We headed out Friday morning for Bloomsburg to attend the BMW international rally. It was great to get back to the rally after two years. It kind of feels like motorcycle home with all those quiet beemers around. It did seem that there were less attendees this year which I attribute to the fact that it was, how should I put this... HOT! I felt sorry for the GS (off-road BMW) riders who were competing on the GS course where they go through water, mud and sand and over large rocks, hills and logs. Quite a few of them fell on the course but they always got up and finished. One seminar we attended had to be moved to another building because of electrical issues. The seminar was held in an un-cooled agriculture building which was open on both ends. After thirty minutes of sweating profusely in a completely still 107 degrees, we had to leave. But my heat record was broken on the trip to our hotel room that afternoon where we hit a section that was 109. Of course by the time we got to the hotel it was a bit cooler... at 104. Which was also the temperature of the first two hotel rooms that the Ramada Inn tried to put us in. Umm, no. Not going to happen. The third room on the first floor was cool and after a brief swim, we walked about 1/2 a mile to an Italian restaurant called Booty's Place where we had excellent pizza and draft Yuengling lager.
The next day we headed back to the rally in cooler and cloudier weather. A very nice change. We attended a morning seminar on the new K1600 bikes which are truly amazing. This is a 6 cylinder motorcycle with incredible horsepower and torque that weighs about 200 pounds less than a Goldwing and other big touring bikes. One of the best features is the adaptive headlight system which moves the beam as the angle of the bike changes, both up and down and while leaning, so that your headlights follow the road even when going around curves. We saw a demonstration, and it was incredible. I resisted taking a test drive on the 30 or so K1600's they had there. I was really afraid that I would like it too much. And in case you're wondering, it costs just under 26 grand fully decked out.
So the change in weather helped on day two at the rally and we headed back to Hershey in the late afternoon glad that we'd made the trip. Next year the rally is in Sedalia, Missouri. Hopefully it's a bit cooler.
The first model of BMW from 1923.
I couldn't find a beemer from my birth year of 1955 so this 1954 model will have to do.
The new K1600 GTL.
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