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Morning Reads: 19 October 2006

mika

Still Wondering
BMW Group Press Club:

NEIMAN MARCUS LIMITED EDITION BMW M6 CONVERTIBLE SELLS OUT IN RECORD-BREAKING ONE MINUTE AND THIRTY-TWO SECONDS
Dial-up Frenzy as Customers Vie To Be Among The First Fifty Callers

Woodcliff Lake, NJ - October 18, 2006 ... The holidays are coming early for 50 Neiman Marcus customers who managed to place their calls into BMW to order the new 2007 BMW M6 Convertible that was featured in this yearÔÇÖs Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, as it went on sale today at 12 PM, EDT.

As the clock struck noon, the 1-866-303-2696 phone lines were completely lit up with buyers who wanted to be sure they were among the first in the U.S. to own the just-introduced Limited Edition M6. The Convertible sold out in a mere one minute, thirty-two seconds.

Billed as the ÔÇ£must-haveÔÇØ automobile for the person who has everything, the luxury convertible made its U.S. debut at the unveiling of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book in Dallas on October 3rd. Only 50 of these new U.S. limited-edition models, built especially for Neiman Marcus, are being produced in the inaugural year. They feature custom Ruby Black exterior finish accented with Piano Black trim elements, and power sports seats wrapped in a custom Gold Brown shade of supple BMW Individual Merino leather. The car can launch you from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.5 exhilarating seconds, and features a powerful 5.0-liter V-10 engine that produces 500 horsepower.

The Limited Edition 2007 BMW M6 Convertible is featured on pages 96-97 of the 2006 Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, and retails for $139,000.

BMW 3 Series Tops "Near-Luxury" Category

Woodcliff Lake, NJ - October 17, 2006... The BMW brand has been named the leader across the board in "Total Value" by the 2006 Strategic Vision Total Value Index. According to the study, the brand received top honors in the "Warranty" category and dominated the field in most segments including high marks in total value in the "Luxury Car", "Convertible", and "Luxury SUV" categories. For the second year in a row, the BMW 3 Series received the highest scores in total value in the "Near-Luxury" category.


News:

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Daniel Day Lewis goes 2 up on a Ducati MotoGP at Estoril. Talk about the death of common sense!

Recipe of the Day: Beer Mustard Bratwurst With German Potato Salad. Mustard and all the other major food groups in one recipe!

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Jay Leno tells us about this three wheeler in his column in PopularMechanics.

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DragBike.com reports Brock's Performance CRACKS the 200 MPH Barrier on the ZX-14

BMW Chartered Club;


club: Bakersfield BMW Motorcycle Club, Inc., #80 founded: 8/1/1977
contact: Myram Kitchen
15703 Sammie Ave.
Bakersfield, CA 93314 US
meetings: 1st Tuesday, 7 p.m., Jake's Tex-Mex, 1710 Oak St.



News from the 2007 Rally area:

Ozaukee ÔÇô Washington Daily News

Fond Du Lac Reporter

The Sheboygen Press

Daily Citizen, Beaver Dam

Type ÔÇ£blondeÔÇØ into a computer at school and if youÔÇÖre a teacher it can cost you your job and send the teacherÔÇÖs union to court.

Teahcers union sues district
La Crosse Tribune is reporting the story and they are on the other side of the state.

ÔÇÿScreechÔÇÖ didnÔÇÖt pay his taxes and the story wonÔÇÖt go away, just like the show wouldnÔÇÖt go away when my daughters were in junior high.

Feature

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It is simple, Caf?® Racers are cool.! And if you know anything at all about Caf?® Racing you have heard of The Ace Caf?®.

ace38.jpg


The original was built in 1938 and was destroyed in an air raid.

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It was moved to a temporary building then rebuilt in a new building in 1949.

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For caf?® racers breaking the Ton is a caf?® racing right of passage, but slow down and spend some time exploring their Table of Contents.

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Biker Dictionary: word of the day

S:
Sparkin' or Sparking the Pavement - This is a term used when a rider would lean their bike over far enough to drag the bottoms, usually of their bikes floor boards or maybe an exhaust pipe and cause sparks to fly at night from rubbing the pavement. i.e. "He had that bike so low to the ground in the turn it was Sparkin or Sparking the Pavement."
I told my mother it had nothing to do with making out and all that other stuff. Now I have proof.

Gear:

Periodically a collector or German license plate will show up on e-bay that catches my eye. I wonder if it would be something to purchase that would set the Roadster apart from the rest of the pack. During todayÔÇÖs wonderings I came across this site.

Framptons Old Vintage & Classic Car & Motorcycle Number Plates, est. 1975.

Now I just have to figure out what the specialty plate would be.

Are you interested in collector license plates, check out LicensePlates.cc which bills itself as the license plate collectorÔÇÖs portal for news, galleries, and events.

Motorcycle Repair and Care:

Over the last few Morning Reads we have looked at tire mounting equipment, how to lace a wire wheel and so it makes sense we look at tire balancing. If you donÔÇÖt buy into the idea of using Inovative BalancingÔÇÖs balancing beads you are left with the work of balancing a tire.

webBikeWorld reviews a tire balancer for us to use.

The Road Star Clinic site show the frugal rider how to build their own stand.

Duane Ausherman outlines some of the procedures for balancing BMW wheels on his web site.

Dionys ÔÇô Hofmann GmbH billÔÇÖs itself as Europes largest manufacturer of balance weights for all sorts of vehicles gives us their take on the topic.

MarcParnes.com gives us some instruction on how to use their BMW wheel balancer, should we decide to buy one.

My winter to do list just keeps changing. Where did I put that credit card. Oh right here under my 2 by 4s cut to the proper length.

Wonderings:

When is a bike a caf?® racer, hooligan bike, super moto or street-fighter? The lines and functions seem a bit blurred to me right now.

For example Exile Cycles is normally looked at as a chopper shop. Yet it produced this street ÔÇô fighter for a biker build off.

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Very different, yet sharing some of the same elements as a super/hyper- moto like DucatiÔÇÖs

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Triumph has ruled the hooligan bike class with its Speed Triple

Triumph%20Speed%20Triple%202005%20RHS%20Rear.jpg


While if you have a Honda CB750 and some cash cb750cafe.com will build you a ÔÇ£traditionalÔÇØ caf?® racer.

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And then you donÔÇÖt have to dig to far into our brands history to find things such as this.

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Just when you think you may have a handle on it you come across a little picture like this one from the Caf?® Racer Club of South Australia.

OvertakerWLA.jpg


The caption identifying the bike in the picture reads: The Overtaker, riding his rather unusual WLA Harley powered Triumph Thunderbird. The front end is from a Suzuki 380GT. If you were paying attention in class yesterday this qualifies this ÔÇô caf?® racer ÔÇô by definition as a Rat Bike.

All of this leaves the guys inside of my helmet arguing as we ride along. Perhaps that is were the common sense in all of this is. The commonality in all these various bikes is not in how they fit into some naming matrix. It is not found in a real or imagined lifestyle. Rather, it is that they are two wheeled expressions of their designers, builders and owners, and of what riding means to them. You may not want to own a particular statement, but if you understand the commonality in them it makes sense.

All of this makes me hungry for some Deutch 

Bike Candy:

From vintagebike.co.uk

1961 R50 Special

BMW-R50-61-1.jpg


BMW-R50-61-2.jpg


BMW-R50-61-4.jpg


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Unless noted otherwise, while I may have interest in them, I have no known commercial or finacial interest in any products discussed in the Morning Reads[/size=].
 
$470,000 for legal fees for termination cases?

"According to a Journal Sentinel analysis, Cedarburg spent more than $470,000 in legal fees from 2001 through 2005, more than any other school district in Ozaukee County. Much of it went toward two other controversial termination cases."

"And it's possible there may have been some unwarranted glee among administrators in dismissing Zellner, who as the teachers union president last year led a no-confidence vote on the school superintendent."

Milwaukee Jounal Sentinel Sept 19, 2006

Oh, now I see.
:D
 
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