Riding to Gillette?

[TonyT607]

Tony,
I see you have a R50/5 -- me too, mines a 71. Here's a pic of it at Antietam battlefield in Maryland, I rode over there while attending the Square Root Rally. Naturally I rode it from home and back.

Harry that's a great looking bike. You and I definitely need to talk...

[Just-Beeming]

Got the dog sitter, the house sitter, the yard guy and the mail stopped....

Wyoming here we come!
We leave Oregon on tuesday eve...hope to burn up what day light we have after we leave our jobs.
The two full days of riding to Gillette.

Big News....I get OHLINS in Gillette at the National. I guess 42k ought to be about time???

We will do the LOLO again, zoom across Montana and finally Wapiti Valley...
We will come home through Canada if the weather is good...Trying to stay clear of the smoke in the south and west.

Lets say hello! In person. I will put up a notice on the board as to where Mr and Mrs Just-Beeming are camped...although I rarely find myself at my own camp except to sleep. I will keep my eyes open for R bikes of course.

See you in Gillette!!!

[TonyT607]

Looking forward to meeting everybody. Look for the Jolly Roger hanging off the Thule trailer; we'll be in the water/electric RV area.

[Just-Beeming]

Sadly, I will not be on my R. Last night coming home from a ride to the beach, I lost something big...like clutch, or drive, or splines.....It is a long trip on my 'thumper'.... but my R is toast right now.

Good new...it happened close to home, it happened in a safe place to loose ability to ride, and we have a trailer to haul its sorry self home.

I still look forward to our trip....I will spend the next two days re-thinking how effectively pack to get there.



Carol

[GTR350cc]

Carol,

Let us know as soon as you find the trouble on the R. Interesting development.

[sweatmark]

Just-Beeming, sorry to learn about the Roadster troubles... yes, we will be all ears (or eyes) when you and Mr. Beeming investigate post-rally.

Sorry that neither Mrs. Sweatmark nor I will be making the rally and ride east from Oregon; we had squeeze in family vacation last week, but have been talking about a possible PNW R1150R Fest sometime later this year.

[Just-Beeming]

Thanks for the well wishes.

We dropped the R off at the Mechanic yesterday. The shop was closed but the retail part was open....the general manager was there and gave me a tiny glimmer of hope....indicated that they often have parts since it is the same engine Portland Police use, and that they would get right on it tuesday morning at 9AM....a glimmer but not a high beam.

If it is a simple fix I could bring my R....my gut tells me it is something big. I have never heard my bike scream like it did when whatever went out....went out! I sounded like a jaguar scream....the cat not the car.

Funny packing job is taking place on my f650...this is lashed to that and that to this and 'oh, lets tie this thing on the top, and hey, this could be poked in over here...' Sanford and sons packing job. I have no bags for the bike. It will be a total hack job with a bungee net holding it all together. Funny.

PNW R Fest....I know at least three riders who would love that.... So I know there are so many more. GOOD idea!

Carol

[Just-Beeming]

I have an analysis of the problem.....Sing along to the tune of "signs"......

SPLINES, SPLINES, EVERY WHERE THERES SPLINES
BLOCKING UP THE SCENERY BLOWING MY MIND
DO THIS, DON'T DO THAT CAN,
YOU READ IT....SPLINES!!!!


to be fair not tho highjack this thread....I will move all further discussion of this matter to the old thread that I just rejuvinated on Clutch spline failures...

Thank you for sharing my twisted humor on this very sad and serious issue.
It is frustrating, seriously unacceptable!
I may not be a beemer owner much longer....

Just-(not so ) Beeming

[sweatmark]

Beeming,

Hope the trip is going well! And glad you have that all-important backup bike to handle sudden changes in plans; the "backup" idea helps me keep a 2nd bike in the garage.

I will start a new thread for potential PNW R1150R Fest. Would be fun to gather in Portland or Seattle, or midway... would that be Centralia?

[Biff's R]

My dad should be there on Saturday. I wish I had given him a t-shirt that says "Biff is my hero" to wear for the day.

[GypsyRR]

Hope y'all had fun. I opted to sleep in a parking lot in Green River, Utah instead. Okay - not as much fun as the rally, but definitely as much activity, I would think.

[TonyT607]

Just got back Monday afternoon from the Rally. Since we each only had a week off to save time I drove out with a couple of buddies; Big Josh (K1200LT), and Tony K-Bike (K1200GT). It was just about 2000 miles from NJ so we handled the driving in shifts and made it out to the site at 0500 Wednesday morining having left NJ at 0600 Monday the 14th. We trailered (eek!) the bikes in Josh's enclosed Thule rig which was also going to be our living accommodations in Gillette.

This year's rally was a bit disappointing in my opinion. The site was very spread out and there was one large building still under construction. In the RV area the showers were more than adequate. There was a definite shortage of food vendors unlike last year in Wisconsin. There were also a lot less of the M/C vendors than we normally see. Even Bob's BMW had a smaller presence than usual. I think there were only about 5,000 attendees, probably due in large part to the relatively remote location. The town of Gillette was nothing special, really just a bunch or strip malls and chain stores, and a lot of highway construction.

What made the trip worth it however, was the RIDING.....the roads in Eastern WY and western SD were simply spectacular.
We Mt Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Sturgis (of course), Deadwood, Black Hills National Forest, Big Horn National Forest, a bunch of other places, all connected by beautiful paved ribbons of bliss. The riding this year was tops. I can only hope it will be this good next year in TN.

Here are a few shots:

Our chariot, one M-B G55 AMG with Josh and Tony K Bike

Setting up the site upon our arrival:

Home sweet home:

The Three Amigos:

La Torre del Diablo:


Big Josh and yours truly:

Entrance to the park:

Looking dashing as I make my way through the Wyoming countryside:

On the way to Rushmore:

Visiting the Presidents:

At the site of the famous HBO series


At the Rally site:

The guy who owned this thing was up at 0500 making killer BBQ ribs:

A beer and a Polish sausage, Life is good:

[munchmeister]

Hey RR Riders:
I had hoped to run into some of you at the MOA Rally, saw some nice RRs. As a former resident of Wyoming, I had no misconceptions about lovely Gillette but went to the rally for the tech sessions, the presentations, etc. While not every facility can meet the needs of what everyone wants, the Cam-Plex had a wonderful theater for the Helge Pederson slide shows (Silk Road, Canada to Mexico, Indo China) and the theater worked just as well for Jim Key's somewhat more meager production (but still a great video) of his trip to the Copper Canyon and Baja. Tech sessions were in actual meeting rooms so there was no background noise from behind a curtain or something and you could actually hear the speaker. Plenty of vendors, in my view, more than enought to entice many dollars from my pockets. The best part is just hanging with other motorcyclists who are not into loud pipes and tatoos-- not that there is anything wrong with those things, just that I would rather talk to somebody who just rode 3500 miles, than someone who just got their 350th tatoo. Stephan Knopf was there talking about how easy it is to rent from him to ride through the Alps, which is #1 on my list and many others... even yoga for motorcyclists (betcha don't see THAT at Sturgis?!?!?!?)

Maybe next time there will be a gathering of the RR crowd... would love to meet you all in person. Maybe in Gray, Tennessee for the 09 MOA Rally.

Cheers.
--Doug