Hi everyone, it was great to see so many of you at the annual banquet Saturday. More than 70 people attended!
It looks like spring and riding season are arriving a month or two early. Enjoy yourselves if you are able to get out for a ride in February. With the lack of snow and ice this winter, there is hopefully less salt and grit on the roads (and fewer potholes) waiting to trip us up.
Here is important news about our club and upcoming events.
Mileage Contest
At our banquet on February 10, we announced our 2023 mileage contest winners.
- First place: Mike Lindstrom - 47,056 miles
- Second Place: Daniel Maki - 35,299 miles
- Third Place: Jeff Oden - 27,573 miles
We were pleasantly surprised that we had the same top three finishers in the same order in both 2022 and 2023! It shows how thorough and consistent our club is.
Our average rider was
Mark Willner with 8483 miles. The club average was 8580 miles and our total 2023 mileage was an excellent
317,450 miles.
Starting this year, we also presented mileage award certificates to club members who were not riding BMWs:
- First place: Mark Willner, Honda GL1500 - 9149 miles
- Second place: Curt Henry, Suzuki V-Strom 650 - 9006 miles
Club Awards
We also announced our annual club awards at the banquet.
Hard Luck Shaft: Daniel Maki received this award for his misadventure in Alaska, where the rear shock on his R1200GSA collapsed, and he and the bike ended up parting ways at 55-60 mph on a gravel road.
Helping Hands Award: Chuck and Julie Bushnell are the first winners of this new award, which honors people who assist a club member during an accident or mishap. Tom Toland nominated the Bushnells for aiding him when he had a flat tire on his K1600 during the fall color ride in Trempealeau, Wisconsin.
MacGyver Award: We did not have a winner for this award, which we introduced in 2022 to honor members who managed to cobble together their bike after a mishap and ride it back to civilization. Chris Zimmerman, who won the first award, said he is happy to keep the trophy for another year. Chris has it proudly displayed on his fireplace mantel.
Quilt Raffle
Thanks to Penny Maki for sewing two beautiful quilts, which we will raffle off as a club fund-raiser. .We started selling tickets ($5 each) at the banquet and will keep selling them until we draw the winning name at our September 12 club meeting. You can buy your tickets at any club meeting or event.
Upcoming Meetings
We have a full slate of great meetings planned this spring and summer:
- March 14: REI in Bloomington. Club member Chris Lee, who works at REI, will do a presentation on motorcycle camping gear.
- April 11: Annual monthly meeting at Leo’s South.
- May 9: Annual monthly meeting at Moon Motors.
- June 13: We will not hold a monthly meeting in June because it is right after the Hiawatha Rally and during the MOA national rally in Oregon (June 13-15).
- July 11: Chuck and Julie Bushnell have invited us to meet at their beautiful home in Maple Grove.
- August 4: Our annual club picnic will be in the Coon Rapids city park again. This event is on a Sunday.
Rider Training - May 18
Beth Forristall and Robin Hyde have organized a Basic Rider Course 2 (BRC2) event for the morning of May 18. We are sharing this course with another club, and jointly we can have up to 12 attendees. The fee will be $99 per person, but Beth and Robin are pursuing an MOA grant to cover all our expenses. We will open registration soon on our website.
Hiawatha Rally - May 31-June 2
Our annual rally is May 31-June 2 this year at Money Creek. Click
here to register for the rally and save $10 off the onsite registration fee.
Note: We need a co-chair to assist Don Kramber with the field events. Don has done an incredible job over the years running the wild-and-crazy field events, but he needs
your help to make the event a success.
Grand Marais Campout - August 23-26
Add this to your summer calendar: Our annual Grand Marais campout is scheduled for August 23-26. Thanks to Steve Reese for coordinating this campout. Stay tuned for more information about the campout schedule.
MOA Parts Rebate Program
The MOA has extended their parts rebate program for active members. If you have an invoice from a BMW dealer for parts, the MOA says it will send you a 10% rebate. Click
here to learn more about the program..
Be the Change You Want to See in the Club
To wrap this up, please keep in mind that this is everyone's club. If you have a special interest or topic you are excited about or are interested to learn more about, please let the club know. You can either present your topic to our membership, or find someone to present to the group so we can all learn something new and exciting about the world of motorcycling.
As a board, we are here to help facilitate this, but we should not be relied on to determine every presentation or event. We're not mind readers and are sure to miss topics that I'm sure our members want to learn more about.
Have a great time riding this spring!
Tim