Motorcycle Club of Northeast Florida puts on this rally, denoted as “Florida’s Coldest Rally” (they weren’t kidding). In commemoration of the 35th annual rally, they gave the event an Airhead flavor and invited Susanna and me to attend along with Craig Vechorik. Vech brought his beautifully restored 1921 Victoria. We had nice quarters provided to us. I was available for airhead questions and some wrenching, and put on an Airhead Tech seminar on Friday. Susanna and I presented our pictures of our 2006 tour of Europe on Saturday. The Rally was fun. The organizers had set up an Airhead Central area with the traditional thrift store furnishings, but it was a bit too cold and rainy most of the time for sitting around in the parking lot. Most of the hanging out was done in the large room of the Post Headquarters, during the day and for the two dinner meals included in the Rally package. Attending a rally at the far eastern end of the country was especially entertaining for both of us as we met many new friends not seen at the western rallies we usually attend. At the Saturday dinner, we tied for the “Highest Miles Ridden to Rally” award, with our 1,705 miles
each from El Paso. The rally coordinators also presented us with an oil painting of the rally's logo. This was a nice and appreciated gesture. The bikes ran well for the five-day ride. I checked and set the valves on both machines and both were close to where they should have been. I also checked the carbs and found a fair amount of water in both bikes. The heavy rain of the last 50 miles, humidity and ethanol gasoline had taken its toll. With everything cleaned and dried, I did a fast balancing of the carbs and pronounced the bikes almost ready to go. We had a bit under 200 miles to ride to get to Orlando and the drop-off point with Stefan. I figured on changing the oil before or at the end of the ride. At the Saturday dinner, we were introduced to Ed and Darlene Sabin, who live in Orlando. They kindly offered to put us up after the rally. Ed also invited me to change the oil in our bikes on his garage lift. Consequently, I rolled the frost-covered bikes into the sunny end of our quarters' parking lot as we took our time packing things up. We needed the weekend to dry everything out after the rain-soaked final 50 miles the
Susanna and Stefan Knoff go over the details of shipping the two bikes to Heidelberg. Stefan is definitely in this business for the long run as he is building a house between this warehouse and the nearby Orlando Airport. He sends bikes back and forth across the Atlantic by sea-going freighter but the riders almost always fly in. We will begin our September ride in Europe at his B&B in Heidelberg.
Thursday before. We said our goodbyes, plugged in the electrics and started for Orlando. The Orange Blossom Trail took us over state highways with a lot of traffic and many stop lights. I picked up oil at a car parts store (almost all carry Valvoline and Castrol M/C oil these days). We were both pretty beat by the time we followed my iPad map function to the Sabin home. We stripped the bikes, and I took care of the oil while they were still hot. Now, just a few miles from Stefan’s warehouse, they were ready to go! Susanna and I enjoyed getting to know Ed and Darlene, but we were exhausted and called it an early night. The next morning saw us enjoy breakfast with our hosts, pack up the bikes and ride the eight miles or so to Stefan’s shipper. A very helpful gentleman named Cleveland got us into the warehouse and started us preparing the bikes. We planned the gas so we were on or near reserve at the shipper, and I disconnected the batteries; that was the sum total of the required bike preparation. The paperwork went quickly as well. Because we had done an identical journey with Stefan in 2006, he had most of what he needed on record. As
Attending the 35th Winter Rally in Florida gave us the chance to meet a number of new BMW friends. A couple of these friends, Ed and Darlene Sabin, invited us to stay with them in Orlando the night following the Rally. The warehouse of the freight forwarder was perhaps eight miles away in the city. Being an Airhead in good standing, Ed has a lift in his garage. I took advantage of this to change the engine oil of the two Slash Fives prior to sending them to Germany.
March 2018 BMW OWNERS NEWS
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