drama on t HE ar C ti C t U ndra

I’m still on the gravel narrow shoulder at speed but slowly reduced my speed, to get back across the bitumen edge in a controlled way. Then I stopped and felt like throwing up. We both had the feeling. Right then, I wanted to abandon my bike and call for a taxi or something, never to ever ride again.

Distraction dangers should of course not be new to any of us. It’s just that 99.9% of the time, it just ends with a curse or scare, right? Well please take this away from my story. Limit your distractions whether in a car or on a bike. When checking your rear mirror thinking “Is that George behind me, looking closely” or checking the dash info, GPS or reading that road sign, then LOOK TWICE, rather than more than 1.5 seconds, or three times if you have to. If you’re in Wales (you know those long road signs), pull over and stop to read the road sign. Of course it varies with speed and circumstance, but never take your eyes from where your going for more than 1.5 seconds. Look twice or several if you have to. Enough times and you could get caught out.

BTW the entire North Cape several story complex, 80% hidden inside the cape bedrock, is a great place to visit. Tourist shopping, Museum, Chapel, Movie, Restaurant, Viewing platforms and much more. Sitting by the window with a white table cloth, local fresh Salmon and a Chardonnay, looking right down to the arctic waters, good memories. It was so much more scenic and enjoyable value than Prudhoe Bay (Alaska).

Norway will always be the 1st mandatory destination when in Europe.

100 Year Dinner Celebration - Thurs 21st September

Display of Bikes - Sat 23rd September

The bike display will be run by our club at the central location of Reddacliff Place in Brisbane. We are looking for suitable bikes from all years and all models to display at this special event to celebrate this enormous achievement of the BMW brand that we all love to ride.

Do you have a bike that is suitable? If it is an older BMW (60’s or earlier) and it is completely assembled, presentable, registered or not, we want to hear from you.

If your BMW bike is from the ‘70’s up to latest models and is in good visual condition, special or a rare model, we want to hear from you as well.

We have a target of one hundred bikes, to display an example of as many different models as possible. A selection process will be undertaken from the applications and consideration will given to bikes that fit the above criteria as well as bikes with high kilometres or extraordinary travel achievements.

To nominate your bike please register at: Display Registration

• What Model it is.

• Year of Manufacture.

• Total Km’s Travelled.

• Longest Journey Travelled.

• A Photo.

We want one of every BMW! But do we want this R100R Bobber? Could cook a nice lunch under the tank though...

BMW started production of the BMW R 32 in Munich in 1923. That is definitely worth celebrating!

To see the Promotional Video for the the events celebrating click on the Link below: https://vimeo.com/796122577

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of BMW Motorcycles the BMWMCQ are hosting a dinner event on Thursday 21st September This will be the warm-up to the Display of Bikes on Saturday 23rd September!

Date: Thursday 21st September 2023

Time: 6:30pm – although there is a lovely bar area if you arrive earlier for a drink

Cost: $60 per person for a sit down dinner with share table style dining

Venue: Royal QLD Yacht Squadron, 578 Royal Esplanade Manly QLD 4179

Nearby accommodation:

Manly Hotel (pub style) 54 Cambridge St, Manly (07) 3249 5999

Manly Marina Cove Motel (next to Yacht Club) 578a Royal Esplanade Manly (07) 3348 1000 Or check out AirBnB listings in the area.

BOOKINGS LINK: LINK TO DINNER RESERVATION

Display - Saturday 23rd September 2023

This event will be run by the BMWMCQ at Reddacliff Place in the Brisbane CBD.

We are looking for suitable bikes from all years and all models to display at this special event to celebrate this enormous achievement of the BMW brand that we all love to ride.

Do you have a bike that is suitable? If it is an older BMW (60’s or earlier) and it is completely assembled, presentable, registered or not, we want to hear from you.

If your BMW bike is from the ‘70’s up to latest models and is in good visual condition, special or a rare model, we want to hear from you as well.

We have a target of one hundred bikes, to display an example of as many different models as possible. A selection process will be undertaken from the applications and consideration will be given to bikes that fit the above criteria as well as bikes with hi gh kilometers or extraordinary travel achievements. These considerations do not apply to newer BMW’s.

If you are interested in applying to show your bike, please use the link below to view the Video, full Celebration Plans and the Application Form. www.bmwmcq.org.au or email for further enquiries: bmw100@bmwmcq.org.au

By Pam Tunney, Member # 4679

Haveyou ever looked out over a spectacular view, walked through a dense rainforest or encountered some majestic natural scene and been totally awed and inspired? Well this is how I felt most days on our recent Tasmanian riding adventure.

To be honest, this trip started out as a warm-up for our next big ride (Transamerica’s starting in July 2023 - in fact as you read this we will be underway!). It was a way to try out some new equipment, find some gravel roads to further hone Len’s skills, a test of our cold weather gear and our endurance. On this Tassie trip, we planned to be riding 7,500kms in a month, which would be the equivalent of how many kms we would be covering on the TransAm trip per month. It turned out to be an amazing experience in its own right and one we want to repeat as soon as we can. It had been many years between trips to the Apple Isle and the memories of how spectacular it is had faded somewhat.

Len and I left our Sunshine Coast Hinterland home on our R1250GS (two-up) in magnificent sunshine and warmth, ready and rearing to go.

Averaging around 580kms per day, we headed to Geelong via the Newell Highway to catch the Spirit of Tasmania - this time on a day crossing. The bike was more than well accommodated down in the car deck, as were we in the comfortable recliners that we had booked. While whiling away the many hours on the voyage, we discovered that we could buy National Park passes on board the ship in advance and were well pleased that we could buy Seniors Passes for 2 years at a very competitive rate. We plan to return next year.

After having departed in Geelong at 10:30am, we docked in Devonport at 8:30pm and headed straight for the motel we had booked in advance. In fact, we booked all our accommodation in advance, factoring in rest days. Our accommodation varied greatly on this trip. On the way from Qld to Victoria, we booked simple motels - figuring that we really just needed a place to rest our heads after a long day on the bike. When we hit Tassie, we had booked a mix of B&B’s, pubs, old-style hotels and self-catering houses. There is so much accommodation and so much variety available including camping if you can or feel inclined to carry the gear on your bike! Our itinerary leads us westward to start with, with a stop en route to Stanley in the wonderful little town of Penguin. I just knew we were going to love Penguin even before we arrived. Any town called Penguin just HAD to be rather wonderful. It didn’t disappoint - a lovely little seaside town with a great covered market (the Steampunk stall was definitely my favourite) and the coastline beautiful. Earlier we had taken a detour to investigate Leven Canyon. What incredible views and wonderful old forests full of tree ferns! In Stanley, we had hoped to see penguins, but sadly it seems they had only just stopped coming ashore to mate, nest and raise their young.

Throughout the trip, we set ourselves the challenge of finding and navigating some gravel roads in preparation for the Dalton Highway in Alaska. We eventually rode 6 different sectionssome up to 100km and all of varying degrees of