My BMWMOA Mileage Contest Results for 2008 (unofficial)

Well, I guess I slacked off a lot during this year's BMWMOA annual mileage contest. I guess you could say the accident I had in June was a contributing factor but I know for a fact that I did not ride as much as I did in 2007 during the contest period.

During the 2007 contest, I finished 11th of 79 riders in Colorado that sent in completion forms to the BMWMOA; with a mileage total of 15, 181 racked up during the six months of the contest. LINK

This year, I managed only 8,211 miles on Maria for the same period of time.

I was not able to add the miles I racked up on Brigitta, my 1987 R80 since I bought her a few months into the contest and of course had missed registering her as one of my motorcycles. If I could use those miles, it would add another 4,481 miles to my mileage total. Total between both motorcycles: 12,692.

So yeah, not too bad, just not usable though for this year's contest. I only entered Maria and you already saw the miles I managed on her.

Oh well, there's always the BBIR I just signed up for....

Signed up for the BBIR

I'd blogged about the Bavarian Black Ice Run or BBIR unofficial mileage contest for BMWMOA members: LINK

Well, just registered both Maria and Brigitta in the Daily Rider class. If you're a BMWMOA member, I encourage you to sign up. The registration form is linked to in the link above.

Should be fun, hopefully encourage people to ride year round.....another freeze warning tonight, will have to ensure the roads are dry before heading out tomorrow.

Now, where's my heated vest?

Notes: Maria entered with 61862 miles, Brigitta with 65826 miles.

First Really Cold Rides of the Year

So far into this month, my morning commutes had been while riding at temperatures in the low 50s and high 40s at most.

My first really cold ride of the season was last night as I rode home from United Airlines' Flight Training Center where I am a contractor. I'd flown in from SFO where I'd been on business with some family visits thrown in.

Temperatures were in the low 40s, with a light rain falling. In fact, the plane I came back in on had landed in a thick fog, first time I'd gone through that! I wasn't able to see the runway until the plane was merely a few feet from touching down, a bit unusual.

I got geared up in the misty rain, hoping that the wet pavement in the parking lot was showing me what road conditions were all the way home.

Visibility of course was crap with water on my helmet's visor. The droplets that collected on the visor reflected oncoming headlights, further interfering with my vision. I kept wiping the drops away using my gloves but still, it was not great conditions for riding.

And yet, it felt good to be back on my motorcycle after two days of no riding while in California, the land of fruits and nuts.

Today, I went out for a ride once the temperatures were above 40 degrees according to the house thermometers. It was a leisurely jaunt towards Parker Rd from the suburbs I live in, then South onto the town of Parker itself. I compared my onboard thermometer reading of 42 against the bank in Parker's roadside thermometer reading of 37. So my onboard thermometer reads 5 degrees high or the bank thermometer is off by 5 degrees. Hmmm.

Took the above photo using my cameraphone, had to do some manipulation using piknik.com to make it somewhat usable. I liked the way the light was hitting this tree near the Parker Town Center, the cameraphone really did not do it justice.

It was perhaps an hour of riding, taking the really long way to the grocery store. The store is less than one mile from the house you see, but as long as I was riding, I figured I'd look for other riders. None to be found.

By the time I got my groceries and gassed up Maria, I was starting to feel the cold penetrate my gear and underlying clothing. Time to pack the heated vest onto Maria's cases I guess.

Fairing Options for Airheads

Regular readers of this blog know my liking of the S Fairing for Brigitta, my 1987 R80. The S fairing came out in the late 70s for the R90S and R100S airheads and made quite the impression not only in the BMW motorcycling community but went on to become icons of the era.

BMW Ad

A really nice reproduction

Brigitta, my meager version of the above pics

Through the services of Google, one can also find other fairings by aftermarket manufacturers that were made to go on Beemer Airheads such as mine. Sure there were the faired versions from BMW for the RT and RS versions but the following are ones that caught my eye:

Manufacturer: Rifle

Manufacturer: Krauser

Manufacturer: Unknown, it looks like it'll poke your eye out though!
Update: It's a Jacwal Superwedge, source: LINK

"Flyscreen"

Manufacturer: Falcon, kind of cool in a way

Manufacturer: Glaser Monza, kind of funky

Another Glaser Monza

Manufacturer: Luftmeister

Manufacturer: Pantera

Manufacturer: Vesco Rapid Transit

Different angle on the Vesco Rapid Transit

Manufacturer: Vetter Windjammer III

The Falcon fairing would have been a close second choice for me to the BMW S fairing but I think I'll just stick with what I have for now. If Brigitta ever becomes my long distance tourer, one of the things I'd have to add to the S fairing's windshield would be this: