Go Green, Be Seen!

“So lucky be you to be seen while you’re out and aboot!” says the leprechaun. All neon yellow Hi-Viz apparel and items are 15% off March 10-21 on in stock items only. “What a charmin deal!” said the little guy in green.

A Winch on a BMW GS?

Check out this seldom-seen (well, probably never seen) bit of hardware on Honz’s GS. Yup, this is a winch. It looks pretty BMW-ish with all the apropos “Unstoppable” decals but really it came from an ATV catalog sans decals. The electrics are wired in under the seat where the operating panel can be plugged in. Honz does some pretty serious GS riding and occasionally finds himself in the mud, needing some help to get out. Now he can just wrap this steel cable around a tree and pull himself out of the muck. So far it’s untested. Jeff S. thought it would be a good idea to take the bike down the hill to little Evola Park and hang it from the rafters in the shelter… probably not a good idea, although an entertaining one. Take a look at Honz’s setup next time you are at the shop.

Meet the New Employees

Tim Hodge, Assistant Service Manager

Tim is a St. Louis (Chesterfield) boy who came to us via California. He worked at a Yamaha dealership out there. He’s a trained MMI mechanic in Honda and Yamaha, and he’ll soon know all about BMWs. He’s currently bikeless but he’s saving his pennies for one. He’s married and has a young son and a dog.

---

Justin Klein, Parts Department

Justin recently moved to St. Louis from Des Moines, IA; he’s originally from Kansas. In a previous life he played in too many rock bands to name. He’s a regular on the Adventure Riders forum. His ride is an R1150GS. He’s married and has an 11 year old child.

---

Marilyn Roberts, Community Manager or “News Girl”

Your loyal scribe—this is me. I’m a part time employee responsible for keeping you informed about what’s going on at Gateway BMW and the local BMW community, although some others may post here, too. You’ll find all the news that fit to print here under this heading: News and Events. Most of you already know me. I’m a BMW dealer groupie, I’ve been riding since 1994 and I am active in the local Gateway Riders BMW Club. I have 3 BMW motorcycles: 1994 K75, 1994 R100 Mystic, 2003 R1150R. I am married but my husband does not ride.

Gateway GS Cup – April 24-26, 2009

Location: Rouge Creek (Bob Honz’s property near Potosi, MO)

Limited to 40 riders.
Primitive camping or nearby motels.

Friday, April 24:
*Hot dog roast Friday night.
*Bonfire.
*Bring your own beverage.

Saturday, April 25:
*Breakfast and lunch on your own—bring your own food or eat at nearby restaurants.
*GSing 101 with BMW instructors from the BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, SC.  Learn to ride off-road! Bring your own bike; knobbies recommended but not necessary.
*Off-road Course Challenge. 1200cc, 800cc and 650cc classes. Bring your own bike; knobbies recommended but not necessary.
*GS ride maps will be provided—ride when you aren’t in GSing 101 or the Challenge.
*Hot dog roast Saturday night.
*Bonfire.
*Bring your own beverage.

Sunday, April 26:
*Pack up and ride home, or…
*Go off-road riding! Maps provided.

For more information call Honz at the shop. Also, click here to read about Bob’s experience at BMW’s off-road school.

Scenes from Rouge Creek:

R100 Rocker Boxer

How did you spend the winter? That bad, huh? Well, tech Ryan Manley spent his transforming a 1988 R100RT into a spiffy café racer. Last September Gateway BMW bought the bike, a sorry-looking thing. The non-essential, salvageable parts were stripped and sold on eBay and Honz told Ryan, “Make it f—king cool!”

Ryan loves the café racer style. He’s got about 500 pictures of café racers on his computer. When his K75 burned up a while back he began researching café racers so he had the background to design something cool.

The stock engine was used. It has not been tweaked. Ryan says, “The engine was a good platform to build the bike around.” Even though the stock exhaust and air box were ditched, the bike still runs clean—not lean or rich. The new exhausts are EMGO universal Shorty pipes, which give a throaty sound at idle and with throttle can probably be heard by your average Harley rider over his own bike. Ryan rode the bike to Kirkwood and back and says it rides well and pulls strong.

Most of the parts are stock BMW parts for ease of maintenance. The gas tank is a standard /7 tank. The header pipes are R90S pipes, which bolted on perfectly. Ryan left the internals on, meaning that stock instruments, turn signals, etc. can be reinstalled if the new owner desires.

Up front, the handlebars are low and racy BikeMaster Clubman bars. The instruments are now digital via a Vector Trail Tech Speedometer, which not only looks “clean” but gives a range of information to the rider. Missouri does not require turn signals, so there are none; the rider will use old fashioned hand signals. One mirror is attached to the right handlebar end. The taillight is LED.

Ryan worked with the painter, Terry Frigerio of Advanced Color Tech, on the paint color and design. The basic color is silver. A 2 ½ inch black stripe bordered with thinner black stripes runs the length of the bike. The wheels, final drive, front forks and headlight body were painted black. As of this writing the solo seat is awaiting upholstery. A thin layer of gel will cover the seat pan, then a thin layer of foam, before being covered with a black final layer.

Ryan says, “We spent money in the right places—the places that stand out.”

The bike is for sale for $5,990 on Cycle Trader, www.cycletrader.com.

Report on the Bus Trip to the Chicago Cycle World Show

If you didn’t make it to the February 8, 2009 Chicago Cycle World Show on the Gateway BMW bus, here’s how it was. Shop owner, Dave Hunter, took a few of his friends with him-53 others on a chartered Cavallo bus. Marklyn got the show tickets and made sure we were all there each time the bus stopped and reloaded.

Under Marklyn’s tutelage the bus left only a couple minutes late of the stated 6:15 a.m. departure; everyone was punctual, which was good. We picked up about a dozen other passengers on the East side, including Dave Hunter.

The bus was equipped with a DVD player and six screens. As the sun rose, Al Schroer handed Dave a DVD of Jean-Pierre Goy’s BMW stunt riding. After that, he put in “Long Way Down,” which played all the way to Chicago.

Around 7:30 a.m. we stopped for breakfast at McDonalds in Litchfield, IL. We made a long line inside and the manager called for help from the back to get all the orders. Some enterprising souls walked over to the Shell gas station for coffee rather than wait in the long line at McDonalds.

From open house events at the shop, everyone is familiar with Liz Huff’s baking abilities. Tom Huff was along on the trip. Mid-morning two large bags of homemade chocolate chip cookies made their way down each row. Yum, that hit the spot. Thanks, Liz and Tom!

In Chicago the bus driver turned one traffic light too early and went down the wrong side of the Stephens Center. I won’t say who steered him wrong but his initials are DH (hee, hee). We quickly encountered a dead end at the entrance to a parking lot where many cars were going for a bridal fair. No one wanted to go to the bridal fair instead of the motorcycle show (imagine that!) so the bus had to turn around, and there was precious little room to do that. Not to worry. The driver backed the bus into a small paved area and swung it to the left. We passengers thought he would have to jockey around-back up again to miss the curb and a sign post. Nope, the driver knew exactly where his front wheels were. As he cleared the curb and sign, applause broke out.

We unloaded at the entrance around noon, and were told to meet there at 5 p.m. when the show closed.

When it was time to leave the passengers were punctual again. Everyone was there, eager to sit down for a while on the bus after a long afternoon at the show. A jar of peanuts made the rounds, coming from I know not who. Dave popped “Wild Hogs” into the DVD player, which entertained us until dinner.

About 7:30 p.m., just as “Wild Hogs” ended, we exited the highway at Bloomington, IL for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I think we were in and out of there in about 45 minutes. Cracker Barrel is very good at handling large groups and serving quickly.

Dave put “Long Way Down” in the DVD player again. That’s a long DVD and the boys were barely into Africa when we arrived in Chicago, so there was plenty more to watch. Some heads were beginning to nod in sleep and others popped the top on some cold ones.

The bus dropped the Illinois people at their cars about 10:30 p.m. The rest of us arrived at the shop around 11 p.m. The driver was “efficient” with his speed, getting us back as soon as possible.

There is talk about doing this again next year. I think it was very well received and all of us had a good time. Thanks Dave and Marklyn!

James and Taylor’s Spring Ride

So we went on a weekend trip. It was 32 degrees here but we figured if we headed south it would warm up right? Right? WRONG!

Things starting to get ugly at the Missouri/Arkansas line.

BMW S 1000 RR Rolls off Production Line in Berlin

Staff and fans of BMW Motorrad are looking forward to March 1st 2009 with great excitement. At the introductory race to the Superbike World Championship in Phillip Island / Australia, two BMW motorcycles will be in the starting line-up for the first time. After recent tests in Portimao and Valencia, riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus are optimistic about the future and the mood in the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team is positive. The racing bikes will be fairly close to serial production models, allowing for the greater audience identification characteristic of the sport. Behind the scenes meanwhile, production of the serial machine is getting underway: the BMW S 1000 RR.
The package of this completely newly developed motorcycle with its 999cc in-line 4-cylinder engine is very compact and light. The dry weight of the motorcycle is 183 kg.
Both its supreme performance figures and its outstanding riding properties make the BMW S 1000 RR an extremely attractive offer in the supersports segment.

The engine has a very compact cylinder head and is narrow in shape. The valves are activated by means of very small, light cam followers, virtually at Formula 1 level in terms of their dimensions. This construction ensures very high engine speeds and allows maximum freedom in engine design in terms of torque and output.

For the supersports bike BMW S 1000 RR, a completely newly developed sports ABS featuring four different modes as well as the dynamic traction control system DTC will be available. The functional principle of the traction control system has been borrowed directly from racing.

The distinctive design of the S 1000 RR reflects the general style of the segment but also clearly represents the brand BMW. The new S 1000 RR will be available in the four finishes Mineral Silver metallic, Acid Green metallic, Thunder Grey metallic and – based on the BMW Motorrad racing colours – Alpine White/Lupine Blue/Magma Red.

The serial production machine BMW S 1000 RR will be presented to the public in the early summer of 2009 but can already be ordered in dealerships.

Sweetie Sale

Who do you love? Buy your valentine any in stock helmet or any in stock boots and save 15%!

Then, you can buy your sweetheart a romantic dinner with the savings ;~)

Naturally, this sale ends  February 14.

Get’em while we got’ em

So hurry in!

!!

!

Note: This sale does not apply to our closeout helmets, already on sale.

2008 BMW Motorcycle Sales Outpace Industry

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – January 21, 2009… Despite a weakened motorcycle market, BMW Motorrad USA reported a gain (0.6 percent) in 2008 sales compared to 2007. Following a strong performance during each of the last six consecutive months, BMW motorcycle sales outperformed overall U.S. motorcycle sales, which dropped more than seven percent last year. Both retail and wholesale performance during October 2008 established all-new BMW Motorrad USA records.

“Our sustained success during these very difficult economic times speaks volumes about the strength of our brand, our new model initiatives and the quality of our dealers.” commented Pieter de Waal, Vice President, BMW Motorrad USA.

BMW motorcycle sales were boosted by consumer interest in several new adventure/sport-oriented models – the upgraded BMW R 1200 GS and GS Adventure and the all-new BMW F 650 GS and F 800 GS enduro motorcycles; the G 450 X sport enduro; and the HP2 Sport.

“The popularity of these new models demonstrates that more motorcyclists are embracing an adventure-sport lifestyle and seeking a modern combination of on- and off-road capabilities to explore roads less traveled,” added Mr. de Waal. “We have just the right motorcycles for these riders. We also have a great partner in BMW Financial Services which has allowed us to continue to finance consumers’ motorcycle purchases during these difficult financial times.”

This year, BMW Motorrad USA will introduce several new models to the U.S. market: the 2009 BMW K 1300 S — the most powerful street-legal bike offered by BMW, the 2009 K 1300 GT, and BMW’s all-new 2009 World Superbike contender, the S 1000 RR.