On the Avenue
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August, 2020 ON THE AVENUE KNOB MOUNTAIN NORTH CAROLINA MOTORCYCLE CHAPTER www.knobbies.org BMWMOA #216 BMWRA #53 2019-2021 Officers: President—Barry “Bear” McRary| V. President—Darrell Faw | Secretary—Virginia Lackey| Treasurer—Sharon Wilson Activities Director—Hal & Bobbi Smith | Newsletter Editor-Marla McRary Knobbies – Who Are We? The Knobbies are a group of touring motorcycle enthusiasts with about 200 international members. We meet every Sunday, rain or shine, for a day ride to an unknown destination for lunch, then ride a different route home. Most rides consist of about 200 to 300 miles and are usually confined to back roads. Some of the popular destinations include state parks, Blue Ridge Parkway and various locations in Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina. Started and based as a BMW motorcycle organization, the Knobbies are supported by the BMW Riders Association and the BMW Motorcycle Organization of America. You do not have to ride a BMW to be a member of the Knobbies. We accept riders of all types of motorcycles, including Slingshots, CanAms & Vanderhalls, but we prefer responsible riders who enjoy the touring aspect of motorcycling. Sunday Rides The Knob Mountain Motorcycle Chapter Sunday Rides Timberwoods is now opening at 8:00 AM. We can have no more than 6 at a table. You need to wear a mask to enter and leave the restaurant. Invite everyone to come and ride! Hope to see you soon! Thanks to Bobbi Smith, Activity Director EXTRAORDINAIRE, for keeping us up to date! 1 From the President I have ridden motorcycles for 50 plus years. Most of that time I have been active in various riding clubs. Nothing at all wrong with solo riding. I like that, too. But, I see many benefits of membership, as well. I think there is a slightly increased safety factor of a group, but most of all is the friendships formed because a mutual love of motorcycling. It is great fun to share stories, new and old, laugh about events. Also the willingness to support and help each other, trailers to haul bikes, family support for those in hospitals out of town, advice on where to get best price on parts or equipment, how to fix this or that and the list goes on. This COVID stuff has been a first for me and the impact has taken a toll on lifestyle and the economy as well as the Knobbies. We curtailed official Timberwoods meetings, canceled the Rally (as has most of the country). In this newsletter we are easing back into meeting and riding with mask in hand and continued social distancing. Riding styles and choice of machine/equipment is a varied and very much a personal choice. I enjoy road trips and lean to my R1200GS for this. Adventure trips fall on my F800GS. Dual sporting, I love the little Suzuki DR single. One point of club/group riding is you must know your own pace and ability and stay within those bounds. Also, I believe motorcycle riding is a perishable skill set. I believe practice and frequency is important but also challenging with all the other factors of having a life. Another factor in riding is we are always learning and with modern technology and equipment improvements, we will always be doing so! I recently completed an 18 day, multi-state ride with 3 other riders. Two of these guys, Rick and Doug, are long time riders. We met with the goal of going all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. It turned into what we call the Midwest Loop Ride. These guys quickly turned in wonderful friends as well as riding companions. I could ride a bit harder on dirt and pavement, but I quickly learned they had several skills I didn’t and, lucky for me, they were great to share and teach. I fancy myself a fairly accomplished photographer but Rick has mastered taking photos while riding down the road. I learned a lot and am getting better. I used this on our recent ride. Folks seem to like this style of pictures (P.O. has already asked for more). Doug introduced me to the wonders of Drone flying. I was not a big drone fan initially but am now a firm convert. Used properly, they offer and whole realm of photography/videography that just was not possible when I studied same. Some of the videos can be stunning, especially when put to music and tell such a story in a few seconds. So, ride safe, ride well and never stop learning. Most of All Enjoy Life! ~ Bear 2 Geno’s Corner Are you guys as sick of this lock down as I am? If not, you must have the patience of Jobe, because I keep asking what can we do besides stay at home or just ride around and the answer has been…“I don’t know”. Good grief… I heard on the news this morning there may be a big breakthrough of some kind of treatment and I pray that’s the truth. I could go on and on about this lockdown but I think I would begin to bore everybody to tears. Anyway, this past Sunday I finally said I’m outta here. Going to ride with the group and ride we did, 250 miles once home. Danny led the way, up the mountains to Shady Valley where we were able to eat a hamburger outside at the Shady Valley General Store. Not nearly as big a crowd as you would usually see,,,I think. On the other “bad” side, boy was I jealous of our President. If you haven’t followed on Facebook, him and three other guys took off and trailered their bikes non-stop to Nebraska. From there it was all over the west. Meanwhile, I had made plans to head out to John Day Oregon via every back road I could find and stay at the John Day rally which was just before the national MOA rally. Well, that got blown to you know where and back. Of course, the John Day and the MOA rallies were cancelled. I sooo much wanted to go westbound on the Road to the Sun, but it won’t be this year. I’ve been across Glacier Park twice and both times, eastbound, looking straight down the mountain. If I was a, well, a Flatlander, I’d probably upchuck just thinking about the drop to your right. Riding thru the NC Mountains all these years kind of helps keep your cool out west. Meanwhile, Marla, Sharon and others who work the rally, and there are many, along with me, were going crazy trying to figure out if we should hold our rally or just give it up. Marla has done such a super job with our raffle that it has become a major focal point. Like we agreed, it would be a little seemly to head out and ask for donations when our small businesses are shut down and assume most are just struggling. On top of that we had rescheduled our rally for the weekend after the RA rally in Hendersonville. We were on the verge of calling it off when the RA announced they were cancelling. That made our call very easy. Cancel. So, we are now officially part of the cancel culture,,,I guess. Whatever that is. I am totally guessing what we will try to do next year, again try to hold our rally after the RA? That might bring in more riders or so we hope! If any of our Knobbies have Apple TV, which I don’t, (as yet) has apparently reserved the rights to I think it’s called “The Long Way Up” with Ewan McGregor and cast, of which I can’t remember the others. But these guys are riding Harley Davidson’s Live Wire electric motorcycles from the tip of South America north. Where they stop, I don’t know, but I think it’s LA, then up to Alaska? I would be interested to see how they charge the things. I understand they had to carry a generator with the chase vehicle. I personally think when battery technology makes another leap, we’re going to see a lot more electrics. I keep hearing rumors of a Solid State Battery which is supposed to be that big leap forward. To conclude, I hope all our Knobbies, friends, relatives and everyone else stays safe during this mess we have. The one clue that I took note of, was that this virus is super contagious. I heard one doctor say it’s more contagious than Smallpox. Now that got my attention and explains a lot about this pandemic. Ya’ll stay safe out there. Geno 3 Perceptions and Observations from P.O. My first motorcycle was 1969 Yamaha 175 Enduro. I pushed it up several hills. Back in the day, the color indicated the displacement: I think the 100 was yellow, 175 was green, 250 was maroon and 360 was black. It came with Trials Universal tires but soon I changed the sprocket and put a knobby tire on the back. The motorcycle was street legal but we only rode on the street to get to the woods. We’d truck the bikes up to Brown Mountain and rode quite a bit there. We rode Minerals Springs Mountain, High Peak on down towards Hildebran and through all the woods in between. We had a little hill climb called the Chicken Fightin’ Hole. We rode the gas line by I-40. It was an extremely steep, long hill down to a little creek and up the other side.