Lake Apopka up to Plymouth. From there we'll hit 441 for a short stint up to 448 and C-48 west. We'll meander up to south Eustis and pick up Hwy. 19 heading south, through Howey in the Hills with a short sidetrip on 455 and 561. We'll hop on Hwy 27 to get back to 19 and then down to Groveland. We'll then take 50 east to 565a, then south around Clermont (Pine Island Road and Hammock Road) around Lake Susan, and back over to Hwy. 27 again. South on Hwy. 27 for a short ride, then east on Hartwood Marsh through Stoney Brook West and ending at a decent place for lunch and a cold drink at the Winter Garden Village (Chili's, KFC, Starbucks, Longhorn Steak, Panera, and Cracker Barrel just to name a few restaurants that are available there). I've attached a Garmin GPS exchange file for those with Mapsource or a Garmin GPS. According to the software, the total distance for the ride is 87.4 miles (most of which will be 2 lane), which I think we can do comfortably in about 2-1/2 - 3 hours or so. It's a bit longer that I orginally planned for, but what the heck...if you're out, enjoy the ride! We can easily shorten it if that is what everyone perfers.

Cheryl and I ride a 2000 BMW K1200LT, champagne in color. It'll probably be right out front of the Deny's. I hope some of you have the time to join us. I'll post up here on Saturday afternoon / evening if the weather looks ugly.

Let's go for a ride!

:bikes
 

Attachments

  • Sunday Ride.gpx
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If you don't mind I'll hook up with you guys too. I'm just South of Ocoee and do lots of riding around here and Lake County. My wife rides too, and may want to come. I'll be on a white r1100rs and she rides a black 650 vstar.
Larry
 
Two LT's?!

Vector,

We plan on coming along too! Wife and I will be on an Ocean Blue 05 LT.

Thanks for the Garmin exchange file and thanks for putting together the ride and inviting us along!

Jon
 
Great. Looking forward to meeting you guys & gals. My wife will be very interested to talk to another woman rider, as she's almost ready to climb off the back of my bike and start rideing her own. I haven't been over at that Deny's in quite some time, so I hope it's still kicking! If not, I know there is a Perkins about a block east on 50. I'll check the weather and make a final decision Saturday early evening.

BTW, my name is Richard, and my wife is Cheryl.

:groovy
 
Great, looks like you guys got something going.
Hope everyone as a fun and safe ride.
I will be going up to Roebling Rd with some locals, to check on Nate Kern at a track day in progress. After that will take the long slow winding way home.
Have a great weekend.:clap
 
Great. Looking forward to meeting you guys & gals. My wife will be very interested to talk to another woman rider, as she's almost ready to climb off the back of my bike and start rideing her own. I haven't been over at that Deny's in quite some time, so I hope it's still kicking! If not, I know there is a Perkins about a block east on 50. I'll check the weather and make a final decision Saturday early evening.

BTW, my name is Richard, and my wife is Cheryl.

:groovy
She has been riding her own since 02 or so. She doesn't ride a lot but does ok. Yes I believe the Dennys is still there. See you at 8:00.
Larry
 
Well, if we get a day like today it should be a nice ride....a bit warm, but still nice. We'll be at Deny's at 8:00 tomorrow....looking forward to meeting you folks!

;)
 
Ride

It was great to meet everyone. Sorry I had to cut out early. Let's do it again soon. I'll make the cappuccinos.

MB
 
Central Fl BMW Clubs

Yes you have asked the question and I responded with GO TO THE HOME PAGE and look on the left side. Click on charted clubes. You will find one in Orlando and several other places.

Jack Ethridge
Ocala Fl
352 266-1203
JETHRIDGE4@COX.NET
 
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