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Hansen's BMW in Oregon burned down

gregfeeler

Dances With Sheep
As some of you know there are incredibly destructive forest fires in California and Oregon which have been raging for weeks. I received this email from Craig Hansen of Hansen's BMW earlier today. Sounds like their shop is a total loss. This is a big loss for the BMW community as they were one of the old-time "rider's" shops, and also because they were considered the best place to get your Airhead or Classic K-bike rear drive splines rebuilt. Hopefully, they are well insured and will be able to rebuild.




Alameda Fire Rogue Valley

Dear Friends and Valued Customers,
Everyone is ok, but I'm holding back tears (mostly) as I write this note about the Alameda Fire in the Rogue Valley.

Mark & Laurie lost their house, personal belongings', motorcycles, everything except Marks car. They are safe now staying with Laurie's son in White City.

Wade & Caren can't get back into Ashland, but he believes the winds keep the fire moving away from his home. They currently are staying with Ted & Dianne in Grants Pass.

Dave & Sharon's home is safe, but like all the Rouge Valley are at Level 1 evacuation. His in-laws, son, and their daughter & her husband are staying with them.

Mason & Anne's home is also currently at Level 1 evacuation. He has multiple friends from the Ashland to Phoenix area who are staying at their house until things settled down.

Connie & I are in our home which is at Level II. The Van is loaded with Dog & Cat containers along with food, water & valuables ready to leave if needed.

The fire is still burning with the winds starting up again and there is no idea when the fires will be put out. We don’t know the exact details, but it appears like massive destruction from the South Ashland I5 exit all the way past us to South Medford is destroyed.

Mason has been texting with our friends in the Sheriff's Department, and It sounds like the Hansen's BMW is a total loss. We were told D&S Harley, we presume Oregon Adventure KTM, and probably hundreds of homes & businesses along South Pacific Hwy are also burnt to the ground as well.

We are all devastated, and thousands of lives have been affected. It will be a weeks before I can put together a plan, but there is always a future even if I'm not sure exactly what it will be.

I'll keep you informed as best I can.

Craig Hansen


www.HansensMc.com
 
Wow! I'm sure glad they are physically OK. But this will be a loss that will unfold many ways over the next few years, for them and the larger motorcycle community.
 
Wow what a shame. I’m not familiar with them, though it certainly sounds like a tough break for everyone out there.

But I like to look on the bright side - - they are all safe. And maybe if the three shops that burned to the ground could pool resources, they could build back even better than before?
 
Oregon and California Wildfires

We have family in Phoenix, Oregon and the surrounding towns as well as in northern California under threat of fires now. We are hoping and praying that all are safe. Have been to Hansen's M/C shop in past years. So very sorry to hear about this terrible news. Praying for rains SOON! Take care and be safe.
 
One of my ex-coworkers, a precision machinist and tool maker, moved up to Paradise after retiring, built a beautiful large house with a huge garage/workshop... and had it all burned to a crisp in the last firestorm.
He's been rebuilding, but is now faced with even more fire. About 15 minutes ago, I got in this update from him:
We have a really big fire right now called the north complex fire. It has been a nightmare the last couple of days with PG&E shutting our power of Monday and just turned it back on about an hour ago. Thank God for all the generators I have amassed.
The fire has consumed I believe the town of Bangor and Feather Falls and half of Oroville. We just got an evacuation warning about 3 hours ago and have been working my tail off trying to gather what we want to keep. It is really dark and red skies. I loaded up the 5 x 8 trailer with tools and equipment from the shop and am ready to get out of here if needed. I believe if we have to go, I will store the trailer at my friend's Bob home outside of Stockton and we will drive to Los Angeles to stay at a friend's home.
How about a little prayer for us.....Thank You

Down here, the skies are gray and smoky, and Everything has a layer of ash. The sun is red at noon, but the sunrises and sunsets are pretty, sort-of.
 
One of my ex-coworkers, a precision machinist and tool maker, moved up to Paradise after retiring, built a beautiful large house with a huge garage/workshop... and had it all burned to a crisp in the last firestorm.
He's been rebuilding, but is now faced with even more fire. About 15 minutes ago, I got in this update from him:
We have a really big fire right now called the north complex fire. It has been a nightmare the last couple of days with PG&E shutting our power of Monday and just turned it back on about an hour ago. Thank God for all the generators I have amassed.
The fire has consumed I believe the town of Bangor and Feather Falls and half of Oroville. We just got an evacuation warning about 3 hours ago and have been working my tail off trying to gather what we want to keep. It is really dark and red skies. I loaded up the 5 x 8 trailer with tools and equipment from the shop and am ready to get out of here if needed. I believe if we have to go, I will store the trailer at my friend's Bob home outside of Stockton and we will drive to Los Angeles to stay at a friend's home.
How about a little prayer for us.....Thank You

Down here, the skies are gray and smoky, and Everything has a layer of ash. The sun is red at noon, but the sunrises and sunsets are pretty, sort-of.

With the additional fires going in central CA, he may want to find a place to hunker down a little closer to home... With the Creek fire outside of Fresno, and the two fires just outside LA (Bobcat and the one near San Bernadino) Stockton may not be the place to be heading. I heard there is another fire south of here too.

I rinsed the cars off Monday morning, but today's ashfall was even thicker, and visibly coming down around noon today in DTLB.
 
Damn...... if things weren’t tough enough.

If you all in the fire zone plan on staying in heavy ash, try and pickup a spare air filter for your vehicles. Cabin Air filters as well if your vehicle is equipped.

Good luck.

OM
 
Another 2020 Gut Punch... glad they are safe but so many losses that are life changing. I couldn’t imagine having the calm to write that with circumstances.
 
Outpouring of support for Hansen's:

I received an encouraging update message from Craig Hansen. Here is an opportunity to provide financial support if you want through a GoFundMe account setup in their behalf: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-...dium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1


Thank you for the Out Pouring of Support

We truly are amazed by the out pouring of support from around the country by literally the best customers and friends in the world. Thank you, it has helped mend some of our broken hearts.

For 49 years we have had business insurance, but never planned on using it. Over the next weeks I'll begin to find out how much it will take to rebuild Hansen's BMW a new facility and how good my insurance is. We have been offered space with Mason's close friend to begin opening up, but don't have a plan or time line yet.

With all the people that have been affected by the fire, like Mark losing his home, Mason & I feel awkward sharing the Go Fund Me page that one of our customers has started. Our family & staff are people that offer help, but don't ask for help. We expect nothing from our customers except for the love & encouragement you have been giving us. But after talking with some close friends we feel that it would be wrong of us not to post the link from the support of two of our great customers.

If you haven’t seen the photos check out our Facebook page, its pretty amazing and devastating.

Thank You again
Craig, Connie, Mason, Dave, Mark & Wade
 
That is just terrible news!
I was on a long, 12K mile, trip and stopped there for tires for my LT and even though they were slammed, they fitted me right in. They have such great customer service and I hope they will be back in business soon!!!
 
The smoke and red sun has migrated from the California fires all the way into the Phoenix, AZ valley. We have relatives in Santa Rosa, CA and this is the third bad fire season they have gone through in the last 4 years only barely managing to save their house in 2017. Ash is falling there as well. It is truly a living hell. Best wishes to all in the path of this destruction.
 
Update on Hansen's progress to reopen

I received a very encouraging message from Craig Hansen this evening about their progress getting back into business:


"The Start" 9-30-2020 Stage 1

It has been three weeks since the Almeda Fire, and it is time for me to update you on the first of three stages of our re-opening. Re-opening is more complicated than you might think, especially with franchises like BMW, Ducati, HD & Triumph along with the complexity of sales, parts, and service when starting from scratch. Mason & I had a conference call with the head BMW Motorrad North America along with the head of dealer development and our BMW regional manager a week ago. They are totally supportive of our store and realize it could take a year plus to get back into a facility. They had already been working on ideas on how they could help us re-open before our we had our conference call. Fortunately, the insurance coverage I have with Zurich has Business Continuation to help us for a bit as we navigate these next stages. For the last three weeks, most of my time has been working with Zurich, filling out valuation forms for tools, equipment, parts, accessories, displays and the family belongings that we have acquired over the last 49 years. Mason has been connecting with some of you, contacting distributers, getting orders in for maintenance parts and supplies, plus some data entry for our inventory. All of us have been working together to remember the things lost that are not in normal inventory control so we can include it in the insurance.

We are starting the first stage of re-opening which is getting a service department running so we can take care of our local Police Motor Divisions and BMW riders. Mason, Dave, Mark, Wade, Connie & I have been organizing a garage to get us through the end of the year. We received new work lifts, tire balancer & changer, computers, printers and network access at the end of last week. Today we had enough in place to start working on the police motorcycles, many of which suffered being covered with fire retardant to clogging air filters with ash, in addition to basic services like oil and tire changes. Over the coming weeks as our new processes are established, we will start basic services, warranty and recalls on our customer’s bikes a few days a week. Scheduling will be tricky so please be patient with us. Our phones just arrived, but it will be next week before they are programed to be online. So for now, send an email to Craig@HansensMc.com requesting an appointment, then Mason will call to schedule a time.

Major BMW repairs are still going to be some time away as we still need to acquire BMW Factory Tools & Computer Diagnostics. BMW’s IT support team is setting up the diagnostics computers now and hope to ship them out in October. BMW also contacted a dealer in Milwaukee who recently closed their doors and they have all the new generation of tools in storage. Wade (thanks for volunteering!) is going to fly to Wisconsin where he, BMW, and the dealership will load up a U-Haul with the tools and drive them back to Medford.

The Second Stage will be finding a larger temporary facility where we could have a small Showroom, Parts Department, along with Service until we come up with a permanent solution. Mason & I will be working on this over the next month.

Throughout this tragedy, we have seen firsthand how important the support of the community is. With that in mind, Mason & Bill Warner are doing a limited run of the Hansen’s Social Distancing T-shirt. All profits we’ll be given to the “Boys & Girls Club” in Southern Oregon as we too can help give back to our community. In a future email, we’ll explain more about this awesome charity and why we are doing this do this for them.

We would love to see any recent photos you have of our shop, showroom, parts, or service departments. Please send any photos to Craig@HansensMc.com or post them to our Facebook page! I want to thank you for the hundreds of emails & Facebook postings in support of our store & my staff. I hope to answer many of you personally once we start to get back to some form of normal.

Thank You again for your loyal support,
Craig, Connie, Mason, Dave, Mark & Wade

www.HansensMc.com https://Parts.HansensMc.com
3598 S. Pacific Hwy
Medford, OR | 97501 US
 
This business, totally burned down, and yet they are doing a fundraiser for a local charity. That is the kind of business I want to support.

I'll have to watch for that fundraiser.
 
Update on Hansen's BMW recovery

I received this email from Hansen's BMW today:


2021 New Beginning

2020 will forever awaken our memories but not like those of Christmas with “Visons of Sugar-Plums Dancing in your head”. We have all heard the details over and over again of the events that are affecting all our personal & business lives. The devastation of floods, hurricanes, tornado’s etc. and in our case fire, have added so much more to everyone’s plates. Even though we’ll get through our challenges, I’ve been struggling writing this email. Either I haven’t had the time, I’m tired or I haven’t been in the correct frame of mind to compose my words to share what has been going on. So much has happened since the fire, so many plans for the future, too many to share at once. So here is a quick update on Hansen’s Motorcycles re-opening.

We have purchased a lot of new equipment since the fire from, a tire changer & balancer, to motorcycle lifts, diagnostic computers, BMW OEM & personal tools etc. We began servicing BMW’s last September in my dad’s garage. Now Mason, Mark, Dave, Connie and I have set up a second temporary service department at 1284 Stowe Ave, Medford Oregon 97501. We are now scheduling service appointments for our local clientele by phone 541-535-3342 Tuesday through Thursday for the month of February. We are ready for most services, repairs, warranty or recalls, but be patient as we keep finding items we need and have to order. In March we’ll begin to expand our hours as needed and hope we’ll have everything to handle all your BMW needs by the Spring Season.

Until our new building goes up on S. Pacific Hwy Spring of 2022, we won’t have a showroom for motorcycles or accessories. We are selling 2021 BMW’s to our clients now, but they are all pre-sold and you need to allow time for me to find & get one delivered to Stowe Ave address.

Many of you have been affected by Covid-19, Disasters etc., and our hearts go out to you. A Big Thank You to all of you that have offered your help and condolences, it means a lot us.

Craig, Connie, Dave, Mark and Mason
 
I received this email from Hansen's BMW today:


2021 New Beginning

2020 will forever awaken our memories but not like those of Christmas with “Visons of Sugar-Plums Dancing in your head”. We have all heard the details over and over again of the events that are affecting all our personal & business lives. The devastation of floods, hurricanes, tornado’s etc. and in our case fire, have added so much more to everyone’s plates. Even though we’ll get through our challenges, I’ve been struggling writing this email. Either I haven’t had the time, I’m tired or I haven’t been in the correct frame of mind to compose my words to share what has been going on. So much has happened since the fire, so many plans for the future, too many to share at once. So here is a quick update on Hansen’s Motorcycles re-opening.

We have purchased a lot of new equipment since the fire from, a tire changer & balancer, to motorcycle lifts, diagnostic computers, BMW OEM & personal tools etc. We began servicing BMW’s last September in my dad’s garage. Now Mason, Mark, Dave, Connie and I have set up a second temporary service department at 1284 Stowe Ave, Medford Oregon 97501. We are now scheduling service appointments for our local clientele by phone 541-535-3342 Tuesday through Thursday for the month of February. We are ready for most services, repairs, warranty or recalls, but be patient as we keep finding items we need and have to order. In March we’ll begin to expand our hours as needed and hope we’ll have everything to handle all your BMW needs by the Spring Season.

Until our new building goes up on S. Pacific Hwy Spring of 2022, we won’t have a showroom for motorcycles or accessories. We are selling 2021 BMW’s to our clients now, but they are all pre-sold and you need to allow time for me to find & get one delivered to Stowe Ave address.

Many of you have been affected by Covid-19, Disasters etc., and our hearts go out to you. A Big Thank You to all of you that have offered your help and condolences, it means a lot us.

Craig, Connie, Dave, Mark and Mason

It is times like this when the absence of a "Like" or "Thumbs-Up" button on this forum is really apparent.
 
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