Yankee Beemers Club December 2019 SHOCKING ELECTION RESULTS SHOCKING ELECTRIC BIKES SHOCKING NYC BUS TRIP Cover : YB Leadership 2020 ( L— R) Duncan, Jim, Andrew, Jim BMW C EvolutionElectric YB LuxoLounger a Mobile Lounge

Below : Your Bartenders: Dean Todd Phil Your Driver Johnny Cash

Opposite Zero Racer Preston Petty‘s Electric Short Tracker

YBs at MAX-GIVING 2018 !

2 2020 Beemers Officers President: Duncan Cooper Vice President: John Van Hook Secretary: Karl Renneker Treasurer: Jim Sanders Forum: Gary Nelson Publisher: Dana Lewis Editor: Dwight Nevins YB Store Manager: (Seeking new Volunteer) Board of Directors: J Gamel, S Martin, T Truex, D Walton, K Strubel Sr., Bill Cusack Rally Masters Vermont Campouts: Bill Cusack and Jim Sanders Holiday Party: Todd Truex Pemi: Duncan Cooper Damn Yankees: Ken Springhetti

3 Prez Sez Duncan Cooper

NYC Bus trip !

4 5 Karl Rennekers 2019 (xarle renke) Season Wrapup

It seems like we went from autumn colors to a blanket of white in the blink of an eye this year. As the temperatures drop the 2019 riding season is wrapping up as well. I hope I can keep squeez- ing in some commuting days between snow storms. And even then, I‘ll get out to run a few errands or even a quick joy ride if the roads are clear. But the long days of joy rides are probably in the rear-view mirror for 2019. Usually I judge my season but the number of miles I put down, or the satisfaction that comes with a long trip to a far-off destination. By those metrics, this year would have fallen short. But I think I had more fun this year than I have ever had! I mixed up the things I did this year. I spent more time with friends than I did just putting down miles by myself. Early in the season we had an impromptu gathering to brew beer before the Frosty Nuts Rally. Greg Wolodkin brewed beer and Todd Truex tossed some food on the grill while we just hung out and talked about plans for the riding season. There were bikes tossed around the yard like BMX in front of our houses when we were kids. There is always early season maintenance to take care of. In May I asked Ken Springhetti if I could use his garage to change a chain on my KMW. He put out an open house invite for any- one who wanted to come by for a tech day. Suddenly we‘ve got a KMW, an R1100RT, and a random cruiser all pulled apart in his driveway. We also had a dirt bike and even a Hardly Able- son to take joy rides around the neighborhood while we worked on bikes. We finished up by grabbing some beers and hoping in the back of Ken‘s pickup to head over to a lake for a swim to cool off. Even though I didn‘t take a long trip, I got in some great riding in August and September. Our Damn Yankees Rally was a hit! I also made it to my first Green Mountain Rally and was able to hit up Back to Jamaica for a long day trip from Newton, Ma up to Vermont. I was in Vermont nearly every weekend in Septem- ber. It‘s such a special time to be in the Green Mountains. You can feel fall in the air and the peepers haven‘t made their ap- pearance yet.

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We have an amazing calendar of rallies, but there is always something going on! John Scholes lives near the new Mighty Squirrel brewery in Waltham. A few times we would just grab a beer on a Thursday night and talk about bikes. Andy Snyder would ride over from South Boston and all of the sud- den we have a little bike night. Maybe we can grow that in 2020. We may be short on riding days left, but there is still stuff to do. The annual Hound Butt ride to the International Motorcy- cle Show in NYC was this weekend If you‘ve never made this trip, you should mark your calendar for next year! We also have the December breakfast and the holiday bash.coming up See ya there

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8 9 n‘ Stuff John Van Hook

So just what is the deal with Sidecars? Are they actually easier to ride? Using the ’s mass to aid in cornering?!?!? Leading link forks? Leading legs? Huh? What is rake, offset and trail? Oh, and that whole vs counter steering thing … what?

“When I get to old and fat to drive a sidecar, I will get myself a nice sports bike.‖ I don‘t remember where I read that quote, but it has some truth to it.

First let‘s dispel the myth that driving a sidecar is easier than a two-wheeled motorcycle. It is not. The only thing that is easier is you don‘t have to put a foot down at a stop. All the rest of it is an order of magnitude more demanding, both mentally and physically. Added to that, you have all the downsides of a car and all the downsides of a motorcycle. You are the size of a car, so you may not fit through tight places to get out of trouble, but if you do get into trouble, you are just as vulnerable as if you were on a two-wheeler.

10 Right hand corners. (with Sidecar mounted on drivers right) If you go into a corner fast on a two-wheeler, with skill and good form and you can get through a corner way faster than you think you can (for most of us, not all). But on a sidecar, if you go into a right-hand corner too hot the sidecar comes up off the ground!! If you have really gone in too fast you can flip over and crash. Crashing sucks by the way. Don‘t crash. The tendency when the chair flies is to turn left to bring the chair down … but you‘re in a right-hand turn … which means turning left puts you in the on- coming traffic lane, which, by the way, is very very bad.

Sidecar Mass: While accelerating the whole machine to wants to pivot right. Braking pivot the whole machine left. (all the mass of the sidecar either resists going faster – pivots to the right, or, wants to keep going -- pivots to the left.). If you are paying attention you can use these forces to your advantage while negotiating twisty roads … But if you get it backwards it can make a corner … very interest- ing!

To use the sidecar mass to your advantage while riding twisty roads with a sidecar: Right hand corners you brake early and accelerate out. Pivot right. Left hand corners you brake late through the corner. Pivot left.

If you have independent brakes on the sidecar, you can apply those to help pivot around right-hand corners. The sidecar brake helps pivot the bike around it. … When braking for a left turn, use just the brakes on the bike. These methods will help … a little. A spirited ride on a sidecar through twisty roads is challenging.

11 Suspension: Just what is the deal with a leading link suspension? That sus- pension serves two primary purposes: Structural integrity and Alignment. But first, let‘s tackle steering vs counter steering.

Steering: In a car, to turn left you turn the wheels left and the goes in that direction. This is the way you steer a four-wheeler and a three-wheeler (trike & sidecar).

Counter-steering: Counter-steering is used by single-track vehicle operators, such as cyclists and motorcyclists, to initiate a turn toward a given di- rection by momentarily steering counter to the desired direction ("steer left to turn right"). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Countersteering)

A sidecar does not Counter Steer. You steer it like a car. The problem is, the front fork geometry on a motorcycle is optimized for counter steering and the forces that accompany counter steering. Also, unlike your car, a sidecar also does not have power steering; to turn you have to put some muscle into it. That gets tiring quickly on twisty roads.

Muscle Memory: If you ride both two wheelers and sidecars, muscle memory can get you into trouble. When you have that pucker moment (Mrs. Jones pulls out in front of you) and you must make a quick turn to the left:  Do you steer bars left or right? That depends on whether you on a two-wheeler or a three- wheeler. If your muscle memory is rooted in two wheelers, you would automatically counter steer (turn bars to the right to go left) but if you‘re on a sidecar, and you do that, you just drove right into Mrs. Jones! Remember earlier we went over how crashing is bad? Well it still is … The got-cha here is, if you take the time to think about it, you took too long …

With motorcycle front fork geometry, the rake, offset and trail come into play. I have cheated and googled definitions:

12 In the first paragraph, note I bolded ―Less trail reduces steering effort”. When you modify steering for a sidecar, this is what you are doing, reducing trail. Moving the patch closer to the ―straight line drawn through the center- line of the frame's headstock axis‖. There are several methods to reduce trail: Figure 1. Change the triple tree to change the steering offset. The fork angle differs from the headstock axis. Figure 2. Add leading legs (this is relatively new) (brackets to move the front tire forward thus reducing trail). Figure 3. Leading links (debatable, but I believe) the best method.

The first two methods leave the original forks in place. The problem here is motorcycle forks are not designed for the significant lateral force vectors steering like a car impose on them. You will go through fork seals more frequently, the springs are not heavy duty enough (fork dive on brak- ing) and in extreme cases you may experience an ‗Active fork failure‘ … really, really bad news.

That leaves Leading links, which are much stronger, allow you to place a wider car tire (longer life, bigger tire patch for increasing brake capability) on the front and make it easier to add brakes that can more readily handle the in- creased work load of the 200+ pounds of sidecar weight.

Wanna know more? I recommend reading (Generally known as ‘The yellow book’):―Riding a Sidecar Outfit‖.

13 STORMY WEATHER By Jeff Stein THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES.Twenty-six years ago Verso books publishes anaccount of medical student Ernesto ―Che‖ Guevara‘s1952 trip on a 1939 single-cylinder Norton. 8,000 miles through South America! ―All we could see was the dust on the road ahead and ourselves on the bike, devouring kilometers in our flight northward." CheGuevara: the Jack Kerouac of Argenti- na. Later, in 2004,his DIARIES were made into a popular film.―Falling in love with a continent and finding his place in it,‖ is how Walter Salles, the movie‘s director, interpreted Che‘s trip.

Right in the middle of all that,1999, I purchased my first BMW motorcycle from the legendary Skip Bick, Freeman Cycles, Bev- erly, Massachusetts. I read THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES back then and I thought: if that guy can write a motorcycle diary, may- be I should, too. Like Che, I imagined I could document the trans- formational experience that riding a motorcycle can be. So I started in. I got a couple Moleskine notebooks that fit in my jacket pocket (just like another traveler, Bruce Chatwin. Oboy!) and a particular pen and ink (no erasing!), and dutifully began marking down my adventures: daily commutes, cross-country rides, mountains, forests, deserts, campouts. Over twenty years and a couple hundred thousand miles of motorcycling I have filled some 30 of these little books with text and drawing. Good exer- cise! But not so much of it has been about transfor- mation;instead, quite a few of my diary entries are about weather.

Weather: I worry about it. Motorcyclists worry about it. I live in New England –where there‘s always some weather to prepare for.The difference between rain and shine when you start your car?Not much. Turn on the wipers (or not) and go.

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On a motorcycle? Well, there‘s the rainsuit, boots, waterproof gloves, maybe with a wiper for your faceshield on the glove‘s index finger. Carrying anything? Weatherproof those bags. You have extradry clothing for the end of the trip? with good grip on wet pavement?Powerful headlights and tail lamps?In the end, you might decide not to go at all.

Talkaround the campfires these days is about how our genera- tion (baby boomers) has lived through the golden age of inter- nal combustion . Don‘t believe it? Have a look at the all-electric motorcycle exhibition at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles right now, sponsored by Harley-Davidson!Link here: https://thevintagent.com/electric-revolution/And start to prepare: a generation from now our currentfossil-fueled fun may even be outlawed, or considered at least as quaint as owning a horse.

15 Why? It turns out digging fossil fuels from the ground, refin- ing and burning them,turningminerals into atmosphere,is not good for the earth‘s climate. Of course, here in New England (throughout the US, actually), where most of our electricity comes from digging up fossil fuels and burning them to make electricity, this electric-moto technology won‘t really help much. But it allows us to think we‘re making progress!

That‘s just one of the changes coming to motorcycling due to new weather. Golden age of motorcycling?We have been living in a golden age of climate, too… Riding in the rain? Here‘s news from NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: extreme precipitation events (more than 2 inches of water in 24 hours) have increased nearly 25% in North America since 1900.All those melting glaciers have to go somewhere in Earth‘s closed system and that includes evaporating into the atmosphere. Even a weatherproof Roadcrafter riding suit gets a little soggy in such conditions. ―Resilience‖ is the term a lot of people use now when talking about climate change and how to confront it. Fight climate change? Way too late for that. ―Resilience‖ in the face of it is as good as we can get today. But what could resilience mean for motorcycling? We don‘t really know. Tires, lubri- cants, clothing, electrical wiring…all these things are made for a certain temperature range, a certain severity of rain or sleet. Will resilience mean a shorter riding season because of storms? Or will it be longer because of heat? Spring comes to New England (according to how plants flower) about two weeks earlier than it used to. It is 15 degrees above normal on the day I‘m writing this in early summer, 2019. Self-cooling clothing? BMW is pioneering this technol- ogy, along with some work the US Army is doing with MIT. Bigger windshields shaped for more protection from wind and water? What if – could be!

16 Those are changes we might make to our tech. But we will be riding through a changed landscape now, too. Unless you‘re trying to ride through Nebraska or Missouri this past spring, which could not be done because of flooding. Like the streets of Miami Beach a couple times a month. Or parts of Washing- ton DC with each high tide. How about the opposite: Califor- nia with thousands of acres of drought/heat induced wild- fires? Same in Arizona and New Mexico.Miles of dead pine forests in Colorado; I rode through them myself this past summer. They had just a few 120 degree days over the last couple years in Arizona. Many more are predicted in the com- ing year. And then there are the climate refugees filling future roads.

Our neighbor in Vermont, Bill McKibben, says ―Weather now cannot be predicted from weather of the past.‖ Just as now, motorcycling in the future – if there even is such a thing in fu- ture – cannot be predicted from motorcycling of the past. Get ready! We‘re at 405 parts per million (ppm) of carbon in the atmosphere, more than anytime in the past 800,000 years. This has consequences, and we motorcyclists might as well- start talking about them.

17 Editors View Shocking Electric Cycles

My old friend Ed contacted me recently, and wondered what I knew about Electric Bikes? I asked did he mean Electric MOTORCYCLES, Or Electric (assist) Bicycles? We had raced 10th and 12th scale electric RC cars together years ago, so we both had a fundamental understanding of batteries and speed controllers. He had found an eBike for the surprisingly low price of 127$ HuH? I thought ebikes started at about $500 for a Chinese Cheapie, then $1,000 and UP for higher quality. What about Motorcycles ? Zero is the best selling Electric Motorcycle Their range starts at $8,999 on up to the 20k+ SR/F the Hi performance naked shown here >> www.zeromotorcycles.com/ They offer 5 models : Two SuperMoto styled bikes, a Dual Sport, and two sportbikes Harley Davidson Recently released (Then recalled, Then unrecalled) their vision of the Ride Electric, the Live Wire Cocking in at CVO price levels in the 30,000 range with Superbike perfor- mance. HD is also showing an electric mini bike, but the Big Blonds Babes at the HD Livewire display in NYC claimed no knowledge of this one? 18 You get what you pay for, right Ed? But at that price he took the gamble and ordered a 500watt folding 20 inch runabout to throw on the back of his RV and tour the camp It hasn‘t arrived yet, but I will post his impressions next month. SEE https://pinnaclebicycles.com/

I had seen the guys on Memorial drive keeping up with traffic without much pedaling, Hmmm. I‘ve Only seen one ‗Zero‘ on the road, truly buzzing by almost silently , tire noise and a little driveline hum was all I heard . HMMMMMMM Easy to take

At the NYC motorcycle showl ast weekend, I‘ll estimate nearly 15- 20% of the Vendors were Electrically oriented Several manufacturers of electrics have come and gone : Alta, , to name but a few , Many more startups are struggling to stay afloat, The problem at the moment is that advances in BATTERY TECHNOLOGY have NOT progressed as fast or as far as was anticipated , Obviously that is the major sticking point to the growth of this part of the industry

Looking for-

ward to the day when we can just Plug n PLAY 19 20 21 2019 Yankee Beemers Calendar As Found on the official YB page http://www.yankeebeemers.org/

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Starting ‘em Young on Electrics @ IMS NYC 2019

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Bash

35th Annual Winter Winter Annual 35th

Note new time Note9AM new 10AM meeting B.O.D.

Upcoming YB Events Events YB Upcoming

Airheads Tech Day Stow Ma Ma Stow TechDay Airheads

Jan4 Breakfast March 15TH Card Gold

Dec 22 9AM Breakfast at the Willowbrook at Breakfast the Dec 9AM 22 24 February 8th, 2020 February