The BMW Club Journal May 2014 £2.50
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The BMW Club Journal May 2014 £2.50 MIRRORS SCREE INDICATOR SPRINGS SEAT BADGS STANCHIONS TRIM Offer continued for May CARBS CABLES SILENCERS TYRE GEARBOX ENGINE 2 TheBMWClubJournal•May2014 The Journal CONTENTS May 2014 Regular/Occasional items The Official BMW Club within the UK and Republic of Ireland From The Editor’s Desk .................4 www.thebmwclub.org.uk General Enquiries: 0800 0854045 Club Officers..........................6 FREEPOST: THE BMW CLUB President’s Platform ....................7 The BMW Club is the Trading name of The B.M.W. Motorcycle Club Ltd; Registered in England; Registration Number 4261129 whose Registered Office: c/o Veitch Penny LLP 1, Manor Court Torque Reaction .......................9 Dix’s Field Exeter Devon England EX1 1UP ALL RIGHTS RESERVED German Jottings ......................45 For problems regarding distribution of The Journal, please contact Mutual Aid (Club member ads)...........75 your Section Secretary. Should there still be a problem then contact the National Membership Secretary whose contact details are Small Business Advertisments ...........79 listed on page 6. The Editor reserves the right to alter/amend any item or image submitted to The Journal. Such amendments will usually only be The BMW Club-Out and About ..48 to make an item more readable or easier to understand. Submission of items/images will be taken as acceptance of this condition. Articles/Features We (The BMW Club) are the owner or licensee of all Intellectual Property rights in this publication. You may not copy or distribute Obituary. ............................19 its contents without the express written permission of ourselves or the original author. Forum Jottings and Musings ............21 The Dealer Launch Days ...............23 EDITORIAL TEAM Correspondence on any Journal matter not The 2014 BMW Club Raffle Bike .........26 covered by the officers listed below should be sent to the Editor who will forward it as appropriate. For general Club administration and membership matters A Different Approach...................27 please see the list of Club officers on Page 6. MotoGoLoco support the BMW Club ......30 Editor: Stewart Lowthian, 29 Wagg Street, Congleton, Cheshire CW12 4BA. 01260 279 126 [email protected] An Invitation From The BMW Car Club ....32 Features/Articles: Peter Wright. [email protected] The new R1200RT: an owners road test ...33 Torque Reaction: Paul Nadin, 49 Berkshire Drive, DISCLAIMER Congleton, Cheshire CW12 1SB. 01260 279 443 The BMW Club Journal accepts for publication articles and letters written in good faith; however, the views expressed in articles and letters which are published are not necessarily those of the [email protected] Editor of The Journal or those of The BMW Club or its officers or members. Mutual Aid: Maurice Weldon, 21 Lawnwood Drive, The information, including advice and suggested modifications published in the The BMW Goldthorpe, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S63 9GD Club Journal has not been approved, tested or otherwise checked by The BMW Club Journal 07752 904 334 [email protected] or The BMW Club. Before acting on information, advice or suggested modifications published in The BMW Club Journal you should always obtain technical advice, and if appropriate have Commercial Display Advertisements: Jim Bruce, a professional motorcycle engineer carry out the work for you. The Firs, Bayview Crescent, Broadford, Isle of The BMW Club Journal and The BMW Club cannot accept liability for any loss, damage or Skye IV49 9DB 01471 820 408 claims occurring as a result of any modifications or work or other action carried out on the [email protected] advice or based on the suggestions given in any article or letter published in The BMW Club Journal and (save for death or personal injury arising from The BMW Club Journal’s negligence) Small Business Advertisements: Charles Knight, all such liability is hereby excluded. 4 Homelands, New Road, Porchfield, Isle of Wight, The BMW Club Journal is published for and on behalf of The B.M.W. Motorcycle Club Ltd. PO30 4LS ,01983 520 847 The BMW Motorcycle Club Ltd, The BMW Club Journal, it’s Editor and Officers accept 07521 695 992 [email protected] no liability in respect of loss or damage occasioned directly or indirectly as a result of the publication of any advertisement in The BMW Club Journal or Website. Section News: Steve Foreman 07770 827 574 [email protected] This month’s cover photo is of Steve Diary of Events: Bob Barker. Wicks’s 2014 R 1200 RT and Graham [email protected] Chapple’s 1979 R 100 RT at Bury Down Around The Compass: Bob Barker (see above). car park on the Ridgeway near Chilton, Club/Section Display Ads: Piers Kurrein. [email protected] Oxon. TheBMWClubJournal•May2014 3 From The Editor’s Desk Torque Reaction own way. It’s almost miraculous that they’ve become so common. After soldiering on for far too long with a temperamental old computer, Paul Nadin This year’s AGM now has a replacement that should last him for a good few years. The principal challenge In between me finishing this edition and in setting the new you reading it is the computer up for Paul AGM. I’ve no idea how was sorting out the the meeting will go. sending and receiving There are two potentially of emails, Windows XP contentious items for and Windows 7 having discussion and voting very different ideas as to on: both matters that how it ought to be done. have come up for the It’s all working now but second time since I was if you sent anything to appointed in 2010. Paul at the end of March All being well, either or the beginning of April at the meeting or shortly and haven’t had a reply it might well be down afterwards, we can appoint a new Membership to me commissioning his new computer in Secretary to learn the ropes from Dick Boyd, stages as time permitted. If this is the case whose retirement will hopefully include more then sending it to him again will produce time with his family, friends and motorcycles Paul’s usual helpful reply. rather than staring at his computer screen (a The computer, whether on the desk or tempting thought: does anyone want to be disguised as a telephone, is almost everywhere Editor?) nowadays. I could not imagine editing The Journal without email to send and receive Looking for ideas documents and the thought of cutting and pasting being done with real paper and glue Every so often I skim through copies of rather than metaphorically with a keyboard The Journal from when I first joined to see and screen doesn’t bear thinking about. It if I can pick up any good ideas that came, does, however, raise the question of how went and would benefit from returning. A dependent the Club is on the computer skills comment from Chris Fleming about making of everyone who contributes to it. The modern The Journal into something of more general computer is a powerful piece of kit but with a appeal sticks in my mind. It’s a suggestion that capacity for throwing its’ toys out of the pram one of the authors of the Time for Change like no other device if things aren’t done its document a couple of months ago has also 4 TheBMWClubJournal•May2014 made to me. It’s something that I’m in two sorting valve clearances, with the cylinders minds about. The Journal will never be sold sticking out at the sides, should be a great deal in newsagents next to the products of the big simpler to get at than on my Triumphs, which publishing companies unless the club becomes had twin overhead camshafts tucked up under a big publishing company with a budget and the frame top tube. This is probably why management structure to match, which dealer servicing for the GS has always been isn’t really what an owners club should be. advantageously priced: there isn’t an hour or What I would like to do is make The Journal so of labour to remove acres of panelling to appealing to BMW-owning non-members on set the valve clearances and change the spark the basis that they might then join to receive plugs. it. I’d be very interested to know how many of I’m sorting out the servicing because I’m our current members are active in the sense of pedantic: in reality I’ve ridden a meagre regularly attending organised events, of which 3500 miles in the last year so most of it there seem to be a pleasingly large number. precautionary rather than urgent. I’d hoped by now to be able to comment on the wear rate That time again of the Tourance Nexts that Metzeler invited me to try out but so far all I seem to have done It’s time for the annual service for the GS. is run them in, however, even as I type this, the Apart from changing the brake fluid, which sun is in the sky so perhaps the National Trust will require a little research, everything else membership will find us enough attractions to looks straightforward to do. Changing oils give us a decent mileage. and filters was easy enough last year and TheBMWClubJournal•May2014 5 National Officers & Section Secretaries National and other officers Section Secretaries PRESIDENT: Mike Warrilow, EAST ANGLIA: Dik Langan 6 Hazel Rise, Claydon, 32 Fairthorne Way, Shrivenham, Oxon, SN6 8EA Ipswich, IP6 0DB 07906 584676 or 0845 003 688046 01793 782 428 [email protected] [email protected] or eastanglia. SecretarY: Anita Johnson [email protected] c/o 10 Saffron Road, Tickhill, Doncaster DN11 9PW.